State Highlights: Bill Boosting Oversight Of Hospital Moves Forward In Connecticut; Substandard Care Rises At Calif. Nursing Facilities

The CT Mirror: Senate Passes Bill Increasing Oversight To Stem Abuse At Whiting
More than a year after the repeated, cruel abuse of a Whiting Forensic patient was captured on videotape, the state Senate unanimously approved a bill that would create an independent task force to oversee the maximum security psychiatric facility and would make staff there and other state behavioral health facilities subject to fines or even criminal charges if they fail to report abuse. (Rigg, 5/4)

San Jose Mercury News: Audit Slams State Oversight Of Nursing Facilities
Citations for substandard care at skilled nursing facilities statewide increased by almost a third between 2006 and 2015, according to the report from the California State Auditor. Over the same period, profits for the state’s three biggest private operators of nursing homes soared by tens of millions of dollars, even as the number of nursing facility beds barely changed, according to the report. (Boyd-Barrett, 5/6)

The Star Tribune: Shortage Of Home Care Workers Forcing Young Disabled Into Institutions 
Across Minnesota, a chronic and deepening shortage of home care workers is forcing scores of younger people with disabilities to move into sterile and highly restrictive institutions, including nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, designed for vulnerable seniors. Pleasures that young Minnesotans take for granted — visiting friends or even stepping outside without permission — are beyond their grasp. The trend worries civil rights advocates, who say it could imperil decades of effort by state officials to desegregate housing for people with disabilities and to help them live more independently in the community. (Serres, 5/5)

Kaiser Health News: Alarming Suicide Rate Jolts Texas Community Into Action
In the heart of northeast Texas, Tyler’s rolling landscape is dotted with churches and historical homes, and the city is known for its roses and flowering gardens. But the community also is shadowed by a grim statistic, one that leaders are striving to better understand and address. Smith County, which encompasses Tyler and is home to more than 225,000 residents, has the highest suicide rate among the state’s 25 most populous counties. (Huff, 5/7)

Sacramento Bee: Current, Ex-Sutter Health Employees Say Company Prevented Them From Taking Breaks
In hearings that begin Monday, about 30 current and former employees at Sutter Health’s midtown Sacramento surgery center will accuse the health-care giant of preventing them from taking meal and rest breaks and will ask the California Labor Commissioner to award them back wages and penalties. The Bee obtained copies of a half-dozen of the Sutter employees’ complaints in which plaintiffs seek anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars in lost wages and penalties. (Anderson, 5/4)

California Healthline: Number Of California Jail Inmates On Psychiatric Drugs Soars
The number of jail inmates in California taking psychotropic drugs has jumped about 25 percent in five years, and they now account for about a fifth of the county jail population across the state, according to a new analysis of state data. The increase could reflect the growing number of inmates with mental illness, though it also might stem from better identification of people in need of treatment, say researchers from California Health Policy Strategies (CHPS), a Sacramento-based consulting firm. (Gorman, 5/4)

KCUR: Federal Research Program Picks Kansas City To Help Diversify Genetic Data 
A day-long event Sunday at Kansas City’s Union Station helped launch “All of Us,” a new nationwide research initiative from the National Institutes of Health. The program’s goal is to collect genetic data from one million people from a wide variety of races, ethnicities and backgrounds. Kansas City, Missouri, was one of seven cities chosen for the launch of "All of Us," and Tom Curran, executive director of Children's Mercy Research Institute, said that was no mistake. (Tudhope, 5/7)

Chicago Sun Times: National Institutes Of Health Launches Research Program Based On Patient Data 
The National Institutes of Health launched its biobank research program Sunday, bringing Chicago medical professionals together for the launch of its national initiative to diversify and broaden its research. The Chicago event, hosted at Millennium Park’s Chase Promenade South, is one of eight simultaneous events happening across the country to mark the launch of us All of Us. The research program aims to recruit 1 million people in order to advance individualized prevention, treatment and care for people of all backgrounds. (Hinton, 5/6)

Arizona Republic: Ex-Banner Nurse Uses Whistleblower Law To Target Billing Fraud
The federal whistleblower law allows individuals to file civil "qui tam" lawsuits on behalf of the government and recover improper federal payments to hospitals, defense contractors and other industries. The government has the option of joining the lawsuit, but if the government declines, the whistleblower can pursue the lawsuit on their own. If the lawsuit is successful, the individual collects part of the recovery. (Alltucker, 5/4)

The CT Mirror: Senate Approves Raises To Avert Group Home Strikes
The Senate gave final approval Saturday to pay hikes designed to head off a strike Monday by 2,500 unionized care providers for the disabled. The Senate vote also means many of those who care for Connecticut’s intellectually and developmentally disabled will be getting their first raise in a decade or longer. (Phaneuf, 5/5)

Kansas City Star: Walmart Exposure Pushes Missouri Measles Cases To 13
A Walmart SuperCenter and an urgent care clinic near Liberty have been added to the list of exposure sites in a measles outbreak that has now sickened 13 people who live on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro. (Marso, 5/4)

Columbus Dispatch: Faith Community Nurses Help Heal The Body, Mind And Soul
Faith community nurses must be registered nurses and they get a certificate in the specialty after training, said Kate Whitman, a class instructor with Mount Carmel Health System. Many are retired and volunteer at their own church, since not too many churches can afford to pay someone full time. (King, 5/6)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Homeless Program Pays For Attending Meetings And Writing Policies
The city of Sacramento is offering hefty financial bonuses to hospitals, health plans and government and nonprofit agencies for attending meetings and helping to launch its $64 million Whole Person Care program on homelessness. Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other Sacramento leaders consider the pilot program central to achieving their goal of housing 2,000 homeless people by 2020. (Hubert, 5/5)

Peninsula Press: California Tackles Air Pollution Disparities With Data, Policy Efforts
While California holds a reputation as a leader in environmental policy, it still ranks worst out of all 50 states for average public exposure to particulate matter pollution — tiny particles measured in microns, a millionth of a meter — largely due to the state’s topography and population density. California is also home to seven of the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest short-term levels of particle pollution. (Salian, 5/4)