(Radio Iowa) – The latest data indicates about 25 percent of Iowans have gotten a flu shot.  “It seems to be still a little bit less uptick than we’d like in comparison to years past.” That’s Dr. Robert Kruse, the state medical director. During the flu season three years ago, 40 percent of Iowans got a flu shot. Kruse says cases of influenza and the respiratory illness known as R-S-V are increasing in Iowa.

“People are interacting more,” Kruse says. “They’re more indoors.” According to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, just under 60 percent of Iowa residents are fully vaccinated against COVID. With holiday gatherings ahead, the agency is urging Iowans to get the flu shot AND ensure they’re up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.

“Having these vaccines can help lower and reduce your risk for illness and prevent some of those complications,” Kruse says. State records indicate nearly 33-point-four percent of Carroll County residents got the flu shot by the end of October. That’s the highest flu vaccination rate of any county. More than 71 percent of Johnson County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

(Radio Iowa) – Two people died in a house fire Thursday afternoon, in Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids Firefighters were called out just after noon on a 911 call reporting smoke coming from the windows of a home. The fire department says 72-year-old Charles Osterkamp and 70-year-old Sheri Osterkamp were found dead in the basement of the single-story home.

The fire department says the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Atlantic, IA – Officials with Cass Health report Registered Nurse Brooke Dreager was honored with the DAISY Award this week. Dreager has worked at Cass Health since September 2014. Initially a nurse on the Inpatient Services team, she transitioned to the Obstetrics Unit in January 2015. She says “When I was doing my clinicals in nursing school, seeing a baby born, it just felt like the right path for me. Everything that has to come together for a baby to be born – it’s truly a miracle. OB is very much my happy place.”

Cass Health Chief Operating Officer Amanda Bireline commented, “For Brooke, it was not a matter of if, but rather when she would become a DAISY nurse. The nomination story that earned Brooke this award captures the kind of experience that Brooke creates for every patient, every time.”

Brooke Dreager, RN (Photo courtesy CCHS)

Dreager’s nominator wrote: “Brooke was with me from the moment I walked in the hospital to the last day of my 5 day stay after my natural birth turned into a c-section. This was my first baby so I was scared, anxious, and everything in between. Brooke checked on me daily, even when she wasn’t on that day. Brooke was my nurse during my attempt at a natural birth, she stayed for 3 hours talking me though pushing and breathing. She was supposed to be off at 7:00pm that day but she stayed with me through my c-section and she was the only way I was going to get my through my birth experience. She talked me through everything and every step of the way. Brooke was the most amazing nurse to have on my case and I would go back to Cass to have my next child all because of Brooke. She was so supportive to my husband and me; first time mom after major surgery and first time dad who was scared and anxious. If we didn’t have a named picked out already, our daughter would’ve been named Brooke – that’s how much Brooke means to our family.”

Dreager said, “I love my job. It means so much to even be nominated, just knowing that someone has thought about you after you’ve provided care to them. I always want to provide the best possible care, to give my patients the best possible experience. Giving birth can be one of the happiest and scariest days, and things don’t always go as planned. Knowing that you took something scary and unknown and helped your patient through that and made it better for them, that’s why I’m here. It makes me realize that I’m doing the right thing with my life.”

Nurses at Cass Health are honored twice annually with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses.® The award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s mission to recognize the extraordinary, compassionate nursing care they provide patients and families every day. The DAISY Award committee at Cass Health wishes to thank all nominators for their submissions. Each nurse who was nominated will be presented with a special pin and a copy of the nomination.

The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org. An online nomination form is available at https://www.casshealth.org/daisy.

Des Moines, Iowa – Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, Thursday, said 22-year-old Brett Michael Dobberke, of Des Moines, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it.

According to court documents and the facts detailed at the sentencing hearing, on November 7, 2021, Dobberke set up a drug deal, via Snapchat, with an individual unknown to him. Dobberke arrived at the drug deal with a loaded gun. The customer who arrived to buy drugs from Dobberke was a 15-year-old boy. During the drug deal, Dobberke and the 15-year-old boy exchanged gunfire, and Dobberke shot and killed the minor victim. Following the shooting, Dobberke did not call for help or render aid to the victim and instead left the scene.

