Business of Medicine

Illinois Tightens Flu Shot Requirements For Health Workers. But Who’s Enforcing It?

By Christine Herman • Oct 9, 2018

A new Illinois statute aims to boost flu shot rates among healthcare workers by making it harder for employees to decline the vaccine.

Lawmakers say this is important in light of last year’s flu season that killed more people than car crashes and drug overdoses. But some on the frontlines of public health worry that a law that’s not enforced will have little effect.

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1,400 Nursing Homes Get Lower Medicare Ratings Because Of Staffing Concerns

By Jordan Rau and Elizabeth Lucas - Kaiser Health News • Jul 30, 2018

Photo by Matt Sawyers is licensed under CC0. https://pixabay.com/en/senior-healthcare-home-medical-care-599806/

Medicare has lowered its star ratings for staffing levels in 1 in 11 of the nation’s nursing homes — almost 1,400 of them — because they either had inadequate numbers of registered nurses or failed to provide payroll data that proved they had the required nursing coverage, federal records released last week show.

Medicare only recently began collecting and publishing payroll data on the staffing of nursing homes as required by the Affordable Care Act of 2010, rather than relying as it had before on the nursing homes’ own unverified reports.

7 Years After Joplin Tornado, Mercy Builds Hospitals With Disaster In Mind

By Sarah Fentem - St. Louis Public Radio • Jun 19, 2018

A visitor to the new wing of the Mercy hospital in Festus can likely tell immediately where the old building ends and the new part begins. The atrium still smells of fresh paint, and instead of dark, winding hallways, windows let in natural light.

Builders designed it to be prettier and more user-friendly. But Mercy Hospital Jefferson is safer, too.

Making its new hospitals safer has become a top priority for St. Louis-based based Mercy health system after one of the most destructive tornadoes in recent memory hit St. John’s Hospital in Joplin in 2011.

U.S. Immigration Policy Threatens Shake-Up In Home Health Business

By Ina Jaffe • Mar 5, 2018

On a rare rainy night in Albuquerque, two dozen students are learning the proper way to care for older people. Teacher Liliana Reyes is reviewing the systems of the body — circulatory, respiratory and so on — to prepare them for an upcoming exam.

These students are seeking to join a workforce of about 3 million people who help older adults remain in their homes. They assist these clients with things like bathing, dressing, and taking medication on time.

Bad Bedside Manna: Bank Loans Signed In The Hospital Leave Patients Vulnerable

By Shefali Luthra - KHN • Feb 23, 2018

Laura Cameron, then three months pregnant, tripped and fell in a parking lot and landed in the emergency room last May — her blood pressure was low and she was scared and in pain. She was flat on her back and plugged into a saline drip when a hospital employee approached her gurney to discuss how she would pay her hospital bill.

Nationwide IV Bag Shortage Hits Midwestern Hospitals

By Lisa Gillespie - WFPL News • Jan 23, 2018

It’s been five months since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and wiped out houses, roads and the power grid, as well as factories that make prescription drugs and medical devices.

Trump Admin Will Protect Health Workers Who Refuse Services On Religious Grounds

By Alison Kodjak • Jan 18, 2018

Updated at 12:39 p.m. ET

Health care workers who want to refuse to treat patients because of religious or moral beliefs will have a new defender in the Trump administration.

The top civil rights official at the Department of Health and Human Services is creating the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom to protect doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to take part in procedures like abortion or treat certain people because of moral or religious objections.