Identifying maternal mental disorders 3 Doors opening for eldercare 8 PERIODICAL RATE PUBLICATION
APRIL 2021 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 6
Health care climate alliances concentrate on state-level change in California, Washington By RENEE STOVSKY
“Climate change is no longer a distant threat,” says Rachelle Reyes Wenger, system vice president, public policy and advocacy engagement for CommonSpirit Health.
De-identified medical records data is big asset for health systems Big data analytics may unlock new approaches to treatments By LISA EISENHAUER
Had there been a global analysis and mapping network for health data similar to the networks for weather data that can forecast and track major threats such as hurricanes, Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips believes the warning signs about COVID-19 would have been on radar Compton-Phillips screens much earlier. “I think the fact that we didn’t predict
In this map of the sites of hospitals affiliated with the 14 Truveta partners, circle sizes correspond to the number of staffed beds at each facility. The map does not include clinics, nursing homes, doctors’ offices and other outpatient facilities.
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Crew from Dell Children’s braves storm to reach fragile newborn By LISA EISENHAUER Firefighters battle an August wildfire during a scorching California heatwave.
“We already are experiencing extreme weather events, disastrous wildfires and elevated levels of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.” Wenger adds that communities of color and those most vulnerable to air pollution are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis, but no one will escape its effects. “The nexus between climate and health is very real and very personal for Wenger all,” she says. As part of its commitment to advance social and environmental justice, Dignity Health joined with three other large health systems in 2018 to form the California Health Care Climate Alliance. (Dignity Health merged with Catholic Health Initiatives in 2019 to form CommonSpirit.) “Caring for the Earth is not only a moral Continued on 6
Born 16 weeks early, Zaylynn Arias is surrounded by tubes and medical equipment at a hospital in Marble Falls, Texas. The hospital was not staffed or equipped for high-risk newborns like Zaylynn. To oversee her care, a team from Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin drove about 50 miles through a winter storm.
Zaylynn Arias came into the world with the odds stacked against her. She arrived after just 23 weeks of gestation, 16 weeks shy of her due date and weighing only 22 ounces. The hospital where she was born two hours after her mother checked in was equipped and staffed for only Level 1 maternity care, appropriate for a normal delivery. As Zaylynn was being born on Feb. 17 in Marble Falls, Texas, the city and much of the state were in the grips of a rare, crippling winter blast that brought dangerous road conditions along with freezing temperatures. The weather caused widespread power and water outages. On top of that, like much of the nation, Texas was grappling with a pandemic that had stretched many hospitals’ resources and staff to the brink for almost a year. “She was really born within the context of as many challenges as you can possibly have,” says Dr. John Loyd, division neonatologist chief at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas. The hospital is part of Ascension. Loyd led a three-person clinical team who made a 50-mile trip on ice-glazed, snow-slick highways through the winter storm to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Marble Falls. There, they took Continued on 2
As end of eviction moratorium looms, advocates fear housing crisis will spike
John Moore/Getty Images
By LISA EISENHAUER
A Maricopa County, Arizona, constable escorts a family out of their apartment after serving an eviction order for nonpayment of rent on Sept. 30 in Phoenix. With millions of Americans still unemployed due to the pandemic, the expiration of the federal moratorium on evictions looms large for renters and landlords alike.
CHA and other housing advocates worry that once a federal eviction moratorium in place for most of the COVID-19 pandemic is lifted, the nation’s housing crisis will hit a new peak. The advocates say that government relief efforts have kept many individuals and families housed during the public health emergency. They are urging various additional remedies, including quick implementation of financial assistance and programs that are part of the American Rescue Plan, the massive relief package signed in mid-March by President Joe Biden. Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, president and chief executive officer of CHA, says that legislation will provide much-needed assistance to those lacking health care or in need of housing aid. “The American Rescue Plan represents one of the most significant steps in expand-
ing access to health care and combatting child poverty in our nation’s history,” Sr. Mary says. Diane Yentel, president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, told an MSNBC interviewer that the housing assistance in the relief package is a significant starting point. “This is really a historic amount of resources to help provide some housing stability for renters, for homeowners, for some people experiencing homelessness, but much more will be needed to address the underlying shortage of affordable homes that existed before the pandemic and will exist after the pandemic,” Yentel says in the televised interview. The moratorium on ousting tenants who are unable to afford rent originated in the CARES Act relief package signed into law in spring 2020. That 120-day pause ended in July but was renewed later in the summer Continued on 7