Friday, March 6, 2009

News Clipping Archives

 

Maryland / Regional

Mandatory Reporting Improves Maryland Hospital Patient Safety (EmaxHealth)

Legal Aid sues Md. over care of patients (Baltimore Sun)

Doctors in short supply in rural Maryland (Two Sentz Speak Truth to Power Online)

Sides continue Civista nurses' contract talks (SoMdNews.com)

Adult day care program deficit deepens (SoMdNews.com)

Health Department urges flu shots for all (Frederick County Gazette)

Census officials prep for challenges with Frederick head count (Frederick County Gazette)

Maryland Lawmakers, Insurer Propose Bill for Near-Universal Coverage (Kaisernetwork.org)

Time Magazine Articles Examine Electronic Health Records, Financial Burden of Medical Bills (Kaisernetwork.org)

Health center reduces hours (Salisbury Daily Times)

Satellites help keep Chesapeake Bay clean (The Agriculture Research Services (ARS) – USDA)

Police investigating homicide of Eldersburg infant (The Eldersburg Eagle)

Fewer Kids Have High Lead Levels Than 20 Years Ago (The Dundalk Eagle)

Armed and dangerous (Baltimore Sun)

Limiting 'alcopops' helps protect teens (Baltimore Sun)

Picture mixed for employment (The Gazette)

Carroll County Detention Center reopens after meningitis scare (Carroll County Times)

Officials beam over hospital progress (Hagerstown Herald-Mail)

Red Cross provides second response in disasters (SoMdNews.com)

National / International

Obama Picks Florida Official To Lead FEMA (bthesite.com)

Obama tries to start conversation on health care (Baltimore Sun)

Color cancer: new state rankings, A-F (CBS Online)

No BPA For Baby Bottles In U.S. (Washington Post)

Can Your Marriage Make You Sick? (Washington Post)

Group: Chimps lead ‘wretched existence’ at La. Lab (Cumberland Times-News)

Opinion

Drug Legalization Isn't the Answer (Wall Street Journal)

Suicide advocacy isn't hospice work (Baltimore Sun)

 

Maryland / Regional

 

Mandatory Reporting Improves Maryland Hospital Patient Safety

 

By Ruzik Tuzik

EmaxHealth

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

A recently released report by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) Office of Health Care Quality (OHCQ) shows continuing progress in the reporting of patient care and safety across Maryland. Under the 4-year-old Maryland Patient Safety Program, hospitals are required to report adverse events to the patients or their families. The most serious events resulting in death or disability must be reported to the OHCQ for investigation.

 

“Through comprehensive reporting and vigorous investigation our goal is to eliminate these incidents altogether,” said John Colmers, Secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “We’ve established one of the nation’s leading patient safety programs that requires accountability and mandates that hospitals address issues quickly to prevent a recurrence.”

 

The latest release is a summary of the data compiled as a result of the reporting of serious adverse events inside Maryland hospitals. In FY 2008, 182 deaths and serious injuries were reported by hospitals: 82 resulted from patient falls, 20 from delays in treatment, and 11 were actual or attempted suicides.

 

“We’re making progress and these numbers show that with greater reporting we’ll have better results for patients,” said Wendy Kronmiller, OHCQ Director. “We are not where we want or need to be, but the track record of this effort shows we’re making Maryland hospitals safer and better.”

 

The OHCQ now requires Maryland hospitals to have patient safety programs that promote internal reporting of all near misses and adverse events, an analysis of the cause of serious adverse events and near misses, and the implementation of corrective action to prevent a recurrence. OHCQ may issue civil monetary penalties against hospitals that do not comply with reporting requirements.

 

The OHCQ has always investigated complaints received from citizens and advocates related to care in Maryland hospitals. However last year, only five of the 182 adverse events reported to OHCQ were also received as a complaint. Over its four-year history, the Patient Safety Program has enabled the OHCQ to review over 600 serious adverse events that would otherwise not be known or investigated through the regulatory complaint process.

 

The annual report and analysis of incidents helps the OHCQ uncover trends and patterns with periodic clinical alerts to hospitals and other stakeholders. The findings are also shared with the non-profit Maryland Patient Safety Center to assist in their educational efforts and prevent adverse events in the future.

 

Source: Maryland Department of Health

 

Copyright 2009 EmaxHealth.

 

Legal Aid sues Md. over care of patients

Moving some on Medcaid to nursing homes is at issue

 

By Kelly Brewington

Baltimore Sun

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

The Legal Aid Bureau sued the state yesterday to try to stop it from moving low-income patients on ventilators out of chronic care hospitals and into nursing homes.

 

The suit, filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, argues that the state Health Department didn't follow legal requirements in 2006 when it altered guidelines for patients' eligibility for government-funded hospital care. It maintains that the state is enforcing the rule only to save money in the Medicaid program amid a serious budget crunch.

 

And, it says, some patients who have been moved to nursing homes have gotten worse - and three have died as a result of the shift.

 

"Their goal was to save money, plain and simple," said Jennifer Goldberg, a Legal Aid lawyer. "Of course, everyone wants patients to get the best quality care in a setting that is appropriate and that is cost-effective," she said. "But if it is hurting people, that's where the problem comes in."

 

State officials say only patients who are stable and show no evidence of needing special services are being moved - and they deny that anyone has died as a result of the policy. Specialized hospitals are intended only to stabilize patients, not keep them indefinitely, said John G. Folkemer, a deputy health secretary.

 

"Once they are stabilized, they should either be discharged home or to a nursing home," he said. "What has happened is we have some of these people who have been here years and years, and just sort of warehoused. And the hospitals do not appear to be making an attempt to have a suitable placement for them."

 

Folkemer said no deaths were brought on by the moves. While three people have died since transferring to a nursing home, six have died during about the same period while at hospitals.

 

"This is the most fragile population - certainly there will be deaths," he said. "But there is absolutely no evidence that people have died because they moved to a nursing home."

 

In addition, Folkemer said that the department's 2006 decision was a clarification of existing policies, not a change. He said the department was following requirements to do monthly reviews of patients' services to determine if they are still eligible for them.

 

"Yes, it would save money, but this is actually something we have started doing before we were trying to identify the savings," Folkemer said.

 

Last fall, the health department hired a doctor to review patient cases and found half of the state's 200 Medicaid patients on ventilators did not need specialized care. Patients' families were notified and were given 10 days to appeal before an administrative court judge.

 

So far, 38 patients have been moved and 56 have appealed. Another 18 are moving to nursing homes, Folkemer said.

 

Dr. William Greenough, who heads the ventilator rehabilitation unit at Johns Hopkins' Bayview Medical Center, strongly opposes what the state is doing. He said one of his patients died within two days of being moved from his hospital to a nursing home. So far, 12 of his 39 patients have received letters from the state and he is fighting to keep them at the unit.

 

"It is against my medical ethics to allow this to happen, unless I have better evidence that this is safe for them," he said.

 

Greenough said many patients are so frail they will likely end up back in emergency rooms or intensive care units, costing the state more in the long term. "From an insurance point of view, a dead patient doesn't cost any money," he said.

 

Quincy Thomas, 74, is a patient Greenough believes should stay at the unit. Thomas, who is named in the lawsuit, was admitted in 2004 because of complications from a neuromuscular disorder. Two years ago, she became unable to walk, talk or feed herself and doctors diagnosed her with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

 

Today, she communicates by blinking – once for yes, twice for no. When her children ask if she wants the breathing machine shut off, she blinks twice.

 

"I think it is reprehensible that they would try to save money at the expense of the most vulnerable of us," said Kirk Fancher, Thomas' son-in-law. "These are people who worked their whole lives and paid into the system."

