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A Battle-Weary Seattle Hospital Fights the Latest COVID Surge

Harborview Medical Center was at the epicenter of the first wave of coronavirus in the U.S. Staffers have a better understanding of the disease as cases surge, but fatigue and a lack of backup staff are big challenges.

Rural Areas Send Their Sickest Patients to Cities, Straining Hospitals

Critically ill rural patients are often sent to city hospitals for high-level treatment, and as their numbers grow, some urban hospitals are buckling under the added strain. Meanwhile, mask-wearing and other pandemic prevention measures remain spotty in rural counties.

When False Information Goes Viral, COVID-19 Patient Groups Fight Back

Fear and uncertainty about the coronavirus have made online patient support groups fertile ground for the spread of misinformation. But some in these groups make fact-checking a part of the mission to support fellow COVID sufferers.

Listen: COVID Stresses Rural Hospitals Already ‘Teetering on the Brink’

Crooked Media’s “America Dissected” explores the rural health crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Podcast guest KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal said: “I expect we’ll see a lot more rural hospital failures.”

They Work in Several Nursing Homes to Eke Out a Living, Possibly Spreading the Virus

An analysis of location data from 30 million smartphones found that facilities across the country that share the most workers also had the most COVID-19 infections. The “Kevin Bacon of nursing homes” in each state — the one with the most staffers working at other nursing homes — was likely to have the worst outbreaks of coronavirus contagion.