hospitals

Northwest ERs seeing lots of injuries, contractors seeing lots of frozen or burst pipes

The year 2021 isn’t even over, yet Oregon and Washington have already smashed their previous records for total annual deaths. Those records were just set last year. The coronavirus pandemic is only one piece of the explanation.

It's a growing problem in Washington: kids with developmental disabilities and complex behaviors who are stuck in the hospital with no reason for being there. Usually, they end up in the hospital after a crisis or an incident. But once the child is medically cleared to leave, their parents or their group home won't come get them citing inadequate supports to manage the youth's needs. While the state searches for alternative placements, the child waits.

The days are quickly ticking down to next Monday's deadline when most Oregon and Washington teachers, health care workers and public employees need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.Elected officials especially in more conservative swaths of the Pacific Northwest remain fearful of a "mass exodus" of firefighters and health care professionals. They're trying different avenues to get Governors Brown and Inslee to back off the vaccination deadline. But there are no signs the governors are open to delays.

Long hours. Extreme fatigue. You couldn't miss it in the faces of soldiers and refugees at Kabul Airport last month and you can't miss it now in the faces of caregivers in hospitals here at home. It just so happens that Washington State University Spokane is in the midst of a series of studies of how sleep deprivation affects people in high stress, high risk jobs.

The overcrowded hospitals we've been telling you about for weeks are having ripple effects out into the community -- some you could predict and some which are a little more startling. Take for example a fire that gutted a house in Ocean Shores or expensive airlifts from Leavenworth, Washington.

Hospitals in Washington are starting to act on the permission given them by Gov. Jay Inslee to resume non-essential medical procedures. Some may begin…

The state of Washington is just beginning the process of writing new rules to govern hospital mergers. But already there’s controversy over what role the…