Saturday, August 15, 2009

News Clipping Archives

 

 

Maryland / Regional

 

The Baltimore Sun Exposes Mann Bracken "component" Wolpoff Abramson (Baltimore Sun)

Health officials taking requests from swine flu vaccine providers (Baltimore Sun)

Md. wants to immunize millions for swine flu (Hagerstown Herald-Mail)

Summer brings job training for youths (Carroll County Times)

Health officials taking requests from swine flu vaccine providers (Baltimore Sun)

Schools plan for H1N1 outbreak (Baltimore Sun)

Harford horse with rabies is euthanized (Baltimore Sun)

John R. Miller, General Services director, dies at 64 (Baltimore Sun)

Harford to accelerate nursing studiesCollege receives $1.2 million grant for Program (Baltimore Sun)

How to fix the budget (Baltimore Sun)

Volunteer Spotlight: Christine Brown (Annapolis Capital)

Twittering live from operating room @Sinai Hosp. (Daily Record)

 

National / International

In India swine flu panic spreads faster than virus (Associated Press)

Downturn Brings A New Face to Homelessness (Washington Post)

 

Opinion

Everyday Leaders Bring Health Reform to Life

 (Washington Post Commentary)

 

 

Maryland / Regional

 

The Baltimore Sun Exposes Mann Bracken "component" Wolpoff Abramson

 

By John P. Frye

Baltimore Sun ( http://mannbrackenwatch.blogspot.com/2009/08/baltimore-sun-exposes-mann-bracken.html )

Friday, August 14, 2009

 

December 2008: Reporting and Analysis by the Baltimore Sun

 

Every Wednesday at noon, debt collection lawyers take their seats behind a thick wooden table in a downtown Baltimore courtroom for a ritual they call the "rocket docket."

 

It's one way officials at the city District Court try to unclog a backlog of consumer debt lawsuits, including thousands filed by hospitals over unpaid bills.

 

Lawyers call up debtors one at a time to work out payment plans in rapid, on-the-spot settlements. Other days, lawyers haggle with debtors in the courthouse hallways. When cases go to judges, hospitals typically win after hearings that last a few minutes or less.

 

Nearly one-third of the 132,000 lawsuits that Maryland hospitals have filed against patients in the past five years over unpaid bills have been filed in the city District Court, which serves an area where many debtors are "living on the margins," as University of Maryland law professor and former Legal Aid lawyer Michael Millemann puts it.

 

These lawsuits have played out even though hospitals' costs of unpaid bills and provision of free care to the poor are supposed to be covered by the rates paid by all patients, under Maryland's unique rate-setting system. Some of the hospitals that have filed the most lawsuits have received millions of surplus dollars from the payment system.

 

Maryland hospitals have won at least $100million in judgments against patients in the past five years and placed liens on at least 8,000 homes across the state, despite national hospital industry guidelines that caution against the wholesale use of that practice, an investigation by The Baltimore Sun found.

 

Some hospitals have won judgments against patients covered by Medicaid for bills the giant government health plans didn't pay, despite a Maryland law outlawing that, The Sun found in sampling more than 200 court files. Hundreds of patients have filed complaints with state regulators over billing issues, including allegations that hospitals tried to collect amounts beyond what they agreed to accept under insurance company contracts by going directly after patients.

 

And some hospitals have sued patients three or more years after their stays ended, raising questions about whether the statute of limitations had expired, The Sun found.

 

The court processes can overwhelm debtors, who rarely have lawyers to assist them and often don't even try to defend themselves. At the "rocket docket" and other settlement forums, patients negotiating against hospital lawyers "have no comprehension of the potential defenses that they may have," said Millemann, also a former chief of the civil division of the Maryland attorney general's office.

 

Daniel L. Hatcher, an assistant professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, said debt collection cases of all types are "completely overwhelming" the district courts. "Even the best judge won't have the resources to give each case justice," he said.

 

Court records don't make clear how much of the judgments were actually collected by the hospitals. It's also not possible to know whether hospitals are suing the same patients whose debts they've already written off as part of the rate-setting system, because state regulators do not require them to itemize write-offs. The hospitals insist that they don't collect debts twice.

 

The hospital industry argues that state regulators expect them to pursue those who can pay their bills, so those costs don't get passed on to all patients through higher rates. But some hospitals have filed thousands of lawsuits while others of similar size have filed just a few hundred. Maryland law, unlike the law in some other states, imposes few controls on when and how hospitals can sue patients.

 

Carmela Coyle, president of the Maryland Hospital Association, said its members only press people with the ability to pay. That's not always easy to determine, she said, especially when patients or their families don't share full details of their finances.

 

Though she said the number of suits was small compared to the total number of patients hospitals treat, she said: "I'm sure you'll find examples of bad practices. We won't defend those."

 

One collection attorney, while saying that most debts pursued are legitimate, conceded that mistakes occur. Patients can face a lawsuit because a hospital "failed to fill out insurance forms correctly," said Bruce H. Cherkis, a Gaithersburg lawyer. "There are a lot of ways to fall through the cracks."

 

Robert B. Murray, who heads the state Health Services Cost Review Commission, said the volume of lawsuits against patients is "troubling," especially since some hospitals appear to sue much more than others.

 

"We hope and expect that hospitals are charitable institutions and they know where to draw the line," Murray said.

 

Lawyers specialize

 

The lawsuits have brought in money not just for the hospitals, but also a cadre of specialized law firms that handled the bulk of cases filed by Maryland hospitals against patients over the past five years.

 

The University of Maryland Medical System paid Towson-based Bloom and Associates more than $1.6 million in 2006 to handle collections cases, according to Internal Revenue Service records. Some firms accept a percentage of the recovery instead of being paid an hourly rate.

 

The firms file so many cases that they can profitably handle ones seeking very small amounts. Some lawsuits are filed over as little as $30; in many of these smaller cases, the amount of interest and court costs can exceed the amount of the debt.

 

One of the largest firms handling hospital debt cases is Wolpoff and Abramson, which from its start in Silver Spring more than three decades ago grew into a collections behemoth with dozens of offices and affiliates across the country.

 

In Maryland, Wolpoff attorneys filed more than 11,000 lawsuits against patients during the past five years on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, court data show. Its other clients include Sinai Hospital of Baltimore.

 

The firm- which went through a merger in July and is now known as Mann Bracken LLC- has faced more than 200 federal court lawsuits since the start of 2005 alleging violations of fair credit and debt collection laws, mostly over credit card or other bank debt.

 

Among the 44 such lawsuits against the firm this year are several alleging high-pressure and deceptive collection activities and filing of lawsuits after the statute of limitations had expired. The firm has denied the accusations, and most of the cases are pending.Others were settled confidentially.

 

Nickia Kelly encountered Wolpoff lawyer Rahsaan J. Dickerson, representing the Johns Hopkins Hospital, at a "rocket docket" session in October. The hospital had sued Kelly over a $1,102 charge from an emergency room visit more than four years ago.

 

Dressed in jeans and a dark stenciled sweat shirt, Kelly was hoping to avoid a near-certain court judgment and steep interest charges on top of the debt. She stepped up to the table and sat down to face off with the pinstripe-suited lawyer and his paralegal.

 

Tense at points, their brief meeting ended when Kelly agreed to pay $100 a month. The hospital, in turn, wouldn't press Kelly for nearly $600 in interest and other fees it had sought.

 

"I'm just getting slammed," said Kelly, a Baltimore International College culinary student, as she hurriedly left the downtown courthouse on Fayette Street. "What can you do?"

 

What Kelly didn't realize, without having a lawyer to help her, is that she might have had a defense- that Maryland has a three-year statute of limitations on debt. Hopkins filed suit against her in March 2008, more than 3 1/2 years after she was treated. Statute-of-limitation cases can sometimes be less than clear-cut, however, because the clock can restart if a debtor has any contact with a debt collection agent.

 

Kelly said she had no idea that debts can expire after three years until a reporter told her this month. "Are you serious? I just sent in my first payment," said Kelly, who said she has put past trouble with the law behind her and plans to manage a restaurant some day.

 

Dickerson referred questions to Mann Bracken's Rockville office, but nobody there would agree to an interview. Johns Hopkins officials declined comment.

 

Records show that in cases filed by the Wolpoff firm, hospitals routinely seek to add interest at the legal maximum of 12 percent a year on judgments, starting 60 days after the patient was discharged. That is legal under a Maryland law that applies to hospitals. But the practice is criticized as unnecessarily aggressive even by some other debt collection lawyers. The Maryland Constitution sets interest rates at 6 percent for most debts, but hospital debts are exempt.

 

In a suit filed in April 2005 against Edward Brashears, a computer programmer at the Social Security Administration, Sinai Hospital through Wolpoff and Abramson demanded 12 percent interest dating back more than three years. The hospital had actually sued Brashears twice before, but failed to serve Brashears both times, so the cases were dismissed. By the time the third suit was filed, Brashears had died of colon cancer, court records show.

