State Highlights: NYC Hospitals Eschew Stereotypically Bland Food For More Nutritional Meals; Conn. Continues On Rocky Road Toward Universal Database For Patient Records

The New York Times: Hospital Food You Can Get Excited About
On a Tuesday morning in March, chef Bruno Tison presided over a frenzied cook-off between teams from 16 health care facilities at Glen Cove Hospital on Long Island. Mr. Tison was hired last September by the nonprofit network Northwell Health to help transform the food service at the company’s 23 New York-area hospitals. Teams of cooks in towering chef caps, together with white-suited dietitians, had 45 minutes to transform a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables and meats piled on a table at the center of the auditorium into four-course meals of their own devising. Their creations not only had to meet restrictions for salt and calories, but were judged according to criteria not usually applied to hospital food like palatability, plate appearance and skill in cooking. (Schiffman, 9/20)

The CT Mirror: A Decade Of Delays, $23 Million Spent, As State Makes Fourth Try For Health Information Exchange
The idea of a single health information exchange across the state of Connecticut seems simple: Gather all health information in one place and make it available to every practitioner involved with a single patient to provide the best care possible. Unfortunately, in Connecticut this process has been anything but simple. Instead, it has been enormously expensive and time-consuming — costing the state $23 million and 11 years of work which, to this date, have yet to produce an exchange. (Werth, 9/20)

Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Public Schools Asked To Dedicate $432K Toward Childhood Trauma Practices
A state grant that funds Nashville public schools' trauma-informed practices will end this year, threatening to stall work that has shown to reduce the need for discipline in the classroom. Trauma-informed schools work to focus on the reducing the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences, which can hurt brain development of children and cause behavioral issues. (Gonzales, 9/19)

The Associated Press: Delaware Reports 1st West Nile Death Since 2012
Health officials are reporting Delaware’s first death related to West Nile Virus since 2012. The Division of Public Health officials announced Wednesday that a 73-year-old New Castle County man, who had been hospitalized since last month, died this week after becoming infected with the virus. The division has confirmed five cases of the virus this year, including the man who died. Officials say all five were men ranging in age from 57 to 75, including four in New Castle County and one in Sussex County. (9/19)

The Associated Press: Surgeon Denies Negligence In Removing Woman’s Healthy Kidney
A South Dakota surgeon admitted to mistakenly removing an Iowa woman’s healthy kidney but denied that he breached the standard of care, according to the surgeon’s response to a lawsuit filed by the patient. Dr. Scott Baker and The Surgical Institute of South Dakota acknowledged in an answer to Dena Knapp’s lawsuit that Baker removed Knapp’s right kidney instead of an adrenal gland and an associated mass, the Argus Leader reported. Knapp, of Milford, Iowa, filed the lawsuit last month alleging professional negligence. (9/19)

Detroit Free Press: Henry Ford Health System Leases New Tower In Royal Oak
A controversial new office tower going up in Royal Oak that critics said will upset the city's downtown economy just got a blue-chip, long-term tenant — the Henry Ford Health System. The nationally prominent health provider announced Wednesday it would lease the entire six-story building for the next 20 years. Henry Ford Health plans to open its high-tech outpatient center in mid-2020 and bring about 200 doctors, nurses and other health care workers to the site that formerly was a large parking lot in front of Royal Oak City Hall, officials said. (Laitner, 9/20)

Boston Globe: Decision On Humana’s Mass. Tax Break Delayed
Health insurance giant Humana is going to have to wait for that state tax incentive. The Louisville, Ky.-based company unveiled plans last month to open a digital health and analytics center in Fort Point, and employ as many as 250 people within the next five years. (Chesto, 9/19)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Transgender UW Employees Win Court Fight Over Surgeries
U.S. District Judge William Conley concluded that there was no legally valid reason to exclude medically necessary care for the workers and called some of the state’s arguments “unhinged from reality.” The plaintiffs, a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student, Alina Boyden, and Shannon Andrews, a researcher at UW School of Medicine, sued in the spring of 2017 after they were denied treatment their doctors had determined was a necessary part of the gender transitions. (Vielmetti, 9/19)

Los Angeles Times: More Than Six Women Accuse Orange County Surgeon And His Girlfriend Of Sexual Assault
As more than half a dozen women came forward Wednesday to accuse a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend of sexually assaulting them, one alleged victim described the couple as a “Bonnie and Clyde” team who drugged her and then forced her to participate in sexual acts, according to court documents. The new accusers have come forward just one day after Orange County prosecutors charged Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 38, and Cerissa Laura Riley, 31, with rape by drugs, oral copulation by anesthesia, assault with intent to commit sexual offenses and other crimes. (Winton and Fry, 9/19)

