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breaking health news & updates
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As rural hospitals continue to struggle financially, a new type of hospital is slowly taking root, especially in the Southeast.
Rural emergency hospitals receive more than $3 million in federal funding a year and higher Medicare reimbursements in exchange for closing all inpatient beds and providing 24/7 emergency care. While that makes it easier for a hospital to keep its doors open, experts say it doesn’t solve all of the challenges facing rural health care.
People might have to travel further for treatments for illnesses that require inpatient stays, like pneumonia or COVID-19. In some of the communities where hospitals have converted to the new designation, residents are confused about what kind of care they can receive. Plus, rural hospitals are hesitant to make the switch, because there’s no margin of error.
The government, which classifies hospitals by type, rolled out the rural emergency option in January 2023.
Only 19 hospitals across the U.S. received rural emergency hospital status last year, according to the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center for Health Services Research. Daily Kos
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“(The physician shortage) is an urgent crisis, hitting every corner of this country, urban and rural, with the most direct impact hitting families with high needs and limited means."
Jesse Ehrenfeld
President, American Medical Association
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More Patients Are Losing Their Doctors — And Trust In The Primary Care System
First, her favorite doctor in Providence, Rhode Island, retired. Then her other doctor at a health center a few miles away left the practice. Now, Piedad Fred has developed a new chronic condition: distrust in the American medical system.
“I don’t know,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “To go to a doctor that doesn’t know who you are? That doesn’t know what allergies you have, the medicines that make you feel bad? It’s difficult.”
At 71, Fred has never been vaccinated against COVID-19. She no longer gets an annual flu shot. And she hasn’t considered whether to be vaccinated against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, even though her age and an asthma condition put her at higher risk of severe infection.
“It’s not that I don’t believe in vaccines,” Fred, a Colombian immigrant, said in Spanish at her home last fall. “It’s just that I don’t have faith in doctors.”
The loss of a trusted doctor is never easy, and it’s an experience that is increasingly common. KFF Health News Read more
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Why Are Bay Area Health Officials Warning About Measles?
Officials from public health departments across the Bay Area have urged residents to be vigilant for the symptoms of measles, especially after travel — and to be up-to-date on their measles vaccination. The announcement comes a little more than a week after Alameda County’s public health department warned Bay Area residents of a potential exposure to measles in an East Bay restaurant. Health officers from the nine Bay Area counties — plus Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito — issued the call for vigilance in the light of this recent possible exposure and also a national rise in measles cases. Over 90% of those cases have been linked to international travel (PDF), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The health officials said the risk of infection for residents in the Bay Area remains low, but still want people to be cautious. KQED Read more
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Abortion Access Services Have Surged In Bay Area Since Court’s Dobbs Ruling
Just a few years ago, Access Reproductive Justice, California’s only standalone organization dedicated to helping women access abortions, had just two full-time employees who staffed a phone line that callers from all over the country could reach for help. The nonprofit offered a range of services: paying for abortions, booking hotels and taxi rides if women had to travel for the procedure, or paying for child care while they were away. It covered about $50,000 worth of such services, spread across hundreds of clients each year. But since the 2022 Dobbs ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that allowed many states to restrict or ban abortion, the fund’s activity has jumped. It has boosted its phone line staff to four people, tripled the number of callers they help each year to nearly 1,900, and dramatically increased the financial assistance it can offer to about $1 million annually, said executive director Jessica Pinckney Gil, who is based in Oakland. SF Chronicle Read more
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Here’s Why San Francisco Was Crowned America’s Healthiest City In 2024
San Francisco’s invigorating ocean breezes, abundant hiking trails, expansive parks and open spaces, and diverse dining and food options are more than just attractions — they are the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. In a study published by WalletHub, which evaluated more than 180 major U.S. cities using 41 key indicators, San Francisco was crowned as America’s healthiest city. This comes at a time when over 70% of U.S. adults are overweight and health care expenses are escalating. The personal-finance website released its 2024 report on America’s healthiest cities on Monday, highlighting the financial implications of health for individuals. SF Chronicle Read more