 

"They kept sending statements here, and I sent them the death certificate to let them know I can't do anything about it," said James Brashears, the dead man's brother.

 

John M. Colmers, secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and a former executive director of the hospital rate-setting commission, called it "quite disturbing" for hospitals to seek pre-judgment interest. "The commission should look into that," Colmers said.

 

Johns Hopkins officials said in an e-mailed statement that the Wolpoff firm canceled its contract with the hospital to handle new cases in February 2007 and that the hospital has filed significantly fewer lawsuits against patients since then. But Mann Bracken continues to represent Hopkins; Dickerson appeared for the hospital in "rocket docket" cases in Baltimore District Court as recently as Dec. 10.

 

Routine judgments

 

In the Baltimore City court and other district courts, judges routinely grant judgments based almost entirely on the hospital's presentation of an affidavit stating that the services were "medically necessary." The charges are always considered "reasonable" because they derive from rates set by Maryland regulators.

 

Patients who want to dispute the bills must file a "notice of intent to defend" within 15 days of receiving a copy of the lawsuit. Most never respond, and the hospitals win the cases by default as a result. Yet failing to satisfy a judgment, even a small one, can lead to a denial of credit, a home mortgage or an apartment lease. It can also prompt an employer to reject a job candidate and even lead to suspension of a driver's license in some circumstances.

 

Maryland law treats hospital bill lawsuits the same as those filed by credit card companies or banks, even though some states recognize that most people don't incur medical bills voluntarily.

 

American Hospital Association guidelines put out in April 2006 cautioned hospitals against filing liens on patients' homes as a matter of course. Yet at least 29 of 47 Maryland hospitals have placed liens over the past five years, The Sun found.

 

Suburban Hospital in Bethesda has filed at least 1,700 property liens, most of them in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

 

"Any time we receive a judgment we file a lien," said Donald J. Crawford of the Annapolis firm of Adelman, Sheff and Smith, which represents Suburban.

 

Liens can make it more difficult to sell property or refinance mortgages, and also show up on credit scores used to screen applicants for jobs, credit, and rental housing.

 

The Sun found at least $101 million in liens and court judgments from hospital collection lawsuits from the start of 2003 through the end of June 2008, without even counting many judgments of less than $2,000.

 

The University of Maryland Medical Systems won $35.7 million in judgments from more than 10,000 lawsuits filed across the state. Baltimore City courts issued nearly half the judgments, records show.

 

Bloom and Associates, headed by Neil Bloom, filed most of those lawsuits- and also filed cases for relatively small amounts on behalf of other hospitals. About one-third of the 153 cases the firm filed on behalf of Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore on Feb. 23, 2007, were for $500 or less, for instance. Only one case was over a bill that exceeded $1,000.

 

Bloom could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts. University of Maryland officials declined interview requests but said in a statement that they try to "work with patients" to find ways to pay bills and avoid lawsuits.

 

"Unfortunately, there are patients who do not communicate with us or respond to our efforts to collect unpaid bills. In those cases, we cannot know their financial situation or whether they may qualify for programs that might reduce their financial burden," according to the statement.

 

Herbert A. Thaler is another one of the state's most active hospital collectors and a fixture in the District Court. A solo practitioner, Thaler has filed about 13,000 lawsuits for nearly a dozen hospitals since the start of 2003, according to court data.

 

Thaler says debtors can save themselves a lot of grief by simply communicating better with the hospital or its attorney.

 

"When you do [these lawsuits] in volume, it doesn't matter. I'm doing my job. If I have to go to court on one or 10, it doesn't matter," Thaler said, adding: "We proceed on these cases even for small balances."

 

Reporters for The Sun who observed Thaler hash out payment plans with debtors on several occasions in Baltimore's District Court found him to be courteous and sometimes affable, even when facing people who were suspicious and hostile.

 

"You don't have to be a bastard," he says.

 

When people say they can't pay, Thaler says, he advises them to ask the hospital for financial assistance. Most can pay at least something, he says, especially on small debts.

 

He said the hospitals decide when to sue. "It's not up to me," he said.

 

After he wins a judgment, Thaler said, it's up to the patient to work out a payment plan. People who are employed face the prospect of a court order to garnish their wages.

 

"When they refuse to communicate, we file for a garnishment," said Thaler. "Sure, it's routine."

 

Not responsible

 

Tamara Byrd was driving home from her job at the city Department of Social Services on Sept. 9, 2003, when a teenage driver collided with her car, sending Byrd's car smashing into a house. She spent seven days in the trauma center at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore with rib fractures and internal bleeding.

 

"When I first came home, my parents literally had to tuck me into bed every night. My mother had to bathe me. She had to help me get dressed," said Byrd, 40, who lives in Randallstown.

 

Byrd thought her bill was covered by her HMO. But more than two years later Sinai, through Thaler, sued her for $21,595. Byrd's case was on the docket on July 16, 2006. Thaler met her prior to the hearing to discuss a possible settlement.

 

She recalls encountering a traffic jam of sorts as lawyers for hospitals sought to find the people they were suing to set up conferences. "It was like a total business," said Byrd.

 

Byrd agreed to pay $100 a month after talking to Thaler. She complained to the judge that she didn't think it was fair to be stuck with the bill when she had insurance, but thought she had little choice but to settle. Judge Dorothy J. Wilson marked Byrd's case settled, remarking: "Well, good luck to you, ma'am," according to a transcript.

 

Two months later, Byrd found out that she never legally owed the bill to begin with.

 

A friend advised Byrd to file a complaint with the Maryland Insurance Administration, which ruled in September 2006 that Byrd was not liable for the charges.

 

Byrd's HMO had agreed to pay the charges once it was billed by Sinai. But the hospital failed to send the bill within six months as required by state law. Instead, it sued Byrd on Dec. 22, 2005, stating in court papers that she "refuses to pay the sums due."

 

The insurance administration ruled that the hospital acted improperly in suing her, adding that hospitals can't bill patients for covered services that their health plans decline to pay. Officials call these sorts of disputes "balance billing."

 

Byrd said she had agreed to settle her court case only because she didn't know that balance billing was improper.

 

The ruling instructed Byrd to file a complaint with the Maryland attorney general's office if the hospital kept trying to collect from her. "I have heard nothing since then," Byrd said.

 

Thaler said the hospital had mistakenly believed an auto insurer would cover the bill. He said that once he saw the insurance department ruling, he "backed off."

 

Bill Gruhn, chief of the consumer protection division for the Maryland attorney general's office, said state law prohibits hospitals from billing patients for services covered by their insurer.

 

"When we've seen it, we've taken action to stop it," said Gruhn, adding: "That is something that we would look into."

 

Gruhn said that since the start of 2005, the agency has received about 200 complaints concerning hospital billing matters, including balance billing.

 

Medicaid and Medicare

 

People who are eligible for taxpayer-funded health plans such as Medicaid, which treats the poor, and Medicare, which cares for the elderly, aren't supposed to get sued at all. Maryland law prohibits a hospital from knowingly pursuing collection cases against patients who are covered by Medicaid; it is considered another form of balance billing.

 

Hospitals maintain that they sometimes don't figure out a person is eligible for Medicaid until after the matter has been through the courts. It is legal in Maryland to sue while Medicaid is determining eligibility for benefits, but illegal if the hospital knows the patient is on public assistance.

 

Yet Bernice Starks, of Baltimore, says that happened to her.

 

She ended up at the University of Maryland Medical Center on March 6, 2007, after suffering a heart attack and kidney failure.

 

She took a hospital worker's suggestion and applied for Medicaid. She received retroactive coverage. But the hospital sued her in February, demanding that she pay the $20,140 bill, according to court records. Starks contends that the hospital sued her after she informed it she had been approved for Medicaid.

 

Starks and her husband showed up at an 8:30 a.m. hearing on May 20 and tried to explain things. A court clerk told her she needed proof that Medicaid would pay the bill and only then could call back and request a new hearing date, according to court filings.

 

The couple left confused, not realizing that the case was going on without them. The court entered a judgment against her for the full amount of the bill, records show.

 

"Most people don't know their rights," said Louise Carwell, a senior attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Maryland. She persuaded the hospital to undo the judgment against Starks and to collect the bill from Medicaid.

 

"There's a lot of judgments entered that need not be entered," Carwell said, adding: "Those bills can be really significant down the line. It totally messes up their credit."

 

Phil Donlin, a disabled former forklift operator on Medicare, also needed legal help after Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center sued him- even though he can barely afford the taxes on his modest Dundalk home.

 

Donlin, 61, spent a week at the hospital in October 2005 after his wife called 911 because he couldn't breathe.

