VTDigger publishes regular stories on health care. We cover the state’s hospitals, accountable care organization OneCare, the state’s psychiatric care system, the Green Mountain Care Board, insurers, health care policy, and statewide debates on healthcare reform. Katie Jickling is VTDigger's healthcare reporter. She can be reached at katie@vtdigger.org.
Support staff at UVM Medical Center voted overwhelmingly to unionize this week. The new bargaining unit will bring 2,200 more employees under representation by the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals.
Discharge totals from Vermont psychiatric inpatient facilities show how the overflow from an already strained statewide mental health care system fell on emergency departments.
‘Nobody wants this sooner than those folks that this is going to serve,’ Jackie Corbally, a consultant on the project, told the Burlington City Council this week.
Burlington has reported a spike in Covid levels in its wastewater, but it’s too early to say whether it’s a true increase or an anomaly, according to officials.
The spike in two Burlington wastewater treatment plants could be an early indicator of Covid levels, but the health department said it would have to wait to see if the trend persists.
A spokesperson said the ongoing workforce shortage is a “primary contributor” to the health system’s financial challenges. In total, the system employs about 12,000 people in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Backus, the state’s director of health care reform, is moving to Sen. Peter Welch’s office. Chen, the interim commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, plans to leave the role next month.
Vermont’s largest provider of inpatient mental health services plans to return to pre-pandemic inpatient numbers and is starting a new dedicated EMS transport service.
Hospital admissions have dropped this week, two weeks after the state reported “medium” Covid levels.
Linda Luxenberg says that Vermont has failed her son, a 35-year-old man with autism and a rare neurological disorder. Why has the state fought to be his guardian?