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S.F. Schools Get Windfall From Vaping Companies. Here's How The District Will Spend It
Two of the biggest players in the e-cigarette industry will cover the salaries and benefits of 76 nurses, counselors and health educators in San Francisco schools next year in just the first of three expected rounds of funding from a legal settlement with the vaping giants. District officials plan to spend the initial chunk of the $24.65 million deal with Juul Labs Inc. and Altria Group Inc. next school year and the rest over the following two years. Altria, a major tobacco company and cigarette maker formerly known as Philip Morris, was a part owner of Juul but has since largely divested its stake. The payout couldn’t come at a better time for the district, which is facing a huge budget deficit despite reducing staffing by more than 1,000 positions — mostly by eliminating vacant jobs. School closures are expected as well as additional cuts. SF Chronicle Read more
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Lanes, Sidewalks On San Pablo Ave. To Close Amid Disability Access Upgrades
Some traffic lanes, driveways and sections of sidewalk along San Pablo Avenue will be closed in phases in Berkeley and Albany over roughly the next year, as part of an effort to improve access and mobility for people with disabilities, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) said. The work to bring curbs into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will begin in mid-April, the agency said. There will be designated pedestrian access routes and signs “to guide pedestrians around the construction activities,” according to a prepared statement from the agency Thursday. Berkeleyside Read more
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Four Years After Shelter-in-Place, COVID-19 Misinformation Persists
From spring break parties to Mardi Gras, many people remember the last major “normal” thing they did before the novel coronavirus pandemic dawned, forcing governments worldwide to issue stay-at-home advisories and shutdowns. Even before the first case of covid-19 was detected in the U.S., fears and uncertainties helped spur misinformation’s rapid spread. In March 2020, schools closed, employers sent staff to work from home, and grocery stores called for physical distancing to keep people safe. But little halted the flow of misleading claims that sent fact-checkers and public health officials into overdrive. KFF Health News Read more
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FDA OKs New Drug To Boost COVID-19 Protection For Immunocompromised People
New emergency use authorization of a monoclonal antibody infusion by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) means that immunocompromised people starting at age 12 will be able to add another layer of protection from COVID-19. Pemgarda, made by the company Invivyd, is a successor to the previous monoclonal antibody Evusheld, which was withdrawn from use by the FDA in January of 2023 when it became clear that it was not effective against new COVID-19 variants. It could be a welcome relief for people whose immune systems are severely threatened by Covid itself — with infection leading to serious illness — or those for whom vaccination does not provoke enough protective immune responses. Healthline Read more
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People In Republican-Voting States More Likely To Report COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects, Study Says
People in Republican-voting states were more likely to report adverse events after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination than people living in Democratic-leaning states, a new analysis finds, suggesting that how people view their post-vaccine side effects or decide whether to report them may be shaped by their political views. The cross-sectional study, published Friday in JAMA Network Open, looked at more than 620,000 entries in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System from 2020 through 2022 and found that a 10% increase in ballots cast for a Republican in the last presidential election was associated with a 5% increase in the odds that an adverse event after COVID vaccination would be reported, a 25% increase in odds that a severe adverse event would be reported, and a 21% increase in the odds that any reported adverse event would be severe. STAT Read more
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State/National/International News | | |
CDC Alerts Doctors To Watch For Rare, Serious Bacterial Infection Appearing With Unusual Symptoms
Health officials are alerting doctors to be on the lookout for certain types of rare, serious meningococcal infections that are on the rise in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new health alert that these infections, which are caused by a certain strain of Neisseria meningitidis bacteria, may present with unusual symptoms. In the cases identified so far this year, about 1 in 6 people have died, a higher fatality rate than they typically see with meningococcal infections. These cases are also unusual because they are striking middle-aged adults. Typically, meningitis infections strike babies or adolescents and young adults. The CDC’s alert comes after the Virginia Department of Health warned about five deaths from the same rare, serious form of meningococcal disease in September.
