MILWAUKEE New numbers in Wisconsin show medical professionals in the state make up for more than 15 percent of COVID-19 statewide.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, healthcare workers make up 16 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the state.

Of Wisconsin's 5,356 cases, 857 of those involve healthcare professionals.

Nurse practitioner Octavia Manuel-Wright knew going into nursing meant putting others first.

Manuel-Wright is the president of "Black Nurses Rock Milwaukee," a group supporting nurses and highlighting them through events and social media.

"I have a lot of nurses in-boxing me, calling and sending messages on social media saying they don't have supplies.," Manuel-Wright said.

She said many in her group are reusing personal protective equipment due to shortages.

"People are doing, literally, that they have to do," Manuel-Wright said.

Those concerns are echoed with the Wisconsin Nurses Association, which recently surveyed its members.

"I would say over 30 percent of our members responded that they don't believe they have PPE," said Gina Dennik-Champion, executive director of the Wisconsin Nurses Association.

Jeff Weber, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, released this statement:

"Healthcare workers are heroes, but they are not martyrs. They deserve real actions beyond parades and kind words, and the good news is that there are real solutions. Over a month ago, based on the needs and experiences of our members on the frontlines, our union sent a request to all healthcare employers and launched a petition demanding hazard pay, appropriate protective equipment, childcare, and covered medical costs for COVID-19 related exposures. We have yet to see these requests fully realized. Sadly, the statistic released today highlights the failures of our healthcare system and underscores the need for swift action on our requests. The real solutions here will not come from boardrooms. They will come from our members on the frontlines, caring for patients and living this reality. However, several employers continue to deny nurses' requests that they collect and launder scrubs at the end of a shift after being on a COVID unit. This places our members, their families, and all of us at risk if members are forced to bring their scrubs outside the walls of their hospital. There's enough money in our healthcare system to protect workers, but this 17% infection figure is a consequence of the calculated response from healthcare corporations.

Our union is proud to actively support the Healthcare Heroes legislation that would provide for many of these protections. We need policies driven by science, not supply chains. We need to support healthcare workers rather than furlough them. This is the time to do everything we can to support nurses, respiratory therapists, housekeepers, and all healthcare workers. We will continue working to protect healthcare professionals everywhere. Our members and community deserve better. We welcome the partnership of anyone who genuinely supports this goal."

Relevant links are here for the legislation and petition:Healthcare Heroes legislationPetition

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DHS: Wisconsin healthcare workers account for 16 percent of COVID-19 cases - WTMJ-TV

With vehicle lights flashing and sirens blaring, police and firefighters from at least a dozen Oakland County communities made several solidarity laps around Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield on Friday, April 24.

Ascension Providence staff stood outside, waved and snapped photos on their phones as the parade of police and fire vehicles circled the hospital several times.

The custom has become common at area hospitals, as first responders want to show their support for health care workers putting in long hours and risking their lives treating patients with COVID-19.

An Oak Park firefighter gives a thumbs up as he lines up for the solidarity laps at Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield on Friday, April 24. The custom has become common at area hospitals, as first responders want to show their support for health care workers treating patients with COVID019

Its an opportunity for first responders to show that we appreciate them, said Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren. Theyre to be commended for their sacrifice. What would this state, this city be like if they didnt come to work every day?

The Southfield area has been the hardest hit area in Oakland County for COVID-19 cases, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to the county government's ZIP code map, which shows the number of cases and local infection rate.

As of Thursday, April 23, the four zip codes in the Southfield area show 1,307 cases with 131 deaths and the rate of infection between 156 to 194 cases per 10,000 residents.

Southfield and Lathrup Village have a combined population of about 85,000. Troy, which has a similar population, had 335 cases and 31 deaths as of Thursday, with almost half of each from just one of its four zip codes.

The cases in Southfield totaled 1,028 on April 13, growing by nearly 300 in 10 days.

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Solidarity: First responders show support for health care workers fighting coronavirus at Ascension Providence Hospital - The Oakland Press

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A banner reading Thank You! has been posted outside Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center showing appreciation for staff at the facility for their work during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

My experience with the staff (at the facility) before the pandemic was and still is awesome, said Jody Musicaro-Burkhalter, whose father is a resident of the Castleton Corners facility.

Clove Lakes has been tremendously helpful in helping my father maintain a relationship with me while in quarantine everything from phone calls to FaceTime, and always keeping me updated and informed about my fathers well-being," she said, adding that it is hard not being able to see her father during the pandemic.

