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Demand has exploded for rubbing alcohol and alcohol swabs, which are being deployed in the disinfection fight against the coronavirus. Now, people with diabetes who rely on the products for infection control are left scrambling.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom charged into 2020 with ambitious — and expensive — proposals to increase health insurance coverage, reduce homelessness and tackle drug prices. Then came COVID-19.
From cafeteria staff to doctors and nurses, hospital workers around the country report frustrating failures by management to notify them when they have been exposed to co-workers or patients known to be infected with COVID-19.
In the first quarter of 2020, half the country’s economic devastation happened in the health care sector. Much of the slowdown came after hospitals postponed elective surgeries and as Americans skipped routine doctor’s office visits.
Emergency department volumes are down 40 to 50 percent across the country. Doctors worry a new wave of cardiac patients is headed their way — people who have delayed care and will be sicker and more injured when they finally seek care.
The shifting federal guidelines about how to reopen during the pandemic have perplexed many small-business owners, including the Prestifilippos, who dug deep into their wallets to provide a new kind of dining experience they hope is safe.
As California ramps up capacity at hospitals in response to the coronavirus pandemic, health care workers face an inadequate supply of masks.
In 470,000 American homes spread across every state, washing hands to prevent COVID-19 may not be as easy as turning on a faucet. They don’t have showers or toilets or, in some cases, even water piped into their homes. Nearly a million U.S. homes don’t have complete kitchens and millions more are overcrowded, making it much tougher for people to shelter in place and avoid infection.
A couple decided to donate a new test from their company to enable coronavirus testing for everyone in their ski resort community. It was an experiment that promised to show what widespread testing could do to fight the spread of COVID-19. But even the best-intended plans run into problems during this pandemic.
Lack of protective gear and fears about all the unknown aspects of COVID-19 are parts of the mosaic of stress facing doctors and nurses on the front lines of the pandemic.
Located about 45 minutes from New Orleans in one of the hardest-hit counties nationally, the 25-bed rural St. James Parish Hospital has hunkered down as staffers became infected, patient intake numbers have doubled, and intubations have skyrocketed. This is what it looks like inside a rural hospital when COVID-19 hits.
Most of the attention in the COVID-19 pandemic has been on how the virus affects the lungs. But evidence shows that up to 1 in 5 hospitalized patients have signs of heart damage and many are dying due to heart problems.
Josie and George Taylor of Everett, Washington, are two of the first people in the U.S. to recover from novel coronavirus infections after joining a clinical trial for the antiviral drug remdesivir.
The United States is the only developed nation unable to balance cost, efficacy and social good in setting prices.
The wide field of Democrats vying to face President Donald Trump in the fall has been reduced to two major candidates, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, each with a different prescription for the health system. Meanwhile, Congress and the Trump administration scramble to address the spread of the novel coronavirus. And the Supreme Court agrees to consider the latest case against the Affordable Care Act. Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner, Tami Luhby of CNN and Emmarie Huetteman of Kaiser Health News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more.
Because the surge of COVID-19 cases hasn’t yet hit all parts of America, some hospitals are able to learn lessons from the hot spots and prepare for the onslaught. In Wichita, Kansas, Ascension Via Christi hospitals converted a portion of a hospital cafeteria into a grocery store and offered alternative housing and child care for staff members working long hours in a stressful setting. The hospital group is also working with local aircraft manufacturers and 3D-printing hobbyists to produce face shields and other safety materials.
Hundreds of thousands of health care workers go into homes to provide important services for seniors and disabled people. But with the rising concerns about the danger of the coronavirus pandemic, especially for older people, these health workers could be endangering their patients and themselves.
California’s capital region is among the areas that have had to shift response to the coronavirus outbreak because of a shortage of test kits in the U.S.
Older adults are at serious risk during this pandemic and have been advised to avoid contact with others. Yet many still need essential services, and programs are scrambling to adapt.
Transit ridership has plummeted because of COVID-19, but millions of Americans still rely on buses and trains to get around, often because they have no other choice.
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