Today’s NewsStand — Aug. 13

Today’s NewsStand — Aug. 13

By Iowa Hospital Association|
|August 12, 2020

Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and the web.

Iowa news

Montgomery County Memorial Hospital to change services provided in obstetrics

Montgomery County Memorial Hospital administration is developing a new model for its obstetrics services. MCMH CEO David Abercrombie said the new model comes after an in-depth study and following a recommendation direction by the MCMH Board of Trustees to develop a plan with as little negative impact to the hospital’s patients as possible. (The Red Oak Express)

13 Iowa hospitals receive 5 CMS stars for patient experience

CMS recently released new patient experience star ratings. Of the 266 hospitals to receive a rating of five stars, 13 are Iowa hospital. The federal administrator of the nation’s major health care programs assigned a patient experience star rating to 3,478 hospitals based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores collected from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2019. (Becker’s Hospital Review)

Iowa coronavirus hospitalizations rise, likely because of storms, state says

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 jumped by 20 Tuesday – the largest 24-hour increase since June 18 – with the state saying the rise was because of the storm that swept much of Iowa Monday. “Due to severe weather conditions Aug. 10, some Iowans being treated for COVID-19 in long-term care facilities or at home may be transferred to a hospital or other health care facility for temporary treatment due to damage to their place of residence,” according to the state’s COVID-19 website. “This may cause hospitalization data or other data on the site to fluctuate in the short term.” (The Gazette)

National news

Three challenges exposed in the new world of telehealth and how to overcome them

The rapid rise of telemedicine in response to COVID-19 has been critical for getting at-risk patients the care they need. Many state governments are expanding telehealth in their Medicaid programs, while easing restrictions to allow for faster implementation. And there is evidence this trend will not be reversed anytime soon. This is increasingly vital considering patients have become much more cautious of in-person visits in the wake of the global pandemic. Visits to primary care doctors were down by as much as 60% in early April. While momentum has started to shift, visits are still down by almost 20% when compared to typical levels. (FierceHealthcare)

Facebook removes millions of false virus-related posts

Facebook says it removed more than 7 million pieces of misleading or “harmful” COVID-19-related posts from its social network and the company-owned Instagram in the second quarter. The company cited examples of posts that pushed “fake preventive measures or exaggerated cures that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health experts tell us are dangerous.” (USA Today)

From 500 monthly telehealth visits to 19,000

McLaren Health Care in Grand Blanc, Michigan, operates 14 hospital sites covering the care needs for patients across most of the state, including Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Like other health care organizations, McLaren has had difficulty recruiting physician specialists to meet patients’ needs, particularly in the more rural areas of the state. To combat this challenge, McLaren has implemented its Clinic to Clinic telehealth service in several of these locations, connecting physician specialists from tertiary sites to patients in the rural sites. (Healthcare IT News)

 

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