 

Less than two months later, he received a letter from a state contractor saying that his $10,000 bill would be covered. But in August 2006, Johns Hopkins sued.

 

Donlin, who must travel with portable oxygen, struggled to make it to the Baltimore County District Court in Towson to defend himself.

 

"He would walk 10 steps and we'd have to stop," said his niece, Janet Ballistreri, who went along. By the time Donlin made it, the hearing was over.

 

The judge didn't ask about Donlin's insurance coverage before ruling that he owed the $10,736 bill, plus interest of $1,542, according to court records. At the time, Donlin and his wife, Bettie, lived on disability checks of $1,619 a month, court records state.

 

The University of Baltimore School of Law Civil Advocacy Unit filed an appeal for him. The case ended when the hospital agreed to bill Medicare for all but the $912 deductible and to collect that from Donlin in increasing installments starting at $25 a month. Johns Hopkins officials declined to comment on the case.

 

While he was struggling to make payments to Hopkins Bayview, which won't end until March 2009, Donlin's water was shut off a few months ago because he fell behind on his bills. Last month, he fell in the kitchen. Unable to walk, he slept on a couch. A few days later, his wife called an ambulance, which took him back to Bayview.

 

Donlin's wife, Bettie, said doctors found cancer in his lungs, spinal cord, and kidneys- and told her husband that the cancer is terminal.

 

While she waits for a shipment of kerosene paid for by a state program, Bettie has used the oven to heat the Dundalk rowhome.

 

"This will be the worst Christmas we'll have. There will be no presents, no lights, and no tree," she said.

 

To examine debt collection practices by Maryland hospitals, The Baltimore Sun compiled a database of 132,000 collection lawsuits filed by hospitals across the state from January 2003 through June 30 of this year. The Sun also compiled a partial database of judgments after state officials didn't respond to repeated requests for a complete file. The incomplete database contained $101 million in such judgments without counting most judgments of less than $2,000.

 

Reporters reviewed samplings of court files in several busy court districts, observed the collection process play out in the busiest of these courts in Baltimore City, and interviewed lawyers and patients involved in those proceedings. The Sun also obtained five years of financial records and other documents from the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission, which over a period of several months provided the newspaper with four different sets of data, each time contending the previous version contained inaccuracies.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

 

 

 

Health officials taking requests from swine flu vaccine providers

Online database created ahead of inoculation campaign that could start next month

 

By Kelly Brewington

Baltimore Sun

Saturday, August 15, 2009

 

In anticipation of a mass vaccination campaign against swine flu this fall, Maryland health officials are communicating with doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals about the details of administering a vaccine to nearly 3 million of the state's most vulnerable residents.

 

Providers who plan to administer the vaccine should begin signing up at the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Web site, www.dhmh.state.md.us. Officials created an online database Friday to take requests from family doctor offices, clinics and hospitals that would likely give the inoculations.

 

While Maryland officials are still waiting for details from the federal government about how agreements would work between the state and providers, they are eager to begin the process for the vaccine campaign that could start as soon as next month-- earlier than previous federal estimates of mid-October.

 

"We are shooting for the end of September to have the providers lined up and ready to go and to have the seasonal flu campaign under way," said Frances Phillips, the state's deputy secretary for public health services.

 

Anticipating that there won't be enough vaccine for every American, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set five priority groups: pregnant women, people between the ages of 6 months and 24 years old, non-elderly people with chronic illness, health care workers, and caretakers of children younger than 6 months old. Phillips said she expects the state to receive enough vaccine for the estimated 2.9 million Marylanders in those categories.

 

"I think we'll have enough. The question is how soon will we have enough of it?" Phillips said. "School is starting, [and] as the weather gets colder, it's going to be a real race to get it to people with the highest risk to develop immunity so when they are exposed, they are protected."

 

The vaccine could cost consumers between $10 and $20, but state officials are still working out the details of the price and whether it would be reimbursed by insurers.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

 

 

 

Md. wants to immunize millions for swine flu

 

Associated Press

Hagerstown Herald-Mail

Friday, August 14, 2009

 

BALTIMORE (AP) — Millions of Marylanders would be immunized against swine flu for free or for a nominal fee under a plan being developed by state health officials, whose goal is to provide the vaccine to every resident who wants it.

 

The vaccination plan is unprecedented in scope but depends on a robust supply of the vaccine, which is expected to be ready by mid-October at the earliest.

 

When it becomes available, Maryland will begin distributing the vaccine to doctors, pharmacists, local health departments and other partners.

 

The first shots will be given to those deemed most vulnerable by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — pregnant women, health care workers, children and people under 65 with chronic health problems, said Frances Phillips, Maryland’s deputy secretary for public health.

 

Those priority groups account for more than 2.5 million of the state’s 5.6 million residents, Phillips said.

 

“That’s to be followed up very quickly thereafter with vaccinating the remaining 3 million Marylanders,” Phillips said. “It’s a massive, unprecedented vaccination campaign.”

 

Some people who receive shots will likely have to pay an administration fee of between $10 and $20, but no one will be denied a shot because they are unable to pay, Phillips said.

 

Vaccination against swine flu remains voluntary, as does vaccination against seasonal influenza.

 

State officials and other experts said it’s too early to guess how many people will get shots this year because the severity of the virus and the amount of available vaccine are difficult to predict.

 

The state does not keep track of how many people receive flu shots each year because the vaccines are typically administered privately, officials said.

 

Nationwide, about 34 percent of U.S. residents were vaccinated against seasonal flu during the 2008-09 season, according to the CDC, despite its recommendations that 83 percent of the population be immunized.

 

“There’s going to be a lot of unknowns about that vaccine in terms of the uptake,” said Dr. John Bartlett, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “If it turns out to be a serious flu with some deaths, I think people are going to want to get it and really bite and scratch to have it available.”

 

Under that scenario, Bartlett is doubtful that the available domestic supply of the vaccine will allow Maryland to fulfill its goal of making it available to everyone.

 

Bartlett also noted that the flu season will be well under way before anyone becomes immunized. Vaccination against swine flu is likely to require two doses, three weeks apart, with immunity taking effect three weeks after the second dose, he said.

 

“The vaccine is going to be late,” Bartlett said. “They can’t make it any faster.”

 

Another open question: how the state will pay for all those flu shots. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has received nearly $7 million in federal grants for swine flu preparation and will get more once it begins implementing its plans.

 

“The public sector can’t do this alone. We can’t vaccinate all Marylanders perhaps two times. We’re relying on partners,” Phillips said, including private insurance and Medicare. “We’re hopeful we get the resources we need.”

 

Part of the state’s plan is to make the vaccine available at schools, prefarably in the form of a nasal spray, Phillips said. But it’s unclear whether there will be enough doses of nasal-spray vaccine to immunize Maryland’s 1 million school-age children.

 

The state is also trying to project what would happen if hospitals became inundated with swine flu patients. It is common during flu season for patients to be sent to hospitals other than the ones closest to their homes, but if swine flu hits hard, some patients may be hospitalized much farther away, Phillips said.

 

To prevent emergency rooms from being overrun, the state is planning a communication and education campaign about how to treat mild flu symptoms. Information will be available on Web sites, and the state may also set up call centers, Phillips said.

 

The World Health Organization has estimated that up to 2 billion people could be sickened during the swine flu pandemic, which is already known to be responsible for more than 1,400 deaths, including six in Maryland.

 

Copyright 2009 Hagerstown Herald-Mail.

 

 

 

 

Summer brings job training for youths

 

By Erica Kritt

Carroll County Times

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

 

Twelve-year-old Samantha Freels found herself behind the checkout counter at Old Navy recently. The clothing retailer isn’t using child labor. Rather, it is helping to give community youths a feel for the working world.

 

Old Navy has partnered nationally with the Boys & Girls Club to give kids a job shadowing experience.

 

“It’ll help us, because we’re going to know if we go to work what we have to do,” said Samantha, of Taneytown.

 

Freels, along with 10 children attending summer programs at the Boys & Girls Club in Westminster, got a chance Wednesday to go behind the scenes at the store and learn from the sales associates how to fold clothes, work in a fitting room and check prices on items.

 

Beth Tevis, president of the club’s advisory board, said this was an eye-opening experience for the children.

 

“They don’t really know what this is like,” she said.

 

Randy Acosta, the executive director of Boys & Girls Club of Harford County, which is the parent organization of the Westminster club, said there will be more job skills education and training for the children at the Boys & Girls Club.

 

“We want to identify with corporate sponsors to do more job shadowing,” he said.

 

After a morning in the store, the children were educated on the store’s goals and the behaviors that earn employees rewards and help the store achieve its goals.

 

Mickel Trice, 12, of Westminster, said a job as a sales associate is in his future.

 

“It’s not all work. You get to do fun stuff, too,” he said.

