State Highlights: Poor Training Of R.I. Call Takers Cited In Baby’s Death, Report Says; Tennessee Woman Claims Surgery Was On Wrong Kidney

ProPublica: How Rhode Island’s Emergency 911 System Failed Baby Alijah
Barbara’s son had just gotten out of the shower and gone back downstairs to where his 6-month-old son was napping when she heard a scream. Then came the pounding of feet on the stairs of their home in Warwick, Rhode Island. Conner handed her Alijah, who was limp. Barbara tried to stay calm as she carried her grandson into the living room. She’d watched medical shows on TV where they did CPR on babies. (Arditi, 3/20)

The Associated Press: Lawsuit: Vanderbilt Hospital Operated On Wrong Kidney
A Tennessee woman says Vanderbilt University Medical Center operated on the wrong kidney during her surgery in what federal officials call a "never event." The Tennessean reports Carla Miller says the error damaged her urinary system and she now needs dialysis for life. She's seeking more than $25 million in damages in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. Vanderbilt officials declined comment to the newspaper. (3/20)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Kentucky Adds Health Workers To Stem HIV Infections Tied To Drug Use
State and local health authorities and University of Kentucky health experts were in Northern Kentucky on Wednesday to announce the program that will start in Northern Kentucky. It will provide public health specialists and technology to fight HIV and other blood-borne diseases that are plaguing the region. (DeMio, 3/20)

Dallas Morning News: Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Texas To Pay Deaf Job Applicant $75,000 Settlement
Dallas-based insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas will pay $75,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit after the company allegedly failed to accommodate a deaf job applicant, officials said. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Wednesday that Blue Cross would settle the lawsuit filed by the agency, which alleged that the company had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit was filed after Blue Cross declined to settle out of court. Blue Cross could not immediately be reached for comment. (Sarder, 3/20)

Modern Healthcare: Devicemaker Zoll Data Breach Exposes 277K Patients' Data
Zoll Medical reported that the personal information of 277,319 patients was exposed during a recent server migration. The medical-device and software maker said in a release on Monday that a third-party service archives Zoll's e-mails. Some personal information was included in the e-mail communications the third-party provider stores. (King, 3/20)

The Washington Post: Disabled Residents In The D.C. Region Face Obstacles When Searching For Housing, Report Says
On a sunny afternoon on the first day of spring, Deepa Goraya opened her laptop and sat at her dining-room table in the bright Washington condominium she has never seen. Goraya, 34, a disability rights lawyer who is blind, prepared to do a Google search with screen-reader software — a program that reads each word on a website at blistering speed in a robotlike monotone. While unintelligible to the uninitiated, the reader is a vast improvement over research methods available to Goraya years ago, which included finding her mom or someone else willing to read to her. (Moyer, 3/20)

The Associated Press: Workers Stage 1-Day Strike At California Campuses, Hospitals
Members of a union representing research and technical workers walked picket lines Wednesday at University of California campuses and hospitals in a one-day strike amid a lengthening stretch of unsuccessful contract negotiations. About 10,000 members of University Professional and Technical Employees-Communications Workers of America were expected to take part statewide, spokesman Dan Russell said. (3/20)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Va. Officials Begin Planning New Mental Health Care Standards For Jails
State officials are preparing to write new standards for health care and mental health services in local jails. The move arises from legislation sent to Gov. Ralph Northam this year during an increased focus on jails in Virginia following the 2015 death of Jamycheal Mitchell in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. Mitchell, 24, had severe mental health problems and was not transferred from the jail to a state hospital as ordered by a judge. (Wilson, 3/20)

Sacramento Bee: Sutter-Anthem Deal Reached, Contract Through End Of 2022
Sutter Health and Anthem Blue Cross have reached an agreement that will allow Blue Cross Medi-Cal, HMO and PPO users to continue receiving care via Sutter Health facilities and doctors, Sutter announced Wednesday. The agreement will remain in place through Dec. 31, 2022, Sutter said in a news release. (McGough, 3/20)

