State Highlights: Hospital Board’s Vote To Close Delivery Room Broke D.C. Law; Minn. Task Force Calls For ‘Dramatic’ Reforms To Prevent Elder Abuse

The Washington Post: Ethics Officials Say The Board Of D.C.'s Only Public Hospital Violated Open Meeting Law
The board of D.C.’s only public hospital violated the city’s Open Meetings Act in December when it excluded the public from its discussion and vote to permanently close the hospital’s nursery and delivery rooms, a top District ethics official has determined. Traci L. Hughes, director of the D.C. Office of Open Government, said in a ruling issued Friday that the board of United Medical Center in Southeast Washington committed violations of the law, which is designed to ensure transparency of government actions. (Jamison, 1/29)

The Star Tribune: Task Force:'Dramatic' Reforms Needed To End Abuse In Senior Homes 
Minnesota’s system of preventing violence in senior homes is badly broken and can only be fixed with stronger state oversight and tougher penalties against facilities and perpetrators of abuse, a state work group concluded Monday after weeks of work. Their report, released late Monday, calls for “immediate and dramatic” reforms in Minnesota’s regulation of senior care facilities. (Serres, 1/ 29)

Pioneer Press: To Protect Minnesota Seniors, New Laws And Oversight System Reform Recommended 
A working group on how Minnesota should respond to elder abuse is recommending a sweeping overhaul of the state’s system for protecting seniors and vulnerable adults. The elder care working group released a series of recommendations Monday evening; the panel was created in November. The group was made up of representatives of five advocacy groups that work on behalf of Minnesotans in long-term care facilities. (Magan, 1/29)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Report Cites Litany Of Causes For Problems In Milwaukee Health Department Lead Program
A new report into the troubled Milwaukee Health Department found that staffing shortages, inadequate training, high turnover and poor coordination contributed to the failure by its lead prevention program to follow up with thousands of families who had lead-poisoned children. In two cases last year, children with extremely high levels of lead in their blood were returned to their homes without the city testing to see whether the residences were lead-free, said the report, released Monday night by Mayor Tom Barrett at a news conference. (Bice and Spicuzza, 1/29)

Los Angeles Times: Anxiety After Possible Tuberculosis Case At Burbank High School
Anxious parents peppered Los Angeles County health officials with questions about the safety of their children after an individual at Johns Burroughs High School was diagnosed with a possible case of tuberculosis recently. The two dozen parents who attended a special meeting held at the school wanted to know if their children had been exposed to the disease and if there was a risk of it spreading to the general public. Officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health worked at assuaging their fears. (Nguyen and Carpio, 1/29)

Kansas City Star: Blue Cross Of Kansas And Kansas City In Mental Health Disputes
Mental health therapists say the audits and payment recoupments are having a chilling effect on their ability to treat people who need counseling either several times a week or for a long period of time. They’re questioning whether they violate parity laws that require insurers to cover mental and behavioral health care the same way they cover medical care. (Marso, 1/29)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Senate Panel Recommends Confirmation Of Neall As Health Secretary 
Robert R. Neall won a unanimous recommendation from a Senate committee Monday to be confirmed as Maryland’s secretary of health. The swift approval of Neall’s nomination by the Senate Executive Nominations Committee came as a stark contrast with the panel’s handling of Gov. Larry Hogan’s last nominee to lead the Department of Health. Last year the committee repeatedly delayed hearings on Dennis R. Schrader’s nomination, prompting Hogan to withdraw his nomination but to leave him in charge of the department over legislators’ objections. (Dresser, 1/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bill Would Expand Breastfeeding-Friendly Workplaces To All Of California
This bill mimics a recently implemented San Francisco ordinance, which as of Jan. 1 required businesses — both public and private — to provide lactation facilities to their workers by 2019, or face fines. Lactation rooms in offices mean mothers won’t have to choose between staying at home to express milk or doing it in an uncomfortable environment, like a restroom stall. (Thadani, 1/29)

The Associated Press: Lawsuit Seeks To Stop Big California Homeless Camp Shutdown
A religious organization that serves the poor in Southern California filed a lawsuit Monday to try to stop local governments from forcing homeless people out of a big encampment along a riverbed trail. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the Orange County Catholic Worker group and seven homeless people claims a broad range of violations of constitutional protections by the governments of Orange County and the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange. (1/29)

California Healthline: As Marijuana Laws Relax, Doctors Say Pregnant Women Shouldn’t Partake
Two-year-old Maverick Hawkins sits on a red, plastic car in his grandmother’s living room in the picturesque town of Nevada City, Calif., in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. His playpal Delilah Smith, a fellow 2-year-old, snacks on hummus and cashews and delights over the sounds of her Princess Peppa Pig stuffie. It’s playtime for the kids of the provocatively named Facebook group “Pot smoking moms who cuss sometimes.” (Varney, 1/30)

Tampa Bay Times: Woman Who Lost Hands And Feet To Botched Ovarian Cyst Surgery Deserves $109 Million, Tampa Jury Says
A little more than six years ago, Lisa-Maria Carter had an operation to remove a benign ovarian cyst. She ended up losing her hands and feet. A Tampa jury on Friday awarded Carter more than $109 million in damages from the University of South Florida. The surgery took place at Tampa General Hospital through USF’s college of medicine, which employed the surgeon. (Sullivan, 1/29)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Orleans Jail's Compliance Director Resigns, Judge 'Dissatisfied With The Pace Of Reform' 
Gary Maynard, the compliance director for the Orleans Parish jail tasked with running the jail until it is released from the federal consent decree, resigned Monday (Jan. 29). U.S. District Judge Lance Africk wrote in a court order that he was "dissatisfied with the pace of reform" at the jail. Maynard was named compliance director in August 2016, bringing four decades of corrections experience including as director of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections. His tenure has lasted beyond the year anticipated by Africk, who enforces the consent decree. (Lane, 1/29)

Georgia Health News: Mobile ER Arrives At Grady To Handle Overflow
The tractor trailer-sized structure sits outside Grady Memorial Hospital’s ER, looking like some huge tent assembled outside a major entertainment or sports event. Typically, the Atlanta safety-net hospital sees 400 ER patients a day. Lately, though, the number has moved above 500. (Miller, 1/29)

The Oregonian: Jury Awards No Money To Brain-Damaged Boy Who Contracted Herpes From Mother
A jury on Monday declined to award any money to a 4-year-old Portland boy who suffered profound brain damage after he contracted herpes from his mother at birth. Attorneys for Jonah Johnson had sought $46.5 million, saying obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Carrie Miles should have recognized that the boy's mother was infected with the disease when she arrived at the emergency room of Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Northwest Portland. (Green, 1/29)