Health & Science Story Archives - Page 98 of 338 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

DHHR Reports 29 Additional COVID Deaths

Twenty-nine West Virginians have died from COVID-19 this week alone as deaths and hospitalizations continue to rise.

Since the DHHR’s last report Monday, 19 deaths were reported for a total of 7,749 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in West Virginia.

There are currently 1,169 active COVID-19 cases statewide, with 319 patients hospitalized.

Interim DHHR Cabinet Secretary, Jeff Coben said that vaccination is the most effective way to protect from COVID-19.

“Vaccination is the most effective way to protect yourself from getting very sick, needing hospital care, or even dying from COVID-19,” Coben said. “If you’re not sure when you need a booster, I encourage you to use the COVID-19 Vaccination Due Date Calculator on our website.”

SAFE Commission Provides Updates On Rape Kit Backlog

During an Interim meeting of the Joint Committee on Health on Tuesday morning, lawmakers got an update on the state’s effort to End The Backlog of rape cases.

During an interim meeting of the Joint Committee on Health on Tuesday morning, lawmakers got an update on the state’s effort to End The Backlog of rape cases.

In 2020, the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill requiring the speedy testing and collection of rape kits after a 2015 initiative to start testing the state’s nearly 2,400 shelved rape kits.

Two representatives of the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Commission (SAFE) updated lawmakers on various initiatives that could improve West Virginia’s method of collecting and prosecuting sex crime evidence.

Nancy Hoffman, director of the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services (WVFRIS) and Chairperson of the Sexual Assault Forensic Exam Commission provided updated statistics to the Joint Committee on Health.

“We saw in 2021, 540 kits were mailed out and 444 kits were returned, it’s never going to be at the same number because facilities have to keep some kits on hand for when a victim does come in,” Hoffman said. “But we went from 32 percent being collected to 82 percent being tested. So a huge difference in a pretty short period of time. I think it really shows that our partnership with the SAFE Commission and the legislature certainly is making a difference.”

Hoffman and fellow SAFE representative, David Miller, Forensic Central Evidence Processing Supervisor with the West Virginia State Police, told lawmakers that the remaining roadblocks in proper care and criminal proceedings stem from a shortage of trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) in combination with travel time and costs, causing long delays for the victims.

“In our state, there are only three facilities and they’re all in the northern part of the state that provide 24/7 adult and pediatric care provided by SANE-trained personnel,” Miller said. “This causes a person to have to travel potentially, if they’re sexually assaulted in one of those counties, where you can’t easily have access to a facility that will collect the kit. This is particularly a problem for pediatric patients, it is not unusual for me to see sexual assault kits where the incident occurred in the southern part of the state, Mingo and Raleigh counties in particular, I’ve seen travel all the way to Ruby Hospital to have a sex crime kit collected.”

In 1996, the West Virginia legislature created the The Forensic Medical Examination Fund to reimburse hospitals and medical facilities for the personnel and staff space to collect that evidence. Lawmakers set a flat rate of $350, and the rate has not increased in the 25 years since.

“The SAFE Commission looked at our surrounding states and learned that Pennsylvania reimbursement rate is $1,000 a kit, $1,300 in Virginia; Maryland has no cap and almost a couple thousand in Kentucky,” Miller said. “The Safety Commission recommendation therefore is to increase the reimbursement rate to medical facilities conducting exams to $1,000. And, to designate funds for examiner coordination, and training.”

Aging Out Of Foster Care in West Virginia

During Monday’s Interim Joint Committee Meeting on Children and Families, lawmakers heard about inadequacies within West Virginia’s foster care system and the startling statistic that 12.8 out of every 1,000 West Virginia children enter foster care.

From 2016 to 2022, the number of foster children in state custody rose by more than 1,700 children, for a total of 6,369.

Jeremiah Samples is the Senior Advisor on the Joint Committee on Government and Finance at the West Virginia Legislature. Samples spoke to lawmakers about the alarming number of foster children entering the system each year in West Virginia.

“And so when you have a significant number of kids in foster care, like we do significant number transitioning to adulthood from our foster care system, and then these kids have kids, well, what’s likely going to happen there, you know, we’re perpetuating the problem, except instead of just being cyclical, it’s like a, you know, it’s an avalanche,” Samples said. “You know, it’s a snowball rolling down the mountain, and it picks up steam.”

