Blake Farmer
-
In areas overwhelmed by COVID cases, hospitals must rely on traveling nurses to operate ICUs. Hospitals pay a premium for that temporary help, while also struggling to keep their staff nurses happy.
-
In many hospitals, the only thing keeping ICUs fully staffed is a rotating cast of traveling nurses. Hospitals are having to pay them so much that their staff nurses are tempted to hit the road too.
-
German Castro died last month at the age of 57 — part of an avoidable surge of COVID-19 deaths across the South where vaccination rates lag.
-
ECMO, the highest level of mechanical life support, functions as a temporary heart and lungs for some of COVID-19's sickest patients. But the waitlist is too long for many patients who need it.
-
Hospitals across the South are warning of a catastrophe if a surge of COVID-19 cases doesn't subside. Medical centers are maxed out. But space isn't the biggest problem — it's staffing.
-
As Community Health Systems has downsized, what remain are like zombie hospitals – little more than legal entities still taking patients to court even though the new owners don't sue.
-
The nation as a whole fell short of President Biden's July Fourth vaccine goal — giving at least one shot to 70 percent of adults. Some states exceeded expectations, and others didn't come close.
-
A majority of white, rural conservatives in Tennessee are open to getting the vaccine at some point, but at least 45% won't consider it. Rates in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi are also lagging.
-
An NPR/Marist poll found that rural, white Republicans — especially supporters of former President Trump — are among the least likely to get a vaccine. In rural Tennessee, we hear from some of them.
-
As the pace of vaccination picks up, so do reports of spoiled doses. In Tennessee, close to 5,000 doses have been lost, prompting more oversight from state and federal officials.