White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said the Biden administration will not require Americans to obtain a credential to confirm they've been vaccinated against Covid-19, but it intends to release guidelines to help companies develop such verification tools, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Colorado, the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania.

• Colorado: Banner Health has named Ronald Andro as CEO of its Northern Colorado operations, effective April 12. Andro previously served as president and CEO of West Penn Hospital, which is part of Allegheny Health Network, COO of Allegheny General Hospital, and SVP and COO of University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center (Gooch, Becker's Hospital Review, 3/26).

• District of Columbia: White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said the Biden administration will not require Americans to obtain a credential to confirm they've been vaccinated against Covid-19, but it intends to release guidelines to help companies develop such verification tools. Psaki said the administration will not have a "centralized universal federal vaccinations database" or issue "federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential." Instead, the administration expects the "development of a vaccine passport … will be driven by the private sector," and the federal government "will more be focused on guidelines" for such credentials (Reuters, 3/29; Watson, CBS News, 3/30).

• Wisconsin: Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, the research division of Marshfield Clinic Health System, on Monday announced it played a key role in CDC's new research confirming the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against Covid-19. For the study, Jennifer Meece, director of the institute's Integrated Research and Development Laboratory, and colleagues tested 3,950 self-collected specimens from frontline and essential workers each week for 13 consecutive weeks to detect asymptomatic and symptomatic coronavirus cases. They found the mRNA vaccines were 80% effective after the first dose, and 90% effective after the second dose, in real-world conditions. "Marshfield Clinic Research Institute has proven throughout its long history to be a leader in emerging science and disease studies through its work with genomic sequencing, influenza vaccine effectiveness and now Covid-19," Marshfield Clinic Health System CEO Susan Turney said. "Our physician researchers and scientists are dedicated to helping end this pandemic for the people in rural Wisconsin and across the globe" (Marshfield Clinic Health System release, 3/29).