Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State Highlights: Johns Hopkins Hires Former Prosecutor To Investigate Florida Heart Institute; Exams Showed No Pregnancy Signs In Comatose Woman In Arizona
The Baltimore Sun: Former Prosecutor To Review Johns Hopkins' Heart Institute In Florida After Investigation Revealed Problems
The Johns Hopkins Medicine Board of Trustees has appointed a former federal prosecutor to review the Heart Institute at All Children’s Hospital in Florida after a Tampa Bay Times investigation found high injury and death rates among pediatric patients at the center. F. Joseph Warin of the law firm Gibson Dunn will lead an external review of the Heart Institute, which offered specialized care for children with heart defects, the hospital said in a statement Tuesday. It’s one in a series of measures the St. Petersburg hospital is taking to reform its pediatric heart program after a yearlong investigation by the Tampa Bay Times that found nearly one in 10 patients died in 2017 and others were left with extensive injuries after treatment at the center. (Meehan, 1/10)
The Associated Press: Expert: Comatose Woman May Not Have Shown Signs Of Pregnancy
A doctor examined an Arizona woman in a vegetative state nearly nine months before she gave birth but did not find that she was pregnant, and medical experts said Thursday that it's possible she displayed no outward signs that workers who cared for her every day would have noticed either. Police are looking for her rapist and say it appears none of the staff members at a Phoenix long-term care facility knew about the pregnancy until the baby was born Dec. 29, a notion that has drawn skepticism. (1/10)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Gender Clinic Aims To Improve Medical Care For Transgender Patients In New Orleans
Transgender patients face huge challenges in Southern states where the number of medical providers trained to work with this patient group is limited, advocates say. In New Orleans, CrescentCare is on a short list of three health systems that have policies in place to provide equal access to healthcare for LGBT patients, employees and visitors. Transgender patients sometimes have to travel from neighboring states and rural areas of Louisiana to get medical care at the clinic in New Orleans. (Clark, 1/10)
Reuters: Massachusetts Man Gets 10 Years In Prison For Hospital Cyberattack
A Massachusetts man was sentenced on Thursday to more than 10 years in prison for carrying out a cyberattack on a hospital on behalf of the hacking activist group Anonymous to protest the treatment of a teenager in a high-profile custody dispute. Martin Gottesfeld, 34, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton in Boston nearly three years after he was rescued from a disabled powerboat off the coast of Cuba by a Disney Cruise Line ship after fleeing the United States amid a federal investigation. (1/10)
Detroit Free Press: Macomb County Health Department: That Scam Call Not From Us
The Macomb County Health Department's name and phone number is being used to try to scam folks. The department said it has received hundreds of calls from all over Michigan and outside the state during the past week inquiring about the spoof calls. But the department said the calls were not made by anyone on its staff. The callers are falsely displaying the department's information on caller IDs and trying to obtain Medicare insurance information and other sensitive information from the public, according to a news release. (Hall, 1/10)
Sacramento Bee: Camp Fire Cleanup Under Fire After Troubled Contractor Is Picked
A Pasadena-based firm previously caught falsifying soil tests during the cleanup of a former shipyard in San Francisco has been awarded one of the first contracts for the Camp Fire project, prompting a call by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, for a federal review of that company’s numerous government contracts. Continuing his war on the state’s forest management practices, President Trump tweeted a threat this week that he may withhold federal emergency funds to California, which are expected to cover 75 percent of the cleanup costs. Butte County residents are upset about where the state plans to truck the debris, some of which is toxic. (Bizjak, 1/10)
The Associated Press: Ex-Student Sues Counselor After Trying To Kill Himself
A university and its counselor are being sued for $12 million each by a former student who says they didn’t do enough to stop his suicide attempts. The Roanoke Times reports that a lawsuit filed this week by Kionte Burnette accuses Washington and Lee University and counselor Rallie Snowden of negligence. (1/10)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Agency Improperly Shares Families' Personal Information
The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services shared the personal information of nearly 350,000 families with a local nonprofit’s holiday gift program.DFCS provided the information — including names, addresses, races, genders and children’s dates of birth — to the Empty Stocking Fund, a nonprofit that gives holiday gifts to children in metro Atlanta each year. Federal law prohibits the sharing of medical information, including the source of someone’s health care or insurance. (Prabhu, 1/10)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: OSHA Fines Contractors Nearly $26,000 In Fatal Sun Prairie Explosion
Two underground construction firms responsible for work that caused an explosion that leveled a city block and killed a firefighter face nearly $26,000 in fines, federal authorities announced Thursday. ...The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Bear Communications and VC Tech — two subcontractors doing work for Verizon Wireless on the day of the blast — for not seeking to identify the location of an underground natural gas line that workers ultimately hit, causing the fatal explosion. (Beck, 1/10)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County To Enhance Medical Services Inside Troubled County Jail
Cuyahoga County announced Thursday that MetroHealth will assume total control of health care services in the troubled county jail that includes adding medical staff, improving recruitment and training and expanding medically assisted treatment. The new plan, which calls for adding 32 positions and spending an additional $5 million a year, comes after the death of eight inmates in the county jail system and a report by the U.S. Marshals Service that found deplorable conditions in the downtown jail. (Krouse, 1/10)
Houston Chronicle: Texas Scientists Develop Universal Treatment For Full-Blown Ebola
Texas scientists who developed an effective vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus are now reporting promising results with new medication to better treat full-blown cases of the disease. In a laboratory study published this week, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston showed a single injection of two antibodies successfully treated monkeys infected with all strains of the virus, a significant advance on current treatment options which only cover one strain and require multiple injections. (Ackerman, 1/10)
