State Highlights: Concerns Raised About Safety In Minn. Assisted Living Facilities

The Star Tribune: Report Highlights Abuses, Deaths In State's Assisted-Living Facilities 
At an assisted-living facility in Burnsville, an elderly resident was discovered dead in a pond after wandering away unsupervised. A resident of another facility died from a painful and untreated hernia after repeatedly crying out for help. At other facilities, residents fell in their rooms and were left on the floor for hours, unnoticed. Those are some of the alarming cases cited in a 30-page report on Minnesota's assisted-living industry released at the State Capitol Tuesday by a coalition of consumer advocacy groups in support of legislation to improve safeguards for vulnerable adults. The report, compiled from state records, uncovered alarming conditions at some senior homes and numerous incidents of preventable deaths. (Serres, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: DMC Harper Hospital Cleared By Medicare For Quality Problems
DMC Harper University Hospital [in Detroit] no longer faces loss of millions of dollars of Medicare funding after it passed an infection-control inspection on April 3. The for-profit hospital had faced the possibility of losing participation in the federally funded insurance program by April 15, according to the CMS. "The revisit survey revealed that your hospital is now in compliance with the Conditions of Participation," the CMS said in an April 10 letter to DMC. "Therefore, we are rescinding our decision to terminate your participation in the Medicare program." (Greene, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: Former MetroHealth COO Sentenced To 15 Years In Kickback Case
The former COO of Cleveland-based MetroHealth Hospital System has been sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to defraud the hospital through bribes and kickbacks totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Justice Department announced Thursday. Edward R. Hills had served as chief operating officer of the system and director of MetroHealth Dental from 2010 to 2014. He also served as interim president and CEO from December 2012 through July 2013. (4/11)

The Washington Post: Life-Term Inmates Get Chance At Parole, But First They Need To Get Off The Long Waiting List For The One Doctor Who Can Help. 
Fransharon Jackson waited years for someone to hear her story, to know she was truly sorry, and after two decades in prison, smarter and stronger than she’d been the night when drugs and desperation set her on a destructive path. Her second chance and the possibility of freedom from her life sentence came last year. Parole officials cleared Jackson for a psychological exam — a critical step before a recommendation to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for early release. But after 15 months, she still is waiting for an appointment. There is one doctor in Maryland’s prison system to conduct the required exam, and as of early April, 85 inmates were on the waiting list. (Marimow, 4/11)

Miami Herald: Florida Has More Hepatitis A Cases This Year Than 2014-2017 Combined. Here’s An Update
Numbers starkly tell how, as in the rest of the nation, Hepatitis A is spreading across Florida like humidity. Those same numbers also say the liver disease’s blob of infection expanding from Central Florida has touched, but not covered, South Florida — yet. (Neal, 4/11)

The Associated Press: Lawsuit: Georgia Jail Conditions Bad For Mentally Ill Women
Prolonged solitary confinement and harrowing conditions at a Georgia jail result in a substantial risk of serious psychological harm for mentally ill women held there, a federal lawsuit says. Urine and toilet water pool on the floor of cells and meals of moldy sandwich meat are not uncommon at the South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail in Union City, the lawsuit filed Wednesday says. Lawyers have observed women in psychological distress lying on the floor, their bodies and the walls of their cells smeared with feces or food. (Brumback, 4/11)

Boston Globe: Report Highlights Homeslessness, Bullying LGBTQ Youths
The number of Massachusetts high school students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or are questioning their gender identity or sexuality is at more than 15 percent, according to a new state report. The data come from the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, an independent state agency, in its annual report and recommendations on improving the lives of those young people. (Hom, 4/12)

MPR: Minnesota Records First Pediatric Flu Death This Season
State health officials said Thursday one child has died from the flu in Minnesota. It was the first pediatric flu death reported in the state this season. Officials haven't released information on the age of the child or the region of the state where the flu-related death occurred. (Moini, 4/11)

New Jersey Record/USA Today: Autism: New Jersey Preschoolers Have Highest Rates In US
New Jersey preschoolers have the highest rates of autism ever measured in the United States, a rate that has increased faster than in other states studied, researchers at Rutgers University reported Thursday. The rate of autism among children in the state has tripled in a generation. (Washburn, 4/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Four Women Now Allege Pregnancy Discrimination At AC Transit
Three more women have joined a lawsuit against AC Transit alleging the public agency discriminated against female bus drivers during and after their pregnancies. In an amended complaint filed Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, Jada Edward, Javonne Knight and Christy Pullum joined Nikki McNaulty in claiming they were exposed them to carbon monoxide fumes, weren’t given adequate lactation accommodations and were forced to drive uncomfortably engorged. Without any modified work arrangements, the women said, they suffered stress and physical exhaustion and took unplanned, unpaid leaves of absence that sometimes left them without health coverage. (McBride, 4/11)

The New York Times: ‘Extreme Pollen’ Blankets North Carolina In A Sneeze-Inducing Yellow Haze
Spring can feel like the end of the world for allergy sufferers, but in North Carolina this week, it looked that way, too. And it has a name to match: “Pollenpocalypse.” Massive clouds of sneeze-inducing pollen overtook North Carolina this week, tinting the skies yellow and covering cars, streets and ponds in a fine powder that left footprints on the carpets of unsuspecting residents and made allergy sufferers want to hibernate in a panic room until summer. (Levin, 4/11)

Kaiser Health News: Heavy Rains, End Of Drought Could Help Keep West Nile Virus Subdued — For Now
The end of California’s drought, announced last month amid one of the rainiest winters in memory, could offer a surprising benefit: reduced transmission of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus. Longer term, however, more severe droughts associated with climate change could contribute to an increase in the number of infections in the state and nationally. (Rowan, 4/12)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Is One Of The Most Sleep-Deprived U.S. Cities, Study Finds 
Charm City was identified as the second-most sleep-deprived large city in the U.S., according to a new study from the insurance agency HavenLife. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests adults get at least seven hours of sleep per night. But more than a third of the nation’s population gets less than that recommended amount — a factor that can lead to poor physical and mental health. (Meehan, 4/12)