State Highlights: Rural North Carolina Hospital Tries To Curb Patients’ Overuse Of Emergency Department; Kansas Nurses Threaten To Strike

North Carolina Health News: Rural Hospital Has Patients Headed To Walmart For Their Care
Historically, the residents of rural Robeson County have relied heavily on the Southeastern Health Emergency Department for much of their medical care, even for non-emergent issues such as sore throats and sprains. The hospital, located in the county seat of Lumberton, has about 90,000 ED visits per year, according to Southeastern Health CEO Joann Anderson. (Knopf, 9/7)

Kansas City Star: Nurses Threaten To Strike At Research And Menorah Hospitals
Nurses at two HCA Midwest Health hospitals in the Kansas City area are threatening to strike, a move that could force the facilities to transfer patients and delay elective procedures. Members of National Nurses United voted to authorize strikes at Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park and Research Medical Center in Kansas City — as well as 13 other HCA affiliated hospitals in Florida, Nevada and Texas — after months of fruitless contract negotiations with the for-profit chain. (Marso, 9/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Taking Stock Of California’s $3 Billion Bet On Stem Cell Science
In November 2004, Prop. 71 passed with nearly 60 percent approval. It created the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, an agency tasked with administering the $3 billion and making the campaign’s lofty visions a reality. ...Over the past several months, The Chronicle conducted an extensive analysis of CIRM’s spending, reviewing the nearly 1,000 grants the agency has made, tracking how the money has been spent, and gauging whether the promises have been realized. (Allday and Palomino, 9/8)

The CT Mirror: Outreach Bridging Racial Gap In Pregnancy-Related Health Outcomes
The March of Dimes’ 2017 Premature Birth Report Card for Connecticut revealed that between 2013 and 2015, 8.4 percent of all (live birth) infants born to white women were premature, compared with 12.4 percent of infants born to black women. Statewide, after a complication-free delivery, black women are twice as likely as white women to be readmitted to a hospital within 30 days, according to a 2015 study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, which drew from statistics maintained by the Connecticut Department of Public Health. (Heubeck, 9/9)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: State Waits 2 Years To Tell Nursing Board Of Teen Who Nearly Died
Gov. Scott Walker's administration waited more than two years to tell the state Board of Nursing about a 14-year-old inmate who nearly died when nurses didn't get him to a doctor for three days, according to state agencies. Once the complaint was filed in July, the Board of Nursing — which itself is overseen by the Walker administration — waited seven weeks to process it, according to the board. (Marley, 9/7)

Arizona Republic: Banner Health Looking To Fill 1,500 Positions Across Arizona
Banner Health, Arizona's largest private employer, is looking to fill 1,500 job openings. The openings are at Banner facilities across Arizona and include positions in housekeeping, food services, information technology, financial services, case management, and nursing, among others. (Innes, 9/8)

The Associated Press: Hot, Dry Summer Bringing Fewer Cases Of Lyme Disease
New England's hot summer might be helping keep the ticks that carry Lyme disease at bay. The Northeastern states — which are some of the worst for Lyme in the U.S., posing a hazard to residents and vacationers alike — are still totaling the number of Lyme cases from the summer months, and there will likely be more in the fall. But preliminary indicators show the disease abating, and public health authorities are finding fewer deer ticks, state officials and researchers said. (9/9)

The Baltimore Sun: Battle Brewing Over Howard's Plans To Ban Pavement Coating Linked To Cancer
At least one Maryland-based coal tar sealant manufacturer is girding to battle Howard County’s efforts to ban the sale and use of certain coal tar and similar pavement sealants. Tom Decker, who has been president of SealMaster-Baltimore, a coal tar manufacturer for the past 21 years, said he needs “somebody to tell me what the benefit is,” in banning the sealants. (Nocera, 9/7)

Pioneer Press: Grieving Mom And South St. Paul Football Players Bring Forward Suicide Awareness
This week has been especially tough on Becky Van Dyke. Seeing kids return to school brings her back to a tragic time. Two years ago, her 14-year-old son, Dylan Engen, ended his life on what would have been his first day of ninth grade at South St. Paul High School. The wound remains fresh for Van Dyke, who struggles daily with grief, guilt and questions that will never be answered. But a new school year hits her the hardest. (Ferraro, 9/7)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Marijuana Partners: Philly Med School Announces Research Pact With Cansortium
At PCOM's campus on City Avenue, the college's scientists and educators will design studies and analyze observational data collected from patients at Cansortium medical marijuana dispensaries. PCOM researchers plan to investigate the drug's ability to treat anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, said Mindy George-Weinstein, a professor who serves as the school's chief research and science officer. (Wood, 9/7)

