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[unable to retrieve full-text content] Governor appoints Patrick M. Allen as Department of Health cabinet ...    Office of the Governor

[unable to retrieve full-text content] NHRMC doctor and nurse team up to stop deadly pulmonary ...    Novant Health

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Bedford County prepared for cold weather | Local News ...    Smith Mountain Eagle

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Bitterroot Health breaks ground on new Stevensville clinic    Ravalli Republic

INTERVIEWER: There is an explosion of COVID cases in China that's making news as that country lifts restrictions. Meanwhile, health officials in this country are warning of COVID spikes because of the holidays. COVID is still very much with us. Joining us for the latest and a look ahead is Michael Osterholm. He's an epidemiologist and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Welcome back. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: Thank you for having me. INTERVIEWER: I know you're keeping track of the huge surge of cases in China right now after these restrictions have been lifted. How might the rest of the world be affected by the explosion of infections? MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: Well, I think, first of all, it is just an utter surprise that the Chinese government is handling like this as they are, which calls into question a lot of issues, I think, around global governance. You know, last January, I was one of the people saying, at that time, t...

Show Caption Hide Caption Why fentanyl is the leading cause of overdose deaths in the US Over 150 Americans die every day from overdoses related to fentanyl and synthetic opioids. Here's why fentanyl is so deadly. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY Fentanyl overdoses, both non-fatal and fatal, are on the rise in Lafayette Parish, a trend concerning community and health leaders. Louisiana Department of Health Region 4 Medical Director Dr. Tina Stefanski said the Lafayette Parish Coroner's Office raised the alarm bells in the spring of 2021 about a sharp increase in fatal drug overdoses, a similar trend seen across the country. And personnel at hospitals, emergency departments and law enforcement also told LDH they're seeing an increase in overdoses. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl can be fatal even in small doses and is often laced in other drugs, including fake prescription...

Recent statistics show more than 20% of healthcare costs resulting from emergency department utilization, hospitalizations and hospital readmissions can be attributed to just 1% of patients. THE PROBLEM In 2017, University of Virginia Health's 30-day readmission rate for patients with complex and costly medical conditions was as high as 17% to 18% per year. This put the health system in the 50th percentile of similar academic medical centers nationally and near the bottom among academic medical centers in the state. This was problematic for two reasons. From a strictly business perspective, readmissions penalties cut into revenue. Second, from an operational perspective, readmitted patients may divert beds and resources that could be used to care for patients with more intensive healthcare needs. "In addition, industry research as well as our own experience indicates as many as 20% of readmissions may be preventable," said Teresa Radford, RN, clinical program coordina...

Flu cases are exploding all over New Jersey. The latest surveillance report from the state Health Department shows high levels of influenza in all areas of the state. According to Gemma Downham, the corporate director of Patient Safety and Infection Prevention for AtlantiCare, influenza activity is now abnormally high, higher than it has been in a decade. She said a growing number of patients are being treated "in our urgent cares, in our emergency departments, and we do have quite a lot of hospitalized patients with flu right now, which is really what we're seeing as a national trend as well as a trend throughout the state." She noted in addition to the flu, people are also getting sick with RSV, COVID and an assortment of rhino and enteroviruses. attachment-Cold Flu RSV COVID infographic loading... What should you do, where should go? Downham said if you begin to feel ill you should not immediately head off to the nearest hospital ER. "In healthcare right ...

"Erythematous mucosa" is a term to describe the inflammation and redness of the inner lining of the digestive tract. Erythematous mucosa is associated with conditions such as gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining), colitis (inflammation of the lining of the colon, or large intestine), and proctitis (inflammation of the rectum). This article will discuss the various underlying conditions that may cause inflammation within the gastrointestinal tract, their causes, symptoms, treatment options, and more. SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty Images Causes of Erythematous Mucosa Various conditions are characterized by erythematous mucosa, including gastritis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis . Each condition has specific signs that may indicate inflammation or injury.  Stomach There are various causes of gastritis leading to inflammation in the stomach, including: Colon Often, the specific ca...