 

Folkemer said he would not comment on individual patients.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Doctors in short supply in rural Maryland

Legislators seek remedies before the situation gets even worse

 

Two Sentz Speak Truth to Power Online

Thursday, March 5, 2009

 

from the Baltimore Sun

 

There are not enough primary-care doctors setting up practice in these areas, leaving some residents without access to basic health care and leading to more costly and serious illnesses, doctors say. Those doctors - and many specialists - are reluctant to leave the city for the country, where they typically get paid less, work more and find fewer job opportunities for their spouses, who aren't always ready to give up the trappings of life near an urban area.

 

Middleton and other legislators in Annapolis are now seeking ways to recruit and retain physicians to care for people in large swaths of Maryland.

 

"We have areas where you just can't get care - you have to leave and go to another jurisdiction," said Gene Ransom III, executive director of the Maryland State Medical Society, or MedChi. "It's a real problem for people, especially for people who can't afford to do that."

 

"The need is going up, and the supply of physicians is going down," said state Health Secretary John M. Colmers.

 

The waiting room at Dr. Matthew Allaway's Cumberland office is always packed, with waits of up to 90 minutes. On a recent Wednesday, he started at 7 a.m., took no lunch break and saw 60 patients. "The bottom line is, you have to limit what time you can spend with your patients," said Allaway, who is president of the Allegany County Medical Society.

 

Posted by Two Sentz.

 

Sides continue Civista nurses' contract talks

 

By Nancy Bromley McConaty

SoMdNews.com

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

Some members of the nurses union at Civista Medical Center in La Plata say the hospital is on shaky financial ground and the problems are severely impacting patient care at the hospital, but the administration is reluctant to talk about it.

 

Last week, the Independent was notified by nurse Jeff Brookens, a member of Service Employees International Union Local 1199 at the hospital, who said that the contract negotiations that started in January with the hospital were "going nowhere."

 

Further interviews revealed that nurses at Civista were not bargaining for higher pay, more vacation time or better medical benefits. Instead, Patti D'Ambrosia, a nurse at Civista who is SEIU's lead negotiator in the contract dispute, spoke about diminished staffing levels at the hospital that were leading to unsafe conditions for the patients. She also spoke about Civista's tenuous financial situation and how that was impacting patient care.

 

The union wants Civista to hire more nurses to staff the hospital, particularly in the emergency department, D'Ambrosia said last week.

 

The union was also concerned about the number of times that Civista has to divert ambulance drivers to other hospitals because the number of nurses in the emergency room is inadequate or patients are being kept in the emergency department awaiting beds on other floors of the hospital.

 

Nurse Bridget O'Neill said in an interview last week that patients sometimes had to wait up to eight hours in the emergency room before being seen by a doctor.

 

Another problem the union was trying to iron out with Civista's administration is a proposed decrease of the $15-an-hour, on-call bonus that is paid to surgical staff and obstetrical teams who respond to emergencies. That money is paid in addition to the regular salary because they are responding to emergencies during off hours, D'Ambrosia said.

 

Contract negotiations are scheduled to continue Monday, D'Ambrosia said, adding that the union and hospital have still not come to terms with the nurses' concerns about staffing levels.

 

The hospital and union representatives met Wednesday.

 

"We've had a good week of bargaining in good faith on both sides," she said Thursday. "I hope that the hospital will move forward to do the right thing. … We haven't agreed on the staffing levels that we feel we need to provide optimum patient care to the community. We hope to come to a resolution on Monday so that we can get back to work and do what we do best."

 

The hospital's response to the nurses' accusations last week was a statement from the interim chief executive officer, Noel Cervino, who took over the helm at Civista after Christine Stefanides retired Feb. 28. Cervino declared in the statement that the hospital has been negotiating with the union for more than two months and that the administration is continuing those negotiations. He also stated that the "staff levels at Civista meet the levels in the union contract."

 

On Thursday, Cervino said he did not have time to speak to the Independent about the situation, opting instead to send a prepared statement via e-mail.

 

Cervino said in the statement that the hospital's nursing levels comply with state and national standards for nursing care and that Civista was recently surveyed by the Maryland Department of Health's Office of Healthcare Quality, which indicated that the facility's staffing levels were "appropriate."

 

Cervino responded to the nurses' concern about the hospital's financial condition by saying in the statement that "the hospital and its affiliates continue to provide sufficient cash to meet all current and future obligations. Civista Health received a ‘clean' audit … from its independent auditors for the most recent fiscal year."

 

Cervino acknowledged in the statement that the hospital administration is aware of the community's concerns.

 

"Civista's concern for the safety and welfare of the community is paramount," he wrote. "The health care professionals at Civista will continue to provide quality care to the citizens of this community for the foreseeable future."

 

The three-year contract ended Feb. 28 and D'Ambrosia said last week that the nurses agreed to continue working under the terms of the old contract while the contract negotiations were extended.

 

Charles County Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D) said Thursday that Civista's role in the community is vital and any problems that are occurring at the facility must be addressed quickly.

 

"I've told the hospital in the past that the administration has to set some key performance indicators and strive to meet them," he said.

 

"Having a community hospital is key and vital to everybody in the community, and we need to do everything that we can to make sure that the hospital is providing superlative quality medical service to the Charles County community.

 

"We're going to work closely with the hospital to make sure that it achieves an outstanding level of care for our citizens," he added. "We're committed to that."

 

Commissioner Samuel N. Graves Jr. (D) said Thursday that he feels that Cervino will help pull the hospital through the tough economic times it is currently facing.

 

"Mr. Cervino seems to have a firm handle on the hospital's financial picture," he said. "The hospital is struggling like other businesses through these hard economic times, but it's going to be OK. Mr. Cervino is trying to balance and stabilize all of the financial pieces and keep adequate staffing levels. He's hit the ground running, he understands the issues and he has a plan to move forward to address these issues."

 

Graves said that Civista asked to borrow up to $7.5 million from the county government late last year, but in the end the administration was able to balance its books without the loan.

 

"I believe that the hospital is going to move in a positive direction," he added. "I can assure the community that our primary focus and goal is to keep a good and viable health care facility in our community."

 

nmcconaty@somdnews.com

 

Copyright ©, 2009 Southern Maryland Newspapers - All Rights Reserved.

 

Adult day care program deficit deepens

 

By Jason Babcock

SoMdNews.com

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

The St. Mary's County Department of Aging's medical adult day-care program has been running at large deficits for several years and current budget documents show it will need nearly $611,000 in additional taxpayer dollars to keep it going.

 

The program is intended to pay for itself from the clients it serves.

 

"It's clearly continuing to increase - the subsidy," said John Savich, county administrator, told the county commissioners Tuesday afternoon.

 

The program needed an extra $448,735 from the general fund this year and $255,801 last year, according to county budget documents.

 

The county's program is certified for 45 adults who are mentally or physically disabled, but averages 30 to 35 clients a week.

 

Even if the program were serving the full contingent of 45 people, the average cost for each of them would still be $13,575 a year in general tax dollars, excluding the client's own insurance or other funding sources. The fewer number of clients, the higher the cost to the taxpayers to serve each of them.

 

The program serves those who don't need nursing home care, but need services while family members are away at work during the day. It is run out of the Vivian Ripple Center in Hollywood and provides meals, activities, interaction, medical supervision and day trips.

 

Lori Jennings-Harris, director of the department of aging, was tasked with improving participation in the program, which would bring in more revenue, through either health insurance, Medicaid or private funds.

 

The program's different locations were consolidated into one in 2005 to try to work down the deficit.

 

"We're still going to drill down into that," Savich said Wednesday. It "doesn't appear to have turned the corner yet."

 

Jennings-Harris did not return a message this week seeking comment.

 

"It's not a new subject of discussion," said Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R).

 

While the subsidies needed continue to grow, it is not an easy target to make cuts because those who do use the program need it. "You don't cut it off all the way. You try to make it more efficient in the use of dollars," he said.

