Category: Hospitals

One Ambulance Ride Leads to Another When Packed Hospitals Cannot Handle Non-Covid Patients

A Kansas woman thought she’d find help at her local emergency room. What she found instead was a packed hospital and an ambulance ride to someplace else.

In Los Angeles and Beyond, Oxygen Is the Latest Covid Bottleneck

The oxygen delivery infrastructure is crumbling under pressure in Los Angeles and other covid hot spots, jeopardizing patients’ access to precious air and limiting hospital turnover.

Children’s Hospitals Grapple With Wave of Mental Illness

The disruption to daily life caused by the pandemic has increased the number of children seeking mental health care, further straining a system that already struggled to meet the need.

Hospital Prices Just Got a Lot More Transparent. What Does This Mean for You?

Under a rule that kicked in Jan. 1, hospitals are required to make public the prices they negotiate with insurers. That’s a lot more information than was previously required, which was only the posting of “chargemasters” — the hospital-generated list prices that few consumers or health plans actually pay.

Children’s Hospitals Are Partly to Blame as Superbugs Increasingly Attack Kids

A growing body of research shows that overuse and misuse of antibiotics in children’s hospitals is helping fuel superbugs, which typically strike frail seniors but are increasingly infecting kids. And the pandemic is making things worse.

‘Last Responders’ Brace for Surge in Covid Deaths Across US

In some parts of the country, the surge in covid cases is overwhelming coroners, morgues, funeral homes and religious leaders. It has required ingenuity and even changed the rituals of honoring the dead.

‘Nine Months Into It, the Adrenaline Is Gone and It’s Just Exhausting’

A UCSF emergency room physician reflects on California’s response to COVID-19 and on lessons learned — or not — as the coronavirus makes its second devastating surge.

‘Nine Months Into It, the Adrenaline Is Gone and It’s Just Exhausting’

A UCSF emergency room physician reflects on California’s response to COVID-19 and on lessons learned — or not — as the coronavirus makes its second devastating surge.

No More ICU Beds at the Main Public Hospital in the Nation’s Largest County as COVID Surges

As some patients linger near death, staffers at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center seek ways to expand capacity for a surge of cases that isn’t letting up.

Hospitals Scramble to Prioritize Which Workers Are First for COVID Shots

Even as the federal Food and Drug Administration engaged in intense deliberations ahead of Friday’s authorization of the nation’s first COVID vaccine, and days before the initial doses were to be released, hospitals have been grappling with how to distribute the first scarce shots. Their plans vary broadly.