Hospitals

The First Steps to Literacy: Books for Babies Trust Fund aims to give every baby in the county a book.

A new federal designation would allow struggling hospitals to end inpatient services, but some have concerns about how that could affect rural health care.

COVID-19 is circulating, respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, is raging among children and there has been a recent spike in the number of flu cases in Ohio. The result is hospitals across the state — especially those that treat children — are swamped and doctors are imploring the public to take steps to prevent the spread of these viruses.

Cleveland's St. Vincent Charity Medical Center on Wednesday announced it will discontinue inpatient and emergency room services in November.

University Hospitals will no longer provide inpatient, surgical and emergency services at their UH Bedford and Richmond medical centers because of staffing shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital system announced Thursday.

Hospitals are allowing patients to have more visitors, after several months of restrictions brought on by an unprecedented influx of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

But the Ohio Hospital Association says those services come with a steep cost.

The hospital system is overwhelmed with cases of the delta variant of COVID-19, the flu and the new, highly contagious omicron variant.

National Guard members should arrive at hospitals by the end of this week to help with the latest surge of COVID-19.

These attacks can lead to significant delays in care for already overburdened or rural hospitals.