Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Short-Staffed Hospitals In NH, NY Receive Much-Needed Help
AP: Health Care Workers Arrive In New Hampshire To Help An ICU
More health care workers arrived in New Hampshire this weekend to help relieve pressure at a hospital with an overwhelmed intensive care unit. WMUR-TV reports that about two dozen health care workers arrived at Elliot Hospital in Manchester Saturday and began helping shortly after. They’re from the National Disaster Medical System, with the work funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (12/12)
AP: Nurses From Downstate Headed To Western NY Amid COVID Surge
Nurses employed by Long Island-based Northwell Health have been sent to western New York to help at two hospitals dealing with a surge in coronavirus infections, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday. The 16 clinical professionals and two team leads are from the downstate region including the New York City and Long Island areas. They include intensive care, emergency and medical-surgical nurses. They were sent to Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo and the University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for two weeks, the governor said in a statement. (12/11)
Crain's Detroit Business: No More Federal Help Available As Michigan Hospitals Grapple With Latest COVID Surge
Michigan hospitals are overwhelmed in the fourth surge of COVID-19 and federal staffing help is tapped out. Three teams of 22 physicians and nurses from the U.S. Department of Defense are deployed at Beaumont Hospital-Dearborn, Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids and Covenant Healthcare in Saginaw. But for other hospitals across the state, including War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie and Munson in Traverse City, that are requesting federal assistance, there are no bodies to offer, Elizabeth Hertel, director of the Michigan Department of HHS, told reporters in a call Friday. (Walsh, 12/10)
Stateline: Rural Midwives Fill Gap As Hospitals Cut Childbirth Services
For the past year or so, Toni Hill, a midwife in the lowlands of northern Mississippi, has received an influx of calls from women across the state who live in areas with no hospitals and only a smattering of health care providers. As COVID-19 rates increased, some pregnant women did not feel safe receiving care in a hospital or were unable to contact their providers. Others, who lived in the Mississippi Delta, did not have transportation for the three-plus hour trip to Jackson, the state capital. Hill quickly found herself very overwhelmed, she said. (Wright, 12/11)
Meanwhile, covid tests are still in short supply —
The Washington Examiner: Democrats Push For More Home COVID-19 Tests On Shelves To Counter Omicron
Democrats have ramped up pressure on the Biden administration to invest more in at-home COVID-19 testing to address supply shortages, arguing that people are missing a key public health tool as a threatening variant emerges. “Now that we have omicron, people are getting scared, and we know vaccines take a while to kick in and people want to see their families for the holidays. Everybody wants to test and be responsible, and now you can’t find tests again,” said Rep. Kim Schrier, a Washington Democrat. (Morrison, 12/12)
