Kate Wells
ReporterKate Wells is a Peabody Award-winning journalist currently covering public health and the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also the co-host of the Michigan Radio and NPR podcast Believed. The series was widely ranked among the best of the year, drawing millions of downloads and numerous awards. She and co-host Lindsey Smith received the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
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About 30% of women who had an elective induction had a C-section, compared to about 24% of those who chose expectant management. But the women getting elective inductions tended to be a pretty select group: white women over the age of 35, with private insurance. -
Immunizations for toddlers still haven't returned to pre-pandemic levels. That raises the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, like the recent measles outbreak in Ohio that sickened more than 80 kids and hospitalized more than 30. (None of those children were fully vaccinated.)
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This means patients, including those coming from as far away at Texas and Florida, will still be able to access the most effective form of medication abortion in Michigan.
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Hypertension is the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the state. So Detroit paramedics are doing blood pressure checks with high-risk moms in their homes.
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"It's hard when I know I'm going to walk into work tomorrow to provide care to patients with these medications — am I allowed to do that?" Dr. Audrey Lance with Northland Family Planning said. "I don't know yet. I don't know what's going to happen."
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Patients seeking abortions in Michigan can still get the abortion pill — at least, for now.
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For years, the FDA has issued blanket restrictions on blood donations from men who have sex with men. But a new proposal would finally change that.
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Michigan’s health system is at a critical juncture, researchers say. If conditions don’t improve soon, there could soon be a “spiral of additional resignations” that “threaten the delivery of essential care.”
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While rare, cases in which young athletes in Detroit have suffered sudden cardiac arrest show the need for more automatic external defibrillators, one cardiologist says.
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The merger of the two health systems is the second big healthcare consolidation in the state in recent years. And it's raising fears that costs for patients could increase — though the hospital executives say that won't happen.
