Latest KFF Health News Stories
Need a COVID-19 Nurse? That’ll Be $8,000 a Week
A shortage of nurses has turned hospital staffing into a sort of national bidding war, with hospitals willing to pay exorbitant wages to secure the nurses they need. That threatens to shift the supply of nurses toward more affluent areas.
Anger After North Dakota Governor Asks COVID-Positive Health Staff to Stay on Job
Doctors and nurses say order puts lives in danger, amid a COVID surge and a statewide shortage of health care workers.
Long-Term Care Workers, Grieving and Under Siege, Brace for COVID’s Next Round
As the coronavirus surges around the country, workers in nursing homes and assisted living centers are watching cases rise in long-term care facilities with a sense of dread. Many of these workers struggle with grief over the suffering they’ve witnessed.
Enfermeros itinerantes en alto riesgo frente a condiciones de atención de COVID-19
Desde que la pandemia de COVID-19 causó un terremoto en el sistema de salud, más enfermeros itinerantes viajan de estado en estado, arriesgando sus propias vidas.
‘Is This Worth My Life?’: Traveling Health Workers Decry COVID Care Conditions
Frequently employed by staffing agencies based in other states, nurses and other healthcare professionals can find themselves working through crisis without advocates or adequate safety equipment.
COVID Spikes Exacerbate Health Worker Shortages in Rocky Mountains, Great Plains
COVID-19 infections and quarantines are pulling health professionals off the front lines, exacerbating staffing woes that existed in large, rural states well before the pandemic.
Long-Fought Nurse Practitioner Independence Bill Heads to Newsom
The measure caps one of the most contentious health policy debates in recent memory, potentially altering how Californians get their medical care. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until the end of September to sign or veto it.
They Cared for Some of New York’s Most Vulnerable Communities. Then 12 Died.
Immigrant health workers help keep the U.S. health system afloat — and they’re dying of COVID-19 at high rates.
Teen Artist’s Portraits Help Frame Sacrifice of Health Care Workers Lost to COVID
A 15-year-old high school student in New Jersey is memorializing doctors, nurses and others who died after tending to coronavirus patients.
Más de 900 trabajadores de salud han muerto por COVID-19 en los Estados Unidos. Y la cifra aumenta
Con más casos de COVID, y la grave escasez de equipos de protección, trabajadores de salud se enfrentan de nuevo a peligros mortales, en especial en los estados del sur y el oeste.
Exclusive: Over 900 Health Workers Have Died of COVID-19. And the Toll Is Rising.
KHN and The Guardian unveil an interactive database documenting front-line health care worker deaths. The majority of them are people of color — and nurses face the highest toll.
“Lost on the Frontline” is an ongoing project by Kaiser Health News and The Guardian that aims to document the lives of health care workers in the U.S. who died from COVID 19, and to investigate why so many are victims of the disease.
Families of Health Workers Killed by COVID Fight for Denied Workers’ Comp Benefits
Attorneys say some state workers’ compensation laws leave workers and families struggling for benefits after a COVID illness or death.
‘Please Tell Me My Life Is Worth A LITTLE Of Your Discomfort,’ Nurse Pleads
Health care workers on the front lines of the COVID crisis have spent exhausting months working and self-quarantining off-duty to keep from infecting others, including their families. Encountering people who indignantly refuse face coverings can feel like a slap in the face.
Workers Filed More Than 4,100 Complaints About Protective Gear. Some Still Died.
As health workers were dying of COVID-19, federal work-safety officials filed just one citation against an employer and rapidly closed complaints about protective gear.
US Nurses At For-Profit Hospital Chain To Strike Over Cuts And PPE Shortages
Health care workers report understaffing, long hours and protective equipment shortages at HCA Healthcare hospitals.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Whom Do We Trust For COVID Info?
The messaging from the White House coronavirus press briefings is becoming more confusing as President Donald Trump and his science advisers appear to not see eye to eye. Meanwhile, Congress is ready to approve more money to address both the health and economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the virus is taking an almost unimaginable toll on the nation’s nursing homes and putting strain on patients and health care providers with non-COVID ailments. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Jennifer Haberkorn of the Los Angeles Times and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more.
Biden Says OSHA Isn’t Doing Enough To Protect Workers’ From COVID-19
Labor unions have called for the agency to issue an emergency standard that would define what steps employers must take to protect their workers from the coronavirus. It has not done that, although it offered guidance that it said does not create a “new legal obligation” for employers.
OSHA Probing Health Worker Deaths But Urges Inspectors To Spare The Penalties
Former officials from the federal agency criticize OSHA for a slow and timid response to a “worker safety crisis of monstrous proportions” unfolding in hospitals, nursing homes.
NYC Nurse Says He’s Not Scared: ‘I Am Only Doing My Job’ For COVID-19 Patients
Francisco Díaz ordinarily works educating seniors about their diabetes, but he has moved to the emergency room, on the front line in the battle against coronavirus. He said his Latino background helps him communicate with the many Spanish-speaking patients and understand their culture.
