Don't expect the Duke University Health System to jump into a bidding war for Rex Healthcare.

Victor Dzau, CEO of the Duke health system, didn't dismiss the possibility outright, but said that Duke is taking a very careful approach of using resources to expand its network of facilities and providers.

"Developing the right network is very important to us," Dzau said in a phone interview. "With health-care reform, there are many moving parts. Any opportunity has to fit into a long-term plan. ... We're not going to be distracted by this or that."

WakeMed's surprise, and hostile, offer on Thursday to buy cross-Raleigh rival Rex from the UNC Health Care System for $750 million fueled speculation that other bidders could emerge. UNC officials have said Rex isn't for sale, but that they will consider WakeMed's offer carefully.

At Duke, some enterprising graduate students found a clever way to register their distaste for bonuses paid to top executives with Duke's health system and investment management company.

Dressed as Depression-era fruit sellers and paperboys, a handful of students mocked the high pay through a faux fundraiser.

The students were registering their disagreement with bonuses, revealed on federal tax forms, paid to several higher-ups. The students criticized the payments, saying they came while the university was freezing pay and reducing campus resources.

Duke officials, however, say the criticism is misinformed. The compensation, they say, is contractually obligated and linked to work performance years ago.

Here's the story.

Have you heard the one about the guy who came in for a CT scan?

Of course you haven't, and the joke is on you. Because doctors and health officials failed to track the patient, the fellow in question got 328 brain scans in just two years.

That incident -- which took place in this state -- is emblematic of the nation's broken health care system, said Lanier Cansler, N.C. Secretary of Health and Human Services. We've got the science to map a patient's brain but we don't have a system in place to keep patients from getting unnecessary procedures.

"You can recognize that person because they glow in the dark," Cansler quipped.