 

A reduction of $150,000 in the program's deficit may be possible depending on upcoming further information, Savich said.

 

Most local governments don't offer such a service for disabled adults, he said. "It's a wonderful service, but it's expensive," he said.

 

"We've got to find a way to lessen this subsidy," said Commission President Francis Jack Russell (D). "It's a very worthwhile program, but we've got to look at it," especially at the transportation element. Clients are picked up by STS buses operated by the St. Mary's Transit System.

 

"If we had been able to consolidate human services like I recommended … we probably could find economies to scale," Jarboe said. He had recommended that the department of aging be included when agencies were consolidated into the St. Mary's County Department of Human Services to share resources.

 

He said during that consolidation senior citizens "were left out of the equation."

 

"I would welcome any input from anybody as to how to wrap department of aging into human services to find efficiencies," Russell said.

 

jbabcock@somdnews.com

 

Copyright ©, 2009 Southern Maryland Newspapers - All Rights Reserved.

 

Health Department urges flu shots for all

Shot would not have saved Urbana boy, father says

 

By Chris Brown

Frederick County Gazette

Thursday, March 5, 2009

 

If Ian Willis had received a flu shot, it would not have prevented his death, according to his father.

 

The 13-year-old Urbana Highlands resident showed bad flu symptoms on Feb.13, but it was not the flu that prematurely ended his life.

 

Ian's father, Robert Willis, said the boy was suffering from MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant strain of staphylococcus bacteria, which was causing a build-up of fluid in his chest.

 

The fluid build-up required surgery because it was impairing the child's heart function, and Ian later died of complications from that operation, Willis said.

 

"Ian had the perfect storm of sickness," he said.

 

While Robert Willis does not want other parents to panic about not having gotten their children's flu vaccinations - he said doctors told him this would not have mattered in Ian's case - he still urges other parents to get their children vaccinated.

 

He said no one else in his family has shown flu symptoms, nor have any of Ian's friends who he was in contact with prior to his death.

 

"It's not like a pandemic. Ian didn't have the bubonic plague," Robert Willis said. "If it had just been the flu, he would have been fine."

 

The Frederick County Health Department hosted two walk-in flu clinics and an informational session on the flu this week in the hope that residents would get immunized.

 

There are still flu immunizations available, and they will be administered through the beginning of May, according to Darlene Armacost, a program manager with the Frederick County Health Department.

 

At the final walk-in clinic held from 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, Armacost said she was pleased with the number of residents getting their shots.

 

By 4:15 p.m., five people had already been vaccinated, and there were a number of people waiting for the flu shot.

 

Armacost said that these late-season clinics were partially in response to a recent community interest in flu vaccinations.

 

Anyone who has not yet been vaccinated can still get their flu shots by setting up an appointment with the Health Department, Armacost said. She said interested residents can call 301-600-3342 and speak to a nurse about an appointment.

 

Armacost said the appointment would most likely be set for Wednesday, but the Health Department could be more flexible if necessary.

 

Armacost estimated that in an average flu season, the Frederick County Health Department will give 5,500 to 5,800 flu shots, and she said this year was not any different, although she did not have the exact figure available on Tuesday evening.

 

At the informational session on Saturday, Dr. Barbara Brookmyer, Frederick County's health officer, said the flu vaccine will provide immunity against the A and B flu strain, which are the two most likely strains of influenza.

 

The A and B strains change every year, and manufactures make the best guess as to which strains to include in the vaccine, she said.

 

The vaccine contains weakened or dead flu virus, and allows the body's immune system to recognize the flu as dangerous and protect itself against future infection.

 

Kelly Smith, a nurse practitioner with the Health Department, said that no vaccine is 100 percent effective, but because viruses can not be treated with antibiotics, vaccination is the most effective way to deal with the flu.

 

E-mail Chris Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.

 

Copyright 2009 The Gazette.

 

Census officials prep for challenges with Frederick head count

Community leaders say heated immigration debate could deter participation in minority

  communities

 

By Erica L. Green

Frederick County Gazette

Thursday, March 5, 2009

 

Unfortunately for U.S. Census Bureau officials, being counted may be the last thing that members of Frederick's minority and immigrant populations want.

 

Amid a contentious debate on illegal immigrants, which includes a suggestion to count the number of immigrants receiving services and attending schools in Frederick County, officials believe it could be difficult for the region's immigrant community to trust that submitting information about themselves to the 2010 census would not have repercussions.

 

This was a recurring concern expressed at the Frederick County Census Bureau last month, as officials invited community leaders to an open house. The office opened in preparation for the 2010 census, which will begin the first phase of its operations across the country this spring.

 

The constitutionally mandated census seeks to document every person living in the United States every 10 years, for the purposes of determining Congressional representation and federal funding to states and municipalities. All of the census data must be reported to the President of the United States by Dec. 31, 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Web site.

 

The census, taken since 1790, paints a demographic portrait of each state. Census officials said that with more than $340 billion up for grabs from the federal government, every head counts.

 

"What we're attempting to do is get a complete and accurate count of every person in the United States of America, but there are groups who have been historically undercounted or not represented in the census," said Bill Reed, census specialist for Washington, D.C. and Maryland. "We're working with groups in Frederick to reach hard-to-count populations."

 

Reed said that Hispanic and black populations historically are the most difficult to solicit information from, and that in Frederick, census officials are building partnerships with minority groups to spread the word about the importance of the census.

 

"We are trying to reach as many as we can in the immigrant communities in Frederick because we would like to have them represented among the census group," Reed said. "The bigger their tally, the bigger the returns that comes back to their community."

 

The funding from the federal government are of most importance to those populations, Reed said, as the money goes toward services such as child care, schools, hospitals and jobs.

 

But, Reed admitted that he was not surprised when Frederick NAACP president Guy Djoken expressed at the open house that there was a "chilling effect" felt by minority populations to participate in any government-sponsored operations.

 

"It maybe has to do with culture or for the immigrants who come here, their background with [current] governments, or the governments have been more oppressive where they come from," Reed said.

 

Djoken said that he believes the Frederick County Sheriff's Office participation in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program, and an unsuccessful proposal to count the number of illegal immigrant schoolchildren attending county schools will play a big factor in some minority communities ducking the census process.

 

The Sheriff's Office did not return calls for comment by The Gazette's press time.

 

Djoken said he and other community leaders will have to very "forceful" in reassuring people that census officials and immigration officials are not the same entity. He is working with Casa of Maryland officials and church leaders to educate the community, he said.

 

"People are afraid, people are suspicious and it makes the census job more difficult," Djoken said. "Once the people are reassured that what the census bureau is doing is not doing what the Sheriff's Office is doing, they will come out."

 

Reed assured that the new 10-question survey is safe, and more importantly, private. The demographic information provided is not shared with any other government office, and is guaranteed to be private for 72 years, per the U.S. Constitution, he said. In the 2000 census, it was projected that 67 percent of Americans were counted, Reed said.

 

The first stage of information-gathering will take place beginning April 1, when census employees will take handheld devices to document all buildings in which people live to ensure that census surveys are sent to verified households in February and March 2010.

 

Representatives from Casa of Maryland have cooperated with the U.S. Census Bureau in past census years to help reach out to both documented and undocumented immigrants, said Kerry O'Brien, who manages Casa's legal department.

 

"We're concerned that the climate and the policy changes in Frederick County to arrest and put more immigrants into deportation proceedings can only a have chilling effect on all participation in civil society, including the census," O'Brien said.

 

"The word is out and the word is true that if you have an encounter with the police or the sheriff, that you have something to fear," O'Brien added. "Even [when] groups with a good reputation come and say that you should participate in the census, people are not in the business of saying that [they're] going to put anything on paper."

