> All-private rooms would be SOP in hospitals under new recommendations from the American Institute of Architects, whose hospital construction guidelines are used as the basis of regulation in 42 states. Report
> An eastern Kentucky woman is suing Pikeville Medical Center over a brown recluse spider bite she allegedly received while in the hospital. Article
> Nassau Healthcare Corp. (NY) has managed to stave off fiscal collapse with a last-minute $40 million funding package from the state's Medicaid program. The organization's Nassau University Medical Center serves a disproportionate number of the county's Medicaid population, and would have sustained tens of millions in losses from proposed Medicaid cuts. Report
> The University of Minnesota School of Public Health will offer a new master's degree in health administration, designed to help healthcare administrators advance their careers while working. Courses will be offered online and in evening and weekend classroom sessions. Release
> SSM Healthcare, St Louis, agreed to pay $125,000 to settle an ADA discrimination suit brought by its former medical director of rehab over her multiple sclerosis. Report
> Fallon Community Health Plan, until recently a distant fourth in the Massachusetts managed-care universe, has set its sights on an expansion that will take it into western Massachusetts and ultimately into neighboring states. Article
And Finally... Skull-duggery in Chicago? Comedy legend Del Close willed his skull to the Goodman Theater to be used as Yorick in productions of Hamlet. Close died in 1999 from emphysema. While the skull was presented to the theater in a lavish ceremony and has resided in honor in a glass case, bone experts now say that it's certainly a fake, and probably a refugee from an anatomy classroom. Article