Samples said he does not believe DHHR policies are to blame, but that the implementation of policies and programs available to foster children needs to be reevaluated.

“So DHHR policies, I would argue that DHHR in terms of policy, has a best practice pretty much equivalent across the board to our peer states. It’s not a policy issue, in my opinion,” Samples said. “There’s areas of policy that we need to improve upon, but really, our major problems are not policy oriented, we have a ton of those.”

To demonstrate the monies and programs available to children who age out of foster care facilities, Samples shared that 15,656 current and former foster children are still eligible for services, if they know how to access them.

“There are a multitude of programs out there again, to help kids that are transitioning, MODIFY is one that’s often referred to- it’s a good program if it works, but we need to make sure that it’s working, we need hard numbers to see, instead of a thing that happens in bureaucracy and government generally, but especially in DHHR,” Samples said. “In West Virginia, I think there’s an outcome versus an output.”

Southern W.Va. Health Leaders Announce Collaboration To Enhance Region’s Health Care Services

On Friday afternoon, local health providers announced a collaboration aimed at enhancing health care services in southern West Virginia.

In a conference room brimming with excited chatter, Mountain Health Network, Marshall Health, and Logan Regional Medical Center announced they have partnered to improve access to specialty care in Logan and surrounding areas.

Kevin Yingling is the president and CEO of Mountain Health Network. He said the agreement is aimed at providing care to rural areas and lessening travel time for patients.

“Mountain Health and Logan Regional Medical Center have held a longstanding mutual respect and common purpose of providing high-quality medical care for patients, close to home,” Yingling said. “We are honored that the Logan and ScionHealth teams have chosen Mountain Health and our academic medical center partners, Marshall Health…so patients and families do not need to travel long distances for advanced medical care.”

Under this initiative, specialists will be trained at Logan Regional Medical Center to provide access to specialized heart, pediatric and cancer services.

“Regardless of where West Virginians live, they deserve to be able to reach the lifesaving medical services they need and rely on,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who was in attendance. “Today’s announcement means more West Virginians receiving care, more West Virginians providing care, and more teamwork between our medical organizations.”

While some specialty care has been available at Logan Regional Medical Center, this partnership aims to add to these services by implementing workgroups of experts from each hospital that will develop programs that advance cardiology, pediatric and oncology services for patients in the Logan area.

Wheeling Hospital To Stop Accepting PEIA Patients July 1

From July 1, WVU-Wheeling Hospital said it will deny future PEIA patients because of “inadequate" PEIA reimbursements.

WVU-Wheeling Hospital said it will no longer accept patients with West Virginia Public Employees Insurance (PEIA) due to a financial deficit in its budget.

PEIA provides health insurance for state employees like those in public schools and the West Virginia Department of Corrections among others.

Jim Kaufman, president and CEO of the West Virginia Hospital Association, said PEIA is paying much more in reimbursements to out-of-state hospitals than to in-state facilities like Wheeling Hospital.

“Wheeling Hospital has been struggling financially for several years, having multi-million dollar losses,” he said. “One of the things they’ve looked at is various cost cutting efforts and PEIA is paying them significantly below the cost of care.”

Kaufman said PEIA is paying hospitals in West Virginia 50 percent of the Medicare rate but four to five times more for the exact same service at out-of-state hospitals.

“In West Virginia PEIA dictates the rate they pay providers whereas out of state they actually have to negotiate,” he said. “And they negotiate using United Healthcare which is the nation’s largest insurance plan, and it just shows you the disparity between what out-of-state providers are able to negotiate versus what PEIA dictates in the state.”

Kaufman says Wheeling Hospital wants to avoid disrupting continuity of care and will continue to treat PEIA patients in an emergency situation as well as work with PEIA beneficiaries until they transition out of the network.

Kaufman said he is hopeful the legislature and policy makers can address the issue of reimbursements before it gets to that point.

Gov. Jim Justice’s office released the following statement:

“The governor’s office is discouraged by WVU Medicine’s position to stop accepting patients with PEIA at Wheeling Hospital. The Justice Administration has been extremely supportive of WVU Medicine’s acquisition of Wheeling Hospital. The West Virginia Hospital Association’s announcement today was a surprise to us, as we are engaged in good faith negotiations – and prior to this announcement today – had anticipated a resolution during the upcoming legislative session.”

