The state wants to limit the number of seriously ill children placed in institutional settings. But it’s getting pushback from some parents whose children are too volatile to stay at home and need longer-term residential care that’s in short supply.
Robin Erb
Robin Erb covers a range of health issues in Michigan, including the industry of aging and the issues facing older residents in Michigan, a state that is aging faster than most others. She joined Bridge in 2019 and has led investigations that tracked millions of dollars in opioid settlement money and explored severe worker shortages in health care that threaten lives and the state's economy. She chronicled the shock and grief of Michigan families in COVID’s wake, as well as state policy decisions and the triumphs of medical breakthroughs. Robin previously spent six years covering health at the Detroit Free Press, documenting the battle over, and the eventual passage of, the Affordable Care Act and Michigan's Medicaid expansion. She studied communications and political science at Miami University and has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Lourdes University (Toledo, Ohio). She and her husband raised two wonderful children — but have failed miserably at training their Beagle-Bassets — in southeast Michigan. Reach her at rerb@bridgemi.com.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan reports new lows (the good kind) on COVID
Hospitalization, death and even sewage surveillance records suggest COVID has lost a good part of its deadly edge in Michigan, but cautions remain.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Meet Moxi, the newest nurse assistant of Trinity Michigan medical team
A 3D printed, high-grade plastic nurse assistant with heart-shaped eyes may be working behind the scenes at your next hospital visit, fetching your medications and your lunch and allowing human coworkers to spend more time at the bedside.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Amid cancer drug shortages, some Michigan doctors are forced to ration.
The scarcity of two core cancer drugs, carboplatin and cisplatin, have grown so acute that some patients may be forced to delay treatment or take lesser doses.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Panel says breast cancer screen should start at 40, but some have qualms
A respected U.S. task force contends mammograms should begin at age 40, not 50, citing more precise research. But the decision, which isn’t final, is more complicated than it sounds.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan is short on Adderall, penicillin, cancer drugs amid supply woes
Drug shortages have come and gone over the years, but national data confirms what Michigan doctors are feeling: they’re worse now. This includes antibiotics for strep, ear infections and syphilis, ADHD meds and two drugs for cancer.
Posted inMichigan Government
Oakland County health officer dead in apparent murder-suicide, police say
The sheriff’s office confirmed Thursday that Calandra Green’s death is being investigated as a ‘homicide and a suicide.’ The bodies of Green and her husband were found in the home. Green, named county health officer last year, was the first woman of color in that position.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan expert on history’s pandemics reflects on end of COVID emergency
A doctor, author and national expert on epidemics through the ages, Dr. Howard Markel of the University of Michigan managed to avoid COVID for nearly three years. Then he faced the ‘human petri dish’ of international travel.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
FDA panel approves over-the-counter birth control, despite some concerns
An expert panel voted 17-0 Wednesday to approve the first U.S. birth control pill without a prescription. Supporters say it would expand pill access to low-income and rural patients, but some worry about taking doctors out of the equation.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
COVID public health emergency ends Thursday, what it means for Michigan
Guarantees of free COVID tests end with the last day of the national public health emergency, and there will be less data to pore through. But other impacts from a deadly pandemic will remain.