doctors and nurses

After an initial verbal screening, one driver at a time gets a COVID-19 nasal swab test from a garbed health worker at a drive-up station in Daly City, Calif.

Health & Safety

Why It Takes So Long To Get Most COVID-19 Test Results

4:32pm March 28, 2020

by Julie Appleby

Even many symptomatic patients and exposed health workers who are able to get a COVID-19 test must wait nearly a week to get results. Others get results in hours. Here's why it varies so much.

In Sydney earlier this week, signs urge social distancing and emphasize hand-washing to stave off COVID-19.

Nurses In Australia Issue Plea To Stop Violence, Theft Of Sanitizer And Masks

10:34am March 26, 2020

by Scott Neuman

Whole pallets of personal protective equipment have reportedly been stolen from hospitals, and some health care workers have even become targets of violence, a nurses' union says.

Doctors test a hospital staffer Tuesday for coronavirus, in a triage tent that's been set up outside the E.R. at St. Barnabas hospital in the Bronx. Hospital workers are at higher risk of getting COVID-19, and public health experts fear a staffing shortag

States Get Creative To Find And Deploy More Health Workers In COVID-19 Fight

8:40am March 25, 2020

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

To stop COVID-19, retired doctors are signing up to take clinical shifts. Specialists, including dentists, could move to front line care. And med students are fielding calls in overwhelmed clinics.

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Transmission electron micrograph of particles of SARS-CoV-2 — the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Why Hoarding Of Hydroxychloroquine Needs To Stop

8:47pm March 23, 2020

by Martha Bebinger

Despite Trump's public remarks, infectious disease experts say it's premature to think hydroxychloroquine will help against COVID-19. And patients with lupus or rheumatoid arthritis rely on the drug.

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MedStar Washington Hospital Center's "ready room" in Washington, D.C., has mostly been used to house emergency supplies — but some storage carts have been moved out to make way for patient assessment stations.

Are U.S. Hospitals Ready?

2:16pm March 17, 2020

Here's what it will take for medical facilities across the nation to handle the coming surge of COVID-19 patients.

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

Health & Safety

Coronavirus Pushes More Hospitals To Share Data About Inventories Of Protective Gear

5:00am March 12, 2020

by Blake Farmer

There is currently no central coordination of the supply of protective garb and masks in U.S. hospital inventories. A CDC project wants hospitals to share that information for the good of all.

After a coronavirus test came back positive on a patient who had been treated at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, Calif., in February, about 100 NorthBay workers were sent into self-quarantine for 14 days.

Scarcity Of Health Workers A New Concern As Self-Quarantining Spreads With Virus

12:45pm March 09, 2020

by Jenny Gold

Should "potential exposure" by a health worker to someone with coronavirus be enough to send that worker home for two weeks of self-quarantine? Health systems have begun debating relative risks.

The new coronavirus has yet to sicken American health workers, as it has in China. But deaths of hospital workers in Asia have heightened scrutiny of the U.S. health care system's ability to protect people on the front line.

Health & Safety

As U.S. Preps For Coronavirus, Health Workers Question Safety Measures

11:44am February 27, 2020

by Yuki Noguchi

The plight of Chinese health care workers contracting the coronavirus has prompted front-line medical staff in the U.S. to wonder if they're protected. Hospitals say they're taking steps to prepare.

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Dr. Laurie Punch, a trauma surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, is adamant that violence is a true medical problem doctors must treat in both the operating room and the community.

Trauma Surgeon Battles Bullets In The Operating Room And The Community

5:00am December 05, 2019

by Laura Ungar

Weary of losing neighbors and patients to gunfire, St. Louis trauma surgeon Laurie Punch has a message: Gun violence is contagious, but so is healing. Doctors who teach can be part of the solution.

Licensed practical nurse Stephanie Dotson measures Kent Beasley's blood pressure in downtown Atlanta in September. Dotson is a member of the Mercy Care team that works to bring medical care to Atlanta residents who are homeless.

Health & Safety

They Bring Medical Care To The Homeless And Build Relationships To Save Lives

8:03pm November 21, 2019

by Sam Whitehead

"Street medicine" programs, like one in Atlanta, seek out people living in back alleys and under highways. The public health outreach improves patients' health and is cost-effective, hospitals find.

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