Addressing Maternal Mortality Through Cardiovascular Care

Addressing cardiovascular disease during pregnancy is crucial to reducing maternal mortality, says Rachel Bond, MD, system director of women’s heart health at CommonSpirit. “Cardiovascular death, which is the leading cause of death during pregnancy, is preventable 80% of the time. A lot of that has to do with us communicating with each other and diagnosing these conditions early.”

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Long COVID Patients at Increased Risk for Cardiovascular Conditions, Study Finds

Long COVID, also known as post-COVID-19 condition (PCC), is defined as having new, returning, or ongoing health issues more than four weeks after an initial infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms that lead to a diagnosis of long COVID include fatigue, cough, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath, neurocognitive difficulties, and depression.

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CDC Issues Nationwide Alert for Measles Cases After Exposure at Kentucky Gathering

The CDC issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) health advisory “to notify clinicians and public health officials about a confirmed measles case at a large gathering’ from February 17-18, during the infectious stage. According to the Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH), the case involves “an unvaccinated individual with a history of recent international travel.”

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Addressing Preventable Deaths in Maternal Care

The report also noted that the leading underlying cause of death varied by race and ethnicity, with cardiac and coronary conditions the leading cause among non-Hispanic Black patients, mental health among Hispanic and non-Hispanic white patients, and hemorrhage among non-Hispanic Asian patients.

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‘Tripledemic’ Reveals Critical Need for Better Patient Triage and Transfer Services

During November 2022, hospitals in states such as Maryland, Massachusetts, and North Carolina were forced to set up triaging tents in their parking lots, postpone elective surgeries, or impose visitor restrictions owing to the high numbers of patients showing up in their EDs. In December, patients at one Oregon health system had to wait for more than two days to be transferred to other facilities for higher levels of care. In effect, the situation felt like 2020 again.

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Long COVID is Partly to Blame for Workforce Shortages

Some 71% of claimants with long COVID were still receiving treatment and unable to return to work for six months or more, according to data from the New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF), the largest worker compensation insurance fund in the state. The study analyzed more than 3,000 COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims received by NYSIF between January 1, 2020, and March 31, 2022.

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Healthcare 2023: A Pressing Need to Move From Reactive to Proactive

We deserve a healthcare system that does more than fix us when we’re sick. Our daily living—the actions we take regarding nutrition, fitness, sleep, mental health, relationships, and financial management, and how social determinants impact these actions—is the biggest factor in our health and total well-being. Yet, our healthcare system primarily treats sickness rather than working to prevent it in the first place. 

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Frailty and Probable Dementia Risk Factors for Mortality After Major Surgery for Older Adults

The new research article, which was published by JAMA Surgery, features data collected from 1,193 major surgeries involving 992 community-living older adults from 2011 to 2017. The data was drawn from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services fee-for-service Medicare claims and the National Health and Aging Trends Study. The definition of major surgery included any procedure performed in an operating room with general anesthesia.

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Meeting Patient Needs Where They Need It Most

California-based Adventist Health and value-based medical group Emcara Health have partnered recently to extend care into high-risk communities across the state. As part of the Enhanced Care Initiative from CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal), this partnership is intended to close care gaps for patients facing the most complex care needs by addressing barriers such as homelessness and other social determinants of health.

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