Oct 22nd, 2021 - (Reuters) -HCA Healthcare Inc on Friday cautioned higher labor costs that tarnished strong third quarter profits could linger for longer as the hospital operator battles a staff crunch, sending the company’s shares down. A nationwide shortage of healthcare workers amid fatigue from a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has forced hospitals to shell out more to hire and retain nurses and other staff ami...

Oct 22nd, 2021 - Oct 22 (Reuters) - Hospital operator HCA Healthcare Inc reported a 240% rise in third-quarter profit on Friday, driven primarily by the sale of four hospitals in Georgia. Net income attributable to HCA rose to $2.27 billion, or $7.00 per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from $668 million, or $1.95 per share, a year earlier.

Oct 15th, 2021 - (Reuters Health) - The majority of women with congenital heart defects can safely become pregnant and give birth to healthy babies, a new study in Germany suggests. In an analysis of administrative data on 7,512 pregnancies in 4,015 women with congenital heart disease (CHD), researchers found that rates of maternal and neonatal complications were higher than in a matched control group, but abso...

Oct 15th, 2021 - Former President Bill Clinton was hospitalized Tuesday in Southern California with a non-COVID-19 infection, according to a statement from his spokesperson. Angel Urena told The Associated Press that Clinton, 75, was admitted to the University of California Irvin Medical Center but "is on the mend, in good spirits and is incredibly thankful to the doctors, nurses and staff providing him with ex...

Oct 15th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. An intensive care unit nurse at Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith, Arkansas, rallied the community to help a young father whose wife died of COVID-19 after giving birth by C-section. Ashlee Schwartz started a GoFundMe page that raised more than $12,000 for Eric Robison and created a baby registry tha...

Oct 15th, 2021 - This transcript has been edited for clarity. This is part 2 of a Medicine Matters series on "Battle for Boosters." This segment addresses Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA COVID vaccine boosters: Who needs them, and when? (Part 1 of this series, on third vaccine doses for the immunocompromised, can be found here.) Delta Is Dominant The Delta coronavirus variant now makes up more than 99% of new COVID cases....

Oct 15th, 2021 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In 2017, multidrug-resistant infections led to $1.9 billion in healthcare costs, 448,224 days in the hospital and 11,852 deaths among older adults in the United States, according to a new analysis. The greatest burden was associated with infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and extended...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Closure of in-center dialysis facilities increases the risk of hospitalization among patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) who attended those facilities relative to similar patients not affected by facility closures, new research suggests.  "Patients with ESKD on dialysis often have multiple comorbidities, and they are frequently in and out of the hospital anyway, so their acuity of ill...

Oct 14th, 2021 - These are the global coronavirus stories you need to know about this week. MPs published a critical report on the UK Government's initial pandemic response. It found that "decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic—and the advice that led to them—rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced". However, t...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Vascular surgeon John Chambers Hordines, Jr, 54, has died in a hit-and-run car crash in Cornwall, New York. Having practiced medicine for nearly 30 years, he is remembered by family, friends, and colleagues as someone who went above and beyond for his patients. "I don't think I've ever known anyone who fought for the patients more," John Powell, MD, who worked closely with Hordines at Crystal R...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) have a twofold increased risk for COVID-related hospitalization and death even after vaccination, new research shows. Investigators analyzed data on over 10,000 vaccinated individuals with various SUDs and almost 600,000 vaccinated individuals with...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Mawata Kamara works as a nurse at San Leandro Hospital in San Leandro, California, where visitors have twice made gun threats against staffers in the emergency department since the pandemic began. She and other hospital workers call it part of a worrying trend. The San Leandro Hospital emergency...

Oct 14th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. Almost 100 million Americans were unvaccinated in July 2021, a number that is now is down 34% to about 66 million, President Joe Biden said Thursday. These numbers and others are evidence that federal efforts announced this summer, including vaccine requirements, are working, he said "We're maki...

Oct 13th, 2021 - Some workers at a hospital where a radiographer died after contracting COVID-19 did not get adequate help in fitting their face masks properly, an investigation has found. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation was launched after radiographer Simon Guest, who worked at Furness General Hospital in Barrow, Cumbria, died in April 2020. University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundatio...

Oct 13th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. The chances that unvaccinated family members will be infected or hospitalized with COVID-19 drop sharply if even one family member is vaccinated. The chances are reduced even further with each additional vaccinated or otherwise immune family member, according to new data. Dr Peter Nordström Lead...

Oct 13th, 2021 - This transcript has been edited for clarity. Hi. I'm Art Caplan. I’m at the Division of Medical Ethics at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. A couple of weeks ago, a physician in Alabama said he'd had enough. He would not be seeing any more unvaccinated patients in his practice. Many other doctors are starting to think about following in his footsteps. Is it e...

Oct 13th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. MIAMI (AP) — Banned from the Florida hospital room where her mother lay dying of COVID-19, Jayden Arbelaez pitched an idea to construction employees working nearby. "Is there any way that I could get there?" Arbelaez asked them, pointing to a small third-story window of the hospital in Jacksonvi...

Oct 12th, 2021 - The Commons Science and Health Committees have published a critical report into lessons learned from the UK's initial pandemic response. The report found that "decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic—and the advice that led to them—rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced". The 150-page report ma...

Oct 12th, 2021 - The outpouring of support for a longtime New Jersey oncology nurse who died after being knocked to the ground in Times Square by a fleeing cellphone thief culminated in a mass Monday in New York City. The mass was promoted by the local consulate general of the Philippines. Maria Ambrocio Maria Ambrocio, 58, was visiting Times Square with a friend on October 1 when she was shoved to the ground b...

Oct 12th, 2021 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's coronavirus death toll reached another once-unfathomable milestone — 70,000 people — on Monday as the state emerges from the latest infection surge with the lowest rate of new cases among all states. Last year at this time, cases in the state started tickin...