The numbers at Beaumont Health, Michigan’s largest hospital system, are the latest reminder of the dangers facing hospital workers in metro Detroit.
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
Intensive care nurse in Flint dies of the coronavirus
The latest death underscores the danger and anxiety for health care workers on Michigan’s front lines as the virus spreads through the state.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Nurses say Detroit hospital told them to leave after coronavirus protest
Night-shift nurses staged a protest at the hospital over heavy patient caseloads that they said were dangerous. Hospital officials asked the nurses to leave, they said.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Beaumont chief blasts Michigan for lack of hospital data during coronavirus
Beaumont Health CEO John Fox faults the state for not forcing hospitals to share real-time data on available resources at other hospitals when patient counts surge, leaving patients to wait hours to be transferred.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Inside Michigan hospitals, a ‘crushingly hard’ week in coronavirus fight
In the toughest week yet in Michigan’s fight against coronavirus, hospital workers share their fears, anxieties and triumphs of treating patients and ensuring they don’t bring the highly contagious virus home to their loved ones. “You don’t know what you’re walking into, and you don’t know if you’ll be able to walk away without being sick, yourself,” one says.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan’s COVID-19 death toll is undercounted. So some want to test the dead.
Assumptions, a lack of testing, and false negatives lead to an unclear tally of COVID-19 deaths. A Detroit effort might change that.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Could hydroxychloroquine stop coronavirus? Detroit is first in nation for study
Participants will receive either an antimalarial drug or a placebo in a first-of-its size trial by Henry Ford Health System, in an attempt to halt a deadly virus decimating Detroit and the world.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
You were told no mask if you don’t have coronavirus. That might be wrong.
As coronavirus spreads across Michigan and the nation, experts are rethinking the message that only those with symptoms of the illness need to wear a mask in public.
Posted inUrban Affairs
As coronavirus bears down, Detroit enters a grim new phase
In metro Detroit, the epicenter of Michigan’s outbreak, the pandemic is spreading rapidly as hospitals, government leaders and residents deal with medical shortages and some painful goodbyes.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
In metro Detroit, coronavirus deaths spike overnight amid ventilator need
Oakland County executive Dave Coulter issued a call for masks and ventilators at the beginning of what he called “the most challenging week yet.”