Christina Jewett - Kaiser Health News

About 21% of patients diagnosed with COVID during a hospital stay died, according to data analyzed for KHN. In-hospital rates of spread varied widely and patients had no way of checking them.

The Biden administration included only health workers in its new emergency temporary standard, angering labor advocates who had spent more than a year lobbying for the protections.

Changes would allow N95 sales for industries other than health care and signal an end to the hospital practice of reusing the masks considered essential for worker safety.

Researchers say “very low”-quality research from the 2003 SARS outbreak drove guidelines on who got the best PPE, leaving those most at risk exposed.

Masks imitating the real thing are flooding U.S. ports, and authorities can hardly keep pace. On Thursday, authorities seized 1.7 million fakes in New York and a senator called for a national probe.

Nurses say COVID-19 patients have sometimes been housed in the same units as uninfected patients. While officials have penalized nursing homes for such failures, hospitals have seen less scrutiny.

Fifteen percent of hospital pharmacists who prepare injectable drugs are going without the protective masks they typically rely on, or are using substitutes for the masks.

The specialized swabs required for coronavirus tests are quite different from your standard Q-tips. And U.S. hospitals are running out of them, creating another delay in efforts to expand testing.

A proposed change in immigration policy from the Trump administration could make it harder for immigrants to obtain a green card if family members use Medicaid, WIC or other federal medical benefits.

The inspector general at Health and Human Services says Medicare should have done an in-depth review of suspicious reports from hospitals to keep them from covering up problems with infections.