Medical Personnel

At a rural ICU, Covid-19’s summer surge put telehealth to the test A tele-ICU program run by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's health system has helped bolster critical care at a rural hospital. Katie Palmer STAT

On the surface, there’s little about Whitfield Regional Hospital that would make it a safety net for Alabama’s sickest Covid-19 patients. It has a small ICU with eight beds, and no critical care doctors on staff. The rural hospital has spent decades focused on caring for the community surrounding Demopolis, population 7,000, in the heart of the state’s Black Belt.

Hundreds of sought-after nurses are leaving some U.S. hospitals that have established vaccine requirements for all employees, involving some protests and legal opposition. But most workers, especially at large hospital chains, appear to be complying with the policies.

Telehealth companies are still struggling to reach rural populations As telehealth has expanded, it has remained largely out of reach for the one in five U.S. residents who live in rural parts of the country. Erin Brodwin STAT

Despite the wide-ranging expansion of telehealth in the past year, there is still a broad swath of the U.S. population it has largely failed to reach: the 57 million people in rural parts of the country. ...