The banner, which is one in a long list of thank-yous that borough residents have given to Staten Islands health-care workers, comes at a time when New York City plans to increase staff to nursing homes badly hit by the virus across New York City.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

All health-care workers are our superheroes, but we mustnt forget about the health-care workers who put their life in jeopardy every day by showing up at the facility to take care of our loved ones, Musicaro-Burkhalter said.

They are going above and beyond and are exhausted, but still put in hours and hours of work to take care of our seniors. We cannot forget to thank all of the nurses, CNAs and staff at the nursing homes.

Musicaro-Burkhalter said she is also looking forward to having her father tested for the virus, as part of a partnership between Borough Hall, Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC), Staten Island nursing homes and a Long Island testing manufacturer.

I am glad to hear that the test will arrive soon to help those in need, she said.

The rest is here:

A thank you to staff at Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center - SILive.com

A 4-by-8-foot painted sign was installed in front of St. Luke's hospital on First Street Saturday to pay tribute to health care and other frontline workers.

Michelle Misgen, with the Duluth Art Institute, and her partner Sean Moore created the painting featuring three health care workers and the words "thank you frontline heroes." They started the project a few weeks ago with encouragement from the Greater Downtown Council and Minnesota Sixth Judicial District Judge Shaun Floerke, both involved in the Duluth Street Art Initiative.

Misgen said with art galleries closed due to the pandemic it's important for the public to have access to art through other means.

"Through public art you're able to reach more people," Misgen said. "You're bringing it out of the galleries and into the streets making it more accessible. Art has a way of bringing people together."

Artist Michelle Misgen (second from right) smiles as from left: Shaun Floerke, Sean Moore and Cole Floerke finish installing a painted sign in front of St. Luke's Saturday to thank health care workers. The back of the sign reads "Be well." (Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com)

Misgen said Duluth Street Art Initiative is also working on another project with a similar theme that involves creating 6-by-6 inch tiles that depict the various frontline services including grocery, child care, janitorial and postal workers. The final details of that project and where it will go are not yet finalized.

Floerke, who helped install the sign Saturday morning, said the initiative is about showcasing hope and encouragement. He referenced friends who work in the medical community, including one in central Minnesota who moved into a camper and is forgoing seeing her family.

"They've got a lot on their shoulders so any way we can say thank you seems like a win-win," Floerke said. "I hope they know the community is behind them and supporting them and really appreciates the work they're doing."

Kristi Stokes, president of the Greater Downtown Council, said it's one way to put a smile on people's faces.

"It's nice to showcase an artist and also do something positive," Stokes said.

The rest is here:

Duluth Street Art Initiative pays tribute to health care workers with sign perched in front of St. Luke's - Duluth News Tribune

Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer at Google LLC, speaks during the Google Cloud Next '19 event in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, April 9, 2019.

Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Google is announcing the general availability of technology that, if widely adopted, could make it easier for patients to access their own health information via third-party apps.

Health care systems could warm to the technology, known as the Google Healthcare API, as new government mandates loom that will require them to make it easier for patients to see and use their health data.

However, Google's dominant business as an advertising company that uses customer data to target ads has created negative publicity and stalled some past initiatives in the health space. Google is currently the third largest cloud tech provider, behind Amazon and Microsoft.

As of Monday, health care providers can build new systems using the new Google Healthcare API to translate and convert data stored in different types of systems, from imaging systems to medical records software. Although the documentation says that the Healthcare API is meant for "storing and accessing healthcare data in Google Cloud, providing a critical bridge between existing care systems and applications hosted on Google Cloud," Google said that customers aren't required to store the data in Google Cloud.

Google's rival Microsoft Azure also has a similar health care API, which is designed to help its health care customers connect to sources, like electronic health records.

Health care companies are increasingly being forced to share health information with their patients, as well as the health apps they choose to use. The Department of Health and Human Services released a set of rulesearlier this year to prevent health care companies from so-called "information blocking." The practice, which had been going on for years, makes it challenging for people to access their own medical information at the hospital or doctor's office. Some health systems tell patients they'll have to pay for their records, or that the information would only available via a printed PDF or CD-Rom.

"Hospitals and vendors have two years to comply with new rules," noted Aneesh Chopra, the first chief technology officer of the White House and the president of Care Journey, a health analytics company, in an interview with CNBC.

"This could help them move faster, and it should increase the marketplace of applications that are physician facing, patient facing and potentially health plan facing, so individuals can get their health information that would have been locked up."

