Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pittsburgh Trauma Center Met Shooting Chaos With Practiced Calm
The Washington Post: Pittsburgh Trauma Center Stayed Calm As Victims Kept Arriving
The first to arrive was a SWAT officer with a hand wound. Then an older man, badly wounded, gray from loss of blood. Then another SWAT officer, arms and legs riddled with bullets. An elderly woman with a gunshot to her upper arm. There was no shouting, no panic. Emergency doctors, nurses, surgeons and technicians poured into UPMC Presbyterian’s trauma center as word of a mass-casualty event spread. ... As the number of multi-casualty shootings in the United States has grown, Level 1 trauma centers like this one have stepped up preparations and training for events like Saturday’s rampage at Tree of Life synagogue here. (Bernstein, 10/29)
The Washington Post: ‘I’m Dr. Cohen’: The Powerful Humanity Of The Jewish Hospital Staff That Treated Robert Bowers
The man accused in the brutal killings of 11 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh was taken to the hospital after he was apprehended to be treated for the injuries he suffered in a gunfight with the police. In the emergency room when he arrived, he was shouting, “I want to kill all the Jews,” according to hospital’s president. If he only knew then about the identity of the team tasked with keeping him alive: at least three of the doctors and nurses who cared for him at the Allegheny General Hospital were Jewish, according to president Dr. Jeffrey K. Cohen. (Rosenberg, 10/30)
The Associated Press: Guns Send Over 8,000 US Kids To ER Each Year, Analysis Says
Gun injuries, including many from assaults, sent 75,000 U.S. children and teens to emergency rooms over nine years at a cost of almost $3 billion, a first-of-its-kind study found. Researchers called it the first nationally representative study on ER visits for gun injuries among U.S. kids. They found that more than one-third of the wounded children were hospitalized and 6 percent died. Injuries declined during most of the 2006-14 study, but there was an upswing in the final year. The researchers found that 11 of every 100,000 children and teens treated in U.S. emergency rooms have gun-related injuries. That amounts to about 8,300 kids each year. (Tanner, 10/29)
Wyoming Public Radio: Data Gaps Make It Hard To Track Hate Crimes In Rural Areas
Saturday's attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh has focused attention on the rising number of hate crimes in this country. In 2016, according to the latest FBI data, more than 6,000 hate crimes were reported -- motivated by biases against things like race, religion or sexual orientation. Most happen in cities. But data is lacking for these crimes in rural areas, including the Mountain West. (Mullen, 10/29)
