Articles Tagged With: pandemic
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Vaccine Expert: SARS-CoV-2 Is Becoming Endemic
Make of it what you will in an unpredictable pandemic, but one of the nation’s leading vaccine and immunology experts sees COVID-19 fading to a somewhat undefined endemic level and then returning as a seasonal virus next winter. -
How a Transitional Care Leader’s Organization Survived the Pandemic Chaos
In this Q&A, Hospital Case Management asked Vera Usinowicz, APN-C, supervisor of The Center for Comprehensive Heart Failure Care at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ, to discuss how her transitional care unit kept heart failure patients out of the emergency department and hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. -
Was the 1889-1891 Russian Flu Really Coronavirus?
The 1889-1891 Russian flu pandemic was noted to spread rapidly through Western Europe, Great Britain, and North America. Contemporary clinical reports described prominent gastrointestinal, rheumatologic, and neurologic abnormalities (including loss of taste and smell), and pathologic reports described prominent thrombosis. A molecular clock analysis suggests a beta coronavirus emerged in humans following cross-species transmission around this time.
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Control Factors That Influence Insurance Premiums
Insurance premiums are influenced by many factors. Some factors are out of the insured healthcare organization’s control, but hospitals can earn lower premiums by showing a concerted effort to improve patient safety and lower risk. -
Omicron ‘Milder’ Infection View Skewed by Prior Immunity
The COVID-19 omicron variant has been widely observed to cause “milder” disease, but this appears largely to be an illusion caused by the level of immunity via prior infection or vaccination that now exists in the human population.
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Disrupted Contraceptive Care Hurt Disadvantaged Patients the Most
The COVID-19 pandemic affected most women seeking contraceptive care — but those who already are disadvantaged by structural inequities were hit the hardest. The problem worsened as the pandemic continued. The pandemic made reproductive health access disparities worse, creating economic hardship for many women and disproportionately affecting Black, indigenous, and people of color. Recently, researchers found that people were less happy with their ability to access contraceptive care in January 2021 than in July 2020. -
Study Results Reveal How Hospitals Handled COVID-19’s First Wave
Healthcare systems’ responses to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic varied, but most canceled elective procedures to preserve ICU capacity and adapted staffing and physical space to prepare for patient surges, according to the results of a recent study. -
Omicron Created Problems of Too Few Staff, Too Many Patients, Too Much Distress
After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare leaders know how to react and prepare. But with omicron, the earlier lessons learned were not enough to prevent patient surges and staffing shortages. -
The Ethical and Pandemic Problem with Boosters
COVID-19 booster shots are highly controversial from a global perspective. Similar to other industrialized nations, 75% of the people in United States have taken at least one dose, 63% are fully vaccinated, and 25% have received the booster. Yet, more than 30 countries worldwide have vaccinated less than 10% of their population.
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Unvaccinated Patients Dying from ‘Less Severe’ Omicron
The emerging narrative of the omicron variant of COVID-19 being less severe — and possibly signaling a transition to an endemic phase of the pandemic — is of little solace to patients dying of the virus daily.