Grant County grief support center Thadd’s Place received a $24,000 grant from the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s Community Partnership Program to expand its services, including cancer patients and their families.

In a story about a nursing shortage at St. Charles Health hospitals in central Oregon, Franny White says: “Due to the increased demand on hospital beds, combined with state and nationwide hospital staffing shortages, the majority of Oregon hospitals are caring for the maximum number of patients for whom they are able to provide health care staff.”

U.S. News & World Report names OHSU the No. 1 hospital in Oregon and ranked it as among the top 50 hospitals in the following specialties: Cancer, otolaryngology, gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, neurology and neurosurgery, and pulmonology and lung surgery.

Dawn Nolt, M.D., M.P.H., reminds parents about the benefits of vaccinating students over the age of 12 before the start of the school year. She says: “We know COVID-19 effects thousands of students in the United States already. Of all the new cases, 15% of them are in children…We want kids to be vaccinated to prevent not only infection but these long-term effects:”

In a story about a delta variant-driven rise in COVID cases nationwide, Judith Guzman-Cottrill, D.O., notes that only requiring unvaccinated students to wear masks could “lead to bullying and peer pressure to unmask even when it’s not safe to do so.”

In a story about children accidentally consuming edible marijuana, Benjamin Hoffman, M.D., explains how such events have increased in states where marijuana is legal and that if children consume enough THC, they could have a seizure, go into a coma and become traumatized.

Starting Sept. 1, OHSU intends to require its staff, students, volunteers and long-term vendors to either get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit an approved exemption as allowed by state and federal law and complete vaccine-related education.

While discussing breakthrough COVID cases, Esther Choo, M.D., M.P.H., notes no vaccine is 100% effective.

OHSU, and other hospitals statewide, are offering incentive pay programs to help mitigate staffing shortages due to increased patient volumes.

Amy Penkin, M.S.W., describes how the pandemic has affected people seeking gender-affirming health care, including some care being delayed and some care transitioning from in-person to virtual.