Hospitals

The Rural South Lost 13 Hospitals In 2020

March 25, 2021 Olivia Paschal, Facing South. Educate! Health Care, Hospitals, Rural, South

For the Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center, the last straw was the COVID-19 pandemic, which strained the critical access hospital's already-precarious finances past the breaking point. In Florida, two hospitals closed inpatient non-emergency services after being bought out by the HCA hospital chain. In Tennessee and West Virginia, financial problems combined with the strain of the pandemic led two more rural hospitals to shut their doors. Of the 20 rural hospitals that closed in 2020, 13 were in the South, according to data from the Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which defines a closed hospital as one that no longer offers inpatient services.

Hospital Closes Without Warning Because It’s Behind On Rent

January 20, 2021 Mycah Hatfield, ABC13. Educate! Health Care, Hospitals, Landlord, Texas

Houston, TX - Doctors and patients at the Heights Hospital were left stuck in the parking lot after being told they were not allowed in the building Monday afternoon. A note posted on the door said that the locks for the spaces rented by 1917 Ashland Ventures LLC, the owners on record of the hospital, have been changed and they will only be given keys when $461,302.24 in rent and fees are paid. Staff members said they were given no warning or opportunity to alert their patients or collect their personal items from inside. "I tried to contact the owners," said Dr. Felicity Mack, who is listed as a physician at the hospital. "They aren't responding. The title company is not responding.

Activists, Health Care Workers Are Fighting To Keep Mercy Hospital Open

December 29, 2020 Maxwell Evans, Block Club Chicago. Resist! Chicago, Equity, Health Care, Hospitals

Chicago - A coalition of activists are demanding elected officials maintain pressure on Mercy’s ownership to keep the hospital open or sell to someone who will. The activists held a vigil Monday, a week after a state board unanimously rejected Mercy Hospital’s request to close. Board members agreed closing the Near South Side institution would negatively impact South Siders, especially in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Mercy Hospital leadership announced in July the city’s first chartered hospital would shut down, citing monthly operating losses of $4 million and shifting trends in the field of health care away from inpatient services. The news came two months after a billion-dollar plan to consolidate the hospital with three others on the South Side fell apart.

Nurse Survey Exposes Hospitals’ Failure To Prepare For Covid-19 Surge

November 21, 2020 National Nurses United. Educate! COVID-19, Hospitals, Nurses, PPE

National Nurses United’s new nationwide survey of more than 15,000 registered nurses reveals that 11 months into the pandemic, hospitals are failing to prepare for a surge of Covid-19 cases during flu season and that basic infection control and prevention measures are still lacking. Nurses cite the health care industry’s inappropriate pursuit of profit during this public health crisis as the main reason for its failure to follow the proper infection control measures that nurses have been demanding since the beginning of the pandemic.

Doctors Demand Hospital Industry Stop Funding Dark Money Lobby Group

May 29, 2020 By Jake Johnson, Commondreams. Resist! COVID-19, Dark money, Healthcare, Hospitals, National Improved Medicare for All

A progressive organization of 23,000 physicians from across the U.S. demanded Thursday that the American Hospital Association (AHA) divest completely from a dark-money lobbying group that has spent millions combating Medicare for All and instead devote those financial resources to the fight against Covid-19 and to better support for patients and healthcare workers. Dr. Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), said in a statement that "the Covid-19 pandemic has stretched hospitals' resources to the limit, and the AHA should not waste precious member hospitals' funds lobbying against universal health coverage" as a member of the Partnership for America's Health Care Future (PFAHCF).

Coronavirus Shakes The Conceit Of ‘American Exceptionalism’

April 25, 2020 Calvin Woodward, AP News. Educate! American Exceptionalism, Hospitals, Pandemic, Public Health

Washington, DC - What if the real “invisible enemy” is the enemy from within — America’s very institutions? When the coronavirus pandemic came from distant lands to the United States, it was met with cascading failures and incompetencies by a system that exists to prepare, protect, prevent and cut citizens a check in a national crisis. The molecular menace posed by the new coronavirus has shaken the conceit of “American exceptionalism” like nothing big enough to see with your own eyes. A nation with unmatched power, brazen ambition and aspirations through the arc of history to be humanity’s “shining city upon a hill” cannot come up with enough simple cotton swabs despite the wartime manufacturing and supply powers assumed by President Donald Trump.

Hospital Food Workers And Janitors Are Stuck In A “Death Trap”

April 13, 2020 Kari Lydersen, In These Times. Resist! COVID-19, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Worker Rights

The hospital where Kim Smith works is supposed to be a “safe haven,” says the patient care technician at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago. But now she feels it has become a “death trap.” Like the nurses and doctors nationwide who are risking their lives to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith says she’s glad to help provide healthcare in such traumatic times. But she’s among the army of frontline healthcare service providers who, while crucial to keeping the system going, are earning much lower wages than doctors and nurses and often lack adequate healthcare and paid sick leave. And like doctors and nurses, these service workers often also lack access to personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks, even though they’re put in contact with infected patients.

