OMAHA, Neb. — U.S. hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are trying to lure nurses and doctors out of retirement, recruiting students and new graduates who have yet to earn their licenses and offering eye-popping salaries in a desperate bid to ease staffing shortages. With the virus surging from coast to...
Some California Hospitals Are Overwhelmed by Virus Cases
SACRAMENTO — Teams of military doctors, nurses and other health care specialists are being deployed to eight California hospitals facing staffing shortages amid a record-breaking surge of coronavirus cases across the state. The Air Force, at California's request, assigned 160 people to increase capacity in intensive care units. Some teams...
Fresno Lifts Limits on Dentists and Doctors. But Getting an Appointment Could be Difficult.
The city of Fresno gave the OK for all medical and dental practices to fully reopen this week. But many are not ready to do so. "There's a lot of different factors that make it really hard to start back up," said Dr. Paul Hsiao, a Fresno dentist. "It's hard to...
How Is This Poor, Rural District Keeping Kids in School?
At a time when rural schools all over California struggle to keep students in school, a three-year-old experiment in the southern Fresno County community of Parlier is showing some interesting results. And, officials say, chronic absenteeism isn’t the only problem the Parlier experiment may eventually solve. Like many Central Valley...
Walters: Fraud Infects Disability System
Kenneth and Mandy Henderson have given a new dimension to marital togetherness. Two years ago, a disability claim filed by Mandy Henderson, a lieutenant in the Santa Clara County sheriff’s office, came under suspicion. She claimed to be in constant pain from injuries suffered on the job and had to...
Opponents Drop Bid to Block California Vaccination Law
SACRAMENTO — Opponents on Monday dropped their attempt to block California’s new law cracking down on doctors who write fraudulent medical exemptions for school children's vaccinations. They had floated two measures that could have put the Jan. 1 law on hold until voters considered overturning it next year, but did...
Supreme Court Leaves Kentucky's Ultrasound Law in Place
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before abortions. The justices did not comment in refusing to review an appeals court ruling that upheld the law. The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged...
Med School Free Rides and Loan Repayments: California Tries to Boost Dwindling Doctor Supply
Primary care doctors are a hot commodity across California. Students are being lured by full-ride scholarships to medical schools. New grads are specifically recruited for training residencies. And full-fledged doctors are being offered loan repayment programs to serve low-income residents or work in underserved areas. These efforts are intended to...
Doctors Try CRISPR Gene Editing for Cancer, a 1st in the US
The first attempt in the United States to use a gene editing tool called CRISPR against cancer seems safe in the three patients who have had it so far, but it's too soon to know if it will improve survival, doctors reported Wednesday. The doctors were able to take immune...
Twin Births in US Now Going Down, at Lowest Level in Decade
NEW YORK — Fewer U.S. families are seeing double, according to a government report that finds a drop in new twins. Twin births steadily increased for more than three decades, driven largely by older white moms undergoing fertility treatments. But the rate of twin births apparently peaked in 2014 and...