 

Frederick Alderman Marcia Hall (D), who also attended the Feb.20 open house, said from a governing perspective, the count is critical. "Virtually every grant asks you all kinds of questions that relate to the census."

 

E-mail Erica L. Green at egreen@gazette.net.

 

-Spring 2009: Census employees go door-to-door nationwide to update address lists

 

-Fall 2009: Recruitment begins for census-takers needed for peak workload in 2010

 

-February-March 2010: Census questionnaires are mailed or delivered to households

 

-April 1, 2010: Census Day; all questionnaires are due back to Census Bureau

 

-April-July 2010: Census-takers visit households that did not return questionnaire by mail

 

-December 2010: Census delivers population counts to president

 

-March 2011: Census Bureau completes delivery of redistricting data to states

 

Copyright © 2009 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net.

 

Maryland Lawmakers, Insurer Propose Bill for Near-Universal Coverage

 

Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report

Kaisernetwork.org

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

State Watch

 

Maryland lawmakers and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield on Wednesday outlined a $1.6 billion proposal for near-universal state health care coverage that would require state residents to have insurance and employers to provide it, the Baltimore Sun reports. According to the Sun, the legislation is aimed to help the more than 760,000 state residents, or 14% of the state's population, who are uninsured.

 

State Delegate Peter Hammen (D) and state Sen. Thomas Middleton (D), who developed the proposal, said the legislation would build on a plan approved in 2007 by the legislature that expanded Medicaid eligibility and extended funding to small businesses to compensate for the cost of providing coverage. The current bill would provide an insurance plan for residents with premiums of about $250 per month, as well as sliding-scale funding for low-income individuals who do not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. Residents who do not get insurance would pay an additional tax of as much as $1,800 annually, while low-income residents would be exempt from the penalty.

 

Hammen and Middleton said the plan is unlikely to be approved this year, but said they wanted to begin planning for health care reform before the 2010 legislative session. CareFirst CEO Chester Burrell said that proposing the bill, regardless of when it passes, "galvanizes attention and action and study that otherwise would not occur."

 

The Maryland State Medical Society raised concerns regarding imposing penalties on residents for not purchasing insurance. Also, the Maryland Health Care Commission said the proposal could hurt the insurance market and attract legal challenges. In a position paper, MHCC said that the bill "is not the best option to guide reform" (Smitherman, Baltimore Sun, 3/5).

 

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

 

Time Magazine Articles Examine Electronic Health Records, Financial Burden of Medical Bills

 

Kaisernetwork.org

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

**Electronic health records: Expanding the use of EHRs, touted by President Obama and many others as a means to improve health care and control costs, would provide doctors with "advantages" but many physicians are concerned that "the greatest cost will be in the quality of medicine [they] practice," Time Magazine reports. While U.S. physicians have "not been enemies of the digital revolution," many are "forced to use computerized orders" or risk being barred from hospitals, Time reports. Among the problems doctors see with EHRs is that electronic records allow for less specificity -- such as preventing a doctor from writing a personal message to a nurse or drawing a diagram of how a patient should be positioned -- and the likelihood that EHRs will compromise patients' privacy, according to Time. The increasing use of computerized data would most likely result in "more information -- and less medicine," Time reports, as insurers would be able to "greatly increase" denials of tests and treatments ordered by doctors. Information technology also facilitates comparative effectiveness efforts, which could be detrimental to those who would benefit more from treatments deemed more expensive and no more effective for the general population. According to Time, many doctors "wince whenever electronic medical records are held up as some kind of silver bullet" (Haig, Time, 3/5).

 

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

 

Health center reduces hours

 

By Jenny Hopkinson

Salisbury Daily Times

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

POCOMOKE CITY -- The Pocomoke City Health Center will be open only four days a week as state and local budget cuts take a toll on the Worcester County Health Department.

 

Starting March 20, the Walnut Street clinic will no longer be open on Fridays. The center will continue to operate during regular hours and provide normal services during the rest of the week.

 

Rebecca Shockley, director of community health nursing, said the reduction in hours is an attempt to make up for a budget shortfall created by state and county funding cuts for the current fiscal year. In particular, a county-wide hiring freeze enacted last fall has left many positions unfilled.

 

"It will allow us to take staff that normally work in that facility and reassign them to other areas that we have had to otherwise leave vacant," Shockley said.

 

No one from the Pocomoke clinic will lose his or her job. Shockley said the departments would be saving money on operational costs.

 

Currently, there are no plans to reduce hours at any of the other six county health department locations.

 

"Pocomoke was chosen because it is one of our smaller clinics, not only in terms of number of staff that will be displaced, but also service volume," Shockley said.

 

Any further closures will be assessed after the state and county make final funding decisions for the health system later this spring.

 

Anyone in Pocomoke City seeking health department services on Friday can use the Snow Hill facility on Public Landing Road.

 

jhopkinson@dmg.gannett.com 410-213-9442, ext.17

 

Additional Facts

 

Hours of operation

 

WHAT. Pocomoke City Health Center

 

WHEN. After March 20: Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Tuesday, open until 8 p.m. Closed Friday.

 

WHERE. 400-A Walnut St., Pocomoke City

 

CALL. 410-957-2005

 

Copyright 2009 Salisbury Daily Times.

 

Satellites help keep Chesapeake Bay clean

 

The Agriculture Research Services (ARS) - USDA

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

Space-age technologies to help Maryland implement and monitor an expanded winter cover crop program that is vital to the Chesapeake Bay's health are being developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Beltsville, Md. Soil scientist Gregory McCarty and colleagues Dean Hively, Ali Sadeghi and Megan Lang with the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville are developing satellite-monitoring technologies to reveal cover crop growth and nutrient uptake. The satellite images are used in combination with field information submitted by farmers enrolled in the state's cover crop cost-share program.

The ARS research team works closely with John Rhoderick, chief of the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) Resource Conservation Operations. Together they monitor winter cover crop performance in the Maryland counties east of the Bay, an area known as Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Planting winter cover crops is important to reducing agricultural nutrient losses to the Bay and improving the Bay's health. Maryland has doubled its budget for its cover crop cost-share program to $18 million in 2008-2009. This will provide for more than 387,000 acres of cover crops with no fall fertilization.

Rhoderick and the ARS team are planning to jointly develop an operational cover crop implementation and monitoring tool based on technologies that emerge from their collaboration.

Already, the combined satellite imagery/farmer information approach has improved the operation of the MDA cover crop program. This demonstrates that satellite data can be routinely used to implement and monitor cover crop and other important state conservation programs.

The research is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Choptank River Watershed Conservation Effects Assessment Project.

Read about cooperative ARS, state and university research in the March 2009 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency in USDA.

©1999-2009  Environmental Expert S.L.

 

Police investigating homicide of Eldersburg infant

Charges still pending

 

By Charles Schelle

The Eldersburg Eagle

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

Maryland State Police are investigating the death of an Eldersburg girl who died Tuesday, March 3 after being taken to the hospital with apparent breathing problems.

 

The child is identified as Ky’leigh M. Rogers, 8 months, of the 900-block of Caren Drive, Eldersburg. Rogers was pronounced dead at Carroll Hospital Center at about 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

 

The Office of the State Medical Examiner determined in an autopsy Wednesday, March 4, that Ky’leigh died from blunt force trauma and ruled the death as a homicide, according to a news release issued by the State Police.

 

No charges have been filed, police say, and the investigation is continuing.

 

"We are aggressively investigating this case," said State Police spokesman Greg Shipley in a telephone interview.

 

The police are awaiting the results of forensic tests before charges will be pressed, he said.

 

State Police at Westminster Barracks were contacted by staff at the Carroll Hospital Center shortly before the baby died.

