The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 58 COVID patients today, up from 50 yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 30 with the active virus today, 31 yesterday
- 7 in ICU, 8 yesterday
- 4on ventilators, 3 yesterday
- 28 hospitalized but out of acute infection phase, 19 yesterday
Key points from today’s guests:
Adam Meier, director of nursing, The University of Kansas Health System
- Health system has received initial shipment of bivalent COVID boosters (video here)
- It is formulated to provide protection from original SARS-CoV-2 strain AND omicron and all of its variants
- Moderna is for those 18 and older, Pfizer is for those 12 and older.
- It will be available in health system clinics. Patients can schedule through MyChart.
- Flu shots are also available and encouraged. Can be given at the same time as a COVID booster
Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson, Associate Professor of Applied Behavioral Science, the University of Kansas, and associate director at the KU Center for Community Health and Development at the Life Span Institute
- Discussed ThrYve, a hospital-based youth violence prevention project
- The collaborative effort involves 50 organizations in Kansas City, Kansas which have come together to support the healthy physical, social, and emotional growth of our youth and their families
- Goal is to keep young people from becoming victims of violence, and avoid repeat visits to the emergency department
- Funded by grant from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Robert Winfield, Division Chief, Acute Care Surgery, Trauma, and Surgical Critical Care, The University of Kansas Health System
- Homicide is the leading cause of death in the U.S. for African American youth
- More than 1,000 young people are treated each day in the U.S. for physical assault injuries
- The cost is 100 billion dollars a year
- Described and showed scanned images of damage caused by gunshots
- Gun violence, and all of trauma, is a disease
Olivia Desmarais, Injury Prevention Coordinator, The University of Kansas Health System
- Program is for 12 to 24-year-olds who are victims of violence and who come through the health system
- Goal is to provide a comprehensive wraparound system of services for patients after they leave the hospital
- Those services could include safe housing, access to food or education programs among other things
- The best way to treat traumatic injuries is to prevent them in the first place.
Damon Daniel, president, Ad Hoc Group Against Crime
- His organization makes bedside contact with patients within 24 hours of admission
- They make sure patients are actually connected with services than can help them, not just given a list of phone numbers to call
- Goal is to make sure young patient feels safe when returning home, provide counseling and help with different arrangements if necessary
- Many young people are not able to resolve conflict peacefully. Forgiveness can go a long way toward letting everyone walk away safe and whole.
Juliann Van Liew, director, Wyandotte County Health Department
- If you are between the ages of 18 and 44 in Wyandotte County and you died today, the most likely reason you died is because someone else killed you
- Compared to other public health crises, we are losing a whole bunch more years of potential life lost because we are losing people at younger ages than if they had died later in life
- Youth violence is destructive to families, individuals and entire communities
- It is not a political debate, but a public health disease
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System
- COVID hospitalizations are down across the country, but seem to be higher at the health system
- COVID illnesses have been reported to have reduced the U.S. labor force by half a million people
Dr. Steve Stites, Chief Medical Officer, The University of Kansas Health System
- Heat map of COVID cases across the country beginning to show less and less disease
- We are constantly watching, but right now, are not seeing any new COVID variants out there
Thursday, September 14 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Nearly a quarter of a million men will find out they have prostate cancer by the end of the year. But could tissue sparing proton therapy treatment a good choice for these patients? We hear from two patients a decade out from their treatment and a local man just beginning his.
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