Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Arizona Center Where Comatose Woman Gave Birth Reaches Oversight Agreement; Suicides Among Calif. Firefighters Reveal Toll Of Fire Season
The Associated Press: Arizona Now Oversees Center Where Incapacitated Woman Raped
A Phoenix long-term care facility where an incapacitated woman was raped last year and gave birth in December without any healthcare workers noticing her pregnancy was placed Friday under state supervision, subjecting the center to strict oversight requirements. The Arizona Department of Health Services and Hacienda HealthCare entered into a voluntary agreement allowing state regulators to watch over the facility, which houses patients who are intellectually disabled or are medically fragile. (3/8)
Arizona Republic: State Health Officials Strike Regulatory Deal With Hacienda HealthCare
The agreement calls for, among other things, the installation of a video-monitoring system and to get a video-monitoring plan approved by the health department as additional security. In addition, Hacienda HealthCare must provide daily reports to state officials about any staffing departures to ensure there are no adverse impacts to patient care, the agreement says. (Innes, 3/8)
Los Angeles Times: Firefighter Suicides Reflect Toll Of Longer Fire Seasons And Increased Stress
Capt. Ryan Mitchell had just finished three punishing weeks of firefighting. He had deployed to fires far from home, then returned only to dash out to another one. Mitchell’s parents and 16-month-old son came to visit him at the station. “He didn’t look good. He was tired, he was thin, his eyes were shallow. He wasn’t his usual self,” Mitchell’s father, Will, recalled. (Agrawal, 3/1)
Modern Healthcare: CommonSpirit Health Projects $500 Million In Cost Savings
The leadership team behind CommonSpirit Health expects the merger that created the new system will generate at least $500 million in cost savings over the next three years, executives said on their first combined investor call Friday. Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health officially sealed the deal on Feb. 1, and executives with the new Chicago-based system said Friday the resulting synergies would start to pay off within 6 months to one year of closing, with the full extent of the savings realized within five years. (Bannow, 3/8)
Boston Globe: Most Doctors Don’t Screen For Dementia, But That May Change In Massachusetts
Nine out of 10 older people get their blood pressure checked when they visit their primary care doctors, and 73 percent are screened for hearing or vision loss. But what about problems with memory or thinking? Only 16 percent are asked about that. (Freyer, 3/10)
Seattle Times: Seattle Children’s And Microsoft Find New Insights Into How Smoking During Pregnancy Harms A Baby
It’s no surprise that smoking during pregnancy is unhealthy for the fetus — just as it’s unhealthy for the person smoking. But the powerful combination of medical research and data science has given new insights into the risks involved, specifically when it comes to babies suddenly dying in their sleep. The risk of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) increases with every cigarette smoked during pregnancy, according to a joint study by Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Microsoft data scientists. (Blethen, 3/11)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: LCMC Health, LSU Respond To Report On Maternal Deaths, Injuries At Touro Infirmary
Officials with LCMC Health System and the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans responded to a scathing exposé published in USA Today Thursday (March 7) that spotlighted Touro Infirmary as having what the newspaper described as unusually high rates of severe childbirth complications -- higher than any other New Orleans hospital. LSU Health Sciences, which operates its OBGYN residency program out of Touro, said Friday that “the USA Today story made allegations that are not only unsupported by fact, but we made it clear that the allegations were untrue from the outset.” (Clark, 3/9)
Pioneer Press: Medical Marijuana Works But Costs MN Patients Too Much
Patients in Minnesota’s medical cannabis program and even those who designed it point to [price] as its main flaw. It is too expensive for those who need it. It is a money loser for those who grow and sell it. And it is leaving people in pain with few options: pay up, enter a risky illegal market or take addictive opioids that are covered by insurance. Last year alone, more than 3,400 new patients dropped out of the program, according to state data. (Faircloth, 3/10)
San Francisco Chronicle: After Daughter’s Suicide, Grieving Parents Denounce Gaps In Access To Mental Health Care
