State Highlights: Wis. Family Files Wrongful Death Suit Against VA Clinic; Ga.’s Emory Healthcare Partners With Stratus
Outlets report on health news from Wisconsin, Georgia, California, Maryland, Tennessee, Arizona, Ohio, Washington, Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Florida.
The Associated Press:
Family Of Marine Who Died At Wisconsin VA Center Files Suit
The family of a Marine veteran who died from a toxic mix of more than a dozen drugs at a U.S. Veterans Affairs facility in Tomah, Wisconsin, filed a wrongful death and medical malpractice lawsuit against the U.S. government Monday. The federal lawsuit filed in Madison, Wisconsin, alleges VA caregivers improperly prescribed and administered drugs to Jason Simcakoski, who was 35 when he died in 2014. It also alleges the VA failed to provide adequate emergency care for Simcakoski when he was found unresponsive and did not properly diagnose his mental health and substance abuse problems. (8/29)
Modern Healthcare:
Emory Healthcare Throws Weight Behind Stratus Hospital Affiliates
Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare announced Monday that it would partner with Stratus Healthcare, an affiliation of 21 hospitals around Georgia, to develop a clinically integrated network and strengthen access to specialty care. The two groups also will explore expediting access to Emory Clinics for Stratus affiliates as well as closer collaboration of medical record connectivity for physicians to ensure coordination of care, the two sides said in a release. (Barkholz, 8/29)
San Diego Union-Times:
San Diego's Scripps Health Partners With MD Anderson To Expand Cancer Network's Reach
In a bid to increase its reach throughout Southern California, the San Diego-based Scripps Health system on Monday finalized a partnership with the internationally known MD Anderson Cancer Network. The deal makes Scripps the only direct collaborator with Houston-based MD Anderson in an eight-county region stretching from the U.S.-Mexico border north through Santa Barbara County and east to California's border with Arizona. (Sisson, 8/29)
The Baltimore Sun:
Emocha Mobile Health Lands New Contracts For Its Medication Monitoring App
A Baltimore startup with a mobile application to keep tuberculosis patients on track with their medication regimen is expanding with new contracts in California and big ideas for how the technology can improve oversight of medications for other illnesses. Emocha Mobile Health, founded in 2013 on technology licensed from the Johns Hopkins University, has recently landed contracts with Fresno, Merced and Contra Costa counties in California. Those communities have some of the country's highest concentrations of latent tuberculosis, a form of the lung bacteria that does not have symptoms and puts patients with weakened immune systems at greater risk for developing the potentially deadly disease. (Gantz, 8/29)
The Tennessean:
Judge Rachel Bell's Actions On Mental Health Commitments Questioned
Eleven people were committed against their will to a Middle Tennessee mental institution without a signed judge's order in late June, a day when General Sessions Judge Rachel Bell was supposed to hear the cases. But Bell was on vacation. The lawyer she picked to take her place on the bench said he forgot to sign the orders keeping those people in mental health facilities. Bell retroactively signed them for all 11 people six days later. (Barchenger, 8/29)
Arizona Republic:
Many Small Arizona Schools Vulnerable To Measles And Whopping Cough
Sending your kindergartner to a school in Arizona with 20 or fewer students in kindergarten likely puts your child at a higher risk for catching measles than going to a larger school, according to an analysis of public records obtained by The Arizona Republic. About three out of every five kindergarten classes with 20 or fewer students had such low vaccination rates last year that measles could easily spread among the children — and even to the community. For whooping cough, or pertussis, which is less contagious but known to kill infants, it was about two out of five kindergartens with 20 or fewer kids. Compare that with schools with larger kindergarten classes: about three in eight were not protected from measles outbreaks and less than two in 12 weren't protected from whooping cough. (McGlade, 8/29)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Electrical Shock: Two Ohio Psychologists Want FDA To Keep The Controversial Treatment
The Food and Drug Administration wants to ban electrical shock therapy, an old-fashioned behavior modification procedure described variously as dangerous, torture and a risk to public heath. Electrical jolts are applied to the skin of a deeply troubled patient and, with the shock, the patient's outbursts stop. ... Yet amid the extensive controversy stand two Ohio psychologists -- one an emeritus professor at Ohio State University, the other at Youngstown State University -- urging the FDA to beg off. (Koff, 8/30)
Seattle Times:
Psychiatric Hospital Western State No Longer Part Of National Accreditation Program
