Regional Health Care Officials Struggle With Covid, Mental Health, Staff Safety
Reports say Baltimore County mobile teams failed to respond to over half of mental health crisis calls. Covid responses and North Carolina's health leader's plans, potential health staff whistleblowing, earthquake response upgrades and more are also in the news.
The Baltimore Sun:
Baltimore County’s Crisis Teams Can’t Respond To More Than Half Of Calls For People In Distress, Leaving Job To Patrol Officers
Understaffed and overworked, police and clinicians on Baltimore County’s mobile crisis teams fail to respond to more than half of calls to help people suffering mental health crises. A one-year pilot program aims to bolster the teams by adding more behavioral health professionals and setting up a system that will redirect some 911 calls from police to behavioral health resources. (Deville, 7/8)
The Charlotte Observer:
Here’s What Next Mecklenburg Health Leader Says On COVID-19
Mecklenburg Deputy Health Director Dr. Raynard Washington moved to Charlotte just two days before the county declared a local state of emergency in March of 2020. He quickly became one of the top faces of the county’s efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now 17 months later, Washington has been tapped to take on the top health department job. He’ll be Mecklenburg’s first Black health director. (Smoot, 7/9)
Health News Florida:
Will Federal Speech Rulings Embolden Health Workers To Call Out Safety Issues?
Karen Jo Young wrote a letter to her local newspaper criticizing executives at the hospital where she worked as an activities coordinator, arguing that their actions led to staffing shortages and other patient safety problems. Hours after her letter was published in September 2017, officials at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, Maine, fired her, citing a policy that no employee may give information to the news media without the direct involvement of the media office. (Meyer, 7/9)
More health industry news and innovations —
Los Angeles Times:
Hospitals And Newsom Seek Delay For Earthquake Upgrades
One hour after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Northern California on Thursday, the California Hospital Assn. tweeted that it’s “time to update seismic standards — to focus on all the services people need after a disaster of any kind.” But the association’s tweet omitted that its proposal circulating in the state Capitol would actually weaken existing standards, giving hospitals another seven years — until 2037 — to ensure that their buildings remain operable after the Big One and limiting the required upgrades to buildings that support emergency services. (Luna and Gutierrez, 7/10)
Modern Healthcare:
Big-Name Hospitals Have Biggest Community Spending Shortfalls
Cleveland Clinic, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, UCSF Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital received tax exemptions worth almost $900 million more than the not-for-profit hospitals spent providing community benefits in 2018, a new report found. All told, 72% of the roughly 2,400 not-for-profit hospitals in the analysis had a "fair share deficit" that year, meaning they spent less on free or discounted care and community investment than the value of their tax breaks, according to report released Monday by the Lown Institute. (Bannow, 7/12)
Stat:
Johns Hopkins Startup Aims To Shake Up AI With A Research-First Approach
The formula for launching a machine learning company in health care looks something like this: Build a model, test it on historical patient data in a computer lab, and then start selling it to hospitals nationwide. Suchi Saria, director of the machine learning and health care lab at Johns Hopkins University, is taking a different approach. Her company, Bayesian Health, is coming out of stealth mode on Monday by publishing a prospective study on how one of its lead products — an early warning system for sepsis — impacted the care of current patients in real hospitals. (Ross, 7/12)
WFSU:
AARP Wants Financial Help For Millions Of Caregivers In Florida
An estimated 48 million people in the U.S. are providing in-home care to an adult loved one, with 3 million of those caregivers in Florida. AARP says a new study demonstrates the need to support family caregivers with financial assistance. AARP is a membership group that lobbies for those over age 50. The group is touting the proposed Credit for Caring Act in Congress, which would provide a tax credit up to $5,000 for eligible caregivers. (Jordan, 7/11)
Crain's Chicago Business:
Nursing Homes Struggle Financially In Wake Of COVID-19
The nursing home business, already rocked by a disproportionate share of the past year and a half's COVID-19 cases, is bracing for yet another pandemic-induced shake-up. Many nursing home operators are struggling to stay afloat in the face of high vacancy rates, rising costs, staff shortages and the threat of coronavirus-related lawsuits. The financial toll threatens to drive some companies under, push others out of the elder care industry and pave the way for deeper-pocketed systems to snap up struggling rivals. (Goldberg, 7/9)
The Wall Street Journal:
Philip Morris Buys Inhaled-Medicine Company For $1.2 Billion Amid Health Push
Philip Morris International Inc. agreed to buy Vectura Group, a U.K. pharmaceuticals business specializing in inhaled medicines, for $1.24 billion in cash, bolstering its push to expand beyond tobacco and nicotine. Philip Morris International, which is listed in New York but sells the Marlboro brand outside the U.S., on Friday said that Vectura will be the backbone of a business built around inhaled therapeutics. Inhalers used by asthma sufferers, for instance, are common for the treatment of respiratory illness, but have shown promise in the delivery of other medicines. (Calatayud, 7/9)
