Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and the web.
Iowa news
University of Iowa seeks participants for COVID-19 vaccine trial
The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is searching for 250 participants for a COVID-19 vaccine trial. University of Iowa Health Care said it hopes to find participants from the state’s Black, Hispanic and Native American populations. According to University of Iowa Health Care, Black and Hispanic populations are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. (KCCI)
Pottawattamie County at 1,221 COVID-19 cases; region has 14 hospitalizations
Southwest Iowa has seen an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in recent weeks as a pair of long-term care facilities battle outbreaks. The Iowa Department of Public Health Regional Medical Coordination Center region four — which includes Pottawattamie, Mills, Harrison, Cass, Crawford, Shelby, Fremont, Montgomery, Page, Adams, Audubon and Taylor counties — listed 14 hospitalized patients on Tuesday afternoon, with seven in intensive care. None of the patients were on ventilators, according to the state COVID-19 website. Fourteen is the highest daily total since 17 were hospitalized on May 30. (The Daily Nonpareil)
Doctors running Des Moines intensive care units plead with Iowans: Take coronavirus more seriously
Doctors running Des Moines’ intensive care units say they’re witnessing the consequences of many Iowans’ lax attitudes toward the coronavirus. The intensive care units have been refilling over the past few weeks as the virus surges again. (Des Moines Register)
Nationals news
Surviving COVID-19 may mean following a few simple rules. Here’s why that’s difficult for some.
Humans have achieved many remarkable things because our unique human brain allows us to delicately balance prospective gains with immediate needs. Yet, those more urgent survival needs mean we still engage in impulsive behaviors. And those behaviors are now suboptimal because we live in an environment in which long-term contingencies play an increasingly important part in our lives. The conflict posed by immediate versus delayed consequences requires reconciliation by multiple brain systems — a reconciliation that all too often discounts or devalues delayed prospects over immediate demands. (NBCNews.com)
Telemedicine is laying the road map for health care’s future
Growing up, I had witnessed my father, Dr. Franco Lenna, MD, attend to patients in his clinic. But the past several months have changed the way health care works and proven that telemedicine holds a lot of promise. It has, in fact, become a necessity, since it reduces vulnerability while allowing doctors and nurses to handle more patients. At the same time, it provides increased efficiency and accessibility to those in need. It not only eliminates travel, but also provides clinical support seamlessly, improves patient outcomes and overcomes geographic hurdles. (San Antonio Express-News)
CMS proposes eliminating inpatient-only list
Hospital groups on Tuesday expressed frustration with the outpatient rule, especially the continued rate cut for 340B hospitals. The American Hospital Association said it also opposes nixing the inpatient-only list, saying many of those services “are surgical procedures that may be complex, complicated, and require the care and coordinated services provided in the inpatient setting of a hospital.” (Health Care Dive)