The state’s largest psychiatric hospital quietly withdrew from a national accreditation program three months ago. Western State Hospital voluntarily withdrew from accreditation by The Joint Commission, a nonprofit organization, on May 24, according to a Joint Commission spokeswoman. But the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), which oversees the facility, didn’t announce the decision publicly. The silence stands in contrast to other recent developments, like a hospital improvement plan that was finalized and announced in June with federal regulators. (O'Sullivan, 8/29)
Detroit Free Press:
Feds Urge Cancer Doctor's Victims To Tap Into $11.9M Fund
The federal government is urging the victims of notorious cancer doctor Farid Fata to tap into an $11.9-million restitution fund before time runs out, noting the process for doing so is a little less daunting now than when it was originally set up. According to U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, the federal government hasn't yet heard from dozens of Fata victims who could benefit from the restitution fund, which has been set up to help them recover medical costs and other expenses. Fata is serving 45 years in prison for insurance fraud by intentionally misdiagnosing or mistreating cancer patients. (Baldas, 8/29)
Kansas Health Institute:
KNI Dental Clinic Continues Non-Resident Services Despite Budget Cuts
A dental clinic at the Kansas Neurological Institute continues to serve Kansans who live outside the facility despite cutbacks two years ago. But it may need more funding if demand from non-residents increases. The clinic’s top priority is serving 147 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who call KNI home. But Brent Widick, superintendent of the Topeka facility, said KNI also has provided dental services for 71 non-residents with similar disabilities so far this year. (Marso, 8/29)
Columbus Dispatch:
Keeping Teen Moms From ‘Turnaround’ Pregnancies
In Franklin County, about 28 percent of teen moms become pregnant with their second child within 18 months of delivering the first. The responsibility and stress of young motherhood can be a major setback. Teen pregnancy is associated with lower rates of high-school graduation and greater incidence of adult poverty and public assistance, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Tate, 8/30)
The Associated Press:
Transgender Inmate Latest To Push For Hormone Treatment
A transgender inmate is suing the Missouri prison system for refusing to provide hormone therapy as she transitions to a woman, adding her voice to those of prisoners in other states who argue that denying such treatment amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit in federal court in St. Louis last week on behalf of Jessica Hicklin, a 37-year old inmate serving life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder at age 16, when she went by her birth name, James. She is challenging a state Department of Corrections policy that bars hormone therapy for inmates who weren't receiving it before being incarcerated. (8/29)
Dallas Morning News:
Words To Live By: Baylor Scott And White To Text Poor, Chronically Ill Patients
To remind patients about medical visits and other issues related to their health, nurses and technicians at several outpatient charity clinics managed by the Baylor Scott and White Health System spend hours each week making phone calls. The calls are meant, in part, to reduce no-show rates among high-risk and low income patients because missed appointments can result in missed opportunities for prevention and worsening chronic conditions. (Rice, 8/29)
Fox News:
New ‘Zombie’ Drug May Be Emerging In Florida As Flakka Use Declines
When details of an attack allegedly involving a Florida State University student who police say stabbed an innocent couple to death then tried to eat the face of one of the victims were released earlier this month, many media outlets quickly pointed to flakka, a synthetic cathinone similar to bath salts that can cause violent, aggressive behavior. But if Austin Harrouff, the 19-year-old suspect who authorities say killed John Stevens, 59, and Michelle Mischon, 53, outside their home in Jupiter, Florida, was on the synthetic drug alpha-PVP, data suggests his case isn’t representative of a growing problem nationwide. (Carstensen, 8/29)
Health News Florida:
Martin County Challenges New Water Standards
Pointing to concerns about increased chemicals going into Lake Okeechobee and nearby waterways, Martin County has filed a legal challenge to controversial new state water-quality standards. The case, filed this week at the state Division of Administrative Hearings, is the fourth challenge to the standards, which were developed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and approved last month by the Florida Environmental Regulation Commission. ... Martin County recently has grappled with algae blooms that are a result of polluted water being released from Lake Okeechobee into other waterways. (8/29)