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Interim Management, Skilled Monitoring, and Reinvention
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Greetings!
As you can see below in our somewhat celebratory selections; this week we have seen the U.S. stabilize as to new cases and deaths. Although last week stood at the edge of another surge; continental Europe is now seeing significant decreases in new cases as we post our data today. And Canada has problems.
Because it is such good news, let us return to a mantra of the past, “It is not the number of vaccines, but rather the number of vaccinations!” The U.S. and UK have succeeded well beyond our most enthusiastic predictions. Locally and personally, on the cul de sac where your virtual publishing office resides, all of the adult neighbors, as well as all of our adult children by the end of the week will have had their first of two and in some instances the J-and-J jab. So now to the good and the bad news.
The New York Times “The State of the Virus” for April 5, 2021 offers the following:
- Reports of new cases have been rising even as the pace of vaccination has increased.
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More than three million people are receiving a vaccine on an average day. Nearly one-third of all people in the United States have gotten at least one dose.
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All adults are now eligible for a vaccine in a majority of states.
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The six metro areas with the highest rates of recent cases are in Michigan. Cases and hospitalizations have more than doubled in that state over the last two weeks.
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Several Midwestern states are struggling. Minnesota and Illinois are both reporting rapid case growth.
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California remains stable, with fewer than 3,000 cases on average each day since mid-March. As recently as January, the state was averaging more than 40,000 cases a day.
Now to what is the lead in virtually all Covid-19 reporting we offer from The Washington Post: “Are we entering a ‘fourth wave’ of the pandemic? Experts disagree.”
Swedish detective stories and comparing that nation’s Covid-19 response to the rest of Europe is something we are always interested in and today we provide you with the must-read complex report from The New Yorker: “Sweden’s Pandemic Experiment.” And to return to local we link to StatNews, who among the first to report on the just released study in Lancet Psychiatry: “One in 3 Covid-19 patients are diagnosed with a neuropsychiatric condition in the next six months.”
As a transition to our last offerings and to introduce an area of focus that we will be reporting on over the next weeks: "Home health," we link to our friends at Skilled Nursing News who ask, “Whether or not home health providers can maintain the volume they siphoned away from skilled nursing facilities during the pandemic?" Not only does their expert reporter Alex Spanko dig into that question he then explores the impact that “a permanent shift from SNF to home could portend financial and operational chaos for a sector already battered by COVID-19, the thinking goes, while simultaneously benefiting both seniors – who generally prefer to remain at home – and the rapidly expanding home health care marketplace.”
And we conclude with two great investigative reports, which interviews with our proud publisher Jerry Seelig, by Southern California Public Radio-KPCC and CalMatters. Both are on the failures of state, local and federal health care regulatory agencies. The KPCC interview also offers a "5-Takeaways" summary that offers a concise look at the issues and offers Jerry Seelig the opportunity to offer his expansion on the definition of “no” in the regulatory-enforcement setting: "'No' is not 'no,'" says Jerry Seelig, an industry expert who has served as a state-appointed temporary manager of troubled nursing homes. "It's a very ineffectual, at times, and slow process to finally get to 'no.'"
From vaccinated Culver City, swerve driving Sweden and neighboring Scandinavia, and newsrooms across the world, this is Revitalize for April 7, 2021:
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Revitalize: The week in health-care news you need
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Are we entering a ‘fourth wave’ of the pandemic? Experts disagree. The data doesn’t look good. After weeks of decline, the average number of new Coronavirus infections reported each day is higher than it’s been in a month. The number of people in hospitals with Covid-19 has been stubbornly stagnant since mid-March. And even as highly contagious virus variants spread, state leaders are relaxing safety precautions.
Sweden’s Pandemic experiment. When the coronavirus arrived, the country decided not to implement lockdowns or recommend masks. How has it fared?
One in 3 Covid-19 patients are diagnosed with a neuropsychiatric condition in the next six months, large study finds. Anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders were most common, but the researchers also found worrying, if lower, rates of serious neurological complications, especially in patients who had been severely ill.
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Whether or not home health providers can maintain the volume they siphoned away from skilled nursing facilities during the pandemic has emerged as a top question for policymakers and financial analysts alike. A permanent shift from SNF to home could portend financial and operational chaos for a sector already battered by COVID-19, the thinking goes.
State oversight of nursing homes called ‘befuddling,’ ‘broken.’ An investigation reveals an opaque licensing process for California nursing homes, rife with indecision and contradictions.
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Jerry Seelig, CEO
Fax: 310-841-2842
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