A poll released in January by the California Health Care Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than half of those surveyed thought their communities lacked adequate mental health care providers, and that most people with mental health conditions are unable to get needed services. The state Department of Managed Health Care has cited health plans dozens of times in the past decade — penalizing them millions of dollars — for mental health-related violations. (Wiener, 3/10)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Flu Activity Easing In Georgia, But Still High And Widespread
The 2018-19 flu season is shaping up to be a relatively mild one, and it may be thanks, at least in part, to a better match with the flu vaccine. Midseason estimates suggest that the flu shot has reduced the risk of illness by around 47 percent in vaccinated people, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Oliviero, 3/8)
Austin American-Statesman: Report: Texas Foster Kids Left In State Psychiatric Hospitals For Weeks Or Months
Nearly 600 foster kids in fiscal 2017 spent a total of almost 14,000 days in psychiatric hospitals after doctors said they were ready to leave, according to a new report by Disability Rights Texas, an advocacy group for people with disabilities. The consequences can be serious. While psychiatric hospitals provide medication and treatment, they also can be dangerous places where kids are assaulted by other patients or, sometimes, staffers. (Bell, 3/8)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: UGA Study Finds Link Between Menstruation And High Blood Pressure
Researchers found that girls who began menstruation early faced a significant increase in the likelihood of having hypertension as an adult. The link remained even when controlling for independent social economic factors, lifestyle behaviors, and other metabolic measures. (Clanton, 3/8)
KCUR: Three Kansas City Area Hospitals Get Dinged By Medicare For High Complication Rates
Three Kansas City-area hospitals are among 17 in Missouri and seven in Kansas that are being penalized by Medicare this year for high infection and patient-injury rates. Truman Medical Centers, Research Medical Center and Belton Medical Center will see their Medicare payments reduced by 1 percent because of high rates of complications. It’s the fifth year in a row Truman has been penalized. (Margolies, 3/8)
Boston Globe: Mass. Authorities Face Steep Hurdles In Shutting Down Sex Trafficking
Police and prosecutors have made concerted efforts to curb sex trafficking since a state law took effect in 2012. ...ut the Internet has at least one other website directing customers to spas that offer sexual services all over Massachusetts, complete with customers’ Yelp-like reviews. And prosecutors say that many seeming mom-and-pop storefronts are part of larger networks that can quickly move around women and money. (Ebbert, 3/9)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Pilot Program For Doulas To Improve Infant Mortality Passes Committee
A new program aimed at helping expectant mothers deliver and nurture healthy babies in one of Milwaukee's most distressed neighborhoods will go before the Common Council this month. Under the proposal passed by the council's Public Safety and Health Committee last week, the Milwaukee Health Department would compensate 100 doulas to help expectant mothers in the 53206 ZIP code. (Shelbourne, 3/10)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Here’s How The Orleans School Board Plans To Help Traumatized Students
Work is underway within the Orleans Parish School Board to improve the behavioral health supports for public school students citywide. The OPSB is partnering with organizations such as the New Orleans Health Department and Children’s Hospital to implement pilot programs to support schools. The programs, district sources say, would begin in the 2019-2020 school year beginning in August. (Nobles, 3/8)
Boston Globe: Cannabis Is America’s Fastest-Growing Job Sector — But Can Feel Like A ‘Boys’ Club’
According to a new report from the cannabis website Leafly, America’s legal pot industry now boasts 211,000 workers, more than in teeth-cleaning, brewing, textile manufacturing -- even the president’s beloved coal mining sector. Here in Massachusetts, there are more than 3,000 weed workers, a number that will likely double this year. (Martin, 3/9)
San Francisco Chronicle: Aging Onto The Street: Nearly Half Of Older Homeless People Fell Into Trouble After 50
While a full half of the nation’s people living without homes are older than 50, it’s the growing number of those who fall into homelessness after that age that most concerns Margot Kushel, the UCSF professor who heads the study. The problem is especially acute in the Bay Area, where housing costs, including rents, have risen dramatically over the past decade. (Fagan, 3/8)
