Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Given More Legal Protection in COVID Crisis
Albuquerque Journal: State Order Gives Doctors Enhanced Protections
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has moved to reduce doctors’ exposure to lawsuits as they prepare to practice in a worsening COVID-19 climate that one medical association is likening to a “war zone.” In an executive order issued Friday, the governor said the state could be just weeks away from implementing “crisis standards of care” – standards that outline how to ration medical resources when need exceeds availability. (Dyer, 12/7)
In other news about health care workers —
The Hill: Doctor Who Criticized Trump's Behavior Removed From Walter Reed Schedule: Report
An attending physician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who called out President Trump for his decision to greet supporters while being treated for the coronavirus has been removed from the hospital’s schedule beginning in January, CBS News reported Monday. James Phillips, chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University and an attending physician under contract for Walter Reed, criticized Trump in October for his decision to drive with Secret Service agents to greet supporters while he was hospitalized at the Bethesda, Md., facility. (Mitchell, 12/7)
AP: Public Health Workers Leaving Jobs Amid Pandemic, Politics
Public health workers across Kansas are leaving their jobs amid the pressures of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and the politics surrounding it. In the nine months since the state had its first documented COVID-19 case, 27 county health officials have left their jobs. Some retired, but others resigned or were fired, the Kansas News Service reported. (12/7)
Fox News: Coronavirus Exposure Leads Hundreds Of Detroit Health Care Workers To Quarantine Amid Staffing Concerns
Hundreds of health care workers in part of a hospital system in Detroit, Mich., are currently not working after they either contracted the novel coronavirus or were exposed to it, according to a report. An estimated 576 of the 33,000 employees with Henry Ford Health System, a health care company in Metro Detroit, are said to be temporarily out of work due to COVID-19. “We are very concerned with the staffing shortage,” Henry Ford Health System Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Adnan Munkarah said, per local news outlet WDIV-TV, noting that at least two of the system’s six hospitals are more than 90% full. (Farber, 12/7)
Modern Healthcare: Hospital Facilities Team Is The 'Unsung Hero' Of COVID-19
Christine Flaherty normally oversees capital improvement projects, preventive maintenance and efforts to reduce NYC Health + Hospitals’ carbon footprint. The past year has been anything but normal. Instead, she spent the better part of 10 months finding ways to handle surges of COVID-19 patients. But she insists she didn’t do it alone. “This was not a one-woman show. This was a show of all of our leaders,” said Flaherty, who has been senior vice president of facilities development at the 11-hospital public health system since May 2019. (Christ, 12/5)
CNN: A Doctor Who Treated Some Of Houston's Sickest Covid-19 Patients Has Died
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Carlos Araujo-Preza spent his days caring for some of the sickest Covid-19 patients in Houston. Months later, he was admitted to the same intensive care unit where he served as critical care medical director, infected with the same disease he treated in others. On November 30, Araujo-Preza, a physician at HCA Houston Healthcare in Tomball, Texas, died from coronavirus, his daughter told CNN. He was 51. (Kaur, 12/8)