Mercury News Read more
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California May Gut Two CalWORKS Programs Helping Thousands Of Families
Joy Perrin had been living in a van with her two children for several months when she walked into a welfare office in 2018. She had left an abusive partner and had failed her first semester at Laney College in Oakland. A social worker told Perrin she qualified for the CalWORKS family stabilization program, which provides cash assistance, transitional housing and counseling to families experiencing crises such as domestic violence, substance abuse, or the risk of homelessness. Five years later, Perrin spoke to lawmakers on March 20, trying to save the program that helped her find a safe home and achieve an associate’s degree in biology. “This program gave me the opportunity to show my children that poverty doesn’t have to be our name,” said Perrin, who plans to study radiology. “Not only am I a testament of the power of this program, but my children will be able to share their stories and how it can change their path to their future.” CalMatters Read more
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Health Concerns Mount For Migrant Children At Outdoor Waiting Sites
To Dr. Theresa Cheng, the scene was “apocalyptic." She had come to Valley of the Moon, an open-air waiting site in San Diego’s rural Mountain Empire, to provide volunteer medical care to asylum seekers who had breached the United States-Mexico border wall and were waiting to be apprehended by American authorities. Among the throngs at this and other sites, she found children with deep lacerations, broken bones, fevers, diarrhea, vomiting, even seizures. Some were hiding in dumpsters and overflowing porta-potties. An asthmatic boy without an inhaler was wheezing in the acrid smoke from brush and trash fires, which had been lit for warmth. With the capacity at immigration processing centers strained, migrants, including unaccompanied children, are waiting for hours — sometimes days — in outdoor holding areas, where a lack of shelter, food, and sanitation infrastructure has triggered an array of public health concerns for the most vulnerable. NY Times Read more
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Mpox Cases In The U.S. Are On The Rise As Vaccination Rates Lag And New Threats Loom
Mpox cases in the United States are twice as high as they were at this time last year, and experts are stressing the importance of improving vaccination coverage as transmission risks rise. There have been 511 cases reported this year through March 16, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — compared with fewer than 300 cases by late March 2023. Transmission rates are still far below levels from 2022, when there were tens of thousands of cases in the US. But after a quieter year last year, experts say the US is vulnerable to increases in spread in a number of ways. The public health emergency in the US expired more than a year ago, cutting the amount of federal resources available to manage the public health response. And relatively low vaccination rates leave many at risk. CNN Read more
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Asking Patients About Flu Shots In The Emergency Room May Boost Uptake
Simply asking patients to get the flu vaccine during emergency department (ED) visits may double vaccination rates—or raise them even higher if the request is combined with helpful video and print messages, according to a study this week in NEJM Evidence. The study, led by researchers at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), compared two interventions among 767 non-critically ill adult patients seen in the ED who were not yet vaccinated against influenza. The study was conducted in San Francisco, Houston, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Durham, North Carolina, during a single flu season, from October 2022 to February 2023. "This research arose from our desire to address the health disparities that we see every day in our emergency department, especially among homeless persons, the uninsured, and immigrant populations," said the study's first author, Robert M. Rodriguez, MD, a professor of emergency medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine, in a press release from that school. Those groups, as well as Black and Hispanic Americans, are less likely to visit a primary care physician regularly.
CIDRAP Read more
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Most Sudden Infant Deaths Involved Unsafe Sleep Habits, Study Finds
More than three-quarters of sudden infant deaths involved multiple unsafe sleep practices, including co-sleeping, a recent analysis suggests. A study published in the journal Pediatrics looked at 7,595 sudden infant death cases in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention registry between 2011 and 2020. The majority of deaths occurred in babies less than 3 months old. Washington Post Read more
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For Terminal Patients, Dying In California May Get Easier
California could become home to the nation’s most sweeping assisted dying policies with a new bill that would allow dementia patients and out-of-state residents to end their lives here. First, the proposal will have to overcome opposition from the state’s influential religious and disability rights groups. It could also face pushback from doctors and hospitals that have historically been hesitant to loosen rules around the process. Politico
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Homeless Infants And Toddlers Largely Unenrolled In Early Ed Programs
Enrollment in early childhood development programs can mitigate some of the consequences of homelessness among infants and toddlers, but only 1 out of 9 of these children are enrolled in such programs, according to a recent national report. In California, 1 out of 6 are enrolled. An increasing number of families with infants and toddlers are homeless, with many staying in shelters, motels, temporary homes or living unsheltered, according to federal data included in the report from SchoolHouse Connection, a national homeless advocacy organization, and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan. EdSource Read more
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"Don’t Send California Homeless Funding Off Cliff" Many Cry As Budget Cuts Loom
A coalition of housing advocates and politicians are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to take homeless funding off of the chopping block as the state looks for ways to deal with its impending budget crisis. The draft of California’s fiscal year 2024 to 2025 budget calls for a significant rollback in affordable housing funding as well as a funding delay for housing programs serving families, seniors and people with disabilities. Members of the Bring California Home Coalition say the consequences of the proposed changes could be disastrous and rallied on the steps of the state Capitol Tuesday, April 2 to call for an ongoing commitment to homelessness funding. East Bay Times Read more
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Emojis And Texts: How One Bay Area School District Is Using Tech To Tackle The Mental Health Crisis
Students at San Mateo’s Abbott Middle School were struggling last year. There were frequent fights, a lot of disengaged kids, too many behavioral problems and kids pulled the fire alarm six times, disrupting classes, school officials said. Parents were concerned. So was Superintendent Diego Ochoa, who runs the San Mateo-Foster City School District. “Some of those teenager behaviors we saw were really intense at the school and much more so than the other schools,” he said. “So we were open to ideas.” Ochoa finally settled on one idea that’s a little unusual: Hiring a company that connects students to a mental health coach via text messages.
