Tag: emergency

Mental health data show ‘unsustainable’ emergency department burden

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This article was supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism and co-published with WRAL-TV.

By Taylor Knopf

A 9-year-old girl with mental health issues spent at least four months this spring living in a Novant Health emergency room in Wilmington: sleeping, eating, doing school work. During that time, emergency department staff searched for an available mental health facility that could take a child so young.

“I have kids that have been in our hospital for three, four or five months waiting for an appropriate living situation,” said Paula Bird, vice president of behavioral health services at Novant Health, the Winston-Salem-based hospital network that operates Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center. 

She explained that many of these long stays occur when a county department of social services is involved. In some cases, overwhelmed parents bring their child to the ER and leave, saying they can’t take the child back home without some kind of treatment.

The Wilmington case, which was described by Bird, is not unique. Hospital officials across the state say there are children in mental health distress living in their emergency departments. Atrium Health has seen a 65 percent increase in emergency department patients needing psychiatric care, according to leaders at the Charlotte-based hospital group. For children in need of psychiatric care, the demand tripled over the course of the pandemic.

“We’ve seen since the beginning of 2022 that our numbers have just stayed high consistently and that’s not typical,” Wayne Sparks, medical director of Atrium Health Behavioral Health Services, said in May. “We’ll have surges, but they typically will be a week or two and then go back down. But this has been sustained now for the last five months.”

Emergency department data from hospitals across North Carolina show an elevated rate of pediatric patient visits throughout most of the pandemic compared to previous years, mirroring national trends. Young people have experienced higher levels of depression, with 44 percent of U.S. high school students in 2021 reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. 

Kids who harm themselves or express suicidal thoughts often land in the emergency department. From there, it’s common for emergency department staff to initiate an involuntary commitment — a process that calls for sending patients to one of the state’s few psychiatric hospital beds.

Health experts are calling the youth mental health crisis the latest wave of

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Statement on the twelfth meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

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The WHO Director-General has the pleasure of transmitting the Report of the twelfth meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) Emergency Committee regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, held on Friday, 8 July 2022, from
12:00 to 15:30 CEST.

The WHO Director-General concurs with the advice offered by the Committee regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and determines that the event continues to constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

The WHO Director-General considered the advice provided by the Committee regarding the proposed Temporary Recommendations. The set of Temporary Recommendations issued by the WHO Director-General is presented at the end of this statement.

The WHO Director-General is taking the opportunity to express his sincere gratitude to the Chair, and Members of the Committee, as well as to its Advisors.

===

Proceedings of the meeting

On behalf of the WHO Director-General, the Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Michael J. Ryan, welcomed Members and Advisors of the Emergency Committee, all of whom were convened by videoconference.

Dr Ryan expressed concern regarding the current global COVID-19 epidemiological situation. Cases of COVID-19 reported to WHO had increased by 30% in the last two weeks, largely driven by Omicron BA.4, BA.5 and other descendent lineages and the lifting
of public health and social measures (PHSM). This increase in cases was translating into pressure on health systems in a number of WHO regions. Dr Ryan highlighted additional challenges to the ongoing COVID-19 response: recent changes in testing policies
that hinder the detection of cases and the monitoring of virus evolution; inequities in access to testing, sequencing, vaccines and therapeutics, including new antivirals; waning of natural and vaccine-derived protection; and the global burden of
Post COVID-19 condition.

The Ethics Officer from the Department of Compliance, Risk Management, and Ethics briefed Members and Advisers on their roles and responsibilities. Members and Advisors were also reminded of their duty of confidentiality as to the meeting discussions
and the work of the Committee, as well as their individual responsibility to disclose to WHO, in a timely manner, any interests of a personal, professional, financial, intellectual or commercial nature that may give rise to a perceived or direct conflict
of interest. Each Member and Advisor who was present was surveyed. No conflicts of interest were identified.

The Representative of the Office of Legal Counsel briefed the Members and Advisors on their roles and responsibilities and

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Sens. Warren, Smith urge Biden to declare public health unexpected emergency next abortion ruling

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Two of the major Democratic senators in the reproductive legal rights room are urging President Joe Biden to declare a general public health unexpected emergency as nearly two dozen states move to ban the method following Roe v. Wade’s formal repeal Friday.

