State Highlights: Number Of N.J. Kids Infected With Virus Continues To Climb; Inspection Reports, Code Violations Paint Grim Picture Of Pa. Nursing Home

The Associated Press: Adenovirus Cases Rise To 12 At Southern New Jersey Facility
Health officials say they've identified two new cases of children infected with adenovirus at a New Jersey pediatric health care facility. The Voorhees Pediatric Facility near Philadelphia tells WPVI-TV Friday that brings the total number of infected patients to 12. Facility officials say there have been no related deaths and none of the patients are in critical condition. (11/23)

The Washington Post: Overdoses, Bedsores, Broken Bones: What Happened When A Private-Equity Firm Sought To Care For Society’s Most Vulnerable
To the state inspectors visiting the HCR Manor­Care nursing home here last year, the signs of neglect were conspicuous. A disabled man who had long, dirty fingernails told them he was tended to “once in a blue moon.” The bedside “call buttons” were so poorly staffed that some residents regularly soiled themselves while waiting for help to the bathroom. A woman dying of uterine cancer was left on a bedpan for so long that she bruised. The lack of care had devastating consequences. One man had been dosed with so many opioids that he had to be rushed to a hospital, according to the inspection reports. During an undersupervised bus trip to church — one staff member was escorting six patients who could not walk without help — a resident flipped backward on a wheelchair ramp and suffered a brain hemorrhage. (Whoriskey and Keating, 11/25)

ProPublica: A Hog Waste Agreement Lacked Teeth, And Some North Carolinians Say They’re Left to Suffer
Today, many North Carolina hog farmers continue to store hog waste in open pits despite the millions of dollars in private investment spent and years of research and political promises. Little has changed, storms are intensifying and the clock is ticking on the Smithfield agreement, which expires in 2025. The state has yet to come up a viable replacement system, and the momentum — and money — behind the research ran out years ago, leaving in place a crude practice that grows more hazardous with each hurricane that pounds North Carolina. (Buford, 11/23)

Health News Florida: House Speaker: Florida Health Care 'Behind The Curve' 
Have no doubt: new House Speaker Jose Oliva wants to expand access to health care by expanding the scope of practice for Florida nurses. He also wants less government regulation in Florida’s health-care delivery system and  more free-market principles. (Sexton, 11/26)

The Associated Press: Report: $15M Sought After Body Used For Medical Practice
Relatives of a man whose body was used by the Bellingham Fire Department for intubation practice have filed claims against the city totaling more than $15 million, a newspaper reported. Eleven fire department employees — including two office workers — acknowledged practicing inserting and removing breathing tubes on the body of Bradley Ginn Sr. while waiting for it to be transported to a funeral home on July 31, The Bellingham Herald reported. (11/25)

The Associated Press: Scathing Report On Cleveland County Jail Spurs Vow Of Change
The short-staffed county jail in Cleveland keeps inmates in inhumane conditions, sometimes failing to provide proper food, health care and basics like toilet paper, and locks up juveniles in the same unit as adults, according to a scathing new report released by the U.S. Marshals Service. The Cuyahoga County jail was reviewed following at least six inmate deaths in a four-month span from early June to early October, including some that were considered suicides. Jail officials didn't investigate or document what led to the deaths, according to the report made public this week. (11/23)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: What’s The Story Behind How The Cuyahoga County Jail Became One Of The Worst In The Nation? A Drive For Money, A Cleveland.Com Investigation Finds 
While crowding overwhelmed the understaffed jail, while conditions throughout the facility worsened – while seven inmates died in four months -- the chief conversation by county officials about the jail was about how much revenue could result from a game-changing consolidation of jails throughout the county. The deaths, between June 10 and Oct. 2, happened as Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish commenced his long planned merging of many city and township jails – including Cleveland’s -- into the system operated by the county. (Astolfi and Ferrise, 11/23)

Los Angeles Times: Hidden In L.A. Suburbia, Wrenching Poverty Preys On Children And Destroys Dreams
Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest public school system in the country, is more than a sprawling collection of campuses — it’s one of the nation’s largest depositories of child poverty. About 80% of the more than 600,000 students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. When I heard from Supt. Austin Beutner that nearly a quarter of the students at Telfair last year were classified as homeless, I began visiting the school and the neighborhood, hoping to give some human shape to the numbers. You don’t see sprawling tent villages on the streets around Telfair, and there’s little of the squalor so starkly evident on skid row and elsewhere. Poverty is quieter here. It lives indoors for the most part. To an extent, it’s hidden in the fabric of the suburban design, and for all the focus on homeless encampments in Los Angeles, far more people cope with cramped, inadequate, barely affordable housing. (Lopez, 11/25)

The Associated Press: Maryland Medical Marijuana Sales Surpassing Forecast
Medical marijuana sales in Maryland are surpassing a previous forecast and could reach $100 million this year. The Baltimore Sun reports that medical marijuana sales totaled $67 million for the first nine months of 2018. A market research firm predicted last year that the state’s sales in 2018 would be about $46 million. New Frontier Data Senior Economist Beau Whitney said sales could now hit $100 million in December. (11/25)

KCUR: Lenexa Teenager Makes Forbes '30 Under 30' For An App She Created To Detect Parkinson's 
An 18-year-old Shawnee Mission West graduate has been named to the 2019 Forbes '30 Under 30' health care list for an app she created to detect early symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Lenexa native Erin Smith is the youngest in a decade to make the list. She spent most of her junior year of high school designing the app, FacePrint, which she came up with while watching a video of Michael J. Fox. (Tudhope, 11/23)

Seattle Times: ‘There’s Hope Out There’: Wellspring — And A Young Mother’s Will — Lifted A Family 
Founded in 1892, Wellspring Family Services, on Seattle’s Rainier Avenue South, works to end the cycle of family homelessness. It focuses, in part, on children’s early learning, mental health, preventing domestic violence, helping clients connect to housing and, in general, providing a variety of services that can stabilize the family. It is one of 12 organizations that benefit from The Seattle Times’ annual Fund For The Needy donation drive. (Davila, 11/22)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: 1 Percent Of Adults Have His Form Of Leukemia. This Is How An LSU Student Could Beat Cancer. | Nola.Com
Further testing showed that [Lee] Montgomery was suffering from a form of leukemia that is so rare it affects only 1 percent of adults. He had been diagnosed with a form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, which typically is only seen in infants. ...He had originally been diagnosed at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge but was referred to Ochsner in New Orleans. It was fortuitous, Finn said, that Montgomery’s case matched with a clinical trial for a targeted therapy being researched at the Precision Cancer Therapy Program for treating his form of leukemia. (Clark, 11/25)

California Healthline: Nonprofit Bets Asian-American Students Can Learn To Avoid Unhealthy Gambling
The students listened attentively as Ryan Wong explained how casinos keep customers chasing that elusive jackpot. Labyrinthine layouts force guests to walk past card tables and slot machines in search of well-concealed restrooms and exits, said Wong, an intern at the nonprofit NICOS Chinese Health Coalition, a San Francisco partnership of health and social service organizations. Casinos ply customers with free alcohol to loosen inhibitions, and clocks are nowhere to be found. (Kam, 11/26)

Kansas City Star: Missouri’s Medical Marijuana Law Could Affect Guns, Truckers 
When Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2014, the state saw a spike in drug screening failures by truckers, with as many as 60 percent flunking tests required by the U.S. Department of Transportation.Missouri hasn’t legalized marjiuana for recreational use, but Overland Park attorney Jason Roth said he still thinks truckers and those who work in other “safety-sensitive” industries could be in for a shock when the state rolls out its new medical marijuana program next year. (Marso, 11/26)