Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

As nurses and Twin Cities hospitals resume contract negotiations today, Moody’s Investor Service lobbed in one more thing for both sides to think about.The company warned Monday that an open-ended strike by 12,000 nurses belonging to the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) could damage the hospitals credit rating, making it harder and more expensive for hospitals [...]

Normally, I don’t read too much into strike authorization votes. Having been a union member myself, the vote is almost a required ritual in hard labor negotiations, a tactic designed to maximize pressure on the company.With that said, there’s nothing to indicate the Minnesota Nurses Association’s threat to go nuclear — an open-ended strike — [...]

At a time when some credit rating firms are turning a thumb’s down on the not-for-profit hospital industry, two rating firms are giving University Hospitals a thumb’s up.