There have also been well-documented challenges for patients in sharing information between hospitals, particularly those that rely on different medical record vendors. Google Cloud, in a blog post written by Joe Corkery, a doctor and its director of product, and Aashima Gupta, its director of health solutions, notes that it can be a "Herculean effort" for health systems to access a unified view of data from various sources.

Google Cloud's health care leaders note that the Covid-19 pandemic shows again why health data interoperability is important. It can help support the kinds of efforts that are already underway, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new app that aims to share information from electronic health records with public health departments. That app will launch in May.

"Covid-19 is really bringing the entire (health data) interoperability conversation to the forefront," said Gupta, via a virtual call. "It's becoming really crucial from a patient standpoint."

"People are now recognizing that there's only way to get though this period and that is to collaborate," added John Halamka, president of Mayo Clinic Platform. Mayo Clinic is a major cloud customer for Google, which has a team of people working nearby out of Rochester, Minnesota. "What's important is that this API is a toolset provided by Google that makes it easier for the doctors and the hospitals to share data. But it's not about sending the data to Google."

See the article here:

Google unveils tech to make it easier for doctors and patients to share health info - CNBC

MADISON (WKOW) -- Friday afternoon, Madison's hospitals saw a celebration of their efforts as the Madison Fire Department paraded by UW Health, UnityPoint Health Meriter and SSM Health.

According to the fire department, it was about appreciating the hard work doctors, nurses, technicians and everyone at these hospitals put in over the past month and a half.

For health care workers like Veronica Scott-Fulton, the gesture spoke volumes.

"People don't understand those firefighters. they're just like caregivers they're just like health care workers," she said. "We see them as they're coming through the halls with their patients."

On Friday, the SSM regional chief nursing officer saw those familiar faces in a new context.

"It was just really beautiful," Scott-Fulton said. "We welcome them. We thank them. We support them but this was such a special time for us."

She said this gesture came as hospitals are seeing a glimmer of hope.

"We have seen a huge slow down of ICU visits, ED visits," she said. "We have seen the ER rates, the COVID positive rates go down to single digits."

Scott-Fulton said that's why she not only wants to thank firefighters, but everyone in the community.

"We were overwhelmed, we were tired so those gifts really uplifted our spirits," she said.

Though she said gestures like that aren't the only way the Madison community has pitched in.

"They stayed in their homes," she said. "They followed the rules and we never really saw a strong peak like some of the other cities so we were very, very appreciative."

Scott-Fulton said she and the rest of her fellow health care workers are optimistic the worst is over and are eager to get back to serving patients the way they normally would. She said they can only do that if everyone continues to take steps to keep themselves safe and healthy.

Originally posted here:

Health care workers thank Madison Fire Department for parade and community for support - WKOW

Hospitals in most states have plenty of capacity, aside from those in hardest-hit areas like New York and Louisiana, according to an analysis from Raymond James. But it's unclear whether states can regularly test front-line health workers for the virus. And there are major questions about the accuracy and availability of antibody tests to gauge past exposure that are an essential part of the Trump administrations plan for states to emerge.

Ali Mokdad, a health metrics expert at the University of Washington whose modeling has informed the White House and governors, said the focus on hospital capacity is misguided, particularly if a state allows retail businesses such as hair salons and tattoo parlors to reopen.

If we allow this virus to circulate, then you have to face the same wave again and shut down, he said. How can you have social distancing with someone cutting my hair? If you want to open something, fine, but do it strategically.

States like Illinois, New Jersey and Alabama aren't using excess hospital capacity as a green light to start returning to normal. Governors in those places want to keep restrictions in place long enough to amass enough testing to track the virus if a second wave occurs in the fall.

What you want to do is make sure that the number of people who get sick is kept down, said Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. And so thats really the purpose of a stay-at-home order.

Tom Frieden, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that if he were a governor, he would want to be sure his state had enough testing available to know if cases started to spike again. No state can now say it does.

If I dont have all the testing that Id like to have, which Im sure I dont, I [would want to] have enough testing to quickly investigate any clusters that could explode, he said. And Id really like to have a public health workforce that is able to track cases.

The debate over when it's safe to reopen a state flared up this week when President Donald Trump criticized Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp for moving too fast with a plan that had businesses such as bowling alleys, gyms, hair salons and tattoo parlors opening Friday if owners adhere to stringent social distancing and hygiene requirements. Movie theaters and restaurants are supposed to follow next week.

Kemp, before Trumps rebuke, said his decision was, in part, based on his feeling that hospitals could handle a potential surge in cases that might occur.

