State Highlights: ‘Pharmacy Deserts’ Plague Chicago Neighborhoods; Kansas Nursing Homes Say They’re In Crisis

Chicago Tribune: 'Pharmacy Deserts' A Growing Health Concern In Chicago, Experts, Residents Say 
Growing portions of Chatham and more than a dozen other poor Chicago neighborhoods, mostly on the city’s South and West sides, are becoming “pharmacy deserts,” say some public health experts. The term describes a community with limited access to a pharmacy, whether retail or independent. Hospital inpatient pharmacies are not typically included in these counts, as they dispense medicine only to hospitalized patients. In Chicago, research has shown most of these neighborhoods share a mix of characteristics: Their residents tend to be low-income, immigrants, and/or black and Latino. And, experts argue, given the widening scope of services many pharmacies are providing, including physicals, immunizations, drug counseling, sexually transmitted infection screening and other laboratory testing — even access to naloxone, the medication used to reverse opioid overdose — pharmacies are increasingly important pieces of the national conversation around health care, especially where health inequity already exists. (Olumhense and Husain, 1/22)

KCUR: Kansas Nursing Home Operators Say Regulation Putting Them In Crisis 
Nursing homes in Kansas find themselves in crisis, say the people who run them. Where to fix blame or how to remedy things remain matters of debate. A parade of nursing home operators and their lobbyists pleaded with members of a Kansas House health committee Thursday to fully restore cuts in Medicaid reimbursement rates. They also called for pressure on Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration to repair a long-broken Medicaid enrollment system. (McLean, 1/19)

Houston Chronicle: Rape Allegations Embroil Kingwood Pines Psychiatric Hospital In Houston 
A Houston Chronicle review of medical records, court filings, hospital accreditation reports and records from state and federal regulators, and interviews with parents, portray an understaffed facility that has failed to watch over patients, leaving the most vulnerable among them open to further victimization. The parents of the two girls agreed to talk to the Chronicle on the condition they be identified by first names only, to protect the privacy of their daughters. The Chronicle does not typically identify the victims of alleged sexual assault. (Barned-Smith, 1/19)

The Star Tribune: Success Stories Like Rod Carew's Credited For Boost In Upper Midwest Organ Donors 
Organ donations reached record levels in Minnesota and neighboring states in 2017 — as did the number of people willing to donate in the future, according to the LifeSource organ procurement agency. Decisions last year by 184 grieving families to donate the organs of dying loved ones resulted in 586 transplants, mostly to replace failing kidneys, livers, and hearts, the agency reported. (Olson, 1/20)

Austin American-Statesman: Texas Foster System ‘Still Broken,’ Federal Judge Rules
The Texas foster care system remains broken and continues to place children at risk, a federal judge ruled Friday, adding that state officials have shown a “troubling unwillingness” to fix problems the court had identified in a similar 2015 order. Overruling numerous objections raised by lawyers for Texas, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack of Corpus Christi ordered Texas officials to adopt almost 100 changes, including reduced workloads for caseworkers, a ban on children sleeping in state offices and steps to better monitor, and reduce, sexual abuse. (Lindell, 1/19)

The Hill: Nurse Claims She Was Fired For Supporting Trump
A Denver nurse has filed a lawsuit claiming she was fired from her former hospital for supporting President Trump in the 2016 election. The nurse reportedly discussed her support of Trump with a patient. Lizzy Mathews, who had worked at Denver Health Medical Center for 27 years, filed the lawsuit on Jan. 11 with Denver's U.S. District Court against Kelly Torres and Marc Fedo, the hospital's nursing manager and director of acute nursing. (Delk, 1/20)