San Jose Mercury News: Marin Continues Run As Healthiest County In California, Study Reports
Marin has been rated the healthiest county in California by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the ninth time in 10 years. The annual rankings compare California’s 58 counties on more than 30 factors that influence health including length of life, quality of life, health behaviors, access to health care, socioeconomic factors and physical environment. (Halstead, 3/20)

Bloomberg: Carlyle-Backed One Medical Joins With Hospitals To Tackle Costs 
A private equity-backed medical group that’s been forging ties with hospital systems around the U.S. to better coordinate patient care and control costs has signed a new deal in one of the nation’s most crowded health-care markets. One Medical, which raised $350 million last year from investment giant Carlyle Group LP, is joining Mount Sinai’s network of independent physicians in New York. The deal will make it easier for patients to move among One Medical’s nine primary-care clinics and Mount Sinai’s specialists and hospitals, executives from both entities said. (Tozzi, 3/20)

The Baltimore Sun: Carroll Hospital's Neonatal Couplet Care Rooms A 'New Model Of Care' To Help Sick, Premature Babies Bond 
The latest step in the renovation of the Family Birthing Center at Carroll Hospital is designed to benefit babies who require more complicated care after birth. Hospital staff hopes keeping them close to their families will improve the experience and even shorten the length of hospital stay for some babies. ...The hospital previously debuted the new entrance to the Birthplace, with improved security and a renovated waiting room. A triage center in the Birthplace is only for patients who are pregnant, allowing them to avoid the emergency room. (Catalina, 3/21)

Houston Chronicle: City Council Approves Ambulance Fee Hike, New EMS Charges 
The cost of taking a city ambulance to the hospital will go up nearly 70 percent under a measure approved by City Council Wednesday that fire department leaders hope will help Houston keep pace with rising costs. Additionally, council approved three new emergency services fees aimed in part at dissuading repeat callers from using ambulance service as a convenience. (Scherer, 3/20)

Miami Herald: MedMen Sues Miami Beach Over Marijuana Dispensary Rules
Los Angeles-based MedMen is suing the city over new restrictions on how close dispensaries can be to each other. The company says the restrictions violate a state law preventing local governments from limiting the number of medical marijuana dispensaries. (Gurney, 3/21)

Sacramento Bee: Motorized Electric Scooter Deaths In CA Lead To Safety Concerns
In Sacramento, where the Jump bike and scooter company recently introduced 100 motor-assisted rental scooters, there have been early reports of some riders falling when traversing midtown railroad tracks, and one reported injury crash in the street two weeks ago near Memorial Auditorium. (Bizjak, 3/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Opens 'Skin Of Color' Dermatology Clinic To Address Disparity In Care
The goal initially is simply to give people of color a comfortable medical home with a doctor who understands their needs both because of her training and her personal background. Eventually, she’d like to expand the clinic to teach other dermatologists to work with people of color and conduct research to improve care. (Allday, 3/20)

MPR: Despite Improving Economy, State's Homeless Population Jumps 10 Percent Since 2015
Wilder Research counted 10,233 people, on a single day — Oct. 25 — who were in emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, and transitional housing programs, as well as people camped outside or who sought services at hot-meal programs and other drop-in sites. That's a jump of nearly 1,000 people since the last study in 2015, and marks the highest count since the study began in 1991. (Kraker, 3/20)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Medical Marijuana Is Legal In Georgia But Very Hard To Get
A little more than two years ago, Bowles met with his doctor and was approved to use medical marijuana to alleviate his symptoms. He registered with the state and obtained a special card from the Georgia Department of Health. The problem is, there’s no way for him to legally acquire the medical marijuana in Georgia. It’s against the law to grow medical marijuana. You can’t legally buy it, sell it or bring the drug into Georgia from another state. (Oliviero, 3/20)

Sacramento Bee: CA Needs 1.4 Million Affordable Rental Units, Report Finds
Of more than 2 million very low-income renter households in California, roughly two-thirds are severely cost burdened, meaning they spend more than half their income on rent, according to a report by the California Housing Partnership. That news comes two years after the Legislature passed a slate of bills to expedite construction and subsidize affordable housing. (Bollag, 3/21)