After Dobberke killed the minor victim, he did two more drug deals that same night. He also hid the shell casing from the discharged round that killed the victim. When police officers located Dobberke, he had another loaded gun in his vehicle. The gun Dobberke used to shoot and kill the victim was located at his residence.

U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa; and the Des Moines Police Department made the announcement. The Des Moines Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mikaela J. Shotwell and Kristin M. Herrera prosecuted the case, with assistance from Victim Witness Specialists Charlotte Kovacs and Katie Blanchard.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

(Radio Iowa) – From Sioux City to the Quad Cities, Iowa hospitals are reporting surges in children being brought to emergency rooms with cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or R-S-V. Dr. Amy Groen, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, says daily patient volume is about double what it normally is for this time of the year.

“We’re seeing more and more kids affected. We’re seeing more and more visits secondary to it,” Groen says. “And, frankly, we’ve run out of hospital beds on most days for the patients that need to be admitted from RSV.” Groen says R-S-V is more dangerous for young children because their airways are smaller and cannot handle swelling from the virus the way older children and adults can. She recommends parents consider keeping their young children away from others as much as possible.

“I know the holidays are coming up and you want to see family, but RSV in really young infants can be a serious thing,” Groen says. “So really reconsider your holiday plans and your gathering plans just so your infant doesn’t get ill.” A report from the state hygienic lab says during the first week of November, there were 810 cases of R-S-V reported statewide, a jump from 568 the week before.

In Cedar Rapids, Linn County Public Health, Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s all report significant increases in R-S-V cases in recent weeks. Blank Children’s Hospital reports the number of kids arriving each day in the E-R is around 120, double the average.

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

ATLANTIC, IOWA – As part of the National Rural Health Day celebration today, Cass Health announced it has been recognized with two 2022 Performance Leadership Awards for excellence in both Quality and Patient Outcomes. Compiled by The Chartis Center for Rural Health, the Performance Leadership Awards honor top quartile performance (75th percentile or above). Among all the nation’s rural hospitals, Cass Health ranked above the 95th percentile in both Quality and Outcomes.

“Cass Health has achieved this award every year since 2017 because we’re incredibly blessed to have a talented, hardworking team here. These awards are so meaningful to us because they validate that the care we provide is of the highest quality, which leads to the best possible outcomes for our patients,” noted Brett Altman, CEO.

The Performance Leadership Awards are based on the results of the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance INDEX™, the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance. INDEX data is trusted and relied upon by rural hospitals, health systems with rural footprints, hospital associations and state offices of rural health across the country to measure and monitor performance across several areas impacting hospital operations and finance.

“Although the last two years have placed unprecedented pressure on the rural health safety net, the dedication to serving the community that we’re so accustomed to seeing from rural hospitals across the country hasn’t wavered,” said Michael Topchik, National Leader, The Chartis Center for Rural Health. “Let us celebrate the power of rural on National Rural Health Day and honor the facilities working tirelessly to provide access to high quality healthcare services to their communities.”

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has been elected chair of the Republican Governors Association. Reynolds says Republican governors and candidates must show voters an alternative to the chaos and dysfunction in the federal government. “Tell them what you’re going to do. Follow through,” Reynolds says. “And how about we respect the people that we serve.”

Twenty-eight states currently have a Republican governor, but Democrats defeated G-O-P candidates in three of those states last week. There are three governors races in 2023 and Reynolds, as the Republican Governors Association chair, will now be leading fundraising and other efforts to support G-O-P candidates for governor in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi. “I think we need to continue to focus on the economy,” Reynolds says. “We need to continue to focus on getting results in kitchen table issues that families are dealing with in every one of our states.”

Reynolds made her remarks this week at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida. Sara Craig Gongol, who has served as Reynolds’ chief of staff for nearly four years, is leaving to take over as executive director of the Republican Governors Association in January. Craig Gongol was a consultant on Governor Reynolds’ 2018 campaign and she’s worked for a number of state and federal candidates in Iowa and elsewhere.