Sacramento Bee: How This Sacramento Business Let Clients Go And Yet Hired More Health Care Workers
In the last nine months, Edward Navales has hired roughly 50 new employees at the medical staffing business he operates in Sacramento. He also started offering all of his 130-plus employees a 401K plan in which his company makes a matching contribution. (Anderson, 9/20)

Health News Florida: School Mental Health Disclosure Requirement Concerns Parents
Children registering for school in Florida this year were asked to reveal some history about their mental health. The new requirement is part of a law rushed through the state legislature after the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (Ochoa, 9/20)

The Oregonian: Rush Delivery: Oregon Couple Delivers Their Newborn In SUV, Minutes From Hospital 
A Cascade Locks couple delivered their baby Tuesday in their SUV while parked on the side of the road near a Troutdale outlet mall. Valerie and Matt Gordon had planned to give birth to their second daughter with the help of a midwife group in Portland that had been managing the mother's maternity care. But after handing their 3-year-old daughter, Ada, and the family dog to Matt's parents at the outlet mall parking lot around 5 a.m. while Valerie's contractions intensified, the couple knew they had to change their plans. By that point, Valerie Gordon, 35, had been in labor for around 45 minutes. While they drove out of the Columbia Gorge Outlets parking lot, she felt the baby's head crowning. (Bailey, 9/19)

KQED: California’s Plan To Store Water Underground Could Risk Contamination
To contend with the likelihood of future extreme droughts, some of these new strategies rely on underground aquifers — an approach far removed from traditional dam-based water storage. While diversifying the toolbelt of water management strategies will likely help insulate the state against loss, a group of researchers at Stanford University are drawing attention to a risk they say has long ridden under the radar of public consciousness: the introduction of dangerous chemicals into California groundwater, both through industrial and natural pathways. (Heidt, 9/19)

Austin American-Statesman: Central Health Sets Public Hearing For Saturday To Reconsider Sendero
Central Health is continuing to weigh the future of its nonprofit insurance provider, Sendero Health Plans, and will hold a special meeting on Saturday, where members of the public will be allowed to speak. Travis County commissioners on Tuesday delayed voting on the health district’s proposed $258 million budget for fiscal 2019, after several people spoke out against Central Health’s decision to suspend Sendero, which provides low-cost insurance to 24,000 residents. (Huber, 9/19)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Supreme Court Blames Domestic Violence Victim, Removes Kids
The Arizona Supreme Court severed an abused woman’s parental rights, saying it was in the best interests of her children. Hard truth: Being a victim of domestic violence cost this mother her children. (Valdez, 9/19)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Lancaster's Weeks Medical Center Breaks Ground On $14.2 Million Expansion 
The Weeks Medical Center on Wednesday broke ground on the $14.2 million Lancaster Patient Care Center to enhance healthcare services in the North Country. The 42,000 square-foot, three-story Care Center will connect to the exiting 71-year old Weeks hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital that offers medical, surgical, and intensive care services. Mike Lee, president of the Weeks Medical Center, said the facility serves 12,000 patients annually. He noted that the need for additional space, especially for primary care and outpatient services, has been recognized by the Weeks board of trustees for a decade. (Koziol, 9/19)

Miami Herald: Charter Schools Pick Nikolas Cruz’s Former Mental Health Provider
Florida’s largest charter school membership organization announced Wednesday that it is partnering with Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz’s former mental health care provider to render services to schools. Broward County’s Henderson Behavioral Health will provide mental health assessments, diagnoses, interventions, treatment and recovery services, free of charge, to students in need at member schools of the Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools, according to a news release. (Wright, 9/20)

California Healthline: Bad Air And Inadequate Data Prove An Unhealthy Mix
Kira Hinslea wanted to play outside, but she knew she couldn’t until her mom checked an air-quality app on her phone. “Is it OK?” the 6-year-old eagerly asked her mother, Shirley Hinslea, one day late last month. Hinslea gave Kira the green light, and the child beamed with excitement. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” she yelled, sprinting from the kitchen, across the living room and out to the porch of their mobile home in this small Kern County town. (Ibarra, 9/19)

KCUR: As Missouri Voters Weigh Legalizing Medical Pot, Schools Leave To-Be Doctors In The Dark
Marijuana has been found to reduce seizures for some epileptic people, and [Lonnie] Kessler’s eager to see what it do could for him, but the Moberly man doesn’t have legal access to it. That could change, as there are three ballot measures on the Nov. 6 ballot in Missouri. Even if voters go for it, many doctors won’t be ready to offer medical pot to patients in part because few get trained on its use. A Washington University study from November of 2017 found that just 9 percent of medical schools teach about medical marijuana, and 90 percent of med school graduates say they aren’t ready to help patients use it. And that’s with 30 states having legalized the drug for medical use. (Smith, 9/19)