 

The store’s general manager, Lori Miller, said she welcomes the opportunity to work with the Boys & Girls Club and community groups.

 

“We’ll do this every year, as long as I’m here,” Miller said.

 

BERC aids young workers

 

The Boys & Girls Club in Westminster isn’t the only organization trying to give the county’s young people a head start on the job hunt.

 

The county’s Business & Employment Resource Center received $54,636 in stimulus money to put 19 Carroll County residents between the ages of 17 and 24 to work at county businesses.

 

Four are working at Hashawa Environmental Center in Westminster, and the remaining 15 are working at Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville.

 

Denise Rickell, manager of BERC, refers to a cartoon when explaining the importance of helping youths get jobs instead of putting all their efforts to help adult workers. The cartoon shows a fast-food restaurant in 2008 where a teenager is behind the counter. In the next panel, it’s 2009 and the adults are behind the counter.

 

“[Teens and youths] are competing against adults who are out of jobs [and] who are highly skilled,” she said. “These young people have very little work.”

 

The program began June 29 and will conclude Aug. 7. In the meantime, Rickell said BERC is trying to prepare these young workers for the future.

 

“It’s getting them prepared so they have some experience,” she said.

 

She said a lot of what most people who have jobs take for granted has to be taught to this group, such as remembering to call out if they can’t make it to work and leaving personal issues at home.

 

Belinda Utz, 17, who prepares and serves meals at Springfield, said she hopes this job can lead to a full-time position.

 

Joshua Morales, 21, who is doing maintenance at Springfield, said the program is helping him gain experience and skills to take to another job.

 

“And while we are here, they are going to have everybody do resumes,” he said.

 

Rickell said all of the youths in the program will leave with an up-to-date resume, completed job application, evaluation and mock interview.

 

Patricia Johnson, director of human resources at Springfield, said she was pleased with the workers and the program. “It’s been a positive work experience,” she said.

 

The youths in the program are getting paid $8 an hour and working seven-hour days, five days a week, but that money is being paid for by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

 

Employing students with disabilities

 

BERC also administers a program for the Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services that employs Carroll students with disabilities.

 

The DORS summer youth employment program has been helping students with disabilities who go through the Carroll County school system attain summer jobs for five years.

 

Jessica Markum, a vocational rehabilitation technical specialist for DORS, said the program really is a community effort.

 

This year, the program has expanded to include a grant program called the Maryland Seamless Transition Collaborative.

 

MSTC is a year-round program that helps students with disabilities transition from school to the work force or postsecondary education.

 

Ten students have been given jobs through the MSTC program and another 15 students are participating in the traditional summer employment program, according to Markum.

 

Markum said the program is important because research has shown that students with disabilities are more likely to get work after leaving school if they have had jobs and work experiences during their education.

 

“We want to help as much as we can,” Markum said.

 

All 25 of the students are being paid $7.25 an hour, and the money is being paid by DORS.

 

Markum said these summer jobs may result in longer employment by some of the businesses.

 

Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times.

 

 

 

 

Health officials taking requests from swine flu vaccine providers

Online database created ahead of inoculation campaign that could start next month

 

By Kelly Brewington

Baltimore Sun

Saturday, August 15, 2009

 

In anticipation of a mass vaccination campaign against swine flu this fall, Maryland health officials are communicating with doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals about the details of administering a vaccine to nearly 3 million of the state's most vulnerable residents.

 

Providers who plan to administer the vaccine should begin signing up at the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Web site, www.dhmh.state.md.us.

 

Officials created an online database Friday to take requests from family doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals that would likely give the inoculations.

 

While Maryland officials are waiting for details from the federal government about how agreements would work between the state and providers, they are eager to begin the process for the vaccine campaign that could start as soon as next month- earlier than previous federal estimates of mid-October.

 

"We are shooting for the end of September to have the providers lined up and ready to go and to have the seasonal flu campaign under way," said Frances Phillips, the state's deputy secretary for public health services.

 

Anticipating that there won't be enough vaccine for every American, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set five priority groups: pregnant women; people between the ages of 6 months and 24 years old; non-elderly people with chronic illness; health care workers; and caretakers of children younger than 6 months old. Phillips said she expects the state to receive enough vaccine for the estimated 2.9 million Marylanders in those categories.

 

"I think we'll have enough. The question is how soon will we have enough of it," Phillips said. "School is starting, [and] as the weather gets colder, it's going to be a real race to get it to people with the highest risk to develop immunity so when they are exposed, they are protected."

 

The vaccine could cost consumers between $10 and $20, but state officials are still working out the details of the price and whether it would be reimbursed by insurers.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

 

 

 

Schools plan for H1N1 outbreak

County systems, universities have their game plans for dealing with sick students

 

By Childs Walker and Liz Bowie

Baltimore Sun

Saturday, August 15, 2009

 

As teachers fuss over lesson plans and college freshmen fret over meeting their roommates, K-12 and university administrators are preparing to deal with another, less familiar back-to-school worry: swine flu.

 

Though local public school systems and universities survived last spring's initial spread of the H1N1 virus with few interruptions, fears that a mutated flu could strike with renewed vigor have them formulating plans to deal with outbreaks. The message across these institutions is similar: Don't expect to close because of swine flu, but be ready to function while caring for numerous sick students.

 

Whether they are kindergartners going to school for the first time or college seniors, students will encounter lots of signs telling them to take H1N1 seriously. Hand sanitizer and tissues will be widely available. And because those ages 6 months to 24 years old are especially susceptible to contracting H1N1, mass vaccinations are expected.

 

Last May, state health officials closed half a dozen schools when each had at least one suspected case of swine flu, but they say the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have more experience with the virus and are taking a far different approach in guiding local school systems.

 

"It will be highly unlikely that schools will be closed due to this virus," said Frances Phillips, deputy secretary for public health services at the state health department. "The new guidance has a different tone to it. The inclination and the bias is to keep schools open and yet keep children safe."

 

Local school systems will emphasize hand-washing and mouth-covering, and say they're ready for vaccinations on a scale not seen since polio in the 1950s.

 

At the University of Maryland, College Park, administrators are preparing to vaccinate 2,000 students on Oct. 15. They'll be giving out vaccine for seasonal flu, but they regard the exercise as a trial run for dispensing H1N1 vaccine (expected later in the fall) widely and quickly.

 

"We'll be getting people vaccinated, but we'll also be testing our own ability to deliver health services somewhere other than the health center," Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs, said of the plan to vaccinate students at the school's old basketball gym. Clement hopes such events will steer students toward preventive measures because closing a campus with more than 11,000 residents would be difficult.

 

"We're seeking to avoid it, and we're not expecting it," she said of suspending classes.

 

Administrators at the Johns Hopkins University have met weekly over the summer to discuss H1N1 preparations. They recently sent an e-mail to all students outlining prevention steps but also warning that every student should have a plan to get home should classes be suspended.

 

That seems improbable given that the virus has behaved similarly to mundane seasonal flu, said Hopkins spokesman Dennis O'Shea. "Our school of public health has been modeling outbreaks," he said. "And they believe that even if a significant number of students and faculty get sick, it's not likely that a lot of them will get sick at the same time. So we're assuming that we would not close unless something changes with the virus."

 

Swine flu might spread more efficiently than the seasonal variety, but it isn't likely to cause more severe symptoms this fall, said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of immunology at Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

"It seems to be lacking the gene sequences that would tell us it has a chance to become more deadly," Pekosz said, while cautioning that anything is possible. "If there is such a thing as the ideal pandemic, this is something we'd much rather deal with than, say, the 1918 influenza. Everything we know about controlling the seasonal flu really does apply to this virus."

 

In the state's public school systems, officials want to limit the virus' spread, particularly during the first weeks of school before a vaccine is ready.

 

In some schools, particularly those where small children can spread germs on desks and doorknobs, staff will wipe down surfaces and tell students to sneeze into their elbows rather than their hands. "Our principals are ready to hammer that home on the first day of school," said Bob Mosier, a spokesman for Anne Arundel County public schools.

 

Most important, Phillips said, is that parents not send children to school with flu symptoms, including fevers and sore throats. The state Health Department has also advised schools to set aside rooms where sick children can be isolated while waiting to be picked up from school.

 

Parents shouldn't send their children back to school until their fevers have been gone for 24 hours without the use of medication. While that might seem a simple directive, it could have wide effects on businesses, Phillips said. "Employers need to understand it is in their best interest to have a liberal leave policy" for parents, she said.

 

Many local school systems already have experience giving a flu nose spray to vaccinate elementary schoolchildren, but state officials hope local schools will take on much of the job of vaccinating the approximately 1 million school-age children in Maryland against swine flu, probably in late September or early October.

 

The vaccine will be voluntary, and parents will have to sign a form authorizing the school to give it.

 

Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County school officials say they're prepared for mass vaccination.

