Lansing-based Sparrow is to become part of Michigan Medicine by next summer, offering midstate market share to U-M Health and better financial footing to Sparrow.
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 Democrats eye other abortion law changes as Prop 3 set to take effect
Proponents of a Michigan constitutional protections for abortion vowed existing limits remain in place. That doesn’t preclude a Democrat-led Legislature from eventually changing them.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan hospitals lost 1,700 beds from staff shortages, seek more money
Over the past year, healthcare is one of many industries eyeballing federal relief dollars. Michigan hospital leaders say funds will bolster staff and protect health care and local economies.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan takes steps to boost bed capacity for kids in mental health crisis
Michigan has lost hundreds of mental health treatment beds for kids in the juvenile justice and foster care systems due to staff shortages. Officials hope to boost staffing by offering steadier funding to residential treatment centers.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan’s pandemic baby bump over: 2022 births sliding again
Preliminary data through June appears to show that any increase in Michigan births following COVID stay-at-home orders was just a blip. In a state aging faster than most, lagging birth rates present another challenge to its economic future.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
As RSV packs Michigan hospitals, a new need emerges: baby cribs
Hospital-grade infant cribs can be rented temporarily for surges, but now an entire nation of hospitals is scrambling, with some local vendors out of supplies. Hospitals are also running short of specialized tubing.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
1-in-7 parents haven’t talked with child’s doc about vaccines for two years
Michigan researchers wanted to find out more about vaccine conversations between doctors and parents. Too often, those conversations aren’t happening across the United States.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Staffing woes foil Michigan efforts to keep residents out of nursing homes
The popular MI Choice program, which keeps low-income seniors and disabled residents in their homes, now has 4,000 open positions as state agencies struggle to hire direct-care staffers, even after offering higher pay.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan doctor helps shine national focus on race bias in pulse oximeters
Dark skin can throw off oxygen level readings on a ubiquitous medical tool. Landmark research by a U-M team found that low oxygen levels are more likely to go undetected in Black patients, with dangerous consequences.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Doctors: Know who’s at Thanksgiving table as RSV continues to surge
C.S. Mott Children’s in Ann Arbor became the latest hospital to announce it was running short on pediatric beds. Doctors say Thanksgiving and other holiday gatherings could make RSV, flu and COVID spread much worse for the most vulnerable.