Kate Wells, Michigan Radio

For many hospital systems, this new surge arrives as thousands of hospital workers themselves are testing positive for the virus, putting a further strain on staffing.

Spectrum Health in west Michigan hit a system-level record high for patients, forcing them to turn away more transfer patients from smaller or more rural hospitals. 'It's heartbreaking,' the system's president said.

Bitter fights over whether hospitals are doing enough to retain and recruit health care workers have intensified during the pandemic, as shortages reach a crisis point.

Michigan emergency department visits are up 43 percent, thanks in part to an avalanche of sick people who delayed medical care amid COVID. Some patients wait in hallways for days. Others lose their beds when even sicker patients arrive.

The Detroit-based hospital system made the numbers public after a deadline passed for staff to get vaccinated. A dozen Michigan health systems were surveyed on staff vaccine rates, offering varying levels of transparency.

In just under a month, the number of COVID-19 patients in Michigan receiving monoclonal antibody treatments soared by more than 300 percent, from about 500 patients the week for March 24, to about 1,700 the week of April 21.

As of Friday, April 23, 54 children were hospitalized in Michigan with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

With shortages of the COVID-19 vaccine expected for the foreseeable future, people’s lives depend on having effective treatments for the virus.

For so many teachers right now, trying to get the COVID-19 vaccine can feel like a distilled version of everything that’s been so stressful and challenging about the last 10 months: Nothing’s working the way it’s supposed to. No one seems to be able to figure out what’s going on. And you’re basically on your own.

Michigan health care workers have spent the last nine months in the trenches battling COVID. But not all will opt-in.

The sadness and stress of handling so many COVID patients is getting to the state’s frontline health care workers, many of whom already struggled to cope in a job with long hours, little gratitude and daily tragedy.

Santa Staples, born on Christmas Day, was a singular presence at McClaren, where she ran the operating room with military precision. A nurse for 33 years, she died Saturday of COVID-19, one of at least two Michigan nurses lost to the virus in the past week.

As the coronavirus surged through Michigan last spring, doctors often gave new patients unnecessary antibiotics as they awaited test results, resulting in resistance to antibiotics later in their hospital stays when they developed infections.

The FDA has delayed approving broader use of convalescent plasma until more randomized studies are completed. But Henry Ford and U-M doctors will continue to study the promising treatment on coronavirus patients.

The drug’s effects had been called into question after a series of studies and controversies since it was promoted by President Trump. A study at Henry Ford Health System found lower death rates when the drug is given early.

Burnout and suicide rates were already high among health care workers. Now, hospital systems and mental health providers are responding to trauma caused by the intensity of responding to COVID-19.

Hydroxychloroquine was touted early on as possible treatment for COVID-19 patients, but a growing body of research points to possibly deadly side effects

Southeast Michigan doctors got a crash course in treating COVID-19, an experience that caused them to question what they thought they knew about the coronavirus and how to keep patients alive. Some hospitals reached different results.

You can now look up the number of COVID-19 patients at a particular hospital or health system, as well as the total capacity of beds being used, and the number of days of personal protective equipment left on hand.

Dr. Luda Khait-Vlisides had to look through her patient’s phone to find his daughter’s number, so she could tell her her father had died.