In an op-ed published by The New York Instances Saturday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota claimed the emergency declaration would help “protect abortion entry for all Americans” and unlock “important resources and authority that states and the federal authorities can use to meet the surge in need for reproductive health providers.”

Ending the constitutional proper to abortion has introduced the nation to “a perilous time that threatens hundreds of thousands of gals,” Warren and Smith wrote in the op-ed, incorporating that now “the federal government — not the individual who is pregnant — will make the critical conclusion about regardless of whether to keep on a being pregnant.”

Each senators also proposed shifting the court’s composition, reforming Senate filibuster regulations and remaking the Electoral Higher education, which they say permitted presidential candidates who misplaced the common vote to nominate the five justices who finally voted to overturn Roe.

“Simply put: We should restore our democracy so that a radical minority can no extended drown out the will of the people,” the senators wrote in the piece. “Roe might be long gone, but the protections it once certain are on the ballot.”

6 in 10 Individuals believe that abortion should be authorized in all or most cases, according to a national NBC News poll conducted in Might right after the leak of a draft opinion striking down Roe and the constitutional right to abortion. In distinction, 37 % stated abortion really should be unlawful in most or all conditions.

Abortion legal rights demonstrators protest alongside Poplar Ave. in Memphis, Tenn. on June 24, 2022 in reaction to the news of the Supreme Court docket choice that will overturn the constitutional protections around abortion obtain.Andrea Morales for NBC News

“The public is overwhelmingly on our facet,” Warren and Smith wrote in the op-ed. “The two of us lived in an America without having Roe, and we are not heading back. Not now. Not ever.”

The two senators are amongst more than 20 Senate Democrats who sent a letter to Biden previously this thirty day period, outlining govt steps he could consider to guard reproductive

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Emergency contraception pills are safe, but not always available : Shots

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The 2021 study found that 32% of pharmacies did not have levonorgestrel, a hormone that can prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex, in stock at all, and of the pharmacies that did have it on the shelf, 70% of them kept it in a locked box.

Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images


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Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images

The 2021 study found that 32% of pharmacies did not have levonorgestrel, a hormone that can prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex, in stock at all, and of the pharmacies that did have it on the shelf, 70% of them kept it in a locked box.

Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images

Imagine this scenario that untold numbers of women find themselves in each year. Maybe you had unprotected intercourse, or the condom broke, or maybe you accidentally missed taking a birth control pill or two. You don’t want to get pregnant, so you rush to the pharmacy for emergency contraception. All the while, the clock is ticking.

“These medications are incredibly time sensitive,” says Dr. Sonya Borrero, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh who focuses on reproductive health equity. She says emergency contraception pills need to be taken within five days after unprotected sex — “but the sooner, the better.”

Surveys show that roughly a quarter of American women have, at some point in their lives, used emergency contraception pills to prevent an unintended pregnancy. This type of contraception is effective, safe and legal throughout the United States. And yet researchers are finding it’s not always available when people need it.

Take, for example, levonorgestrel, a form of emergency contraception better known under the brand name Plan B, although it’s also available in generic versions with names including My Way, Take Action and My Choice, to name a few. Borrero says Plan B is supposed to be available over the counter, on the shelf, stocked for all ages.

But when Borrero sent a team of medical students to pharmacies across western Pennsylvania to see what these stores actually had on hand, they found a third of pharmacies didn’t stock Plan B at all. And when they did have it, “most of the time it wasn’t really on the shelf. It was either behind the counter or in one of those locked boxes,” which means a customer would have to ask someone to hand them the emergency contraception. She says

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Hartford Health care is growing throughout Connecticut. Its urgent care facilities have reduced expenses than hospital emergency rooms. – Hartford Courant

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As Hartford Healthcare extends its access across Connecticut, the selection of its urgent treatment facilities that offer you individuals an option to pricey crisis rooms is expanding, much too.

