HHS, Labor Dept. Grants $346 Million To Boost Health Worker Training
The series of grants are aimed at training nurses, community workers, and public health professionals. Other news includes hospital bottlenecks from post-acute staffing gaps, a new contract for Michigan Medicine nurses, a death in an Iowa nursing home, and more.
Modern Healthcare:
Healthcare Workforce Programs Get $346M
In a series of grants focused on equity and access to care, the Health and Human Services and Labor departments are awarding more than $346 million to train nurses, community workers and public health professionals. (Devereaux, 10/3)
Modern Healthcare:
Hospitals Battle Bottlenecks From Post-Acute Staffing Gaps
On any given day, social workers and case managers at Adventist Health Tillamook call 15 to 20 post-acute care facilities trying to place patients ready to be discharged. Some facilities say they can’t accept new residents. Others don’t pick up the phone. “A lot of time is wasted in looking for facilities to try to take patients,” said Heather Thompson, patient care executive at the Oregon critical access hospital. (Christ, 10/4)
Detroit Free Press:
University Of Michigan Nurses Approve Contract With $5K Bonuses, 22.5% Raises Over 4 Years
Michigan Medicine nurses have approved a four-year, $273 million contract with University of Michigan Health after months of working without a new agreement in place. (Hall and Jordan Shamus, 10/3)
In other news about health workers —
Des Moines Register:
Iowa Nursing Home Resident Suffocates While Suspended Upside Down
According to the inspectors’ report, Clarion Wellness had installed a grab bar — also known as an assistance handle or bed bar – on a resident’s bed in June 2021. The facility installed the device without first assessing the risk it might pose and without obtaining consent from the resident’s family, the inspector reported. (Kauffman, 10/3)
The Boston Globe:
Brother Of Patient Who Died At New Hampshire Hospital Slams State Regulators
The brother of a New Hampshire woman who died in 2014 after heart surgery at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester told a legislative committee Monday that she wouldn’t have gone through with the operation had she known that the hospital had recently disciplined her surgeon for professional misconduct. (Saltzman and Fernandes, 10/3)
KHN:
Watch: Meet The Latest Fact-Checker — Your Doctor
In a one-on-one conversation, KHN partnerships editor and senior correspondent Mary Agnes Carey talked with American Medical Association President Dr. Jack Resneck Jr. about how the current climate of misinformation affects doctors and their daily efforts to treat patients. This interview, which took place Sept. 29 as part of PolitiFact’s United Facts of America: A Festival of Fact-Checking, covered a range of topics — from how the debate over the safety of covid-19 vaccines played out in exam rooms across the country, to what needs to be done to help rebuild the nation’s trust in the public health system, and the misinformation that swirls around the abortion issue. (10/4)
Stat:
Get A Ph.D. In Health Policy — From A Single Powerpoint Slide
Looking for an actually concise explanation of a half-century’s worth of research and arguments about health care spending in the U.S.? You’re in luck: Government budget wonks, against all odds, condensed it down to a single PowerPoint slide. (Herman, 10/3)
Also —
CIDRAP:
Study: Hospital Floors, Healthcare Workers' Shoes May Spread MRSA
A study conducted at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Ohio suggests that hospital floors and shoes of healthcare workers are potential sources for dissemination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other healthcare-associated pathogens, researchers reported late last week in the American Journal of Infection Control. (10/3)
