Problems Escalate At Crowded Rural Hospitals

FierceHealthcare: Rural Hospitals Struggle To Find Places To Transfer Patients Amid COVID-19 Surges 
Norton County Hospital is facing a major problem in recent days: Figuring out where to send patients that need a higher level of care. As larger hospitals become overwhelmed with serious cases of COVID-19, the options are dwindling. For Norton, the closest hospital that it has been able to transport patients is six hours away. (King, 11/13)

USA Today: Rural Hospitals Crowded With COVID Patients As Cases And Deaths Surge
In North Texas, Moore County Hospital District CEO Jeff Turner is managing more than his small rural hospital can handle. The Dumas hospital has space and staff for 11 coronavirus patients, but only three who are really sick and need intensive care. When they need lifesaving therapies Turner's hospital can't provide, his staff tries to find open beds at larger hospitals in Amarillo, about 50 miles to the south. (Alltucker, 11/15)

In other health care industry news —

Indianapolis Star: COVID In Indiana: Hospitals Face Staffing Crunch Amid Soaring Cases
In the spring, hospitals around the country braced for a surge of coronavirus patients, warning that personal protective equipment, ventilators and intensive care units could be in short supply. Now, as hospitalizations for COVID-19 are higher than ever before, hospitals are facing a scarcity of an even more precious resource: staff. (Rudavsky, 11/15)

Albuquerque Journal: NM COVID Patient On The Mend After Double-Lung Transplant
For much of the coronavirus pandemic, a machine has helped New Mexico COVID-19 patient Arthur Sanchez with every breath he has taken. But the 52-year-old father of two, who has been mostly hospitalized since April, [was] expected to return to his Las Cruces home [over the] weekend after a double-lung transplant. (Boetel, 11/12)

Also —

Modern Healthcare: Outreach, Prevention Efforts Key To Mitigating Latest COVID-19 Spike
Presbyterian Healthcare Services has been reaching out to high-risk individuals and families to try to get ahead of complications stemming from COVID-19. The Albuquerque-based integrated health system has analyzed electronic health record and health plan data to identify older populations, people with chronic diseases as well as families that don’t have access to quality food, among other social barriers. It has contacted more than 30,000 health plan members since March to make sure they were taking their medicine, keeping appointments, eating well and to ask if they had any questions about accessing care. (Kacik, 11/14)

Modern Healthcare: Ochsner Health Pledges $100 Million To Eliminate Health Disparities
Louisiana-based Ochsner Health is pledging $100 million over the next five years to help eliminate healthcare disparities, as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further hinder the health of the state's most vulnerable residents. The commitment is part of a 10-year plan the health network has developed with state and local officials, as well as academic and community leaders to improve the state's health status. (Johnson, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: FTC Sues To Stop Methodist Le Bonheur Buying 2 Tenet Hospitals
Methodist Le Bonheur's $350 million acquisition of two Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s Memphis-area hospitals would increase costs and diminish competition, the Federal Trade Commission claimed in a lawsuit that aims to block the transaction. Memphis-based Methodist would control nearly 60% of the "already highly concentrated" Memphis acute-care market as one of three health systems—down from four—with hospitals in the area, according to the FTC. Methodist would be able to negotiate higher reimbursement rates with insurers, which would pass on those costs to employers and their employees in the form of higher premiums, copays, deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses, regulators concluded. (Kacik, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Better Healthcare Marketing Data Can Lead To Better Patient Care
HIPAA, the 24-year-old law that regulates the release of patient medical information, doesn’t restrict data use for what many might consider marketing by healthcare organizations. If a hospital kicks off an email campaign about a new medical group affiliation, new equipment at the facility or—more recently—information about offering COVID-19 testing or pandemic-related changes to operations, that doesn’t count as “marketing” as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. (Kim Cohen, 11/14)