 

"We would be ready to jump in," said Deborah Somerville, coordinator of health services for Baltimore County.

 

Anne Arundel, which has offered seasonal flu vaccines to 32,000 elementary schoolchildren for the past several years, has prepared contingency plans in case schools are closed. The system practiced sending word through automated telephone calls when one of its schools was shut down by the state last spring. Over the summer, officials have considered how they might offer homework assignments online or teach on the Internet, Mosier said.

 

The CDC no longer requires local health officials and doctors to test patients to see if they have H1N1, so unless a major outbreak occurs, schools are unlikely to know whether students are sick with the seasonal flu or H1N1. But officials expect more total flu cases this year.

 

College students are vulnerable to the virus for many reasons. They haven't built up as many immunities as older people, they live in close, often unclean quarters and they weaken their immune systems through partying and poor nutrition.

 

Adults ages 19 to 24 are listed among the high-risk groups for H1N1 by the CDC. But within that group, they're among the lowest priorities to receive vaccine, behind pregnant women, younger children, health professionals and others.

 

When the vaccine arrives, it might not be easy to persuade students to be inoculated, said Jennifer Lepus, director of student health at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The university orders 500 seasonal flu shots a year, but most are used by faculty and staff members. "A lot of students say, 'If I get the flu, it's no big deal,' " Lepus said.

 

She's not sure if that will change with H1N1. "It's definitely on the parents' minds," Lepus said. "It does feel a little bit different this year. There's a new sense of preparedness."

 

UMBC administrators have discussed contingency plans such as moving large numbers of classes online and setting up housing for sick students who could not get home. "We need to overprepare without overreacting," said Nancy Young, vice president for student affairs.

 

The campus health center plans to hand out flu kits- complete with tissues, over-the-counter medication and instant soup packets- to arriving students. The center will have an isolation room set up for students showing flu symptoms.

 

Young said the university would not close unless "the reported illnesses are so high that there are simply not enough people to run daily operations."

 

Hopkins will ask students with flu symptoms to go to the health center and then remain in their rooms until they go 24 medicine-free hours without symptoms. The school will also ask professors to be tolerant of students missing class because of the flu.

 

If the university had to suspend classes, it could finish a semester during January or even during the summer, O'Shea said.

 

At College Park, health officials will encourage sick students to go home (75 percent live in Maryland) and if not, to isolate themselves in dorm rooms, where friends could bring takeout food and other essentials. The university dealt with five cases of H1N1 over the summer and sent the patients home to recover in each instance.

 

The university has also encouraged faculty to consider online alternatives to their lessons and to relax attendance policies in the case of a flu outbreak.

 

At the peak of a typical flu season, 1,000 students might show symptoms, Clement said, but College Park officials expect more this year. "We've dealt with it before, but maybe not in the quantities we're expecting," she said.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

 

 

 

Harford horse with rabies is euthanized

 

By Mary Gail Hare

Baltimore Sun

Friday, August 14, 2009

 

An isolated Harford County farm will remain under quarantine through the end of this month after a horse stabled there tested positive for the rabies virus and was euthanized, officials said.

 

The county health department will observe all animals at the Churchville farm before lifting the 45-day quarantine on Aug. 31.

 

The horse, which arrived at the farm in May, manifested striking changes in behavior in mid-July.

 

On the recommendation of the health department, the animal was taken to the University of Pennsylvania veterinary facility in New Bolton, which diagnosed the rabies infection. Subsequent testing showed the virus most likely came from a rabid raccoon, officials said.

 

Family members, including one person who had to be located while traveling overseas, and all farm workers were given a series of five inoculations soon after their exposure to the infected animal.

 

The horse had had no contact with the public. About 25 feral cats were trapped at the farm and euthanized. Other animals, including several family pets, had current vaccinations and were given boosters

 

"There was never a risk to public safety," said Bill Wiseman, spokesman for the Harford County Health Department. "This incident was a great example of public health work in action and cooperation between local, state and in this case, international authorities."

 

Livestock cases of rabies are rare in the county, with only seven cases reported since 1985, he said.

 

The horse brings to 11, including eight raccoons, a skunk and a fox, the number of animals diagnosed with the rabies virus in the county this year.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

 

 

 

John R. Miller, General Services director, dies at 64

 

Timonium resident retired in 1997

 

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Baltimore Sun

Sunday, August 9, 2009

 

John R. Miller, retired director of Maryland's Department of General Services and longtime recreational soccer coach, died Wednesday of cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Timonium resident was 64.

 

Mr. Miller was born in Miami and was raised in Switzerland and Bangor, Maine. He was a 1962 graduate of Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Mass.

 

He earned a master's degree in education in 1969 from the Johns Hopkins University and a second master's, also from Hopkins, in administration in 1974.

 

Mr. Miller, who had worked for the state for 31 years, was director of its Department of General Services at the time of his 1997 retirement.

 

A licensed real estate broker and appraiser, he also taught business and real estate courses at Hopkins, Loyola College and the Community College of Baltimore County.

 

Mr. Miller was a board member of the Cockeysville Recreation Council, where he had coached soccer for 41 years and established a program for girls in 1986. The program, which started with 90 girls, had more than 500 players a decade later.

 

In 1997, Mr. Miller was selected by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association as the SGMA HEROES award winner for Maryland.

 

He also coached soccer at Maryvale Preparatory School, the Garrison Forest School and Dulaney High School, where he was recently inducted into the school's Hall of Fame for his contributions to the girls' soccer program.

 

Mr. Miller was a member of the Optimists Club and the Coachford Community Association.

 

He was a communicant of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, 103 Church Lane, Cockeysville, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11 a.m. Monday.

 

Surviving are his wife of 43 years, the former Mary Ellen Schap; two sons, Randy Miller of Cockeysville and Kevin Miller of Arlington, Va.; three daughters, Susan Miller of Towson, Tracy Kilcoyne of Timonium and Christina Bohn of Westminster; and nine grandchildren.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

 

 

 

Harford to accelerate nursing studiesCollege receives $1.2 million grant for program

 

By Mary Gail Hare

Baltimore Sun

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

 

A $1.2 million grant will help Harford Community College expand its nursing program to include an accelerated 15-month course that offers evening, weekend and online classes. The 15-month course could prepare as many as 88 nurses by 2014 in less time than the college's traditional two-year program.

 

The Health Services Review Cost Commission, an association of area hospitals, provided the grant to address the critical nursing shortage.

 

HCC, in partnership with Upper Chesapeake Health, will establish a pilot program to enable studies at its Bel Air campus in the Weekend and Evening Accelerated Nursing Program, which starts in May.

 

Web-based instructional components will provide additional flexibility for students and instructors. Students will fulfill the clinical requirements during 12-hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays.

 

"This is an intensive program with a selection process that is equally rigorous," said Katherine McGuire, grants manager at HCC. "You get students who are really dedicated. They will get practical, hands-on experience in what it is like to work a 12-hour shift or work on a flexible schedule."

 

As the nursing shortage continues, colleges are tailoring courses to mesh with the lives of their prospective students. Offering online courses and scheduling classes at nontraditional times may also attract more teachers in the program.

 

"In some of the online programs, I have students answering questions at 2 a.m. or on Saturday," said Jane Kapustin, assistant dean for the master's program at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. "We have to accept the changing times and prepare students for a profession that is 24/7 and 365 days."

 

Several other colleges in the state have accelerated programs, she said. University of Maryland offers a clinical nurse leader program for those who have a bachelor degree in another field and may want to change careers. Students have a choice of a 16- or 24-month programs.

 

HCC received a $670,000 grant in 2006 that established its first accelerated nursing program, an intensive summer course that graduated 24 last year.

 

"These accelerated courses offer the same clinical and course work in a concentrated time," said Laura Preston, HCC dean of nursing. "This is not for everyone, but it works and we have high retention, completion and success rates."

 

The college will begin accepting applications in October for the first weekend and evening program and expects to fill the 24 slots quickly. HCC has often had as many as 500 applicants for entry into its nursing programs, McGuire said. Tuition will be the college's standard $77 per credit.

 

"There is no lack of applicants," McGuire said. "What is missing is the class space and the instructors. The accelerated programs help address that."

 

For additional information, contact nursing@harford.edu.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

 

 

 

How to fix the budget

Maryland residents give advice – both serious and frivolous – about where to cut state expenses and how to increase revenue

 

By Laura Smitherman and Julie Bykowicz

Baltimore Sun

Saturday, August 15, 2009

 

If it were up to some budget-conscious Marylanders, state employees wouldn't get paid on their birthdays, and they would work in offices with thermostats set as high as 80 degrees in the summer.

 

And while the citizens of the Free State are at it, they would raise money for state coffers by taxing commuters and collecting additional gun permit fees by easing restrictions on who can legally carry handguns.

