Walmart Health Expands In Chicago

FierceHealthcare: Walmart Health Opens 2 More Locations In Chicago 
Walmart Health just opened two new locations adjacent to revamped Walmart supercenters in Chicago. The new Walmart Health clinic locations have primary medical care, optometry and hearing services with plans for other offerings—such as labs, X-ray and diagnostics and counseling—to be added in the future. (Reed, 11/20)

In other health industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Experts Dispute Sanford CEO's COVID-19 Immunity Claims
Sanford Health's chief executive told his employees that he will not wear a mask because he is immune from contracting or transmitting COVID-19 since he tested positive, although that assertion is disputed by physicians and researchers. Wearing a mask "defies its efficacy and purpose" and sends an "untruthful message that I am susceptible to infection or could transmit it," Sanford CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft wrote Thursday to 50,000 employees in an internal memo, as first reported by Forum News Service. But those who study immune response said the evidence of immunity after someone contracts COVID-19 is not definitive. (Kacik, 11/20)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW Health Pleads With State Residents To Take Virus Seriously
UW Health issued an open letter Sunday pleading with the state’s residents to take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed and the number of deaths from soaring. “Wisconsin is in a bad place right now with no sign of things getting better without action,” the open letter states. “We are, quite simply, out of time. Without immediate change, our hospitals will be too full to treat all of those with the virus and those with other illnesses or injuries." (Boulton, 11/22)

KHN: Parents Complain That Pediatricians, Wary Of COVID, Shift Sick Kids To Urgent Care 
A mom of eight boys, Kim Gudgeon was at her wits’ end when she called her family doctor in suburban Chicago to schedule a sick visit for increasingly fussy, 1-year-old Bryce. He had been up at night and was disrupting his brothers’ e-learning during the day. “He was just miserable,” Gudgeon said. “And the older kids were like, ‘Mom, I can’t hear my teacher.’ There’s only so much room in the house when you have a crying baby.” (Kennedy, 11/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid Upends A Rural Hospital, Where Staff Know All The Patients 
Nursing assistant Becky Long Warrior shuttled between the two hospital rooms. Both housed family members stricken with Covid-19. In one room, her grandmother stared up at her through a large oxygen mask as Ms. Long Warrior gently squeezed her shoulder and told her to rest. Next door, Ms. Long Warrior checked in on her uncle, a cattle rancher in his 70s whose lungs were being aided by a machine blowing high-flow oxygen. “He’s used to working, not being in a room alone,” Ms. Long Warrior said. (Frosch, 11/22)

Also —

The New York Times: The U.S. Has Lots Of Ventilators -- But Too Few Specialists To Mind Them 
As record numbers of coronavirus cases overwhelm hospitals across the United States, there is something strikingly different from the surge that inundated cities in the spring: No one is clamoring for ventilators. The sophisticated breathing machines, used to sustain the most critically ill patients, are far more plentiful than they were eight months ago, when New York, New Jersey and other hard-hit states were desperate to obtain more of the devices, and hospitals were reviewing triage protocols for rationing care. Now, many hot spots face a different problem: They have enough ventilators, but not nearly enough respiratory therapists, pulmonologists and critical care doctors who have the training to operate the machines and provide round-the-clock care for patients who cannot breathe on their own. (Jacobs, 11/22)

Modern Healthcare: Views On Diversity Efforts Differ By Race, Study Finds
Minority and white healthcare workers differ in their view of how diverse and inclusive their work environment is, according to a broad new analysis. Results of a survey released this week that examined responses of more than 113,000 caregivers, including 3,000 physicians, at more than 500 facilities showed employee engagement overall was higher when individuals believed their organizations valued creating a diverse and inclusive environment. (Ross Johnson, 11/20)