Wesley and Ascension Via Christi hospital executives are calling for a statewide emergency declaration that would allow hospitals to house more than their licensed number of patients, as surging COVID-19 cases perpetuate dire conditions in Wichita’s overcrowded ERs. Dr. Kimberly Megow, chief regional medical officer of Wesley’s parent company, HCA, spoke about the life and death treatment decisions being made during a video conference with hospital officials from across Kansas on Wednesday morning. “We continue to run well over 100% capacity in all of our ERs. Some of them are 200 or 300% capacity,” Megow said, referring to a metric based on the number of staffed ER and overflow beds available.
Source: Wichita Eagle

As Gov. Laura Kelly campaigns to eliminate Kansas’ sales taxes on food, a movement is brewing to limit the tax relief to healthy foods only. The idea of limited food tax relief surfaced during a public forum of the South Central Kansas legislative delegation Tuesday night. It was suggested by Jane Byrnes, a health and fitness advocate who serves on Wichita’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board. “If you remove the tax from healthful foods for Kansans, you’d be educating Kansans,” Byrnes said. “Most folks don’t know the difference between evidence-based healthful foods and the extras, the heavily marketed snacks and sugary drinks that do not support health.”
Source: Wichita Eagle

Even Neel Kashkari thinks it’s time to raise interest rates. Since he became president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in 2016, Kashkari has consistently opposed rate increases and became known for holding the most dovish views of the central bank’s policymakers. But amid some of the highest inflation in decades, Kashkari on Tuesday said he supports raising rates this year — but twice, not the three times the Fed signaled on Dec. 15.
Source: Wichita Eagle