 

Troopers responding to the hospital learned that the Sykesville-Freedom Dist Vol. Fire Department ambulance had transported the child earlier in the afternoon after responding to a 911 call from the child’s home reporting the child was having trouble breathing.

 

Investigators from the State Police Westminster Barracks and the Carroll County Child Advocacy Center began an initial investigation.

 

The preliminary investigation led police to contact the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit. Homicide investigators are continuing the investigation, with assistance from the Westminster Barracks Criminal Investigation Section.

 

State Police investigators are working closely with the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office.

 

Copyright 2009 the Eldersburg Eagle.

 

Fewer Kids Have High Lead Levels Than 20 Years Ago

 

Associated Press

DundalkEagle

Monday, March 2, 2009

 

CHICAGO (AP) -- In a stunning improvement in children's health, far fewer kids have high lead levels than 20 years ago, new government research reports -- a testament to aggressive efforts to get lead out of paint, water and soil.

 

Lead can interfere with the developing nervous system and cause permanent problems with learning, memory and behavior. Children in poor neighborhoods have generally been more at risk because they tend to live in older housing and in industrial areas.

 

Federal researchers found that just 1.4 percent of young children had elevated lead levels in their blood in 2004, the latest data available. That compares with almost 9 percent in 1988.

 

"It has been a remarkable decline," said study co-author Mary Jean Brown of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's a public health success story."

 

The 84 percent drop extends a trend that began in the 1970s when efforts began to remove lead from gasoline. The researchers credited continuing steps to reduce children's exposure to lead in old house paint, soil, water and other sources.

 

The study was being released Monday in the March edition of the journal Pediatrics. It is based on nearly 5,000 children, ages 1 to 5, who were part of a periodic government health survey.

 

The government considers levels of at least 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood to be elevated, although research has shown that levels less than that can still cause problems including attention and reading difficulties. There is no known "safe" level, the study authors noted.

 

Caroline Cox, research director of the Center for Environmental Health, a California-based advocacy group, noted that lead poisoning "is entirely preventable."

 

"There's no reason even one child in the United States should be poisoned by lead," Cox said. "It's great there aren't as many now as there were, but there are still too many."

 

By 2004, racial disparities among children with blood-lead levels higher than 10 micrograms had mostly disappeared: About equal numbers of white, black and Mexican-American children had levels in that range.

 

However, disparities at lower levels remained. For example, almost 18 percent of white children had levels of less than 1 microgram per deciliter, versus 11 percent of Mexican-Americans and 4 percent of blacks.

 

Children from lower-income families also had higher lead levels than those from wealthier families.

 

Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a lead specialist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center who wasn't involved in the government study, said lead levels have probably continued to decline since 2004. But the findings show "we need to still continue to be aggressive" with prevention efforts, he said.

 

Lead-based paint in old housing, which can contaminate house dust and soil, is the main source. Children also can be exposed to lead in water, mostly from old plumbing pipes, as well as toys and certain folk medicines.

 

The CDC recommends that pregnant women and young children avoid housing built before 1978 that is undergoing renovation. Other recommendations include regularly washing children's hands and toys; frequent washing of floors and window sills, where paint dust can collect; and avoiding hot tap water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula. Hot tap water generally contains higher lead levels from plumbing than cold water.

 

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

Armed and dangerous

Our view: Restraining order should disqualify abusive spouses from owning guns

 

Baltimore Sun

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

It ought to be a no-brainer that domestic violence and guns don't mix.

 

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that common-sense principle when it stripped anyone convicted of a crime of domestic violence of the right to own firearms.

 

The decision should give a boost to two bills in the Maryland General Assembly that would allow judges more discretion to take weapons away from abusive partners who are subject to court-issued restraining orders.

 

In the federal case, the justices ruled that a 1996 law that extended the federal ban on gun ownership by felons to anyone convicted of "a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence" applies even to states where domestic violence isn't a crime. Prosecutors in such states generally charge abusive partners with assault or battery instead.

 

Nationally, domestic violence claims the lives of three people every day, on average. One of the Maryland bills would essentially extend the federal ban on gun ownership by convicted abusers to anyone under a final restraining order. The other would give judges discretionary power to confiscate guns from people against whom temporary restraining orders had been issued.

 

In both cases, the weapons would be held by the state until the orders were lifted.

 

The proposed law might have saved at least some of the 42 victims of domestic violence who were killed by firearms between July 2007 and July 2008, including 17 suicide victims who turned guns on themselves after assaulting their partners.

 

Those grim statistics, compiled by the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence, should give lawmakers all the more reason to enact this sensible effort to empower judges to keep firearms out of the hands of domestic abusersand guard against future tragedies.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Limiting 'alcopops' helps protect teens

 

Baltimore Sun

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

A bill before the House of Delegates aims to block the sale of so-called alcopops, or sweetened high-alcohol beverages, in establishments with beer-only sales licenses ("'Alcopops' bill takes a beating," Feb. 25).

 

These stores are places where kids congregate. And some studies suggest that teenagers are, by a wide margin, more familiar with these entry-level alcohol products than adults are and that at least 46 percent of all kids who drink have used alcopops.

 

According to the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey in Maryland, 82 percent of high-schoolers have experimented with alcohol, and 25 percent use it one to three times or more a month.

 

This is disturbing news, because a mounting body of scientific evidence points to the lasting harmful effects of alcohol exposure on the adolescent brain.

 

Furthermore, the four leading causes of death in teenagers - motor vehicle accidents, unintentional injuries, homicides and suicides - are all linked with alcohol use.

 

We must support legislation like the bill to limit alcopops sales.

 

We ignore alcohol use in our kids at our own peril.Dr. Dan LevyTowson

 

The writer is a former president of the Maryland chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Picture mixed for employment

State touts new jobs, but layoffs continue

 

By Kevin James Shay

The Gazette

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

Computer giant Microsoft Corp. plans to begin occupying a new 134,000-square-foot Chevy Chase space this spring that is expected to add several hundred new jobs, state economic development officials say.

 

The move will result in as many as 600 new jobs in the county, according to a recent report by the state Department of Business and Economic Development.

 

Some of those jobs will come from a smaller office in Chevy Chase that Microsoft currently occupies, although employees will move to the new digs from sites across the Washington, D.C., area, a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

 

Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Wash., has more than 900 employees in the district area but does not break down figures for the Maryland portion, the spokeswoman said. She declined to confirm specific job gains for the Chevy Chase move. Divisions moving into the location include health services, government affairs, and small and midmarket services.

 

The new Microsoft office is part of the Wisconsin Place development at 5400 Wisconsin Ave. The 1.1 million-square-foot property will also feature a Whole Foods grocery store, restaurants and retail stores. A Bloomingdale's department store and some other retailers have already opened.

 

Developers are New England Development of Newton, Mass., Archstone of Englewood, Colo., and Boston Properties of Boston.

 

Microsoft and biotech MedImmune had the largest job-gaining projects on the new state list, which mostly covered those unveiled in 2008. MedImmune is adding 355,000 square feet to its 91,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Frederick in an expansion due for completion later this year. In addition, plans are in the works to add a 250,000-square-foot research facility to MedImmune's Gaithersburg headquarters.

 

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. and health care data analytics company MedAssurant each announced 500 new jobs in Anne Arundel County and Bowie, respectively, about a year ago, DBED reported.

 

The largest capital investment in the report was $500 million for a planned gas-fired power plant in Charles County by Competitive Power Ventures. Construction on the facility is slated to begin this summer with completion by 2012, executives with the Silver Spring power company said. As many as 400 jobs will be created for the construction process, and 25 full-time permanent employees will be needed to operate the plant.

 

The state report is based on public announcements of planned expansions by company executives. Data may not be complete, officials said.

 

"Some of the new facilities announced may not yet be in operation, as the time between announcement and occupancy is often many months, and sometimes years," the report says.

