The votes are in on CHOP’s resident union | Philly Health Insider
Plus, Pennsylvania’s new non-compete law
Good morning. For the first full week of the year, let’s catch you up on what you missed in health news over the holidays:
The votes are in: See the results of the union drive organized by CHOP residents
Lifting restrictions? Why Pennsylvania’s new non-compete law won’t change much
Dangerous delays: How Philly’s 911 system strands people who need medical help on the city’s trails
— Aubrey Whelan, Inquirer health reporter
We’ve been covering the wave of unionization efforts among Philadelphia doctors, with a big push underway to get more than 3,000 resident and fellow physicians at major health systems around the region to form unions.
Last month, residents at CHOP were the first in that cadre to vote on whether to unionize. The vote failed — by 17 votes.
Pro-union residents at CHOP say that the hospital employed “antiunion” tactics during their campaign that specifically targeted fellows, who have completed their residencies and are undergoing further training in a specialty medical field like pediatric endocrinology. CHOP did not comment on its tactics during the campaign, but officials there say they are committed to working with employees regardless of their union status.
Residents organizing for unions at other hospitals in the area — who will vote on their own unions in the coming weeks — say the vote is disappointing, but won’t deter them. CHOP organizers say they’re not giving up, either.
“Even since the election result, I’ve spoken to several people who feel even more motivated to get involved with our effort,” said Natalie LaBossier, a second-year pediatrics resident who helped organize the push at CHOP. “I’ve had some conversations with people who were disappointed in themselves, and who asked me when can we try again.”
The latest news to pay attention to
A new law in Pennsylvania is limiting to one year noncompete agreements that keep doctors and other health-care employees from leaving their jobs to work for competitors. But there are loopholes in the law that have experts concluding it won’t change much on the ground.
When you’re injured on Philly’s vast system of biking and hiking trails, calling 911 may not bring you timely medical help. Often, dispatchers don’t know how to direct cops or paramedics to people in need — whether because of technology limits, inexperience, or a host of other factors. Our colleague Wendy Ruderman explored the problem — and possible solutions.
New gene therapies, big deals, and less demand for lab space are highlights of a roundup by our coworker Harold Brubaker of what happened last year in the world of Philly biotech. Plus, WuXi AppTech, the Chinese-owned research and manufacturing firm that’s a prominent part of city’s biotech scene, has sold their South Philly facilities to a New York company.
This week’s big number: $467 million.
That’s how much Penn will receive after settling a lawsuit with the German drug manufacturer BioNTech, which, with Pfizer, made their blockbuster COVID vaccine using mRNA technology developed at the university, our coworker Abraham Gutman reported.
Penn licensed the technology — for which researchers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman won a Nobel Prize — to BioNTech and Moderna in the summer of 2020, in return for royalties on the vaccines’ sales.
But in a lawsuit filed in August 2024, Penn said that BioNTech hadn’t paid the school enough in royalties from the vaccine. For one, they contended that the company should have paid them royalties on all vaccines sold around the world, but instead paid them only for sales of the vaccine in countries where Penn holds patents for mRNA.
BioNTech denies the allegations and, as part of the settlement, did not admit liability in the case.
A patient at St. Mary Medical Center was mistakenly given a double dose of an anti-blood clot medication — after a nurse incorrectly reported the patient’s weight, our coworker Sarah Gantz reports.
The mistake, which took place at the 373-bed Langhorne hospital last fall, drew one of the state health department’s harshest warnings. State inspectors said the hospital created a potentially life-threatening safety risk. Read Sarah’s story for more on what happened and why such incidents are so serious.
Pulmonologist Frank Leone often has emotional conversations with patients about how to quit smoking — even when they’re facing conditions like lung disease. Early in his career, he thought the answer was obvious: “Well, you just stop.”
But, over the years, Leone, now the director of Penn Medicine’s Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program, has learned that helping patients quit smoking is a much more complex process that involves both pharmaceutical and cognitive interventions.
“The brain, following exposure to nicotine, knows how to be a smoker and does it very, very well. The idea of becoming a nonsmoker is akin to learning a new set of skills,” he told Wendy.
Three executives at the health and human services nonprofit Resources for Human Development have left their positions — weeks after Inperium, another human services nonprofit, acquired RHD, our coworker Harold Brubaker reports.
The terms of the departure of Linda Donovan, Bernard Glavin, and Stephanie Pompey aren’t clear. Donovan was mostly recently listed as chief program officer for RHD’s behavioral health and housing division. Glavin was executive vice president for intellectual disabilities services. Pompey was the organization’s chief legal officer.
Reading-based Inperium agreed to acquire RHD in the spring as the nonprofit, which offers services for intellectually disabled people, as well as behavioral health and substance use treatment, faced bankruptcy.
We’ll leave you with a feel-good feature about Penn Presbyterian OR nurse Chris Naimo. The Army veteran was treated for cancer at Penn and then enrolled in nursing school so he could work at the health system that he says saved his life.
His own experiences at Penn shape how he deals with patients today: He has tips on how to endure an abdominal surgery and guidelines for how to set up a care plan with your doctor. “Don’t let this [disease] define you,” he tells patients. “Let you define it.”