Denver Post: CU Boulder Research Could Block E.Coli, Other Superbugs
Kryptonite for superbugs could be on the horizon, as a result of research led by University of Colorado researchers that hinders the progress of antibiotic-resistant superbugs such as E.coli. CU researchers have created what they term the Controlled Hindrance of Adaptation of OrganismS (CHAOS) approach. It utilizes highly sophisticated DNA editing techniques to modify multiple gene expressions within the bacteria cells, for the purpose of inhibiting a pathogen’s central processes and blocking its ability to create defenses. (Brennan, 9/9)

The Oregonian: Wilsonville Breast Cancer Patient Has Seen Both Sides Of Treatment
Angela Rose knew the cancer had returned when she started feeling the abdominal pain. Then came the nausea. And the weight loss. And the relentless fatigue. Doctors thought it unlikely, but experience told her differently. The retired nurse had been diagnosed with breast cancer before. Now, at 41, she was sure it was back. (Campuzano, 9/9)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State Offers Incentive To Dental Students To Work In Underserved Areas
The CARE program is designed to recruit dental students from those areas and to help them improve access to dental care by getting them to practice in the areas after they graduate. ...The Ohio State program emerged as part of a $95 million dental school expansion, including $26 million in state capital budget funding. (Lane, 9/9)

Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County To Start Work Helping Families Out Of Poverty
A new panel will begin work Tuesday on a strategic plan to help lift needy Franklin County residents out of poverty. Among the steering committee’s initial points of order will be a review of other studies, statistics and trends — information designed to form a foundation for creating a community-wide plan for addressing poverty. (Kovac, 9/8)

The Star Tribune: Program Monitoring Blood Pressure Made A Noteworthy Discovery Before Its End
A telemonitoring program involving pharmacists and people with hypertension proved successful in helping patients of Bloomington-based HealthPartners reduce their blood pressure levels. Until it didn’t. (Olson, 9/9)

Philadelphia Inquirer: A Historic Adult-To-Child Lung Transplant Saved Their Daughter, Who’s Now A Thriving Teen
It has been a little more than five years since Sarah Murnaghan left Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with a new set of lungs, harvested from an adult donor and trimmed down to fit a 10-year-old with cystic fibrosis. Five years since her parents helped save her life by challenging a national organ allocation system that effectively denied such adult-to-child donations. (McCullough, 9/10)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Old Schools, Hot Buildings: A ‘Public Health Concern’?
Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym said at a news conference Friday that children in districts across the state that are unable to pay to properly cool their buildings have been "held hostage" by the heat but also by "the failure of our state and federal government to invest in our school facilities." She and others called on Pennsylvania to restart and fund a dormant reimbursement program for school construction projects, with money set aside not just for new buildings but also for repairs to aging schools. (Graham and Hanna, 9/8)

Arizona Republic: ACLU Study Criticizes Arizona's Prison System
The American Civil Liberties Union this week released individualized "blueprints" that each state could follow to help reduce burgeoning prison populations and the massive budgets needed to fund them. ...The report, which cites government data and numerous studies, outlines the issues facing Arizona's prisons and prisoners and what can be done about it. (Vandell, 9/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Legal Woes At Teen Prison Have Cost Wisconsin $20.6 Million So Far
Lawsuits over the problems at Wisconsin’s juvenile prison complex have cost the state $20.6 million so far and those costs will continue to rise — possibly by large sums if some cases aren't resolved in the state's favor. The facility for more than three years has been under criminal investigation for prisoner abuse and child neglect. (Marley, 9/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Quentin Prison Exec ‘No Longer Employed’ Amid Inmate Construction Probe
A San Quentin State Prison executive who was under investigation for letting inmates build a Victorian-style playhouse for his grandchildren on prison grounds is “no longer employed” at the prison, officials said Friday. The departure of Steve Harris, the chief of the prison’s health system, comes one week after The Chronicle reported that the state was looking into the circumstances surrounding the construction project that used inmate labor. (Cassidy, 9/7)