 

Gov. Martin O'Malley solicited ideas from the citizenry as he puzzles over how to slash another $470 million from a state budget that has already been whacked several times in recent years. More than 2,500 people answered the call, e-mailing suggestions that vary from the insightful to the draconian to the bizarre.

 

Administration officials insist the exercise wasn't a publicity stunt but an honest attempt to open a dialogue with citizens about the cash-strapped state budget and how tax dollars are spent. While some ideas will likely be dismissed outright, and others would do little to plug the shortfall, officials said they believe the exercise was educational for all involved.

 

"We want this to be a participatory process," said Budget Secretary T. Eloise Foster, who has the unenviable task of leading the budget-cutting. "When you ask for input, you get some good ideas, and I'm definitely open to ideas."

 

O'Malley, a Democrat, called it "quite the exercise in democracy."

 

Maryland's budget has been squeezed by slowing tax collections amid the national recession. Foster said about $250 million of the next round of budget cuts- to be accomplished by Labor Day- would come from aid to local governments. The rest is expected to come from state agencies' budgets and state employee compensation.

 

O'Malley said he has been dog-earing his stack of e-mail printouts and is still reading but so far has gotten the impression that citizens are "searching for answers and trying to be constructive."

 

Many of the suggestions centered on the state work force. The governor acknowledged it's "no secret" that he is strongly considering furloughs, and said he is paying particular attention to advice on how best to implement those mandatory days off without pay.

 

Many residents suggested furloughs on and around holidays and even on the employee's own birthday. Some called for 10-hour, four-day workweeks and closing state buildings on Mondays or Fridays.

 

A Baltimore resident wants to see five furlough days and fewer "office perks," such as free coffee. "Sorry, but at least they keep their job," the resident wrote.

 

Take-home vehicles for state workers proved another popular line of discussion. The O'Malley administration, in an online response to a sampling of suggestions, noted that the governor cut his fleet in half when he took office in 2007, and that the state charges most employees a commute charge.

 

The citizen comments also suggest they are paying attention to topics that have been hotly debated in Annapolis, including gambling, illegal immigration, welfare and college tuition.

 

Many wondered why the slot-machine parlors approved by voters last year aren't up and running. "SLOTS! SLOTS! SLOTS!" a Baltimore County resident exclaimed. Others offered that, had gambling been approved years ago, Maryland might not be in this financial quagmire.

 

Instead of nipping at the budget, some citizens want to see coffers padded by a variety of new or higher taxes. Fight the powerful alcohol lobby and raise that tax, some wrote. Bump up the sales tax and gas tax. How about a commuter tax like those that have been imposed in Philadelphia and New York City?

 

O'Malley's office dismissed those suggestions, pointing out that he signed into law an increase in the sales tax two years ago and that a commuter tax could put the state at a competitive disadvantage to its neighbors. As for increasing the alcohol tax, his office said, that has been repeatedly defeated in the General Assembly.

 

The governor said he was pleasantly surprised by the "sincere tone" of most of the suggestions, but that's not to say there weren't any off-topic musings.

 

One Baltimore County resident suggested that O'Malley sell the governor's mansion and give himself a pay cut. The e-mailer's rationale: because "obviously you're not doing a good job."

 

Out in left field, an Anne Arundel County resident wants Grandparent's Day moved from the end of the school year to the beginning. And a Baltimore resident wants to cut down on the number of police patrol cars to save money. "This will also help officers get back into shape," the citizen wrote.

 

To see the suggestions sent to the governor, and the 15 that turned up most frequently, go to governor.maryland.gov/budgetcuts.asp.

 

Copyright © 2009, The Baltimore Sun.

 

 

 

 

Volunteer Spotlight: Christine Brown

Woman works to help new parents of children with Down syndrome

 

By Heather Roth

Annapolis Capital

Thursday, August 13, 2009

 

Christine "Chris" Brown of Annapolis had no idea what the future would hold when doctors told her that her newborn daughter, Laila, had Down syndrome.

 

She even wondered if she would have to place her daughter in an institution.

 

"I really had absolutely no idea (what to expect)," she said.

 

That was July 27, 2001. Now eight years later, Brown was recently honored by the Maryland Association of Community Services for her work establishing the Anne Arundel County Down Syndrome Connection with the Arc of the Central Chesapeake Region.

 

"Children with Down syndrome really are not that different from any other kid. That is a very basic fact that I don't think a lot of people know," she said. "It's very scary, unknown."

 

Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder, where a person has three instead of two copies of the 21st chromosome. The extra copy alters development and causes Down syndrome.

 

A week after Laila was born, Brown called the Arc of the Central Chesapeake Region to try to learn about Down syndrome.

 

"I was just so relieved to find out just some basic information," she said.

 

As she struggled through the next few years, Brown started keeping a legal-pad near her phone with information about doctors experienced in caring for children with Down syndrome or other places families could find help.

 

And when her daughter was four years old, she decided to start a formal support group.

 

"There wasn't even a good place to go and find out what doctor could even see your kid," she said.

 

"We had been running into people (with children with Down syndrome) all over the place."

 

Brown called the Arc of the Central Chesapeake, and asked if she could work with them to establish the Anne Arundel County Down Syndrome Connection.

 

They were enthusiastic.

 

"There are not many organizations out there," said Kristen Lasker, director of development and marketing for the Arc.

 

"She's spreading the awareness, which is huge."

 

Awareness not only helps people be more understanding when a disabled child starts acting inappropriately, but Lasker hopes it will open more opportunities for adults with disabilities to find employment.

 

And she thinks Brown's work can help.

 

"Having something start at that level, it just permeates throughout the community," she said.

 

That is what Brown is also hoping for.

 

"If my daughter wants to be a chef, hey, let her give it a chance," she said.

 

"If there's nothing more I do with my life, when my daughter is older and when she and her friends go to hang out, (I hope) people don't look any differently at them."

 

Now in existence for three years, the Down Syndrome Connection offers new parents information packets, support and networking for families, social opportunities, and presentations and training for teachers, service coordinators, health providers and others.

 

"She's always there when you need her," Lasker said. "She's got such a quiet way about her, it's no big deal, everything is no big deal."

 

Lasker said she is touched by Brown's "passion and her dedication."

 

"Just how she's just ready to do anything, anything to help not only her child but any child with a disability," she said.

 

Brown said that knowing she can help other parents makes the effort worthwhile.

 

One new mother burst into tears when she met Brown's daughter.

 

"She said, 'Your daughter is so cute. That's all I needed, I just needed to see what a little kid looks like with down syndrome, what they do,' " Brown remembered.

 

"I like knowing that once people get to know my daughter that is how they feel, that they have actually lost that fear of the unknown or that doubt."

 

And she hopes parents understand that their child is "just a kid."

 

"Because really they're not (very different)," she said. "When you take all us human beings together we have a lot of differences."

 

---

Do you know of an exceptional volunteer? Send your nomination for Volunteer Spotlight to hroth@capital gazette.com.

 

Copyright 2009 Annapolis Capital.

 

 

 

 

Twittering live from operating room @Sinai Hosp.

 

By Danielle Ulman

Daily Record

Saturday, August 15, 2009

 

Surgical explanations can be tough even with tons of room, but Sinai's doctors will try fitting them in a space the length of this sentence.

Monday morning’s surgery will be Sinai Hospital’s second operation with live updates through Twitter, which allows users to post short bursts of information — no more than 140 characters long — that can be read by any subscriber.

The hospital’s marketing staff will offer a play-by-play and photos from the operating room of a relatively new weight-loss surgery called a sleeve gastrectomy through “tweets,” or messages, to its 2,000-plus followers on the free micro-blogging service.

Sinai, one of at least a dozen hospitals nationally to tweet surgeries, found success with the live tweeting of a May hip-resurfacing surgery. Sinai quietly announced the event to a few members of the media — just in case it was a flop — and those reporters forwarded the tweets, called “retweets,” to their followers.

“It’s a very cost effective way to get a little additional PR to get more people to know about Sinai and the work we do here,” said Jill Bloom, director of marketing and corporate communications for LifeBridge Health, parent of Sinai.

Sinai picked up 45 new Twitter followers during the surgery. The results prompted the Baltimore medical institution to try it again.

Before the ubiquity of social media, creating a Web video of a surgery cost hospitals a lot of money, said Ed Bennett, director of Web strategies for the University of Maryland Medical System. Now, he said, a medical student can sit in and film or send tweets.

“It’s not very invasive,” Bennett said. “It’s just a conversation between the person doing the tweeting and the person doing the surgery.”

Using Twitter during surgeries should not bring up new ethical questions, he said.

“The issues with patient confidentially have been thought of because they’re the same issues that come up with a live Web cast of a surgery,” Bennett said. “People think it’s interesting or risky because it’s social media, but really the justification is the same.”