 

More layoffs announced in state

The report comes on the heels of increasing announcements of layoffs by employers in Maryland. Companies filed notice with the state for 803 layoffs in January, up 32.5 percent from a year ago. In the week ended Feb. 14, the number of unadjusted initial unemployment claims in Maryland increased 61 percent from the same week a year ago.

 

Several companies more recently reported layoffs, including Academy Facility Management in Annapolis and Millennium Inorganic Chemicals in Baltimore.

 

Academy Facility Management, a cleaning and maintenance company, will lay off 111 workers by March 31 as it closes, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Millennium, which is also closing, is laying off its 140 workers by April 12. The company, which produces titanium chemicals, is a subsidiary of Cristal Global, a Saudi company.

 

Last month's closure of the Baltimore Examiner newspaper led to the announcement this week of 105 layoffs by Vertis Communications. Vertis cited "the significant loss" of business by the Examiner closing in shutting its Belcamp facility, which provided advertising inserts and newspaper products for retailers, newspapers and consumer services companies. The work has been transferred to other locations, according to Grace Platon, a spokeswoman for Vertis, based in Irving, Texas.

 

Home Depot, which is closing its Expo locations in Columbia and Bethesda, will let go 189 workers by late April.

 

Last year, Maryland lost a net 15,100 jobs, its first calendar-year loss in several years, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures.

 

Nationally, the department reported Thursday that seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims in the week ended Saturday totaled 639,000, down 31,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 670,000.

 

Last month, state officials said that 13 foreign companies had set up offices in Maryland in the past 10 months and will create as many as 150 jobs over the next few years. The state's location, federal assets and business climate were cited.

 

"Today's competitive economy demands that Maryland identify innovative and creative ways to tap into new opportunities for growth," DBED Secretary Christian S. Johansson said in a statement.

 

The new foreign companies include Finnish defense business Environics and Wavebob, an Irish company that produces energy from ocean waves. Environics is creating 20 jobs in Harford County, while Wavebob is adding 15 jobs in Annapolis, DBED reported.

 

About 105,000 Maryland employees, or 3.5 percent of the workforce, are employed by foreign-owned firms.

 

Staff Writer Rebecca McClay contributed to this report.

 

Copyright © 2009 Post-Newsweek Media, Inc./Gazette.Net.

 

Carroll County Detention Center reopens after meningitis scare

 

By Ryan Marshall

Carroll County Times

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

The man who died Wednesday shortly after being detained at the Carroll County Detention Center did not have an infectious form of meningitis.

 

Warden George Hardinger said he’d been told by officials at Carroll Hospital Center that Kevin Brooks, of Westminster, didn’t have an infectious strain of meningitis, although no cause of death had been determined.

 

Carroll Hospital Center was not able to provide any information about Brooks due to patient confidentiality rules.

 

The Central Booking facility at the Detention Center reopened around 11 p.m. Wednesday after being closed to allow a professional cleaning team to clean the facility, Hardinger said.

 

Brooks, 50, of Washington Lane in Westminster, was brought into the Detention Center Wednesday morning after being charged with driving with a suspended license and attempting to elude police, among other charges.

 

Brooks saw a nurse at the facility Wednesday morning and was released that afternoon, Hardinger said.

 

He later collapsed and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

 

The center was quarantined Wednesday. Hardinger ordered anyone who was in the center to stay, and evening visitor hours were canceled.

 

He said police officers used holding cells in Carroll County Circuit Court to hold suspects while the booking facility was closed. Hardinger said the makeshift operation seemed to work well.

 

Staff writer Erica Kritt contributed to this article.

 

Reach staff writer Ryan Marshall at 410-857-7865 or ryan.marshall@car rollcountytimes.com

.

 

What it is

Meningitis is when the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord is infected. There are two forms of meningitis: viral and bacterial.

 

Viral meningitis is typically less severe.

 

Bacterial meningitis can be contagious. It can be spread through respiratory and throat secretions, like coughing or kissing, but it is not as contagious as a cold or flu.

 

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

 

Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times.

 

Officials beam over hospital progress

 

By Andrew Schotz

Hagerstown Herald-Mail

Thursday, March 5, 2009

 

HAGERSTOWN - Hospital officials on Thursday celebrated a construction milestone for a new Washington County regional medical center on Robinwood Drive.

 

A brief “topping out” ceremony was held, recognizing the highest point of construction.

 

The entire project is expected to finish around the fall or winter of 2010, said James Hamill, the president and CEO of Washington County Health System, the parent company of Washington County Hospital.

 

The new 500,000-square-foot regional medical center near Robinwood Medical Center will replace the current Washington County Hospital on East Antietam Street. The center does not yet have a name.

 

Raymond Grahe, the hospital’s vice president of finance, said the regional medical center is projected to cost $294 million.

 

Grahe said $264 million worth of bonds were sold. Another $10 million will be raised through investments. The remaining $20 million will come from the health system and donors.

 

Major donors to the capital campaign signed the final steel beam Thursday.

 

Then, a crane lifted the 27-foot, 11-inch beam into place. Hospital and construction officials applauded.

 

The health system announced in 2003 that it planned to build a new hospital. A court challenge by a citizens’ group held up construction for more than a year and a half.

 

A construction schedule says it will take until April to put up the rest of the steel and pour concrete floors. Facades, windows and roofs will be installed by August.

 

Gilbane, the construction manager, is based in Rhode Island and has a regional office in Laurel, Md.

 

Copyright 2009 Hagerstown Herald-Mail.

 

Red Cross provides second response in disasters

 

By Joany Nazdin

SoMdNews.com

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

Dorothy Holland, Ronald Holland and Robert Chalmers Sr. lost the house they were living in to a fire on Potts Point Road in Huntingtown shortly before Thanksgiving. After a couple of hotel moves they were taken in by Love of Jesus Church in Prince Frederick. They are hoping to get a trailer on the Potts Point Road property soon.

 

E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

 

Dorothy Holland of Huntingtown remembered the night in November when the wood stove in her kitchen caught fire.

 

"My grandson knocked on my door and told me to come on out, the house was on fire," Holland said. "I grabbed my pocketbook and my Bible and left the house."

 

The rest of the night passed in a blur, as Holland and her family watched the house burn. "My grandson called 911 three times, and I didn't know what else to do," Holland said. "Then a wonderful young man from the Red Cross showed up."

 

The Red Cross volunteer stayed with the family until 4 a.m., making sure they were safely in a hotel room.

 

The American Red Cross was there to help her and her family through the first few days after the fire.

 

"They made sure that we had more than food," Holland said. "I just had a robe and bedroom slippers. ... You don't realize how much you need when you lose everything."

 

Mike Zabko, director of the Southern Maryland chapter of the American Red Cross, knows what effect a fire can have on a family.

 

"We are second responders to disasters," Zabko said. "The first responders are firemen and emergency medical services. What we do is teach people how to respond to and prepare for a disaster."

 

Preparing people for disaster is a challenge that Zabko is constantly fighting.

 

Zabko's resources were stretched thinner than usual during the Hollands' fire, with seven house fires in that timeframe.

 

"Every bit of what we give to people is donated from the community," Zabko said.

 

Donations increase after big disasters, Zabko said, such as for the 2002 tornado in La Plata and Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast in 2005.

 

"It is when we have a small disaster like a house fire, even like what happened this month with almost one fire a day, no one notices," Zabko said. "All you see is just a little notice in the newspapers."

 

In the first part of February in Calvert County, there were three fires that affected five adults and three children, Zabko said in an e-mail.

 

Zabko said that his organization runs on donations of money, time and blood.

 

"We get notices all the time that there is less than one day's supply of blood on the shelves," Zabko said. "Blood has a finite shelf life; it expires and goes bad, so we constantly need to refill the refrigerator."