The 28 centers are much afield from Hartford, stretching north to Enfield, south to Branford and West Haven, and east to New London and Norwich. In January, Hartford Health care opened an urgent treatment centre in Milford, its 1st on Connecticut’s shoreline.

[ Hartford HealthCare has expanded across Connecticut, but anti-competitive lawsuit ‘seems pretty novel,’ analyst says ]

“It’s a extra purposeful move to disrupt ourselves,” reported James P. Cardon, Hartford HealthCare’s govt vice president and chief medical integration officer.

Hartford Health care is expanding its existence in Connecticut, including into West Haven. (Courant file photo)

Urgent care centers address ailments and injuries that aren’t lifetime-threatening, provide X-rays and offer you COVID-19 analysis and tests. Patients may walk in or reserve a place and pre-sign up on the web. Hartford Health care describes its GoHealth Urgent Care centers as an “on-desire buyer-centric care system that serves as the digital and actual physical front door” to its health and fitness treatment procedure.

“We acknowledged years ago that we necessary to offer new ways to each boost access for urgent care outside the house of the most important treatment business even though at the similar time give superior choices for those who would have long gone to the more pricey crisis office for that care,” explained Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and main government officer of Hartford Health care.

Spencer Perlman, taking care of companion and director of wellness treatment analysis at Veda Partners in Bethesda, Md., claimed the industry has focused on urgent care for a although.

“No question receiving care in the emergency area is the most high priced position you can receive it,” he claimed.

By retaining overhead decrease than at an crisis space, urgent care centers can be rewarding for the company, Perlman mentioned. Urgent care centers enhance profitability since they never need the identical stage of staffing and sorts of products that need to be on hand in emergency rooms, he claimed.

Hartford Health care in 2020 posted $274.7 million in running revenue for its Hartford Healthcare Health-related Group, which incorporates urgent care facilities, key treatment, surgical treatment and specialty drugs. It was down from $330 million in 2019 before COVID-19. Its 2020 earnings accounted for about 6.5% of

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Arizona lawmakers seem to suppress government’s emergency powers | Health and Conditioning

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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Republicans are looking to curtail the government’s unexpected emergency powers, which they say had been abused by elected officers from the governor on down in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their suggestions array from doing away with the electrical power to shutter enterprises or church buildings to demanding legislative acceptance for emergencies long lasting lengthier than 120 times.

Other proposals search to enhance the legal rights of persons to resist health and fitness protocols, this sort of as treating vaccination position the very same as race or sexual intercourse in employment nondiscrimination regulations. Employers also could experience significant fines if they fireplace a employee for refusing to get vaccinated, or if an worker is injured from a vaccine they get because of to a position mandate.

Injuries linked to COVID-19 vaccines have been incredibly rare with just below 540 million doses administered in the United States, in accordance to the Centers for Condition Management and Avoidance.

Many of the proposals superior as a result of Property and Senate committees this week, including expenses in the two chambers reducing the authority for mayors and county supervisors to purchase businesses shut during an emergency.

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Rep. Leo Biasucci, a Republican from Lake Havasu Metropolis who introduced the Dwelling version, mentioned he was appalled that mother-and-pop enterprise ended up pressured to shut for the duration of the early days of the pandemic even though massive chains like Walmart have been permitted to preserve their doorways open up. Walmart stayed open up due to the fact it sells essential things these kinds of as groceries.

“That was the 1st time I believe we’ve observed in record that businesses were explained to, ‘You should shut down,’” Biasucci said for the duration of a committee hearing. “And it was selective.”

There is a big difference concerning a everyday living-threatening circumstance and “something that will go on for several years underneath the guise of a pandemic,” stated Rep. Mark Finchem, a Republican from Oro Valley.

Democrats, echoing the sentiments of local government officials, stated the evaluate would choose absent vital authority that leaders need to answer to extraordinary emergencies.

“I imagine all emergencies are neighborhood and we ought to allow for the nearby company or authorities to make individuals selections since they’re nearer to the circumstance,” mentioned Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales, a Democrat from Tucson.

A House committee on Tuesday

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