Alex Gandsas, the doctor performing the sleeve gastrectomy, has never tweeted a surgery, but he is no stranger to bringing Web-based technology into the operating room.

Gandsas was part of the first live broadcast of surgery on the Web. In 1996, a team of surgeons at North Oakland Medical Centers in Pontiac, Mich., broadcast a laparoscopic cholecystectomy procedure, the minimally invasive removal of a gallbladder, to a team of surgeons at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hill, Calif.

“Of course it sounds normal in 2009, but you have to go back to 1996, when we were using modems and the technology was new,” he said.

Gandsas, who said he does not have time to use Twitter on his own, said he will not be distracted by explaining what he’s doing during surgery. He compared it to learning to talk to someone while driving a car.

“I’m very used to having students and other doctors come from out of state to watch procedures live, and I’m used to talking while doing surgery,” Gandsas said.

While Gandsas said the use of Twitter during surgeries can help inform people about new procedures, Bloom said the hospital profits, too.

“I think the benefit to us is first of all it gets our name out there,” she said. “I feel that we’re one of the early adopters of some of this new social media, and I think it just helps us be more progressive. And, you know, if we get a few surgeries out of it, that wouldn’t hurt.”

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit posted the first live tweets of a surgery organized by a hospital in February and attracted major media attention.

Robert Hendrick, the first known person to broadcast his surgery live on Twitter according to several news outlets, did not receive drugs so he could tweet his October surgery to eliminate varicose veins.

Hendrick, co-founder of a technology firm called change:healthcare devoted to creating savvier health care consumers, tweeted things like, “2 lasers in top part of left leg. Little bit of sting not bad. Getting a tattoo is worse.”

More than 250 hospitals in the United States use Twitter, according to a blog run by University of Maryland’s Bennett.

Sinai is one of many Maryland hospitals with a presence on Twitter, according to Bennett's blog, including:

 

  Howard County General Hospital

  University of Maryland Medical Center

  Johns Hopkins Medicine

  Baltimore Washington Medical Center

  Greater Baltimore Medical Center

  MedStar Health

  Shore Health System

  Anne Arundel Medical Center

  Atlantic General Hospital

  Union Memorial Hospital, and

  Suburban Hospital.

 

Copyright 2009 Daily Record.

 

National / International

 

In India swine flu panic spreads faster than virus

 

By Ravi Nessman

Associated Press

Friday, August 14, 2009

 

NEW DELHI, India (AP)- The streets of the western city of Pune were half-empty, schools in Mumbai were ordered closed, and people suffering aches flooded hospitals across the country as India confronted dueling outbreaks of swine flu and swine flu panic.

 

Twenty people have died from the flu here, according to government numbers available Friday, and 1,283 have been confirmed infected in this nation of 1.2 billion people. But fear of the flu has outpaced the virus itself.

 

"The amount of frenzy or hysteria is totally disproportionate to the overall reality of the disease," Dr. Jai Narain, the head of the regional communicable disease office for the World Health Organization, said Friday.

 

Breathless reports of swine flu have dominated India's 24-hour news channels desperate for stories amid the August doldrums. That in turn has helped whip the public into a frenzy, even in cities with relatively few cases of flu.

 

In New Delhi, where no deaths have been reported, people have begun wearing surgical masks in the street. In Lucknow, parents demanded their children be tested.

 

"Over 1,000 people lined up at different hospitals. ... Eleven of them tested positive," Dr. R.R. Bharati, a top health official in the northern city of Lucknow said earlier this week.

 

In Mumbai, the country's financial capital, the government closed all schools and movie theaters, hammering the Bollywood film industry over the long Independence Day holiday weekend. The government also asked malls in Mumbai to tone down their traditional holiday sales to keep away crowds.

 

The nearby city of Pune is India's worst affected, with 12 of the country's 20 deaths.

 

There, the streets were half-empty, the usual crowds shunned the shopping malls and many workers stopped showing up at offices. With schools closed, worried parents kept their children shut inside.

 

Many who did venture out wore surgical masks, despite a shortage that sent the price of a single mask skyrocketing from 5 rupees (10 cents) to 150 rupees ($3).

 

"The situation in Pune is alarming considering the number of ... positive cases and deaths. We are augmenting the resources in the city to handle the situation. However, we appeal to people not to panic," said Chandrakant Dalvi, a city official.

 

In response to the outbreak, India's government has set up testing centers around the country and plans to increase its stock of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu to 30 million doses, the government said. But officials have also asked people to stop wearing surgical masks in the street unless they or a family member are infected.

 

"I cannot see anything to panic about," said Dr. Jayaprakash Muliyil, a professor of epidemiology at Christian Medical College in Vellore. "These kinds of rumors are not good for the health of the nation."

 

The fatality rate from the virus is relatively low, though scientists worry it could eventually mutate into a more deadly strain, he said.

 

Yet the flu has garnered far more attention than India's raft of other health problems, including tuberculosis, which kills nearly 1,000 Indians every day, according to World Health Organization figures.

 

In Pune, more than 11,000 people lined up to be tested for the swine flu virus Thursday and 73 tested positive, Mahesh Zagade, a city official, told reporters.

 

"I think we are suffering a psychological disorder. We keep asking each other if we feel sick, cold, have a body ache, fever or breathlessness," said a 25-year-old man waiting to be tested in Pune who identified himself as Aditya. "I called up my doctor this morning and told him that I felt like I was suffocating."

 

The entire staff at one pharmacy donned gloves and masks after hearing a pharmacist was among those killed by the virus.

 

"We were planning to shut down, but we know we can't do that because people here need medicine," said Anand Agarwal, the 42-year-old pharmacist.

 

According to the World Health Organization, there were 177,457 cases of swine flu and 1,462 deaths across the world as of August 12.

 

After more than a week of feverish coverage of India's outbreak, some news organizations are now counseling calm.

 

"Stop the panic," urged the Hindustan Times.

 

Associated Press writers Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow and Jeeja Purohit in Pune contributed to this report.

 

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

Downturn Brings A New Face to Homelessness

Charities See More Women, Families

 

By Alexi Mostrous

Washington Post

Saturday, August 15, 2009

 

PONTIAC, Mich.-- The lowest point in Lawanda Madden's life came in February, when she woke up on the floor of her friend's run-down house in this city battered by recession. She was shivering with cold. She remembers turning to her 8-year-old son, Jovon, and thinking: "How did this happen to us? How did we become homeless?"

 

Only 15 months before, Madden, 39, had a $35,000-a-year job, a two-bedroom apartment and a car. She was far from rich, but she could treat Jovon to the movies. She occasionally visited her sister in Chicago and bowled in a local league. She dreamed of going to law school. Then she was laid off and lost everything.

 

"I've had a job since I was 19," she recalled. "I never imagined I would be without a home. You think it's going to get better-- that it's just temporary-- and then six months goes by, and you wonder, 'Wait a minute-- this might be it.' "

 

With neat hair and clean clothes, a college education and stable job history, Madden represents the new face of American homelessness.

 

Across the country, community housing networks, charities and emergency shelters are seeing a flood of people like her-- mothers driven out of their homes by the economic collapse. Even as the economy shows signs of improving, the number of homeless families keeps going up. In more and more cases, these people have never been homeless before.

 

More than half a million family members used an emergency shelter or transitional housing between Oct. 1, 2007, and Oct. 1, 2008, the latest figures available from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The number of homeless families rose 9 percent, and in rural and suburban areas by 56 percent. Women make up 81 percent of adults in homeless families, and tend to be younger than 30 with children younger than 5.

 

In some areas of the country, family homelessness has almost tripled since 2007, new figures obtained by The Washington Post show. Formerly prosperous areas such as Bergen County, N.J., and Hillsboro, Ore., have been particularly affected, with increases of 161 percent and 194 percent, respectively. Oakland County, where Madden lives, has experienced a 111 percent jump in the number of families seeking shelter or emergency housing since 2007.

 

"And it's going to get worse," said Marc Craig, president of the Community Housing Network in Oakland County. "Thousands of people here will lose their unemployment benefit in the next few months. Many of them will become homeless."

 

The Obama administration announced last month a $1.5 billion package focused on tackling first-time and family homelessness. The funding, which lasts for three years, represents a change from President George W. Bush's approach, which limited most HUD funding to the chronically homeless with substance-abuse or mental-health problems.

 

"There's been a funding gap for a long time," Craig said. "It's good there's been a change in approach, but the new money is just a Band-Aid. It's got to continue."

 

The shift is also evidenced in the District, where the number of homeless families is listed as 703, a 20 percent increase over last year. But these figures-- like the HUD statistics-- heavily underestimate the number of homeless families, experts say, as they do not count those who cram themselves and their children into friends' houses, "couch surf," or sleep four to a bed in cheap motel rooms built for single occupancy.

