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The risk of getting a hospital-acquired infection is decreasing. In a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers surveyed almost 200 hospitals caring for about 12,000 patients across the country in 2011 and again in 2015, reviewing medical records to find cases of health care-associated infection. They found that in 2015, hospital-acquired infections had declined to 3.2 percent of patients, from 4 percent in 2011. They calculate that a patient’s risk of getting infected during a hospital stay was 16 percent lower in 2015 than in 2011. (Bakalar, 12/10)

The Democrats' 40-seat majority sweep of the U.S. House of Representatives brightened hospital prospects for looming money battles with the Trump administration, Congress and Big Pharma. But by a roughly 60%-to-40% margin, healthcare executives think the expected political gridlock will hinder needed progress in a way that hurts their organizations, according to Modern Healthcare's most recent Power Panel, a survey of 75 healthcare CEOs. A majority see gridlock as a sign of escalating polarization rather than a means to achieve bipartisanship, and less than 20% saw the federal midterm elections leading to a split government as a positive. (Luthi, 12/8)

A federal judge Friday suspended an independent inquiry at a troubled Chicago psychiatric hospital that is set to lose its federal funding. After pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and state lawmakers, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had agreed to the review of Aurora Chicago Lakeshore Hospital after multiple allegations of abuse and neglect of children treated at the facility in the city’s Uptown community. (Eldeib, 12/7)

Nearly every hospital chain is opening free-standing emergency rooms — commonly referred to as emergency departments, or EDs — to connect the dots between their major hospitals while cutting wait times and medical costs for consumers. They’re popping up everywhere in Tampa Bay. (Griffin, 12/10)

At least four times this year, government regulators were alerted to serious problems in the heart surgery program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. In April, the hospital’s CEO publicly acknowledged that the program had “challenges” that led to more children dying. (McGrory and Bedi, 12/7)

Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest network of doctors and hospitals, plans to expand its reach across Eastern Massachusetts by opening several new outpatient clinics over the next five years. Partners officials did not reveal how many new locations they plan to open, but they said the company would target busy suburban areas near major highway interchanges for the new clinics. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/7)

Fifteen months after Texas enacted a law to bring transparency to the state’s for-profit free-standing emergency rooms, many of the facilities continue to send mixed messages about insurance coverage that could expose unsuspecting patients to surprise medical bills. A Houston Chronicle review of websites representing the 52 free-standing emergency rooms in the Houston area shows a pattern in which many of the facilities prominently advertise that they “accept” all major private insurance. Some even list the insurers’ names and logos. (Deam, 12/9)