Health care issues

Military veterans who served at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City and at Joe Foss Field Air National Guard Station in Sioux Falls are part of new national class-action lawsuits seeking damages due to exposure to toxic chemicals in firefighting foam.

One in four births in South Dakota is performed via cesarean section, and those births can range from the routine to the traumatic. In the first in a collaboration with SDPB's South Dakota Focus show, we look into how monthly meetings have a healing effect on moms who went through the procedure.

A Minnesota doctor who helps procure mail-order medication abortions for South Dakota women said she plans to continue that practice even if the U.S. Supreme Court outlaws or limits the use of mifepristone.

Peter Smith, CEO of the Rural Office of Community Services, remains director of the South Dakota non-profit social services agency despite being the subject of a workplace sexual harassment and retaliation investigation by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Investigation that resulted in a $320,000 settlement payment to several former female employees.

Despite a 2020 law restricting cell phone use by drivers, and numerous public-information campaigns, distracted driving remains a significant cause of injuries and deaths in car crashes in South Dakota and across the United States. Police officers continue to crack down on the risky behaviors, but a new outreach effort will use a multi-pronged approach to try to keep people focused on the road ahead.

The highly contagious virus known as RSV is spreading fast among children in South Dakota and across the U.S., raising concerns among medical officials that a more virulent strain of the virus is striking earlier in the year than usual and may sicken large numbers of children and eventually overwhelm pediatric intensive care units in hospitals.

The new investment of $350 million into a Virtual Health Initiative by Sanford Health of Sioux Falls comes at time that experts say the potential has never been higher for the expanded use and revenue generation of telemedicine. Sanford and other healthcare groups saw a major spike in use of telemedicine services during the COVID-19 pandemic that many expect will continue well into the future.

Now that Congress has passed legislation to provide healthcare to veterans who were sickened by exposure to toxic burn pits, the real battle begins for veterans needing care who must navigate the sometimes cumbersome, over-extended VA healthcare system.

The latest variant of COVID-19 -- which is more able to evade immunity from prior infection or vaccination than previous variants -- is causing infection rates to rise in South Dakota and across the country even though it appears less likely to put patients in the hospital. Unless COVID-19 cases jump dramatically, officials in South Dakota government, health care and education do not appear poised to pursue any active interventions at this time.

Two separate November 2022 ballot measures will ask South Dakota voters to approve expansion of the federal Medicaid health insurance plan in the state. Some advocates of expansion are concerned the two measures with generally the same intent could confuse voters and hamper the chances of expanding Medicaid, which could provide medical coverage to about 40,000 more low-income South Dakota residents.