 

Meanwhile, Holland and her family have found a temporary home at the Love of Jesus Christ Church in Prince Frederick.

 

"I miss little things like being able to cook a pot of bean soup on a cold day, but we are holding on," Holland said. "The fire stays on my mind all the time, and I think about all that I have lost. ... Then I think I could have lost my life when my house was on fire.

 

"When I think of the Red Cross, I thank God for the help they have given us," Holland said.

 

jnazdin@somdnews.com How to help

 

For more information, to volunteer time and money or to donate blood, call the Southern Maryland chapter of the American Red Cross at 301-934-2066 or 888-276-2767. Information is also available at SouthernMaryland.RedCross.org

           

Copyright ©, 2009 Southern Maryland Newspapers - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

National / International

 

Obama Picks Florida Official To Lead FEMA

 

bthesite.com

Thursday, February 5, 2009

 

President Barack Obama on Wednesday tapped Florida emergency manager Craig Fugate to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency, turning to a Republican appointee who has steered the Southern state through numerous hurricanes since 2001.  Obama said Fugate will travel to the gulf Coast today to meet with local officials still struggling to recover from 2005 hurricanes.

 

Copyright 2009 bthesite.com online.

 

Obama tries to start conversation on health care

 

Associated Press

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

Baltimore Sun

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

WASHINGTON - The nation can't afford to wait for the economy to recover before tackling out-of-control medical costs, President Barack Obama is telling some of the most powerful players in the health care reform debate.

 

"If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy, then we must address the crushing cost of health care this year, in this administration," Obama says in remarks prepared for delivery to a White House forum on the issue today. Excerpts were released by the White House.

 

"Making investments in reform now, investments that will dramatically lower costs, won't add to our budget deficits in the long term -- rather, it is one of the best ways to reduce them," Obama said.

 

Obama has invited to the forum more than 120 people who hold a wide range of views on how to fix the world's costliest health care system, one that still leaves an estimated 48 million people uninsured. Doctors, patients, business owners, insurers and drug industry representatives were to gather in hopes of building support for big changes. Republicans are invited, and they're expected to speak up.

 

"The president wants to engage with Congress in a transparent and bipartisan fashion," said Melody Barnes, who heads White House domestic policy.

 

Among the invitees are some who helped kill the Clinton administration's health care overhaul in the 1990s. Everyone is supposed to be on his best behavior, but will that last?

 

"This is a different day," said Chip Kahn, a hospital lobbyist who opposed President Bill Clinton's plan and was to attend today's gathering. "I think among most of the stakeholders, everyone wants to see this work. There is a tremendous feeling that it's time."

 

Now president of the Federation of American Hospitals, Kahn worked for the insurance industry in the Clinton years.

 

The difference this time, Obama argues, is that health care costs have become unsustainable, particularly in a sinking economy. The U.S. spends $2.4 trillion a year on health care, yet an estimated 48 million Americans lack coverage. Obama's goal is health coverage for everyone.

 

Barnes said Obama is determined to pass health care legislation this year, and while he wants it to be bipartisan, he will not be deterred by obstruction from interest groups or ideological partisans.

 

"The president will make clear this has to be a bipartisan effort," Barnes said. "As for people who are there to set up hurdles, from his perspective that isn't tolerable. It's crucial to families, businesses and our nation's budget that we address the issue of exploding costs."

 

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky released a letter to Obama, saying his party is ready to work with the administration on health care, but warning that reforms should not lead to a government-run system, and must balance coverage expansions with curbs on costs.

 

Barnes said that Obama "walks into this conversation being pragmatic, being open. He knows that the American people are hurting" and are seeing their premiums rise.

 

But Barnes, interviewed today on NBC's"Today" show, also said that "we have to be transparent about it. ... We will also hear the voices of the American people ... to make sure that health care reform gets before the president for his signature before the end of the year."

 

In support of Obama's efforts, liberal activists have mobilized to keep the pressure on Congress to pass legislation this year.

 

"It would be a mistake to dismiss this as a gabfest," Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said about Obama's meeting. "It's an effort to keep the momentum going. The details are not going to be worked in two or three hours at a White House summit."

 

There were concerns yesterday about some of those details.

 

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who will play a leading role in writing health care legislation, raised questions about the proposed $634 billion "down payment" for expanded coverage that Obama included in the 2010 budget he released last week.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

 

Color cancer: new state rankings, A-F

 

CBS Online

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

(CBS) Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths for men and women in this country, killing nearly 50,000 people annually.

 

But when detected early, it can be successfully treated the vast majority of the time.

 

The results of the 2009 Colorectal Cancer Screening Legislation Report Card (PDF format) were recently released. CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports that for the first time since it was first issued six years ago, the report shows that more states have received an A than a failing grade for their colon cancer screening laws. Twenty-one states, plus D.C., got an A, and 19 have gotten an F.

 

And what a difference a grade can make.

 

Copyright 2009 CBS online.

 

No BPA For Baby Bottles In U.S.

6 Makers Announce Decision on Chemical

 

By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post

Friday, March 6, 2009; A06

 

The six largest manufacturers of baby bottles will stop selling bottles in the United States made with bisphenol A, a controversial chemical widely used in plastics but increasingly linked to a range of health effects.

 

The manufacturers declared their intentions after Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, joined by the attorneys general in Connecticut and New Jersey, wrote to the bottle makers and asked them to voluntarily stop using the chemical.

 

"The evidence seems too clear and emphatic and unequivocal to say we should simply permit this stuff to go into children on a massive scale," Blumenthal said yesterday. "And there's no reason for it, because there are substitutes available."

 

Bisphenol A, in commercial use since the 1950s, is found in a wide variety of everyday items, including plastic beverage containers, eyeglasses and compact discs. It is ubiquitous: One recent federal study estimated that the chemical is found in the urine of 93 percent of the U.S. population.

 

Commonly called BPA, the chemical mimics the hormone estrogen and may disrupt the body's endocrine system. Public health advocates say it poses a particular danger to fetuses, infants and children because BPA can interfere with cell function at a point when their bodies are still developing.

 

Over the past decade, more than 130 studies have linked BPA to breast cancer, obesity and other disorders. In September, the study of BPA in humans found adults with higher levels of bisphenol A had elevated rates of heart disease, diabetes and liver abnormalities. Last year, researchers at the Yale School of Medicine linked BPA to problems with brain function and mood disorders in monkeys.

 

Much of the new research suggests that BPA has an effect at very low doses -- lower than the current safety standard set by the Food and Drug Administration. The most prominent finding was by the National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, which reported last year that there is "some concern" BPA may affect the brain and behavioral development of fetuses, infants and young children.

 

The FDA has maintained that BPA is safe, relying largely on two studies that were funded by the chemical industry. In October, the agency was faulted by its own panel of independent science advisers, who said the FDA's position on BPA was scientifically flawed. As a result, the agency is revisiting its position on the chemical.

 

The American Chemistry Council, an industry group that represents companies that make BPA, yesterday repeated the FDA's position that BPA is safe at current levels in food bottles and containers.

 

Consumer concern about the chemical has placed increasing pressure on manufacturers and retailers. Late last year, Babies R Us and other major retailers told suppliers they would no longer stock baby bottles made with BPA.

 

Several bottle makers contacted by Blumenthal said they were already ridding their product lines of the chemical.

 

"We made a business decision to move out of BPA," said Shannon Jenest of Philips Avent, which is number one in U.S. dollar sales of baby bottles.

 

Philips Avent stopped selling baby products with BPA on Dec. 31 in North America but continues to market them overseas, she said. "We felt like we had hit a tipping point with our consumers and with our retailers," Jenest said. "Babies R Us was banning it, Target was going to, CVS was going to, and so the distribution channels were lessening and lessening."