Violence against physicians at work has made headlines recently. Last June, a patient purchased an AR-15-style rifle, walked into a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical building and murdered four people, including the well-regarded surgeon who had recently operated on him.  One study found that 59% of US physicians had heard offensive remarks targeting personal characteristics such as their race, age, gender, weight, or sexual orientation, and nearly half had a patient request a different doctor. Also, some patients may lack the capacity to control their behavior due to the temporary influence of drugs and alcohol, a mental health crisis, or a chronic medical condition such as dementia. Given these challenges, physicians may need to evaluate whether they can trust their patients to have goodwill toward them or to, at least, do no harm. They may also need to assess whether patients can manage their emotions and whether a situation will escalate. Medscape ...

Mon, Dec 19th 2022 12:55 pm Long-term deal ensures IHA members continue to have access to Catholic Health services and facilities Catholic Health and Catholic Medical Partners on Friday announced they reached a new agreement with Independent Health continuing the long-term relationship between the three organizations. A press release said, "The two-year agreement en­sures that Independent Health members will continue to have access to Catholic Health hospitals and its com­prehen­sive network of services, as well as the 900 physicians affiliated with Catholic Medical Part­ners through 2024." "As the quality, patient safety, and patient experience leader in Western New York, we are pleased to come to an agreement that works for Catholic Health, Independent Health and, most importantly, the thousands of members we both serve," said health system President and CEO Mark Sullivan. "We'd like to thank Independent Health for recognizing the important role w...

Scrub typhus is a common cause of an acute, unexplained febrile illness. Without proper treatment, it can lead to life-threatening complications and even death. We present the case of a 16-year-old girl who presented with complaints of fever with reddish spots all over her body for 10 days and breathing difficulty for three days. She had an episode of gum bleeding just prior to admission and two episodes of hemoptysis after admission. She had severe thrombocytopenia, a low serum fibrinogen level, raised D-dimer levels, a raised activated partial thromboplastin time as well as a raised prothrombin time, and an international normalized ratio. Her chest radiograph showed diffuse bilateral interstitial infiltrates. A diagnosis of disseminated intravascular coagulation and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage secondary to possible hematological malignancy or vector-borne infectious disease was made. She was treated with intravenous doxycycline and broad-spectrum antibiotics, along with other suppo...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Invest in a diverse WA dental workforce to improve oral health equity    The Seattle Times

Advertisment: Claim: A photograph shows a woman wearing a special "mechanical nozzle mask" during the so-called Spanish influenza pandemic. Since early 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged both across the U.S. and the world, various photographs of masks worn during the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic were shared online, as we noted with other stories in the past. One such picture that was often posted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram showed a woman sitting at a desk with a unique-looking mask over her nose. The social media ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] MultiCare clinic will close, a downtown restaurant needs staff, get veggies in a box    The Olympian

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new lateral flow test to enable rapid diagnosis of pneumonia in calves is being developed by a consortium led by the University of Surrey's School of Veterinary Medicine. Pneumonia in calves is a major issue, costing the U.K. cattle industry £50m a year. The new test, known as RaDiCal, will improve disease management and lead to faster treatment of affected animals. RaDiCal will allow vets to input samples into a portable device and quickly generate results and diagnoses of calves—allowing farmers to take quick action to limit the spread of infection. Project lead, Mark Chambers, professor of microbiology and disease intervention, University of Surrey, commented, "We are delighted to be leading the RaDiCal project and will be using our experience in veterinary infectious diseases and test development within an exciting consortium of other academ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Hospice, Home Health Nurses Unionize at Oregon's St. Charles ...    Hospice News

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Though the pandemic and all its attendant health care crises remained the major health care story of 2022, churning all the while in the background has been the critical work of academic scholars, operating on longer timelines, who are still trying to make sense of US health care and of medicine itself, to get a better idea of what's wrong and how to make it better. To wrap up this year, I asked a couple dozen health policy experts what research released this year (though, as one of them reminded me, these papers are often years in the making) had surprised them, changed their thinking, or struck them as especially notable. Here are five particularly interesting papers, at least in my view. Because many more than that warrant mention, I have tried to cram in as many references to other work as I could. One of my lessons from this exercise was that there are noteworthy new studies being produced all the time. The US health system certainly merits such extensive investigation, gi...