The US’s Wave Of Hospital Closures Left Us Ill-Equipped For COVID-19

April 3, 2020 Margaret Flowers, Truthout. Educate! COVID-19, Hospitals, Single payer health care

A couple of weeks ago, as countries scrambled to protect their citizens from the COVID-19 pandemic by closing borders and quarantining travelers, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, upon the “recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” took the unprecedented step of urging all students who are studying abroad to return home. In the announcement, they emphasized the need to return home if students are living in a country with “poorly developed health services and infrastructure … for example the USA.” The word spread quickly on social media that the United States had been singled out as an example of a country with poor health care infrastructure, with many people in the U.S. agreeing that we lack the capacity to handle the pandemic.

Private Hospitals Will Be Made Public For Duration Of Coronavirus Pandemic

March 31, 2020 Orla Ryan, Thejournal.ie Educate! Coronavirus, COVID-19, Hospitals, Pandemics, Private, Public

Some 2,000 beds, nine laboratories and thousands of staff have been drafted into the public system, Leo Varadkar said at a press conference today. Speaking at the same press conference, Health Minister Simon Harris said “there can be no room for public versus private” when responding to the Covid-19 crisis. “We must of course have equality of treatment, patients with this virus will be treated for free, and they’ll be treated as part of a single, national hospital service. “For the duration of this crisis the State will take control of all private hospital facilities and manage all of the resources for the common benefit of all of our people. There can be no room for public versus private when it comes to pandemic,” Harris said. A further 219 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the Republic of Ireland last night, bringing the total number of cases here to 1,125.

Are Hospitals Near Me Ready For Coronavirus? Here Are Nine Different Scenarios.

March 25, 2020 By Annie Waldman, Al Shaw, Ash Ngu, and Sean Campbell, Projects.propublica.org Educate! Coronavirus, COVID-19, Hospitals

Though the U.S. health care system is projected to be overwhelmed by an influx of patients infected with the novel coronavirus, the pressure on hospitals will vary dramatically across the country. That’s according to new data released by the Harvard Global Health Institute...

Survey Of Nation’s Frontline Registered Nurses Shows Hospitals Unprepared For COVID-19

March 7, 2020 Staff, Nationalnursesunited.org Educate! Coronavirus, COVID-19, Hospitals, Nurses

A nationwide survey National Nurses United (NNU) conducted of registered nurses, the country’s frontline health care staff, reveals that the vast majority of United States hospitals and health care facilities are unprepared to handle and contain cases of COVID-19. The results were shared at a press conference held Thursday by NNU, the country’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses.

Built In 10 Days, China’s Virus Hospital Takes 1st Patients

February 4, 2020 Staff, Huffpost.com Create! China, Coronavirus, Hospitals

BEIJING (AP) — The first patients arrived Monday at a 1,000-bed hospital built in 10 days as part of China’s sweeping efforts to fight a new virus that is causing global alarm. Huoshenshan Hospital and a second 1,500-bed facility due to open this week were built by construction crews who are working around the clock in Wuhan, the central city where the outbreak was first detected in December. Some 50 million people are barred from leaving Wuhan and surrounding cities.

Police Suspect Hospital Bomb Linked To Hong Kong Protests, As Telegram Message Warns Of ‘More To Come’ And Demands Border Closure Amid Wuhan Virus Crisis

January 30, 2020 By Tony Cheung and Christy Leung, Scmp.com Educate! Hong Kong, Hospitals, Protests

Hong Kong police are investigating whether a bomb explosion at a public hospital on Monday is linked to anti-government protest violence, according to sources, suspecting the home-made device may have been detonated to pressure the government into closing the city’s borders with mainland China in response to the deadly new coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

Safety Net Hospital Sues Poor Patients For Unpaid Bills

December 25, 2019 Blake Farmer, AP. Educate! Healthcare, Hospitals, Medical Debt, Poverty

Nashville, TN - Nashville General is the city-funded, safety-net hospital. For a patient without insurance, this is supposed to be the best place to go. But its emergency room has been taking more patients to court for unpaid medical bills than any other hospital or practice in town. A WPLN investigation finds the physician staffing firm that runs the ER at Nashville General sued 700 patients in Davidson County this year — roughly the same number as all the other hospitals and physician staffing firms combined. They include uninsured patients like Sonya Johnson, a social worker and single mother from Antioch. Between a nonprofit clinic and General Hospital, Johnson had figured out how to manage her health problems even though she was uninsured until recently.

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