 

"Families, especially, are likely to explore every option before they stay in a shelter," said Jill Shoemaker, who collects homelessness data for the Community Housing Network in Oakland County. "We just have no way of counting them at the moment."

 

Madden stays day-to-day at the half-finished home of friend Frankie Johnson in a dilapidated suburb of Pontiac. Layers of drywall are stacked on the floor next to giant bales of insulation. There are holes in the wall, and the one bathroom that works leaks. More pressingly, the three-bedroom house is also occupied by Johnson and seven children.

 

"It's tight," Madden said stoically, sitting on the bare bed she shares with her son. "But at least it's not winter anymore. When we moved in, in February, we didn't have a bed. For a week, there was no heating. The gas people hadn't turned up. Even with jackets, coats and two pairs of socks on, the cold was indescribable."

 

In a city with unemployment at almost 20 percent, it is perhaps unsurprising that Madden is still without work, 20 months after being laid off from a laboratory testing firm where she worked as a biller. From earning a middle-class wage, she now survives on $118 a week in child support.

 

"Whenever I see a job come up I apply, but I don't get replies," she said. "I go to the job center three or four times a week." Madden also enrolled in a No Worker Left Behind program, under which she hopes to complete her bachelor's degree in criminal justice. "But a degree is no good if you can't get a job," she said.

 

And with no job, "there's no mortgage, no savings-- definitely no house."

 

In Royal Oak, Mich., Kevin Roach is a front-line witness to this paradigm shift. "We've seen a dramatic increase in women and children seeking help," said Roach, executive director of South Oakland Shelter, which provides 30 beds to homeless people in Oakland County. In October, he turned away 770 people, more than half of them from families. "We turned down 320 children. That's a number that's burned in my head."

 

Even a year ago, Roach said, he would have described a "prototypical" homeless person as middle-aged, male, with mental-health or drug issues. "But in the last months, we've had a teacher and a banker in our program," he said. "A third of our clients once had a steady income." Two months ago, he added, the number of clients with bachelor's degrees overtook those with mental-health problems.

 

Roach's clients are sheltered by a rotating list of churches and community groups that take them in for a week each. Last week it was the turn of First Baptist Church of Detroit. Over a plate of lasagna cooked by church volunteers, a mother of two, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told a familiar story. "I moved into my mother's after I was evicted," she said. "But we argued. I think she expected Molly the Maid service. Sometimes you want someone else to load the dishwasher, you know?"

 

That night, the church's volunteers give the sheltered women makeovers, using make-up scrounged from local stores. "It's amazing how much our guests have changed," said Myrtice Batty, a college professor who has been involved in the church's shelter program for 15 years. "When I first started, there were many more men. Now families are about 50 percent."

 

The new wave of HUD funding will benefit groups such as South Oakland Shelter, which has just secured a $300,000 grant to provide rental and utility assistance to struggling families. Roach hopes that a concerted outreach effort will reach women like Veronica, 47, a former Ford worker who lives with her 11-year-old son in a tiny motel room near Royal Oak. She declined to give her full name in an interview.

 

"I remember in June 2008, Ford called a meeting for me and 20 other employees," she explained. "They got us all up and said, 'This is your last day.' I was like 'Whoa.' I knew straight away I couldn't cover $650 a month. We left quietly as we didn't want to be evicted-- you're already embarrassed enough."

 

After moving between friends and family five times in less than a year, and applying unsuccessfully for 65 jobs, Veronica moved into a $110-a-week motel; her son sleeps on an air mattress at the foot of her bed. "There are so many moments where I don't feel like getting up and putting on clothes, but you do, for him," she said, nodding at John, who wants to be a chemist when he grows up. "And he supports me, too. Sometimes he tells me, 'Don't doubt, believe.' We support each other."

 

There are thousands of children like John in Oakland County. "This year, the number of students we served was up by a third," said Susan Benson, director of the Oakland Schools Homeless Student Education Program, which advocates for homeless children. Benson estimates the number of homeless students in the county at 4,000 to 10,000. "The average age of a homeless person in Oakland County is just under 9," she said. "Most are doubled up, living with friends, hours away from their schools."

 

Back on North Johnson Road in Pontiac, Madden finds it difficult to adjust. She used the last of her unemployment benefit to buy a $2,000 car in January-- allowing her to take Jovon to baseball practice and herself to the job center. The car uses up $60 a week in gas, but still providing activities for her son is a priority.

 

"Entertainment doesn't happen too often," she said. "In 2007, I couldn't buy Jovon Christmas presents. Sometimes I take him to his grandma's because I find it hard to feed him. I want to keep him here, but it's more stable there. Sometimes he screams, 'Don't leave!' "

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

 

 

 

Opinion

 

Everyday Leaders Bring Health Reform to Life

 

Leadership Commentary from Experts and Executives

 

By Joe Moore

Washington Post Commentary

Friday, August 14, 2009

 

While leaders in Washington navigate the political quagmire of how to pay for health-care reform, there are things everyday leaders across America can do to move health reform forward.

 

The fact is, part of our burgeoning health care costs are directly related to our burgeoning waist-lines. Sedentary lifestyles and poor eating choices lead to health problems, including the onset of Type 2 diabetes. Indeed, if the number of obese and overweight adults in the U.S. continues to grow as it has over the past three decades, nearly nine-out-of-10 adults will be considered overweight or obese by 2030.

 

Over the last 30 years we've engineered a culture of living in America that minimizes movement, and, unless we act now, our children will inherit this culture of obesity. Government has a role to play, but changing a culture involves everyone, not just lawmakers.

 

If the health-care reform effort going on in Washington today is to make any meaningful difference in improving America's health and controlling the cost of health care tomorrow, the leaders of America must create a national environment that supports wellness. Prevention, healthy lifestyle choices, and the promotion of exercise must be central to the effort.

 

Leaders must emerge from all industries, sectors, and corners of the country, while existing leaders must make the health of their followers, employees and students a priority. And while it's important that political leaders create supportive public policies and legislation to make exercise and health living affordable for all Americans, including economic incentives like appropriate tax incentives, it's equally important that everyday leaders figure out ways to affect healthier schools, workplaces, and local communities. For inspiration, see what some leaders are already doing.

 

A foreign-language teacher at Loudoun Country Day School in Leesburg, Virginia, for example, is showing her K-5 students how they can use movement to increase their concentration, channel their energy, and manage stress. Recognizing that movement stimulates cognitive function and helps keep young brains alert, Dorothea Ragsdale welcomes productive movement in her classroom. By teaching her students "the pretzel"-- a yoga-like pose-- to calm them at the beginning of each class, by having them practice their Spanish numbers while doing simple calisthenic exercises, and by allowing them to have small stress balls at their desks to squeeze, Ragsdale provides opportunity for non-disruptive classroom movement, keeping the minds of her young students in gear for learning.

 

Jacqueline McCann Cleland, a licensed clinical psychologist in the Washington, D.C. metro area, recognizes that talk therapy alone isn't always enough to address the interconnection of weight and body image issues, eating disorders, loneliness, and depression that are common among adolescents today. So Cleland teamed up with an American Council on Exercise (ACE)-certified personal trainer  ( http://www.acefitness.org/getcertified/certification_pt.aspx )to offer "Heart & Mind Combined," an educational support group for adolescent girls struggling with negative body images, excess weight, and related emotional problems. Participants discover the benefits of healthy lifestyle choices through instruction in mindful eating practices and nutrition, resistance training and cardio fitness techniques, and understanding how our thoughts and feelings influence our behavior and choices.

 

After a diagnosis of diabetes and a chest-pain scare, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee decided to change the way he lived. He started exercising regularly and made other healthy lifestyle changes. Within a year, Huckabee lost about 100 pounds  ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011601380.html )and has become a leader in the fight against obesity in his own state.

 

Imagine for a moment the influence everyday leaders across America could have if children saw their teachers embracing exercise and healthy lifestyles in an effort to stay well; if CEOs spread a culture of exercise and wellness among their employees; and if patients came back for their annual visit to a transformed doctor who had addressed his own weight issue with regular exercise--and then prescribed exercise to the patient as well.

 

Just as strong leadership is essential for effective health-care reform, strong leadership is critical for lasting health reform. Whether you're a CEO, politician, therapist, teacher, health-care provider, or parent, America's leaders must recognize that our country's current health crisis requires our personal attention. Each of us has got to assume the role of promoting exercise and healthy lifestyle choices within whatever realm of influence we have.

 

So while Congress is duking it out over line items in a health-care reform bill, leaders across America should be rallying on health reform. America needs our leadership now. Our nation's health is depending on it.

 

Joe Moore is president and CEO of the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association ( http://cms.ihrsa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=18711 ) (IHRSA), in addition to serving on the advisory board of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease.  ( http://www.fightchronicdisease.org/ )

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

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