Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Nearly Half Of Primary Care Physicians Expect Pay Cuts This Month
Of all clinicians who expect compensation decreases, half expect their pay to decrease by more than 25%, according to Bain & Co.'s April 8-13 survey of more than 300 physicians and nurses, 60% of which are frontline hospitalists and emergency, intensive case and infectious disease providers and 40% are primary care doctors and other specialists. As hospitals lose revenue from canceled elective surgeries to protect patients and preserve supplies, additional pay cuts are likely in the coming months, which could spur closures or consolidation, analysts said. (Kacik, 4/22)
Lauren Detmer, a front-line worker at Massachusetts General Hospital, returned to a hero’s welcome after being isolated at home for three weeks with COVID-19. Forty of her colleagues in green scrubs and blue masks lined a hospital hallway at 7:30 a.m. and, when she rounded the corner, erupted into applause. But Detmer also finds herself in the center of a coronavirus medical puzzle: Are those who’ve recovered immune from future infections? Is COVID-19 like many other infectious diseases in that way? (Kowalczyk and McCluskey, 4/22)
UCSF sent 21 health care workers - seven doctors and 14 nurses - Wednesday to treat patients in the Navajo Nation hard-hit by the coronavirus. UCSF-trained doctors working on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. asked San Francisco colleagues for help as the outbreak strains the health care system. Navajo Nation, where around 175,000 people live spread over 27,500 square miles in New Mexico and Arizona, has recorded 1,206 COVID-19 cases and 48 deaths. By comparison, San Francisco, which has a population eight times as large in a much smaller area, has only 21 deaths. (Moench, 4/22)
Kaiser Health News: OSHA Probing Health Worker Deaths But Urges Inspectors To Spare The Penalties
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has in recent weeks launched investigations into deaths of workers at 34 health care employers across the U.S., federal records show, but former agency officials warn that the agency has already signaled it will only cite and fine the most flagrant violators. The investigations come as health care workers have aired complaints on social media and to lawmakers about a lack of personal protective equipment, pressure to work while sick, and retaliation for voicing safety concerns as they have cared for more than 826,000 patients stricken by the coronavirus. (Jewett and Luthra, 4/22)
'Lost On The Frontline': Know of a health-care worker who died of COVID-19? KHN and The Guardian are documenting the lives of U.S. workers who succumbed during the crisis. These are the front-line health workers who risk their lives to care for the sick and keep our facilities running. .
For the COVID-19 patients they care for each day, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. inside the intensive care unit at BMC, they have become essential lifelines to beloved grandfathers, to mothers and fathers worshipped by worried children. They have seen the desperation in family members’ eyes. They have heard the voices breaking with emotion. They have kids of their own, and the fear they see is palpable. And it’s close. So amid the widening pandemic, they wondered how to bridge that terrifying gap between their patients in their beds and their frightened families now so sadly out of reach. (Farragher, 4/22)
Temporary furloughs of at least 2,800 employees have begun at Henry Ford Health System, a six-hospital integrated system based in Detroit that has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Top executives at Henry Ford also have agreed to contribute 10% to 25% of their salaries to two employee relief funds, said officials in a statement Wednesday evening. (Greene, 4/22)
At 10 a.m. on a recent day, Dr. Thomas Huggett squared his shoulders and waded into a crowd of homeless people at a dimly lighted shelter on this city’s West Side. Most were elderly or suffered from a variety of ailments that made them particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. His only protection was a thin surgical mask as he delivered an unusual pitch he has been making almost daily at different shelters. (Barrett, 4/23)
San Mateo County library staff are using the system’s 3D printers to make protective equipment for health care workers while branches are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. About a dozen library staffers are using the system’s 17 3D printers to produce face shields and ear savers that will be given to the county to distribute to medical facilities, spokesperson Katie Woods said. (Kawahara, 4/22)
