State Highlights: Extent And Breadth Of Newark’s Water Crisis Still Unfolding; Study Finds Emergency Medical Services Take 10% Longer To Arrive In Poor Neighborhoods

The New York Times: A Water Crisis In Newark Brings New Worries
As evidence mounted that Newark’s drinking water was contaminated by lead, top officials began an urgent giveaway of tens of thousands of filters and told residents that the problem was limited to one of the city’s two treatment plants. But city documents and other records show that an engineering study that led to the distribution of filters, which was made public in October, only focused on one plant. Now the state is directing Newark to assess whether treatment methods at the second plant are protecting water from being contaminated by lead. Since 2017, samples of tap water taken at residences served by that plant have shown elevated lead levels. (Leyden, 12/3)

The Hill: Study: Emergency Medical Services Take 10 Percent Longer To Get To Poor Neighborhoods
Emergency medical services take 10 percent longer to arrive on the scene in poor neighborhoods compared to wealthy areas, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). People in poor neighborhoods waited on average four minutes longer to receive medical assistance for cardiac arrest in 2014, the study's researchers found. They used 2014 data because it was the most recent available as of June of last year. (Brinbaum, 12/3)

The Associated Press: Health Chief: Pediatric Deaths Show Communication Problem
Nearly two dozen children at a long-term care facility showed symptoms of a viral infection and two had died by the time New Jersey’s health department was notified about the outbreak this fall, said Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the department’s top official. At a hearing Monday on the deaths of 11 children at the facility, Elnahal told a legislative committee that he has formed new internal policy requiring him and his principal deputy to be notified of any outbreaks where pediatric deaths have occurred. (12/3)

The Associated Press: Florida Deputies Fatally Shoot Armed Psychiatric Patient
Deputies fatally shot a psychiatric patient who they say was threatening to harm people with a sharp piece of glass at a South Florida behavioral health center. News outlets report the shooting happened late Saturday at the University Hospital center in Tamarac, which is near Fort Lauderdale. (12/3)

Nashville Tennessean: TennCare Chief Wendy Long Offered Nashville Health Director Job
Nashville is planning to hire the current head of TennCare as the city’s top health official. The Nashville Metro Public Health Department announced Monday that it has chosen Dr. Wendy Long, the director of the state’s TennCare program, to serve as the city’s new director of health. Long’s hiring is conditional on a vote by the city’s Board of Health on Dec. 13, but board leadership is already foreshadowing approval. (Kelman, 12/3)

The Hill: Yale University Installing Emergency Contraception Vending Machine: Reports
Yale University is installing a vending machine that sells emergency contraception including the "morning-after pill," or Plan B, along with other over-the-counter medications and items aimed at improving sexual health, the university's newspaper, the Yale Daily News, reported. The college will reportedly launch the vending machine before winter break. The Plan B will be sold for $49.99, a price comparable to the contraceptive's cost at local pharmacies, Yale College Council representative Ileana Valdez told the newspaper. (Birnbaum, 12/3)

Denver Post: Colorado's Care Of The Intellectually And Developmentally Disabled Is Flawed, State Audit Finds
Colorado’s care of the intellectually and developmentally disabled is riddled with oversight problems that are wasting taxpayer dollars and leaving clients in jeopardy, a state audit released Monday found. The audit reviewed care and spending at the state’s 20 Community Centered Boards. The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which administers the state’s Medicaid program, contracts with those boards to provide services. (Osher, 12/3)

Georgia Health News: Pregnant Women Face Risk Despite Federal ER Law
Despite their special protection for pregnancy under the 1986 law, the records show that pregnant women remain vulnerable to violations, though not for all the same reasons. Now, instead of not treating patients who don’t have insurance, a practice called patient dumping, some hospitals turn away women in labor because they no longer have dedicated obstetrical units or enough staff who are properly trained to handle pregnancy and labor complications. (Goodman and Miller, 12/3)

Dallas Morning News: First Look At Baylor Scott & White's Huge New East Dallas Office Campus
Developer KDC has released details about the new office campus it's building for health care giant Baylor Scott & White. The 300,000-square-foot office project is under construction on the edge of Dallas' Deep Ellum district. The more than $70 million project is in the 3700 block of Elm Street near Baylor's East Dallas hospital campus. (Brown, 12/3)

