KSDK: ‘We are capacity now’: Task force says St. Louis hospitals will start sending patients to out-of-area facilities. “St. Louis Metropolitan Task Force head Dr. Alex Garza had a grim message after touring area hospitals on the busiest travel day of 2020 so far: ‘We are at capacity now.’ Garza said that in one hospital, there was one bed for three waiting patients. He expects the Thanksgiving holiday — which traditionally comes with extended-family gatherings, travel, and shopping sprees — will increase local coronavirus cases.”
health care
KSDK: Exclusive: Inside Mercy Hospital’s COVID-19 ICU
KSDK: Exclusive: Inside Mercy Hospital’s COVID-19 ICU. “It’s a once-in-a-century fight to save lives that, until now, most have never seen. For eight months health care workers have waged war against COVID-19 mostly behind closed hospital doors – until now. Monday, Mercy Hospital St. Louis granted 5 On Your Side access to its COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a time when the region’s pandemic task force reports St. Louis area hospitals are in danger of running out of room for the most critical coronavirus patients.”
Washington Post: Trump, Carson tout covid-19 treatments as lifesavers. But regular people find them harder to get.
Washington Post: Trump, Carson tout covid-19 treatments as lifesavers. But regular people find them harder to get.. “Frustrated doctors say they have had to ration the Regeneron medication given to Trump, and a similar one by Eli Lilly — if they can get them at all — because of extremely short supply. The government has distributed just 205,000 doses of the drugs so far, at a time when around 170,000 people are being infected by the coronavirus every day. Nonetheless, patients are clamoring for the medications, in part because of Trump’s comments, as well as testimonials from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who also got the drugs before they were approved.”
‘We’re drowning’: COVID cases flood hospitals in America’s heartland (Reuters)
Reuters: ‘We’re drowning’: COVID cases flood hospitals in America’s heartland. “The vital signs of the 30-year-old COVID-19 victim were crashing, and Kearny County Hospital in rural Lakin, Kansas, just wasn’t equipped to handle the case. Miller, Kearny’s chief medical officer – who doubles as the county health officer – called around to larger hospitals in search of an ICU bed. With coronavirus cases soaring throughout Kansas, he said, he couldn’t find a single one.”
STAT News: ‘Essential workers’ likely to get earlier access to Covid-19 vaccine
STAT News: ‘Essential workers’ likely to get earlier access to Covid-19 vaccine. “Essential workers are likely to move ahead of adults 65 and older and people with high-risk medical conditions when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off on Covid-19 vaccine priority lists, coming after health care workers and people living in long-term care facilities, a meeting of an expert advisory panel made clear Monday.”
New York Times: Emergency Hospital Reopening on Staten Island to Handle 2nd Wave
New York Times: Emergency Hospital Reopening on Staten Island to Handle 2nd Wave. “The announcement is another sign that New York City is in the grip of a second coronavirus wave that has already led to the closing of public schools, the reversal of some reopenings and warnings to families to scale back their Thanksgiving plans. It also raises the specter of a return to the pandemic’s darkest days in March and April.”
ScienceBlog: Doctors Use Existing Treatment Earlier To Save The Lives Of Covid-19 Patients
ScienceBlog: Doctors Use Existing Treatment Earlier To Save The Lives Of Covid-19 Patients. “The lives of patients hospitalised with COVID-19 are being saved by doctors who are using an existing medical treatment at an earlier stage. Dr Luigi Sedda of Lancaster University analysed the results from the team at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (WWL). Their research has now been published in the prestigious medical journal BMJ Respiratory Open.”
Salt Lake Tribune: Utah hospitals have begun informal rationing of care, doctors say, as they cope with surge of COVID-19 patients
Salt Lake Tribune: Utah hospitals have begun informal rationing of care, doctors say, as they cope with surge of COVID-19 patients. “With a combination of luck, new hires and creative reorganizing of staff and patients, Utah’s hospitals haven’t had to eject anyone from intensive care units due to the coronavirus. But several doctors say the solutions still amount to rationing, with the quality of care deteriorating as hospitals are stretched thinner and thinner.”
Wall Street Journal: Covid Upends a Rural Hospital, Where Staff Know All the Patients
Wall Street Journal: Covid Upends a Rural Hospital, Where Staff Know All the Patients. “The Crow reservation, home to about 7,200 people in southern Montana, has been struck by one of the nation’s worst outbreaks in recent weeks. That has created a situation at this 24-bed hospital, operated by the U.S. Indian Health Service, unlike almost any other medical facility in the country: The people helping combat the disease know many of the sick.”
St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Children’s Hospital Is Now Seeing Adult Patients With COVID-19
St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Children’s Hospital Is Now Seeing Adult Patients With COVID-19. “St. Louis Children’s Hospital is now treating adult patients with the coronavirus. The hospital began admitting adult patients over a week ago in an attempt to relieve doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a hospital spokesperson confirmed [November 20]. Intensive care units at Barnes-Jewish and other area hospitals are nearing capacity. Children’s Hospital is treating adults in both its emergency room and ICU.”
Washington Post: Smallest health providers face biggest problem finding protective gear amid coronavirus surge
Washington Post: Smallest health providers face biggest problem finding protective gear amid coronavirus surge. “Most U.S. hospitals and health systems have, over the pandemic’s nine months, stitched together systems and improvisations to acquire masks, gowns, gloves and other personal protective equipment. Yet many small health-care and social-service settings continue to suffer from shortages they expect to grow worse.”
Univadis: Medical Royal College launches healthcare worker COVID-19 archive
Univadis: Medical Royal College launches healthcare worker COVID-19 archive. “The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) has launched a COVID-19 digital archive, which documents the experiences of healthcare workers living and working through the pandemic. This ongoing archiving project includes a range of materials such as diaries, photographs, and interviews – providing an important record of the professional and personal impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers, according to the College.”
StarTribune: Minnesota to get 25 staffed ambulances from FEMA for help with COVID-19 surge
StarTribune: Minnesota to get 25 staffed ambulances from FEMA for help with COVID-19 surge. “Minnesota is receiving 25 staffed ambulances from the federal government to help hospitals transfer patients so medical centers are better prepared for a surge of those critically ill with COVID-19. The state submitted the request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after ambulance operators said the rising cases could soon exhaust their ability to transfer patients between health care facilities, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.”
Pioneer Press: 900 on Mayo Clinic staff have contracted coronavirus in last two weeks
Pioneer Press: 900 on Mayo Clinic staff have contracted coronavirus in last two weeks. “Over 900 Mayo Clinic staff have contracted COVID-19 in the past two weeks, according to a Tuesday briefing by Dr. Amy Williams, dean of clinical practice. Williams said that 93 percent of staff who have contracted the virus did so in the community — away from the job — and that the majority of those who contracted the virus at work did so while eating in a break room with a mask off.”
Daily Beast: Delusional COVID Truthers Try to Invade Hospital Where This Mom Died Too Soon
Daily Beast: Delusional COVID Truthers Try to Invade Hospital Where This Mom Died Too Soon. “A big red heart fashioned with five dozen Post-its was in one of the windows of the intensive care unit at Utah Valley Hospital when the conspiracy theorists pulled into a parking lot that they found to be suspiciously empty. The heart was placed there by nurses to mark the room where one of their own died on Oct. 30. Neonatal intensive care nurse Patrice Grossman, who was born at the same hospital where she worked, had predicted when COVID-19 first arrived in America that she would be among the fatalities. She and seven other family members, beginning with her baby grandson, contracted it at home from out-of-state house guests who believed the virus is no big deal.”