Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
³Ô¹Ï²»´òìÈ Warrants Filed As Police Investigation Progresses In Deaths At Florida Nursing Home
In the days after several residents died in sweltering heat at a Hollywood nursing home after Hurricane Irma, questions abounded – as did blame. Two search warrants filed by the Hollywood Police Department with the Broward Clerk of Court’s office the week after the tragedy suggest detectives are casting a wide net for the answers: demanding visitor and patient logs, medical documentation and servers and hard drives from the Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills, which tried and failed to control rising temperatures with spot coolers and fans before it finally called 911 days after Irma hit. (Koh and Ostroff, 9/28)
When Hurricane Irma slammed into the U.S. Virgin Islands, Alvin Joseph was home in St. Thomas with his wife, his oldest granddaughter and four of his great-grandkids. ... People like Joseph, whose lives depend on dialysis, are especially vulnerable during a hurricane. The machines that act as their artificial kidneys need reliable electricity and water to operate. (Mack, 9/28)
A week after Maria, many hospitals are still shut down and the few that are open are operating with just emergency generator power. With a scarcity of fuel, dwindling supplies and disruptions to their employees' lives, hospitals say they are in crisis, laboring to provide care at a time when it's needed most. (Allen and Peñaloza, 9/28)