Nashville Tennessean: The Asian Longhorned Tick Has Tennessee Surrounded. Are We Next?
First, they found it on a dog in New Jersey. Then, it spread beyond the Garden State, latching on to pets, people and livestock throughout the northeast and into Appalachia. As of this week, this invasive species has spread to Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and both Arkansas and North Carolina – two states that border Tennessee. ...The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention last week issued a warning about this invasive tick species, which appears to be spreading widely through the United States and has been known to carry pathogens. No ticks have been found in Tennessee yet, but the CDC warns the tick is serious threat to livestock, so Tennessee’s farmers should be wary of the creepy-crawly bug. (Kelman and May, 12/3)

The Washington Post: Preschoolers Served Pine Sol Instead Of Apple Juice
Officials at a preschool in Hawaii have apologized after young children were given Pine-Sol instead of apple juice to drink during a morning snack time, a mix-up that health officials said occurred because the two liquids were “the same color.” The incident involving the household cleaning liquid took place on Tuesday at the preschool at Kilohana United Methodist Church in Honolulu. (Wang, 12/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Data Breach At San Mateo Medical Center: Patient Records Not Shredded
In a public notice posted Friday, hospital administrators said housekeeping staff at the public hospital’s Daly City clinic on Nov. 6 mistakenly recycled a box of medical records instead of shredding them. A hospital staffer had left the box under her desk overnight. (Ho, 12/3)

Pioneer Press: Minnesota Sues Indiana Firm, Blames Lax Security After Hackers Steal Health Patient Data 
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit Monday against an Indiana medical services company after hackers stole more than 8,000 health records of Minnesota patients in 2015. In the federal court filing, Swanson alleged that Medical Informatics Engineering violated Minnesota’s consumer protection and data privacy laws when they failed to use “basic” security measures to protect their web-based electronic health records services from hackers. (Achterling, 12/3)

The Baltimore Sun: Franklin Square Breaks Ground On New Surgical Pavilion
MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center broke ground Monday on a $70 million surgical pavilion that will house 14 state-of-the-art operating rooms. They will replace older, undersized rooms that are now spread over two areas in the adjacent hospital. The Rosedale facility won approval from state regulators last year for the new 80,000-square-foot, two-story building that connects directly to the existing hospital. The hospital joins others in the region in modernizing older buildings and equipment and seeking to offer patients and their families better and safer experiences. (Cohn, 12/3)

MPR: Twin Cities Mom's Full-Time Job: Finding Help For Son With Rare Neurological Illness
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AFM is a rare but serious condition. It affects the nervous system, specifically the area of the spinal cord called gray matter, which causes the muscles and reflexes in the body to become weak. (Moini, 12/4)

The Washington Post: A Turtle-Obsessed Boy Had His 22nd Surgery, And People From All Over Sent Him Turtle Photos
In Oklahoma, there is a 4-year-old boy named Jack Mickey who adores turtles. He carries around a stuffed turtle that he has had since birth. He has turtle stickers, turtle coloring books and turtle fact-books. For Halloween, he went as a turtle, of course. So last week, before Jack underwent his 22nd surgery to treat a rare spinal disease called early onset progressive infantile scoliosis, his mother pulled up Twitter and asked if fellow users might be willing to tweet a few images, videos or facts about turtles that she could share with her son to cheer him up. (Bittel, 12/3)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Medical Marijuana Expanding To Add Alzheimer's 
Alzheimer’s disease will become eligible for treatment with medical marijuana in Minnesota next year, making it the 14th health condition approved since the state’s cannabis program began in 2015. The Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday that it was adding the degenerative neurological disorder to the program, despite limited evidence on the effectiveness of treatment with cannabis. Some studies have found that marijuana inhibits the formation of tau proteins that accelerate dementia and memory loss related to the disease. (Olson, 12/3)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Medical Marijuana Patient And Caregiver Registry Is Open Today
Ohio’s medical marijuana Patient and Caregiver Registry went live Monday, as state officials anticipate product will soon be for sale in dispensaries. The registry is for physicians who have state approval to recommend medical marijuana for patients with any of 21 qualifying ailments, such as cancer, Multiple sclerosis or post-traumatic stress disorder. (Hancock, 12/3)