Travel Nurse Perks
Many travel nurses opt for temporary assignments because of the autonomy and opportunities − not just the big boost in pay Ivan Gan, University of Houston-Downtown Travel nurses take short-term contracts that can require long commutes or temporarily living away from home. Time and again, they have to get used to new co-workers, new protocols and […]
Medical School Reflections
From dream to disillusion, writer Hana Ahmed navigates the first year of medical school. To make it through medical school, being a doctor nearly must be your calling. For me, I thought it was. I crack jokes with my parents, reminding them that they got lucky: They never had to abide by the Asian immigrant […]
The Color of Cancer
Local groups counter sub-par cancer care in underserved Chicago communities At 31, Roshanda Randle of Englewood knew she was younger than most women who develop breast cancer. But it concerned her that three healthcare providers in Chicago told her three different things about the lump in her breast, while saying that she was too young […]
With Few Takers for Covid Vaccine, Howard University Hospital CEO Takes ‘One for the Team’
Administrators at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., were thrilled to be among the city’s first hospitals to get a Covid-19 vaccine, but they knew it could be a tough sell to get staffers to take the shot. They were right. The hospital, located on the campus of one the nation’s oldest historically Black colleges, […]
The Great Unequalizer
Chicago faced severe health inequities long before Covid-19. Whose job is it to solve the problem? It was probably the flu, but Jontay Darko’s grandmother wasn’t going to take risks. She rushed Darko to Mercy Hospital & Medical Center on the Near South Side and pleaded for a doctor to see her. This was the […]
Protecting Chicago’s Homeless Population During Covid-19
Above photo courtesy of Angela Moss, PhD, Rush University Medical Center On a sunny Wednesday afternoon in August, Maurice Harris, 29, stands in the middle of North Keeler Avenue on Chicago’s Northwest Side, with a cup and a cardboard sign, asking passing drivers for whatever they can spare. He’s not wearing a mask, though he […]
Rapid Changes to Healthcare Spurred By COVID Might Be Here to Stay
The U.S. healthcare system is famously resistant to government-imposed change. It took decades to create Medicare and Medicaid, mostly due to opposition from the medical-industrial complex. Then it was nearly another half-century before the passage of the Affordable Care Act. But the COVID-19 pandemic has done what no president, social movement or venture capitalist could […]
Emptiness of ERs Worries Doctors as Heart Attack and Stroke Patients Delay Care
The patient described it as the worst headache of her life. She didn’t go to the hospital, though. Instead, the Washington state resident waited almost a week. When Abhineet Chowdhary, MD, finally saw her, he discovered she had a brain bleed that had gone untreated. The neurosurgeon did his best, but it was too late. […]
Ineffective Masks Are Putting Healthcare Workers at Serious Risk
With medical supplies in high demand, federal authorities say health workers can wear surgical masks for protection while treating COVID-19 patients — but growing evidence suggests the practice is putting workers in jeopardy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently said lower-grade surgical masks are “an acceptable alternative” to N95 masks unless workers are […]
Caring for COVID-19 at Home
The chills started on a Friday in March, along with a fever — four days after Jerry and Colleen Rzepka flew back to Chicago from Orlando, Florida. With Jerry too exhausted to move any more than absolutely necessary, the retired couple stayed inside their Naperville home all weekend. Jerry took the back bedroom in their […]
Coronavirus Pushes Hospitals to Share Information About Stocks of Protective Gear
Above photo: Tom Cooper, Nashville General Hospital’s supply chain director, inspects a box of N95 respirators. The hospital is among a small group of pilot sites now sharing data about the inventory of its protective equipment with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Blake Farmer/WPLN) Masks, gloves and other equipment are crucial as healthcare […]
Healthcare Price Info is No Cure for Sticker Shock
Chances are you’ve weighed a trip to the doctor based on how poorly you feel as well as how much you will pay the provider. But good luck comparison-shopping. The amounts paid by health insurers for identical services are shrouded in secrecy and can vary widely, even within the same state, metropolitan area or neighborhood. […]
Self-Paying Your Way to Better Healthcare
Even with the Affordable Care Act, millions are still uninsured, and health insurance rates continue to climb for millions more. In response, many consumers opt for high-deductible plans with lower premiums that actually cost more to use. In 2014, we saw the largest ever one-year enrollment increase in such high-deductible plans, from 18 percent to 23 […]
7 steps to choose the best Obamacare health insurance plan for 2016
By Kimberly Lankford, Kiplinger Personal Finance Q: I bought my health insurance policy with a subsidy through Healthcare.gov last year. What do I need to do during open enrollment this year? Do I have to sign up again, or will I be reenrolled automatically? A: If your plan is still available, you don’t need to […]
Bedside Manner Matters
Hospitals recognize that patient care is more than medicine By Eric Warner In May 2013, I headed to St. Louis to visit my mom. But instead of going to the house where I grew up, I visited her in the cardiac intensive care unit of Mercy Hospital St. Louis. After a concerning echocardiogram, she had […]
Illinois Prepares for a New Insurance Marketplace
Will healthcare for the uninsured really happen?By Morgan Lord Illinois is planning on more than a million uninsured residents receiving healthcare on Jan. 1, 2014. Some think it’s going to happen; others think it’s a long shot. Back in March 2010, President Barack Obama signed a healthcare reform bill—the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act […]
