Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor blocked a request to prevent the enforcement of New York City's vaccine mandate for public school teachers and employees, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia, New York, and North Carolina. 

• District of Columbia: NIH Director Francis Collins on Monday announced plans to resign by the end of the year. The longest-serving NIH director, Collins has led the agency under three consecutive presidents for more than 12 years. Collins said he was confident NIH's role in developing therapeutics, tests, and vaccines for the pandemic had reached "a pretty stable place." Collins will continue to lead his research laboratory at NIH following his departure from his current role. No decision has been made on an interim director. (Bernstein/Johnson, Washington Post, 10/4; Wilson, et al., Politico, 10/5; Axios, 10/5)

• New York: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Friday rejected a challenge to the New York City vaccine mandate for public school teachers and employees. Four teachers and teaching assistants made the request to prevent enforcement of the mandate during ongoing litigation in lower courts. Ultimately, Sotomayor rejected the request without explanation and did not refer the case to the full nine-member court for review. (Chen, Axios, 10/1)

• North Carolina: UNC Health on Friday announced their finalized management services agreement with Blue Ridge HealthCare. Under the partnership, the two health systems aim to improve health care in rural western North Carolina by growing clinical programs and service lines, increasing access to research and clinical trials, improving provider retention, increasing UNC Health's population health solutions, and creating innovative health care models. In addition, Blue Ridge HealthCare will be renamed UNC Health Blue Ridge. (Plescia, Becker's Hospital Review, 10/1)