Category: Doctors

Next Showdown in Congress: Protecting Workers vs. Protecting Employers in the Pandemic

Democrats want to bind employers to follow a safety plan, while Republicans seek to shield employers and doctors from lawsuits.

‘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.

Using Stories To Mentally Survive As A COVID-19 Clinician

The practice of narrative medicine helps health care professionals hear the life stories behind a patient’s immediate complaints. Some doctors are finding that these skills also provide an alcove of needed reflection amid the pandemonium of COVID-19.

Rapid Changes To Health System Spurred By COVID Might Be Here To Stay

The coronavirus pandemic has forced the nation’s doctors and hospitals to reevaluate how they work. At least three major changes may have a lasting impact.

Must-Reads Of The Week

KHN senior correspondent Jordan Rau takes a spin through this week’s essential health care news.

As Congress Weighs COVID Liability Protections, States Shield Health Providers

Under pressure from organizations representing doctors, nurses, hospitals and other care providers, a handful of states are offering them protections from civil lawsuits over medical treatment.

‘An Arm And A Leg’: Health Care Takes A Financial Hit In The Midst Of Pandemic

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.

Lost on the Frontline

A lab assistant who spoke out about employee safety. A disease intervention specialist who hoped to follow her mother into nursing. A father of three who juggled jobs at three nursing homes. These are some of the people just added to “Lost on the Frontline,” a special series from The Guardian and KHN that profiles health care workers who died of COVID-19.

‘An Arm And A Leg’: What A Fleet Of Firetrucks Can Teach About Public Health

This week on “An Arm and a Leg,” a front-line physician wonders if the health care industry’s drive for “efficiency” has robbed the system of surge capacity, leaving the nation underprepared to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.