Kaufman said Wheeling Hospital’s July 1st deadline offers the governor and legislature a chance to fix a serious problem that impacts health care workers as well as patients.

“One of the biggest reasons nurses haven’t recertified in-state is compensation,” he said. “If you think about it, we’re taking West Virginia dollars and shipping them out of state. That puts hospitals in West Virginia at a severe disadvantage in being able to recruit and provide care to treat all West Virginians.”

Stemming The EMT Mental Health Crisis With Communication

With statewide Emergency Medical Service worker numbers still down a third, there’s plenty of overtime for those often making life and death ambulance runs. With all that OT, there’s overwhelming stress — and a dire need for more mental health support.

With statewide Emergency Medical Service worker numbers still down a third, there’s plenty of overtime for those often making life and death ambulance runs.

With all that OT, there’s overwhelming stress — and a dire need for more mental health support.

Bridgeport Director of Emergency Management Tim Curry recently wrote an article in the National Journal of Emergency Medical Services entitled, Suck it up Culture is Killing First Responders. He wrote that he had answered a call like a hundred others, but one was about an interstate wreck that killed a young girl.

“I was looking through her phone and seeing the text from her mom, saying, ‘Hey, why aren’t you home yet? Where are you at? I’m worried,’” Curry said. “That hit me really hard. I had seen things that were way worse than that up to that point, but that was the point I got to where it was too much. I had to step away.”

The incident of post-traumatic stress overwhelmed the veteran EMT. Curry said he turned to alcohol, forsaking the longstanding “suck it up” first responder mantra, before realizing he needed help.

“Realizing that this is not normal and that I needed to talk to somebody was a hard journey for somebody that’s always been, ‘I’m okay, I’m tough, I can handle it, I don’t need any help,’” Curry said. “I looked in the mirror and said, ‘I need to deal with this.’ It was a long journey to get here.”

Nationally, more than 100 first responders committed suicide in 2021, more than died in the line of duty. West Virginia has lost more than 1,900 EMTs over the past three years to retirement and simply leaving the job. While recruitment and retainment efforts are ongoing, Curry said his overworked colleagues need more mental health support and outlets to deal with the trauma.

“They need to know that it’s okay to need to take a break, and it’s okay to not be okay and to talk about it with somebody. They need to have healthy coping mechanisms, good diet, exercise, hobbies, things that are outlets for your stress from the workplace,” Curry said. “Go and do something, whatever it is, play golf, go skiing, go hiking, whatever it is to blow off that steam in a healthy way.”

West Virginia Emergency Medical Director Jody Ratliff takes personal calls from traumatized first responders needing to talk to someone who knows the feeling. He said more mental health support is paramount to leaving the “suck it up” mentality behind — while moving forward.

“If we talk about retention and keeping folks in EMS and first responders across the board, if we’re going to talk about retention, mental health is a huge issue that we’ve just never spoken about,” Ratliff said. “It affects you over time, it affects your physical ability, your mental ability, and then people want to leave the business because they just can’t handle it anymore.”

Ratliff said he is looking at West Virginia adopting an EMS mental health support program and an app now seeing success in Florida.

“First responders across the state can go into this app, and they plug in some things on how they’re feeling that day, or something that might have just happened,” Ratliff said. “It might say to reach out to someone in the next few days, or it might put you in contact with a mental health professional right then and there.”

Curry calls setting up a mental health support app is an excellent first step.

“The fact that people are waking up to this and doing something about it now speaks volumes to where we’re at versus where we’ve been. We’re seeing the effects of long-term burnout and long-term issues dealing with everything that first responders see, and we’re facing a massive paramedic shortage now, because we neglected this problem for a long time,” Curry said. “There needs to be better access to get good mental health care covered by your insurance. These agencies need to do a better job of saying we’re going to cover this, we’re going to even employ somebody and help in-house, which is what the city of Huntington is doing.”

Ratliff said he’s working with EMS directors across the state to get the “suck it up” monkey off of everybody’s back.

“It’s okay to talk about the stigma, it’s time for the stigma to go away. We all deal with this, whether we want to admit it or not. It’s something that we’ve all dealt with in our careers,” Ratliff said. “I speak very publicly about me dealing with my own trauma during my career, and getting help and what it meant to me and my career and my life.”

Curry said a quarter of West Virginia EMS workers report mental health issues and those are only the ones who admit it. He said it is past time to go from “suck it up,” to stand up — and deal with the issues.