SF Chronicle Read more
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You Knew Keto Diets Helped Weight Loss. But They May Also Improve Mental Health
Eating a ketogenic diet appears to help people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, according to a new study led by Stanford researchers — underscoring the importance of diet in the management of serious mental illness. The study, published in Psychiatry Research on March 27, found that trial participants who were instructed to follow a ketogenic diet — high in protein and fat, and low in carbohydrates — for four months showed improvements in both psychiatric outcomes and metabolic syndromes like obesity and insulin resistance. It is the first study looking at the effects of the ketogenic diet and schizophrenia since 1965, and the first to look at the diet and bipolar disorder, said the study’s first author Dr. Shebani Sethi, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and director of Stanford’s metabolic psychiatry clinical program. SF Chronicle Read more
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Teens’ Latest Social Media Trend? Self-Diagnosing Their Mental Health Issues
Teenagers are increasingly using social media to self-diagnose their mental health issues, alarming parents and advocates who say actual care should be easier to access. A poll by EdWeek Research Center released this week found 55 percent of students use social media to self-diagnose, and 65 percent of teachers say they’ve seen the phenomenon in their classrooms.
Experts said they have regularly observed the practice too, and that the solution is not as simple as taking away phones or chastising teenagers who turn to free methods to receive mental health advice when more comprehensive assistance may be difficult to get. The Hill Read more
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For-Profit Companies Open Psychiatric Hospitals In Areas Clamoring For Care
A for-profit company has proposed turning a boarded-up former nursing home in Iowa into a psychiatric hospital, joining a national trend toward having such hospitals owned by investors instead of by state governments or nonprofit health systems. The companies see a business opportunity in the shortage of inpatient beds for people with severe mental illness. The scarcity of inpatient psychiatric care is evident nationwide, especially in rural areas. People in crisis often are held for days or weeks in emergency rooms or jails, then transported far from their hometowns when a bed opens in a distant hospital. CBS News Read more
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Fentanyl Crisis/Drug Trends | | |
Track Opioid Settlement Payouts — To The Cent — In Your Community
State and local governments are receiving billions of dollars in settlements from companies that made, sold, or distributed prescription painkillers and were accused of fueling the opioid crisis. More than a dozen companies will pay the money over nearly two decades. As of late February 2024, more than $4.3 billion had landed in government coffers. KFF Health News has been tracking how that money is used — or misused — nationwide. But determining how much of that windfall arrived in a specific county or city — and how much will follow in the future — can be challenging. Most localities are not required to make the information public.
California Healthline Read more
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Marin Fentanyl Overdoses Trigger Use Of New Alert System
Marin County officials have issued their first public health alert about rising fentanyl overdoses. The new alert system was prompted by not only spikes in 911 calls for fatal and non-fatal overdoses but also an increase in wastewater that tests positive for “substances of concern,” said Dr. Matt Willis, the county’s public health officer. When those conditions are met, Willis said, his staff will send messages to clinicians, mental health service providers, schools and the community about the situation. Marin Independent Journal Read more
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DNA Test Says It Can Predict Opioid Addiction Risk. Skeptics Aren’t So Sure
Using a swab inside the cheek and a sophisticated computer algorithm, a DNA test recently approved by federal regulators promises to assess genetic risk of opioid addiction. The test’s maker says results give doctors and patients a crucial tool when considering use of the very pain pills that ignited the nation’s opioid crisis. But as the company, SOLVD Health, prepares to roll out AvertD in coming months, skeptics remain unconvinced. They worry that patients shown to have a low risk of addiction may feel emboldened to pop pain pills — then get hooked. Or that doctors will deny painkillers to patients errantly deemed at elevated risk. Washington Post
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Is Your Water Bottle Making You Sick?
Reusable water bottles are all the rage these days — no doubt a boon for the environment and our hydration levels. But if you’re not cleaning your glass, stainless steel or plastic bottle, that must-have accessory could be a potential health hazard. “Just like any other surface where water accumulates, spores can drop and start forming mold,” says Benjamin Turner, an instructor in the Department of Biology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Mold, a type of fungus, spreads by way of microscopic reproductive cells, called spores, that waft through our indoor and outdoor air. They like to settle where there’s moisture. “That’s where the spores will incubate and start forming those black fuzzy or gray, white areas of mold patches,” Turner says. AARP Read more
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About Eden Health District | | |
The Eden Health District Board of Directors are Chair Pam Russo, Vice Chair Ed Hernandez, Secretary/Treasurer Roxann Lewis, Mariellen Faria and Surlene Grant. The Chief Executive Officer is Mark Friedman.
The Eden Health District is committed to ensuring that policy makers and community members receive accurate and timely information to help make the best policy and personal choices to meet and overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other health issues.
We welcome your feedback on our bulletin. Please contact editor Lisa Mahoney.
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