Iowa news
With the current rate of increase of cases, Iowa appears to be following the path of Missouri and Arkansas, which were slammed with COVID-19 outbreaks last month. During the past week, Iowa has seen an average of nearly 696 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 daily. The total new cases during the past week — 4,872 — was the highest it’s been since mid-February, when Iowa was sliding down from its winter surge of COVID-19, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. (Des Moines Register)
Doctors and UnityPoint face off in court over revenue and patient care
A group of central Iowa physicians and one of Iowa’s largest health care providers are facing off in court and accusing each other of being motivated more by money than by patient care. The physicians and UnityPoint are at war over a proposed set of cardiac catheterization labs, with each side claiming the other will be putting patients at risk for the sake of their bottom line. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Winter respiratory viruses push Blank Children’s Hospital to capacity
Blank Children’s Hospital has been at or near capacity for at least six weeks, and the hospital announced it will delay elective procedures until more space becomes available. The influx of patients comes not from COVID-19 but winter respiratory viruses making an unseasonable appearance in the heart of summer. (KCCI)
National news
State of the nursing shortage: 7 notes
Perhaps more than any other point in the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals across the US are feeling the effects of a severe nursing shortage. At the same time, hospitalizations are rising, with some states recording their highest numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations yet. (Becker’s Hospital Review)
Adobe launches Experience Cloud for Healthcare
Adobe has launched Experience Cloud for Healthcare, the latest industry vertical of its Experience Platform that’s designed to provide personalized customer experiences at scale. Adobe said the offering is HIPAA-ready, meaning that it comes with Experience Cloud applications that will comply with HIPAA requirements in early 2022. (ZDNet)
Employee badges to identify vaccination status a hit, Wisconsin health system says
About 8,000 Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System employees have requested black ID badge reels to indicate they are fully vaccinated. The nine-hospital health system, which has more than 12,000 employees, started offering the black reels in July. Many Marshfield employees are already required to wear white reels. But the new black reels are voluntary. Employees who have them may meet in person, but must be masked, if all meeting attendees are vaccinated, the health system said. (Becker’s Hospital Review)