Miami Herald: House Hurricane Report Is Vague On Oversight Of Emergency Plans
This week, amid pressure to improve the state’s hurricane response and prevent similar tragedies, a House committee released post-Irma recommendations, including new criteria for such emergency management plans. But the recommendations say little about how to increase oversight that might have flagged problems in the Hollywood facility’s plan. (Koh, 1/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: CPMC To Shut Down Alzheimer’s Program; Residents Scramble For Alternatives
One of San Francisco’s only subsidized residential care centers for Alzheimer’s patients will shut down by the end of 2018, prompting worry among family members, caregivers and officials about the dwindling availability of affordable care for dementia patients in an aging city. (Ho, 1/21)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee City Expert Raised Lead Concerns Nearly 3 Years Ago
Nearly three years ago, a city expert alerted Mayor Tom Barrett's top health official of the looming threat facing thousands of Milwaukee children who get their drinking water from antiquated lead pipes. The memo with its warning — that replacing water mains would disturb the pipes and significantly raise lead levels — went nowhere. (Johnson, Spicuzza and Bice, 1/19)

Columbus Dispatch: Shortage Of IV Bags Forces Central Ohio Hospitals To Get Creative
Health-care providers are reviewing whether such bags are a must-have on a patient-by-patient basis and using different ways to deliver drugs, such as pushing them into an IV line with a syringe or switching to oral or skin-injected medications. Available bags are reserved for the most critically ill or for patients for whom there are no other viable options. (Viviano, 1/22)

Texas Tribune: Drinking Water Contamination Pronounced In Texas' Rural Areas
The latest, published earlier this month by the Washington D.C.-based Environmental Working Group, identified 37 water utilities serving nearly 25,000 Texans in violation of federal standards for radium — a known carcinogen that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says isn't safe for human consumption at any level. All of the utilities are in small towns or rural areas, with a majority serving populations under 300. (Cobler, 1/22)

Kansas City Star: Corizon Health Has $2 Billion In Contracts With Kansas, Missouri. But There's Little Accountability
Corizon’s contracts with the corrections departments of Kansas and Missouri are worth almost $2 billion combined over 10 years — yet there’s little transparency about how that money is being spent. ...As the largest for-profit prison health care provider in the country, Corizon is a lightning-rod for criticism from prisoners, their family members, the American Civil Liberties Union and others who say it takes public money and provides little care. (Marso, 1/21)

Nashville Tennessean: Meharry To Hold "Listening Session" Amid Uncertainty About Nashville General's Future
Meharry Medical College will hold a community meeting to discuss the future of healthcare amid uncertainty over the fate of the city's public hospital. The "listening session" will be held Tuesday, Jan. 23 at First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill from 5 - 6:30 p.m.The plan for a community meeting comes after medical school officials weathered criticism for excluding the public from "stakeholder" meetings convened in the aftermath of Mayor Megan Barry's plans to end inpatient care at Nashville General Hospital this year. (Wadhwani, 1/19)

Tampa Bay Times: Free Clinics Respond As More People Head To The ER With Dental Problems
Most adults who don’t have dental insurance end up in emergency rooms because of tooth or gum problems. The number of patients who go to the ER with dental-related issues surged from 1.1 million in 2000 to 2.1 million in 2010, and continues to rise, according to the American Dental Association. (Griffin, 1/22)

The CT Mirror: West Hartford Teenager Hopes To Bring Dental Exams To Schools
Connecticut has made huge strides in improving access to dental care and reducing disparities over the years, but health care advocates and providers are concerned about what will happen going forward given the state’s financial challenges and potential Medicaid cuts at the federal level. One teenager from West Hartford hopes to help more school-aged kids receive dental exams during these uncertain times. (Rigg, 1/21)

Chicago Tribune: Measles Case Prompts Vaccine Reminder
With the first measles case confirmed in the state since 2016, health officials and physicians are reminding people to check their vaccination records and vaccinate their children. The case involved an international student who arrived at Indiana University in Bloomington for orientation on Jan. 2 and became ill on Jan. 3, according to Chuck Carney, director of media relations and spokesperson. "Measles is one of those interesting viruses that is quite contagious," Stamp said. "Our vaccine works well, but it doesn't work forever, and so sometimes, we do anti-body testing to see if people are immune still or not and we can re-vaccinate if that's the case. " (Webster, 1/22)