health care

When hospital workers are overwhelmed by a public health crisis and unable to provide standard care, crisis standards of care dictate who gets what kind of treatment.

The Biden administration announced last month that it will require nursing home staff to get vaccinated, or facilities could face losing federal funding. Wyoming Public Radio's Kamila Kudelska reports state facilities are concerned this will increase the existing staff shortage.

Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County has opened a second COVID unit in its same day surgery department. This comes about a week after the hospital announced it was canceling elective surgeries due to increase of COVID-10 patients and staff shortages.

The Biden administration announced last month that it will require nursing home staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Facilities that don't comply could lose federal funding. But nursing home administrators are worried it could end up hurting already significant staff shortages.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are continually increasing and even though the numbers aren't as high as the winter surge, some are saying this is worse.

On Wednesday, Aug. 25, the Wyoming Department of Health presented a proposal to redesign the state-funded behavioral health system. This past legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill to change who community health care providers can serve.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon says despite rising COVID-19 numbers and hospitalizations, he is not going to issue any mandates or require any closures.

While most of Wyoming is resisting COVID-19 vaccines, the University of Wyoming Cowboys football team sits at 96 percent vaccinated.

Wyoming medical students that are part of the WWAMI UW School of Medicine program, will travel around the state for a new survey. Students will interview at-risk and underrepresented communities in public health in August. The goal is to engage communities in their own healthcare solutions.

A new state law allows the Wyoming State Insurance Commission to regulate the Wyoming air ambulance membership organizations. Consumers pay for air ambulance memberships to try to avoid high prices if they ever need such services. This is a serious issue in rural areas of the state where there is a lack of emergency health care.