Iowa news
New partnership will allow Iowa to help improve health care statewide
A new $8 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust will help the University of Iowa educate health care providers and first responders in rural parts of the state on procedures they don’t often have the opportunity to perform. The Simulation in Motion-Iowa program will provide valuable hands-on experience for health care professionals using a truckful of sophisticated equipment and patient simulators. (Iowa Now)
About half of Iowa vaccine providers can deny access to noncustomers, nonpatients
Roughly one-half of Iowa’s 1,700 providers of the COVID-19 vaccine are free to deny the vaccine to noncustomers, according to state health officials. With many Iowa clinics and hospitals refusing the vaccine to anyone who is not already doing business with them as a patient, some Iowans must go to pharmacies that may not be local, or that lack the same level of staffing and experience in giving vaccines. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Hospitalizations continue to decline as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in Iowa
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Iowa dropped to their lowest since late September, according to data from the state Sunday, which also was the first day many COVID-19 public health restrictions were lifted. There were 316 people hospitalized for the coronavirus Sunday, the lowest since Sept. 25, when there 300. Hospitalizations have been steadily dropping since their peak above 1,500 in mid-November. Public health restrictions were eased Sunday, with the state no longer requiring mask-wearing or social distancing measures for restaurants and other businesses. On Friday, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced she was scaling back her emergency proclamation that put in place those restrictions and others, including on sizes of gatherings. (The Gazette)
National news
These were the specialties that used telehealth the most in 2020
Endocrinologists and gastroenterologists were the specialty clinicians that used telemedicine the most last year during the onset of the pandemic, a new study found. The study in the journal Health Affairs gives a look at who flocked to telemedicine from January to June 2020 and what types of patients employed the technology. The COVID-19 pandemic and new flexibility from the federal government led to massive increases in telemedicine use across the health care industry. (FierceHealthcare)
Health care CEOs on how US should prepare for next health crisis
Improving data processes, strengthening supply chain readiness and innovating care delivery are the most crucial areas private and public health care leaders should focus on to prepare for future health crises, according to a report from the Healthcare Leadership Council and Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy in Washington, DC. The council, a national coalition of health care CEOs, convened a group of more than 100 leaders in October 2020 from private, nonprofit and federal sectors to assess the nation’s response to COVID-19 and identify areas to improve disaster preparedness. (Becker’s Hospital Review)
Pfizer expects to nearly cut in half the amount of time it takes to produce a batch of COVID-19 vaccine from 110 days to an average of 60 as it makes the process more efficient and production is built out. As the nation revs up its vaccination programs, the increase could help relieve bottlenecks caused by vaccine shortages. (USA Today)