As California begins one of the largest contact-tracing training programs in the country, many of the new recruits will be librarians: who are known to be curious, tech-savvy and really good at getting people they barely know to open up.
Read MoreThe shifting federal guidelines about how to reopen during the pandemic have perplexed many small-business owners, including the Prestifilippos, who dug deep into their wallets to provide a new kind of dining experience they hope is safe.
Read MoreCheck out the revamped video series from KHN — Behind The Byline: How The Story Got Made. Come along as journalists and producers offer an insider’s view of health care coverage that does not quit.
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Six months after agreeing to a $575 million settlement in a landmark antitrust case, Sutter Health has yet to pay a single dollar and now says the terms may be untenable, given the strain caused by the pandemic.
Read MoreWisconsin already faced a shortage of caregivers who offer crucial health services and independence to their clients. Then the pandemic struck. In a survey of nearly 500 Wisconsinites with disabilities and older adults, every respondent said the pandemic had disrupted their caregiving service.
Read MorePublic health officials are asking for more money in California’s state budget. But unlike some rich and powerful health care interests, they don’t have an army of lobbyists to curry favor with lawmakers.
Read MoreAndre Guest was just fine one day. The next, he was fighting for his life.
Read MoreAlthough the federal government has poured billions of dollars into hospitals to defray their losses from the coronavirus outbreak, new streams of fundraising have emerged — including health worker-themed beer that adds “a drop in the bucket.”
Read MoreArizona is a coronavirus hot spot, with the average of daily cases more than doubling from two weeks ago.
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Public health officials are confronting growing pressure — and threats — across the country as the backlash to the coronavirus response continues. At least 27 state and local health leaders have resigned, retired or been fired since April across 13 states.
Read MoreBut some of those options, like special enrollment periods, are time-sensitive.
Read MoreThe shortages are so dire that nursing homes and other health centers are going to extraordinary lengths for masks, gowns and essential materials.
Read MoreAlthough laws prohibit price gouging on precious resources in times of emergency, states have been forced to compete for a share of the nation’s stockpile of ventilators — used to treat the sickest COVID patients — or pay top dollar on sideline deals. With quality and quantity control lacking, what happens when the pandemic’s second wave hits?
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Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the public seems more confused than ever. And health officials still are not all on the same page; this week the World Health Organization had to walk back an official’s statement about how commonly the virus is spread by people without symptoms. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews Michael Mackert, a professor and health communications expert at the University of Texas-Austin, about how health information can best be translated to the public.
Read MoreHealth clinics in isolated African American communities in the San Francisco Bay Area provide crucial services to neglected populations. But like thousands of other community clinics around the nation, their finances have been wrecked by the pandemic shutdown.
Read MoreMore than 3,000 nursing homes reported less than a week’s worth of supplies, and 653 said they had run out entirely at some point. Stopgap FEMA equipment has not reached many facilities, and packages that have arrived have fallen short of promises.
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The practice of narrative medicine helps health care professionals hear the life stories behind a patient’s immediate complaints. Some doctors are finding that these skills also provide an alcove of needed reflection amid the pandemonium of COVID-19.
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Off-duty medical professionals joined protests in Denver and elsewhere sparked by George Floyd’s death to treat injured protesters, risking injury themselves.
Read MoreA public hospital in Cleveland has been trying to keep COVID patients out of its beds. It tried a number of innovations for developing better communication — even better relationships — with patients. Officials think this groundwork helped keep the outbreak at bay — and should be the new business model going forward.
Read MoreThe attorney general’s assertion is directly at odds with the description of pepper balls offered by the manufacturer.
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