Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Calif. Nurses' Union Reaches Tentative Deal With Stanford Hospitals; Tribe Sues Feds For Closing S.D. Reservation's Only E.R.
The San Jose Mercury News: Nurses, Stanford Hospitals, Reach Tentative Deal
The union that represents thousands of nurses from Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford said Thursday it has reached a tentative three-year agreement on benefits and wages that will make its members the highest paid nurses in the Bay Area. (Seipel, 4/28)
The Associated Press: South Dakota Tribe Sues Feds Over ER Closure
A Native American tribe in South Dakota sued the federal government Thursday over the nearly five-month closure of the only emergency room on its reservation. The federal lawsuit filed Thursday by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe asks that federal officials be forced to re-open the emergency room at the hospital administered by the Indian Health Service. The agency shuttered the ER in early December, two weeks after federal inspectors uncovered serious failures that they said put patients' lives at risk. (4/28)
The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Selected For White House Health Care Job Program
The White House has chosen Sacramento and six other cities as pilot sites for its new Health Career Pathways program, a federal initiative that aims to increase the number of Americans working in sustainable, well-paying health care jobs. (Caiola, 4/27)
ProPublica: For Nebraska’s Poor, Get Sick And Get Sued
Two years ago, the president of Credit Management Services, a collection agency in Grand Island, Nebraska, presented a struggling local family with the keys to a used 2007 Mercury Grand Marquis. To commemorate the donation, the company held a ceremony that concluded outside its offices, where the couple and their two young girls could try out their new car. (Kiel, 4/29)
North Carolina Health News: More N.C. Hospitals Achieve Improved Safety Rating Scores
The good news is that half of North Carolina’s hospitals are making the grade when it comes to patient safety. The bad news is that half are not. Those are the findings of the most recent hospital safety scores produced by the Leapfrog Group, an organization founded by employers and health care purchasers that has been pushing hospitals to become safer for 15 years. (Hoban, 4/28)
The Associated Press: New Jersey Doctor Facing Fraud Charges Loses His License
A New Jersey doctor accused of giving unnecessary steroid injections and creating fake patient records has been stripped of his license. (4/28)
The Associated Press: Advocates Fear Chaos After Rauner Home Health Care Ruling
Gaileen Roberts' daughter Jody has cerebral palsy, is quadriplegic and developmentally delayed. But she can live at home because her mother earns a taxpayer-subsidized $13 an hour as her caregiver. (O'Connor, 4/28)
KQED: Sutter Plans Closure Of Berkeley’s Alta Bates Hospital, ER
After years of speculation in Berkeley, the future closure of Alta Bates Hospital appears to be certain. Sutter Health, owner of Alta Bates, said it will close the inpatient hospital and its emergency department sometime in advance of 2030, when state seismic standards kick in. Those standards require that all inpatient hospitals are built both to withstand a major quake and to remain fully operational after the event. (Aliferis, 4/28)
The Columbus Dispatch: Too Many Doctors Prescribe Acid-Blockers To Babies, Study Says
Nobody likes to see an unhappy baby, especially one that’s irritable, crying and spitting up milk. But should a doctor try to treat that unhappiness with medication? But should a doctor try to treat that unhappiness with medication? (Kurtzman, 4/28)
The Tri-City Herald: 11 Nuke Facility Workers Checked For Chemical Vapor Exposure
Work to empty a Hanford tank with an interior leak has been stopped after several workers reported suspicious odors that may have been from chemical vapors on Thursday. (Cary, 4/29)