Weve just got to be comfortable we can handle that demand, he said.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) told POLITICO that hospital capacity had to be one of the primary signals for opening her states economy, where 20 percent of people are now out of work.

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Hospitals health is key driver of push to lift lockdowns - POLITICO

Frontline health care workers to receive daily allowance - Video - NEWS 1130 Rogers Media uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. Learn more or change your cookie preferences. Rogers Media supports the Digital Advertising Alliance principles. By continuing to use our service, you agree to our use of cookies.We use cookies (why?) You can change cookie preferences. Continued site use signifies consent.

Health science professionals on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia will be paid a daily allowance on top of their regular pay.

Apr 25, 2020, 6:38 PM

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Frontline health care workers to receive daily allowance - CityNews Vancouver

In the era of the gig economy, our outdated health insurance system is too inflexible to meet the needs of millions of Americans. In short, our health care system is broken. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this huge problem: We must expandassociation health plans.

Nearly one in four Americans receive health insurance through the individual market, not from their employer. For one reason or another, we stubbornly adhere to a system that categorizes health insurance as an employee benefit when over the span of an individuals working career, he or she typically holdsmore than 12 jobs. This alone shows why itmakes little sense that our most vital lifeline, health care insurance, is provided by our constantly changing employer.

It is incredible to witness how dynamic our economy has become, especially when compared to just a few decades ago, when factories employed millions performing monotonous tasks on assembly lines. Currently, the U.S. economy is moving at warp speed to a flexible environment for employees based on tele-work, contract positions and a plethora of gig jobs. From ridesharing to selling and promoting online, the nature of the American workforce is vastly different than that of our parents and grandparents. If our health insurance market wants to keep pace, it needs to reflect these fundamental changes in the workplace.

Since the passage of ObamaCare 10 years ago, states have experienced a mass exodus of insurers in the individual market due to rising costs. This has left millions with very few options in the individual market. Also, as a devastating result of this legislation,nearly 27 million Americans are left with no health insurancebecause they cant afford it. Making matters even worse, since the passage of ObamaCare, premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed despite assurances from President Obama that the opposite would take place.

In America, we can do better. We live in the most technologically advanced society in the history of the world, and yet we have millions who have very limited options for health insurance.

In every other industry, we have seen markets adapt to meet the ever-evolving needs of the consumer. From Starbucks to the iPhone, we have seen the private sector excel, while federal regulations have lagged behind, holding back innovation and limiting options for the consumer in the most crucial aspect of our lives: Health care insurance.

The goal of any market, and specifically health insurance, should be to provide consumers with as many options as possible, spanning the full spectrum of consumer needs and desires.

In America, we have a variety of options in terms of grocery stores, clothing stores, car insurance and just about every other service imaginable. Why do we not have the same plethora of choices when it comes to our health insurance?

The first step is to abandon the employer-based model. It doesnt make logical sense that a family must undergo health insurance changes 12 times on average throughout their lifetime just because they switch employers, does it? Of course not.

Good news: The expansion of association health plans is the easy answer to this problem.

Expanding association health plans would create a world where the YMCA, Costco and AAA, for example, could sell health insurance plans and negotiate for a better rate on your behalf. A large group of people who are members of a club, organization or wholesale store would have better luck negotiating with a large insurance company than a small business does, thus resulting in lower prices for all.

This would provide multiple options at affordable prices for all Americans, even those with pre-existing conditions. As millions are currently filing for unemployment because of the public safety measures taken for COVID-19, it is crucial that we start questioning our hopelessly antiquated health insurance system. Does it really make sense that we continue to put our health care in the hands of our employer when layoffs, or job changes, mean that your health insurance plan must change too?

The fact that a large percentage of the workforce is either uninsured or paying too much is an issue that isnt going away. It is time to address the elephant in the room and expand quality coverage at affordable prices.

Living in the most advanced society in the history of the world, it is vital that our health insurance system reflects our significant technological advancements. Why in the world do we prevent our health insurance system from benefiting from the life-altering innovations that the American economy has unleashed in recent decades?

The federal government needs to move quickly and tear away the red tape that is overwhelming our health care system. The federal government is the entity that linked employers to health insurance (as an incentive to employers during WWII price controls); therefore, it is the federal government that also must right this wrong.

ChristinaHerrinis the director of Free to Choose Medicine, a project of The Heartland Institute, a non-partisan, free-market think tank headquartered in Arlington Heights, Ill.

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We need to rethink employer-provided health insurance | TheHill - The Hill