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  • TV Highlights This Week

News Articles: Emergency Room

Peppi, a yellow Lab and official "Canine Companion," sits on the lap of OB-GYN Kristina Fraser in November at the HCA HealthONE Rose medical center in Denver.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Trained dogs working inside hospitals help ease burnout among health care staff

Some hospitals are bringing in dogs to spend entire shifts with doctors and nurses. The trained canines help staff cope with the stress of their work amid high levels of burnout.

January 24, 2025
|
By:
  • John Daley
The hope was that bringing many other services to people with high needs would stabilize their health problems. While the strategy has succeeded sometimes, it hasn't saved money.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

How do you help patients who show up in the ER 100 times a year?

For decades, nonprofits, health insurers and hospitals have been trying to solve the problem of the people who need the emergency room again and again. Here are some of the lessons they've learned.

May 03, 2024
|
By:
  • Leslie Walker and
  • Dan Gorenstein
Hospitals in rural America face a dire financial forecast. The government has an incentive plan to help them keep their emergency departments open, while shutting their inpatient services.

Tagged as: 

  • Health Care

Federal fix for rural hospitals gets few takers so far

Just 18 facilities were converted into Rural Emergency Hospitals so far. Advocates and lawmakers say tweaks to the law are needed to widen the reach and keep health care in rural communities.

January 10, 2024
|
By:
  • Sarah Jane Tribble and
  • Tony Leys
Ben Norris, 65, used to live on the streets. Now he's taking part in a pilot project in Oregon that uses Medicaid funds to pay for housing and rent for people who are homeless or in danger of becoming so.

Tagged as: 

  • National

Can states ease homelessness by tapping Medicaid funding? Oregon is betting on it

Medicaid provides health care for tens of millions of low-income Americans. Now, for the first time, it's being used for housing and rent for people who are homeless or in danger of becoming so.

October 12, 2023
|
By:
  • Katia Riddle
A billing mistake by an in-network Florida emergency room landed Sara McLin's then-4-year-old son in collections.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Pay up, kid? An ER's error sends a 4-year-old to collections

A Florida woman tried to dispute an emergency room bill, but the hospital and collection agency refused to talk to her — because it was her child's name on the bill, not hers.

March 28, 2023
|
By:
  • Daniel Chang
Diagnosing and treating patients was once an ER doctor's domain, but they are increasingly being replaced by health practitioners who can perform many of the same duties and generate much the same revenue for less than half the pay.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

ERs staffed by private equity firms aim to cut costs by hiring fewer doctors

Increasingly, private equity firms shape staffing decisions at hospital emergency rooms, research shows. One apparent effect: Hiring fewer doctors and more health care practitioners who earn far less.

February 13, 2023
|
By:
  • Brett Kelman and
  • Blake Farmer
Laura Polizoti, a family intervention specialist at Youth Villages, discusses strategies with Haley that would be more beneficial for both her and her mother Carmen.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

One state looks to get kids in crisis out of the ER — and back home

At many U.S. hospitals, children and teens are stuck in the emergency department for days or weeks because psychiatric beds are full. Massachussets has a simple, yet promising solution.

February 09, 2023
|
By:
  • Martha Bebinger
Dr. Sarah Prager and Dr. Kelly Quinley work together for the nonprofit TEAMM, Training, Education and Advocacy in Miscarriage Management, which operates on the premise that "many people experience miscarriage before they're established with an OBGYN."

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Many ERs offer minimal care for miscarriage. One group wants that to change

A group of doctors trains health care providers to treat miscarriage in the emergency department. This could be increasingly important in states where abortion is outlawed.

January 04, 2023
|
By:
  • Patrick Adams
When Dr. Tiffany M. Osborn received her COVID-19 vaccination shortly after vaccines became available in late 2020, she felt hopeful about the pandemic's trajectory. A year later, she's sad and frustrated to see so many COVID patients in the ICU.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

ICU teams report fatigue and frustration as they brace for omicron surge

A resurgence in COVID-19 cases is testing the endurance of health care workers who care for the sickest patients, most of whom are unvaccinated.

January 01, 2022
|
By:
  • Jon Hamilton
A team of nurses, patient care technicians and a respiratory therapist prepare to return a COVID patient to their back after 24 hours of lying on their stomach. That posture makes it easier to breathe and is a critical part of treatment for COVID patients in hospitals.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Intimate portraits of a hospital COVID unit from a photojournalist-turned-nurse

Alan Hawes hopes his photos of health care workers and COVID patients will show the toll of this pandemic — and convince the unvaccinated to get their COVID shots.

December 26, 2021
|
By:
  • Victoria Hansen
A team of nurses, patient care technicians and a respiratory therapist prepare to return a COVID patient to their back after 24 hours of lying on their stomach. That posture makes it easier to breathe and is a critical part of treatment for COVID patients in hospitals.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Intimate portraits of a hospital COVID unit from a photojournalist-turned-nurse

Alan Hawes hopes his photos of health care workers and COVID patients will show the toll of this pandemic — and convince the unvaccinated to get their COVID shots.

December 26, 2021
|
By:
  • Victoria Hansen
When Caitlin Wells Salerno and Jon Salerno's first son, Hank, was born, his delivery cost the family only $30. Gus' bill came in at more than $16,000, all told — including the $2,755 ER charge. The family was responsible for about $3,600 of the total.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

A hospital hiked the price of a routine childbirth by calling it an 'emergency'

Obstetrical emergency departments are a new aspect of some hospitals that can inflate medical bills for even the easiest, healthiest births. Just ask baby Gus' parents about their $2,755 ER charge.

October 27, 2021
|
By:
  • Rae Ellen Bichell
Patients with opioid addiction who show up in a hospital's ER face many barriers to recovery, and so do the doctors trying to help them. Easing those barriers on both sides helps patients get into good follow-up programs that lead to lasting change.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Many ERs Fail People Who Struggle With Addiction. These New Approaches Might Help

Starting treatment for addiction in the emergency room greatly improves the chances recovery will last, experts say. Cutting red tape, hiring advocates and Uber vouchers can all make a difference.

August 21, 2021
|
By:
  • Aneri Pattani
Jameson Rybak, son of Jim and Suzanne Rybak of Florence, S.C., struggled with opioid addiction and died of an overdose on June 9, 2020 — three months after he left a hospital ER because he feared he couldn't afford treatment.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

A Tragic Death Shows How ERs Fail Patients Who Struggle With Addiction

ER doctors wanted to hospitalize the young man to help ease his withdrawal from opioid dependence. But he declined because he couldn't afford it. His mom says no one told him he had financial options.

July 14, 2021
|
By:
  • Aneri Pattani
A Teton County emergency medical services volunteer outside the Benefis Teton Medical Center in Choteau, Mont.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Rural Ambulance Services At Risk As Volunteers Age And Expenses Mount

To keep emergency services afloat in rural areas, communities will have to go beyond volunteer-based programs to get people to distant hospitals, experts say. Meanwhile, some 911 calls go unanswered.

July 05, 2021
|
By:
  • Aaron Bolton
  • Load More

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