Healthcare Infrastructure & Hospital Management

BAD NEUSTADT AN DER SAALE – November 14, 2026 -- The RHÖN-KLINIKUM Campus Bad Neustadt has set up a dedicated room for dying patients and their relatives in its clinic for neurological early rehabilitation and neurological intensive care. Eleven patients have been accompanied there in their last phase of life since the room opened in early February 2026.

The room, called "Würdevolles Sterben" (Dignified Dying), is an additional option, so patients do not have to be moved off their ward. Relatives can stay with them, including overnight. The clinic treats people after traumatic brain injury, stroke and brain haemorrhage, starting in intensive care. According to the campus, end-of-life care there often took place in regular patient rooms, where relatives found it hard to spend undisturbed time.

BAD BERKA – November 14, 2026 -- ClarCert has certified the joint replacement unit of Zentralklinik Bad Berka as a maximum-care endoprosthetics centre (EPZ MAX). The unit implants knee or hip prostheses in more than 400 patients a year.

About 25% of those cases are complicated or revision procedures, according to the clinic. By our calculation, that is roughly 100 or more such operations a year at the Thuringian hospital.

ClarCert audits planning, operating time and complication rates

External experts assess surgical preparation and planning, operating time and postoperative results, including X-ray images. They also review the complication rate and the full care pathway, from the preoperative consultation to aftercare in rehabilitation. The audit covers difficult cases such as complex revision procedures, which require experienced surgeons.

ROCHESTER — November 13, 2026 -- The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees has elected Matthew R. Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., to succeed Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., as president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. Farrugia stays in the role through Dec. 31, 2026, which gives the two executives an overlap of about 48 days from the Nov. 13 announcement, by our calculation.

The successor is an internal candidate. Callstrom joined Mayo Clinic in 2002, 24 years before the year of the handover.

Callstrom already sits on two governing boards and runs the AI Program

Callstrom is a member of Mayo Clinic's Board of Governors and of the Board of Trustees that announced his election. He serves as medical director for Mayo Clinic Strategy and the AI Program. He previously was interim chief strategy officer and chair of the Department of Radiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

BERLIN – November 13, 2026 -- The private care providers' association bpa says more than 50,000 jobs at outpatient care services are at risk before Christmas if the government's PNOG care reform excludes those services from two new funding schemes. The figure is the association's own estimate, attributed to bpa President Bernd Meurer, and the group gave no calculation behind it.

The Pflegeneuordnungsgesetz (PNOG) would leave outpatient services out of the planned Sozialraumbudget (community-based care budget) and the Pflegebegleitung (care companion scheme). Meurer says the exclusion brings no savings. Outpatient providers, their employees and the families they serve would be the groups affected.

Boston – November 12, 2026 -- More than 4,000 registered nurses at Brigham and Women's Hospital reached a tentative contract agreement with Mass General Brigham on Wednesday, November 11, averting an open-ended strike set to begin November 12. The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) represents the nurses. The agreement came hours before the walkout was due to start.

Contract caps reliance on temporary nurses with 20 new float pool positions

The hospital will post 20 new 36-hour float pool nurse positions to limit its use of temporary staff and reduce floating of nurses between units. Contract language states that the hospital does not intend to replace permanent Brigham nurses with temporary nurses. The hospital must also give the MNA a rationale whenever temporary nurses cover more than 15% of the FTE positions in any unit or cost center.