Today’s NewsStand

Today’s NewsStand

By Iowa Hospital Association|
|June 15, 2022

Iowa news

Count the Kicks app, started in Iowa, hopes to decrease preventable stillbirths nationwide

Count the Kicks was founded by five Iowa moms who each lost a baby to stillbirth or infant death and began working together to find solutions in the early 2000s. The program was officially launched in 2008 to support research that showed kick counting and other movement tracking could reduce stillbirths. The app is particularly important as 40 birthing units have closed in Iowa over the last 20 years and the state ranks last in the U.S. in OB-GYNs per capita. (Business Record)

Gov. Reynolds signs bills designed to address the state’s shortage of mental health services

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed 21 bills into law earlier this week, including two designed to address the state’s shortage of mental health services. One sets up a loan-repayment program for students who agree to work in an underserved area of Iowa after they get a degree in the mental health field. The other will let a state board issue provisional licenses to doctoral students in psychology, allowing them to practice during their internship with a licensed psychologist. (Iowa Radio)

McLaughlin helps Manning Regional Healthcare Center thrive

For Amy McLaughlin, a career in health care was never the initial plan. But with the support and resources from Manning Regional Healthcare Center and MercyOne, she not only found herself working in health care, but also helping lead a rural hospital, serving as the hospital’s chief financial officer. Although McLaughlin didn’t have a background in health care, Manning Regional saw potential and gave her the support and resources she needed to succeed. (Advocate Journal)

National news

Travel nursing presents hospital employers with legal risks

The popularity of travel nursing is leaving healthcare facilities and the companies serving them susceptible to misclassification accusations and joint-employer disputes. Providers should read contracts to understand who is liable if a travel nurse sues a health care facility and staffing company. Even if agreements say a hospital is not a temporary employee’s employer, courts may decide it’s a joint employer. If they are a joint employer, they may have to pay legal fees if a staffing agency is sued. (Bloomberg Law)

Deferred care and inflation fuel mounting pressure for Americans’ health care

Americans 50 and older are feeling the pressure of health care costs, with 4 in 10 concerned about their ability to pay for care and others forgoing treatment, skipping prescriptions or cutting back on daily living expenses to afford health care. Increased use of general health care — driven by care deferred in 2020 that was provided in 2021 — may be driving up costs, leaving Americans finding the cost burden of health care more extreme than what they remembered pre-pandemic. At the same time, a fragile economy and rising consumer costs are intensifying the squeeze. (Becker’s Hospital Review)

How strong is your COVID-19 immunity? A blood test could offer some insight

A newly developed blood test that measures a specific immune response in the body could help doctors gauge how much protection a person has against COVID-19, according to a new study. The test, which focuses on the part of the immune system that confers long-term protection by prompting the body to “remember” the virus, could help make sense of the complex tangle of COVID-19 immunity that now exists from person to person. (NBC News)

Become a hospital advocate. Sign up for IHA Action Alerts.

Click here