The Texas-based health system first sued the staffing firm for “price gouging” amid the Covid-19 pandemic, as wages for nurses shot up from $75 to $160. But the firm countersued, claiming that Steward — which owes Aya over $40 million — previously did not raise… Read More »Steward Health v Aya Healthcare: 4 things to know
Federal officials announced new measures to help get fresh, new N95 masks to health care workers and expand their use in other industries after scientists argued that the highly protective masks are essential to keep workers safe from covid-19. Use Our Content It can be… Read More »A Year Into Pandemic, Federal Officials Design New Mask Guidelines to Better Protect More Workers
Dr. Anthony Fauci thanked America’s health care workers, who “every single day put themselves at risk” during the pandemic, even as he acknowledged that PPE shortages had contributed to the deaths of more than 3,600 of them. This story also ran on The Guardian. It… Read More »Fauci Thanks US Health Workers for Sacrifices but Admits PPE Shortages Drove Up Death Toll
This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free. Calls are mounting for the Biden administration to set up a national tracking system of covid-19 deaths among front-line health care workers to honor the thousands of nurses, doctors and support staffers… Read More »Calls Mount for Biden to Track US Health Care Worker Deaths from Covid
Antonio Espinoza amaba a los Dodgers de Los Angeles. Los quería tanto que para su velatorio lo vistieron con su camiseta del equipo. Su familia y amigos, incluido su hijo de 3 años, también usaron remeras, y gorras de béisbol azul y blancas, en su… Read More »Para este enfermero de cuidados paliativos, la vacuna de covid llegó demasiado tarde
CORONA, Calif. — Antonio Espinoza loved the Los Angeles Dodgers. He loved them so much that he was laid to rest in his favorite Dodgers jersey. His family and friends, including his 3-year-old son, donned a sea of blue-and-white baseball shirts and caps in his… Read More »For This Hospice Nurse, the Covid Shot Came Too Late
This story also ran on NBC News. It can be republished for free. Beating back covid right now comes down to balancing supply and demand. With hopes pinned to vaccines, demand has far outstripped the supply of doses. But, as an increasing number of vaccine… Read More »Calling All Vaccinators: Closing the Next Gap in Covid Supply and Demand
This story also ran on USA Today. It can be republished for free. Last December, Mirande Gross graduated from Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, with a bachelor’s degree in communications. But Gross has changed her mind and is heading back to school in May for… Read More »‘I Wanted to Go in There and Help’: Nursing Schools See Enrollment Bump Amid Pandemic
Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. In case you need your blood to boil, read this story about a woman’s surprise medical bill for lab tests she… Read More »Readers and Tweeters Fight Stigma and Salute Front-Line Workers
SACRAMENTO — As intensive care units filled and coronavirus cases surged over the holidays, Carmela Coyle invoked a World War II-era quote attributed to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to rally her own troops: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Coyle is head of… Read More »California’s Top Hospital Lobbyist Cements Influence in Covid Crisis
This story is from a reporting partnership that includes KQED, NPR and KHN. It can be republished for free. California’s telemetry nurses, who specialize in the electronic monitoring of critically ill patients, normally take care of four patients at once. But ever since the state… Read More »California Is Overriding Its Limits on Nurse Workloads as Covid Surges
This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free. The nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, declared on March 6 — by filing the official paperwork — that they were ready to vote on the prospect of joining a national… Read More »Health Workers Unions See Surge in Interest Amid Covid
Yolanda Coar was 40 when she died of COVID-19 in August 2020 in Augusta, Georgia. She was also a nurse manager, and one of nearly 3,000 frontline workers who have died in the U.S. fighting this virus, according to an exclusive investigation by The Guardian… Read More »Video: The Healthy Nurse Who Died at 40 on the COVID Frontline: ‘She Was the Best Mom I Ever Had’
This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free. More than 2,900 U.S. health care workers have died in the COVID-19 pandemic since March, a far higher number than that reported by the government, according to a new analysis by KHN… Read More »More Than 2,900 Health Care Workers Died This Year — And the Government Barely Kept Track
This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free. Workers at Garfield Medical Center in suburban Los Angeles were on edge as the pandemic ramped up in March and April. Staffers in a 30-patient unit were rationing a single tub of… Read More »As the Terror of COVID Struck, Health Care Workers Struggled to Survive. Thousands Lost the Fight.
Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. The demand for skilled nurses during the pandemic is through the roof! Travel nurses command a hefty salary and they… Read More »Readers and Tweeters Defend Front-Line Nurses and Blind Us With Science
KHN senior correspondent JoNel Aleccia discussed the demand for COVID-19 vaccines with Newsy’s “Morning Rush” on Thursday. Click here to watch Aleccia on Newsy Read Aleccia’s “Demand for COVID Vaccines Expected to Get Heated — And Fast” KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal discussed COVID vaccine distribution… Read More »KHN on the Air This Week
No single municipality in the country suffered more in the first wave of the pandemic than New York City, which saw more than 24,000 deaths, mainly in the spring. Medical staff in New York know precisely how difficult and dangerous overwhelmed hospitals can be and… Read More »NYC Hospital Workers, Knowing How Bad It Can Get, Brace for COVID 2nd Wave
For Christina Nester, the pandemic lull in Massachusetts lasted about three months through summer into early fall. In late June, St. Vincent Hospital had resumed elective surgeries, and the unit the 48-year-old nurse works on switched back from taking care of only COVID-19 patients to… Read More »For Nurses Feeling the Strain of the Pandemic, Virus Resurgence Is ‘Paralyzing’
DENVER — In March, Claire Tripeny was watching her dream job fall apart. She’d been working as an intensive care nurse at St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado, and loved it, despite the mediocre pay typical for the region. But when COVID-19 hit, that calculation… Read More »Need a COVID-19 Nurse? That’ll Be $8,000 a Week
Closing the gap between documentation and communication and ensuring software enhances rather than distracts from workflow are two ways that the burden on nurses can be eased at this time.
Nurse Leslie McKamey has gotten used to the 16-hour shifts, to skipping lunch, to the nightly ritual of throwing all her clothes in the laundry and showering as soon as she walks through the door to avoid potentially infecting her children. She’s even grown accustomed… Read More »Anger After North Dakota Governor Asks COVID-Positive Health Staff to Stay on Job
In the middle of the night, Stefania Silvestri lies in bed remembering her elderly patients’ cries. “Help me.” “Please don’t leave me.” “I need my family.” Months of caring for older adults in a Rhode Island nursing home ravaged by COVID-19 have taken a steep… Read More »Long-Term Care Workers, Grieving and Under Siege, Brace for COVID’s Next Round
This story also ran on The Guardian. It can be republished for free. David Joel Perea called from Maine, Vermont, Minnesota and, ultimately, Nevada, always with the same request: “Mom, can you send tamales?” Dominga Perea would ship them overnight. That’s how she knew where… Read More »‘Is This Worth My Life?’: Traveling Health Workers Decry COVID Care Conditions
COVID-19 cases are surging in rural places across the Mountain States and Midwest, and when it hits health care workers, ready reinforcements aren’t easy to find. In Montana, pandemic-induced staffing shortages have shuttered a clinic in the state’s capital, led a northwestern regional hospital to… Read More »COVID Spikes Exacerbate Health Worker Shortages in Rocky Mountains, Great Plains
COVID-19 cases are surging in rural places across the Mountain States and Midwest, and when it hits health care workers, ready reinforcements aren’t easy to find. In Montana, pandemic-induced staffing shortages have shuttered a clinic in the state’s capital, led a northwestern regional hospital to… Read More »COVID Spikes Exacerbate Health Worker Shortages in Rocky Mountains, Great Plains
Dr. Reza Chowdhury didn’t charge copays when his patients were low on cash. He gave them his home phone number and answered their medical questions at all hours. Once, when Chowdhury’s daughter, Nikita Rahman, struck up a conversation with a New York taxi driver, it… Read More »They Cared for Some of New York’s Most Vulnerable Communities. Then 12 Died.
As Xinyi Christine Zhang watched the COVID-19 death toll among health care workers rise this spring, she wanted to find a way to give solace — and thanks — to their families. The teenager, of South Brunswick Township, New Jersey, joined her church in commemorating… Read More »Teen Artist’s Portraits Help Frame Sacrifice of Health Care Workers Lost to COVID
Más de 900 trabajadores de atención médica esenciales han muerto por COVID-19, según una base de datos interactiva creada por The Guardian y KHN. Lost on the Frontline es una asociación entre las dos redacciones que tiene como objetivo contar, verificar y honrar a cada… Read More »Más de 900 trabajadores de salud han muerto por COVID-19 en los Estados Unidos. Y la cifra aumenta
James “Mike” Anderson was a hospital employee in suburban Philadelphia with a low-profile though critical job: changing air filters in COVID patients’ rooms. By late March, new COVID cases in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, had ramped up to as many as 90 per day. At the… Read More »Adding To COVID Stress, Families Of Health Workers Fight For Denied Workers’ Comp Benefits
America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical personnel account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are… Read More »Lost On The Frontline