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Montana’s Health Policy MVP Takes Her Playbook on the Road
Use Our Content It can be republished for free. Marilyn Bartlett might be the closest thing health policy has to a folk hero. A certified public accountant who barely tops 5 feet, Bartlett bears zero resemblance to Paul Bunyan. But she did take an ax to Montana’s hospital prices in 2016, stopping the state’s employee health plan from bleeding money. “Marilyn is not a physically imposing person,” said Montana Board of Investments Executive Director Dan Villa, who worked closely with Bartlett in state government. “She is a blend of your favorite aunt, an accounting savant and a little bit of Jul...
Kaiser Health News
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Rural Hospital Remains Entrenched in Covid ‘War’ Even Amid Vaccine Rollout
Editor’s note: KHN wrote about St. James Parish Hospital in April, when it was experiencing its first surge of covid-19 patients. Ten months later, we checked in to see how the hospital and its staff were faring. This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free. The “heroes work here” sign in front of St. James Parish Hospital has been long gone, along with open intensive care unit beds in the state of Louisiana. Staffers at the rural hospital spent hours each day in January calling larger hospitals in search of the elusive beds for covid-19 patients. They leveraged personal...
Kaiser Health News
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Rural Hospital Remains Entrenched in Covid ‘War’ Even Amid Vaccine Rollout
Editor’s note: KHN wrote about St. James Parish Hospital in April, when it was experiencing its first surge of covid-19 patients. Ten months later, we checked in to see how the hospital and its staff were faring. This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free. The “heroes work here” sign in front of St. James Parish Hospital has been long gone, along with open intensive care unit beds in the state of Louisiana. Staffers at the rural hospital spent hours each day in January calling larger hospitals in search of the elusive beds for covid-19 patients. They leveraged personal...
California Healthline
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La pandemia genera abuso de alcohol, y récord de hospitalizaciones por enfermedad hepática
La pandemia ha hecho recaer a miles de alcohólicos en recuperación, y los hospitales del país informan de un aumento espectacular de ingresos relacionados con el alcohol y enfermedades graves, como la hepatitis alcohólica y la insuficiencia hepática. Las enfermedades hepáticas relacionadas con el alcoholismo eran un problema creciente incluso antes de la pandemia, con 15 millones de personas diagnosticadas en todo el país, y con hospitalizaciones que se han duplicado en la última década. Pero la pandemia ha aumentado drásticamente el número de víctimas. Aunque no hay cifras nacionales disponib...
Kaiser Health News (Espanol)
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Pandemic-Fueled Alcohol Abuse Creates Wave of Hospitalizations for Liver Disease
This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. It can be republished for free. As the pandemic sends thousands of recovering alcoholics into relapse, hospitals across the country have reported dramatic increases in alcohol-related admissions for critical diseases like alcoholic hepatitis and liver failure. Alcoholism-related liver disease was a growing problem even before the pandemic, with 15 million people diagnosed with the condition around the country, and with hospitalizations doubling over the past decade. But the pandemic has dramatically added to the toll. Although national figures are not ...
Kaiser Health News
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Pandemic-Fueled Alcohol Abuse Creates Wave of Hospitalizations for Liver Disease
This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. It can be republished for free. As the pandemic sends thousands of recovering alcoholics into relapse, hospitals across the country have reported dramatic increases in alcohol-related admissions for critical diseases like alcoholic hepatitis and liver failure. Alcoholism-related liver disease was a growing problem even before the pandemic, with 15 million people diagnosed with the condition around the country, and with hospitalizations doubling over the past decade. But the pandemic has dramatically added to the toll. Although national figures are not ...
California Healthline
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ICU nurses in San Diego say relaxed staffing levels are affecting patient care
SAN DIEGO — Since it started allowing hospitals to bend nurse-to-patient ratios last March, California has made it clear that this was supposed to be a temporary measure, a way of handling the staffing crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instructions posted in June told hospitals they must "resume mandatory staffing levels as soon as feasible," even if doing so required bringing in "other staffing options" such as brigades of temporary "registry" workers to help bolster the front lines. But intensive care nurses at Kaiser Permanente's Zion Medical Center in San Diego say that's not what's ...
The San Diego Union-Tribune
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How a Bounty of Vaccines Flooded a Small Hospital and Its Nearby College
This story also ran on Daily Beast. It can be republished for free. When administrators at Hillsdale College, a conservative liberal-arts school in Michigan, heard its local hospital didn’t have a way to store the Pfizer-BioNTech covid vaccine, they offered the use of its science department’s ultra-low temperature freezer. The vaccine must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. With that help, the small hospital — employing about 400 — was able to receive vaccines from the state: 1,950 doses in late December, more than twice what it requested, according to the hospital CEO. Two weeks later,...
Kaiser Health News
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If This Self-Sufficient Hospital Cannot Stand Alone, Can Any Public Hospital Survive?
In America’s health care system, dominated by hospital chain leviathans, New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, is an anomaly. It is a publicly owned hospital that boasts good care at lower prices than most and still flourishes financially. This story also ran on Fortune. It can be republished for free. Nonetheless, New Hanover County is selling the hospital to one of the state’s biggest health care systems. The sale has stoked concerns locally that the change in ownership will raise fees, which would not only leave patients with bigger bills but also eventually fil...
Kaiser Health News
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If This Self-Sufficient Hospital Cannot Stand Alone, Can Any Public Hospital Survive?
In America’s health care system, dominated by hospital chain leviathans, New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina, is an anomaly. It is a publicly owned hospital that boasts good care at lower prices than most and still flourishes financially. Nonetheless, New Hanover County is selling the hospital to one of the state’s biggest health care systems. The sale has stoked concerns locally that the change in ownership will raise fees, which would not only leave patients with bigger bills but also eventually filter down into higher health insurance premiums for Wilmington wo...
California Healthline
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