 

Blumenthal said he is gathering support from other attorneys general to demand that manufacturers take BPA out of infant formula cans and all food and beverage containers.

 

Richard Wiles, executive director of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization, said the states are acting because the federal government has refused to do so. "Today's deal underscores the need for the Congress and the Obama administration to overhaul federal chemicals policy to protect infants and children from exposures to toxic chemicals," Wiles said. "When the public is forced to rely on state actions to achieve nationwide protections, we know the federal system is broken."

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Can Your Marriage Make You Sick?

 

The Check-up – Health in the News – and in Your Life

Washington Post

Friday, March 5, 2009

 

A bad marriage may be bad for your health--if you're a woman, according to new research out today.

 

Nancy Henry of the University of Utah and her colleagues studied 276 couples who had been married an average of 20 years.The couples filled out questionnaires assessing positive aspects of their marriage, such as mutual support, emotional warmth, friendliness and confiding in each other, as well as negative aspects, such as arguments, feelings of hostility and how often they disagreed over topics such as children, sex, money and in-laws. The couples were also tested for signs of depression, and went to a clinic to measure their weight, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar and other symptoms of "metabolic syndrome," which increases the risk for diabetes and heart disease.

 

Both men and women who reported more marital strain were more likely to have signs of depression, Henry reports today at the American Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting in Chicago. But only the women also were more likely to have metabolic syndrome symptoms. In fact, the effect of depression from marital strain was about the same as the effect of being sedentary versus moderately active, the researchers calculated.

 

It's unclear why this was the case, but previous research has indicated that women are more sensitive to the effects of relationship problems than men, and there's good evidence that stress can increase the risk for many of the factors that cause the metabolic syndrome.

 

While the study needs to be followed up by more research to really establish the link, the researchers say women in bad marriages should both exercise more and take other steps to try to counter those effects, and figure out if there's a way to improve their marriages--both to make their daily lives more pleasant and possibly improve their health.

 

Copyright 2009 Washington Post.

 

Group: Chimps lead ‘wretched existence’ at La. lab

 

Associated Press

By Janet McConnaughey

Cumberland Times-News

Thursday, March 5, 2009

 

NEW ORLEANS — The video footage shows monkeys biting themselves and slamming against the bars of small cages. Other scenes show a newborn chimpanzee being taken from its mother and an adult screaming as a lab worker aims a tranquilizer gun before the animal falls sedated from a shelf to the floor.

 

The Humane Society of the United States released the video scenes Wednesday, saying that’s only part of the documentation of what it claimed were 338 violations of federal law and policy at the nation’s largest primate research lab that studies chimpanzees.

 

“This is a story of inhumane treatment and a story of psychological torment for these animals,” Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based animal rights group, said at a news conference Wednesday.

 

Even if the animals were otherwise well treated, Pacelle said, keeping intelligent, highly social animals in small, barren cages is enough to cause mental problems. A 21-year-old chimp at NIRC is kept out of research because of stress psychosis, he said.

 

He said an undercover HSUS investigator secretly videotaped those and other scenes over nine months in 2008 while working as a lab assistant at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Iberia Research Laboratory, where 325 chimps and 6,000 other primates are housed, he said.

 

An e-mailed statement from the New Iberia center said it exceeds all federal standards. “We are driven by high standards and ethics and believe the videos distort acceptable standard procedures and incorrectly imply mistreatment of nonhuman primates at the New Iberia Research Center,” it said.

 

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he is ordering a thorough investigation. “If the allegations prove to be true, the American public can expect the perpetrators to be held fully accountable,” he said in an e-mailed statement. “I take the protection of animals very seriously, and will do my utmost to fully enforce the Animal Welfare Act.”

 

The Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, part of the National Institutes of Health, “evaluates all allegations or indications of noncompliance with the PHS Policy and is investigating this case,” an e-mailed statement said.

 

HSUS has not investigated other labs, including Tulane University’s primate lab in Covington. “To carry out an investigation like this is very resource-intense, and we want the government to do its oversight job,” Stephens said.

 

Pacelle said HSUS sent the U.S. Department of Agriculture a 108-page complaint detailing the alleged violations at the New Iberia lab.

 

He said he expects bi-partisan legislation to be introduced in Congress that would phase out all use of chimpanzees in research and immediately halt breeding of the apes for invasive research. The proposal also would retire all federally owned chimpanzees “to sanctuary as they deserve.”

 

Reps. Edolphus Towns, D-NY, David Reichert, R-Wash., Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., also offered the Great Ape Protection Act last year.

 

Chimp Haven in Shreveport, the national sanctuary for chimps retired from research, has 132 and presently has living space for about 140 — but enough land to hold as many as 300 to 350 if it had money for enclosures and upkeep, director Linda Brent said.

 

Nationwide, she said, sanctuaries of one sort or another hold 500 to 600 chimpanzees, the only great ape being used for research in this country.

 

“Really, they only use chimpanzees for things they can’t find any other animal model for — mostly HIV and hepatitis,” she said.

 

The university’s statement said the New Iberia lab has made and is making “numerous contributions” in research on hepatitis A, B and C, mumps, measles, chicken pox, and is working on antiviral compounds, therapeutic proteins, gene therapy, and prevention and treatment of cancer.

 

Pacelle said no other nation worldwide is still conducting invasive research on chimpanzees.

 

He released a statement from primate expert Jane Goodall describing the animals’ housing at NIRC as “grim” and stating their behaviors indicate stress and panic.

 

“In no lab I have visited have I seen so many chimpanzees exhibit such intense fear,” Goodall wrote.

 

Pacelle said the Humane Society investigated the New Iberia lab because it is the largest in the country. There are more than 200 primate labs, about nine of which house or study chimpanzees, said Martin Stephens, HSUS vice president for animal research issues.

 

He said that, although NIH recently made permanent a moratorium on breeding chimpanzees for invasive research, grant proposals show that it was paying NIRC to breed four to 12 infant chimps a year.

 

Pacelle said the Humane Society, which worked for a 1985 law requiring care for the psychological well-being of captive primates, “had indications it was not being widely observed across the country.”

 

He said he wasn’t blaming President Barack Obama’s new administration but hoped for a change.

 

“I’m not criticizing leaders who have just come into office ... but we do have long-term problems with irresponsible government oversight” at the lab, Pacelle said.

 

Simon-Dronet said earlier this week that a preliminary report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicated no wrongdoing in nine specific primate deaths about which the animal rights group Stop Animal Exploitation Now complained of in January.

 

SAEN said necropsy reports on the animals indicated neglect.

 

Executive Director Michael A. Budki said he had not heard from USDA, but said other primate labs with documented serious problems got only reprimands from the agency.

 

“In our opinion, USDA has virtually abdicated its responsibility for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act,” he said.

 

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.

 

Opinion

 

Drug Legalization Isn't the Answer

Countries that have experimented with a permissive approach have always turned back.

 

By John P. Walters

Wall Street Journal Commentary

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

Since 2001 the number of young people using illegal drugs has dropped by 900,000 to about 2.7 million. This drop is an important development for all the obvious reasons, plus one. Substance abuse is a disease. Until recently, we failed to grasp the nature of this disease and how to reduce the suffering it causes.

 

For decades, we did not want to believe that alcohol or drugs could have the power to take over our lives, despite the evidence we witnessed when our loved ones grappled with drug addiction. We did not understand how this disease could alter personality and steal individual freedom. We have paid a high price for this confusion.

 

We will not quickly change the powerful forces that have for decades presented drug use as thrilling and fun. For most drug addicts, the first foray into drug use begins when they are young and have no expectation of becoming addicted. Nonetheless, they do become addicted and their denial increases as dependency worsens.

 

We can prevent and successfully treat this disease, however. There are millions of Americans in recovery who are staying clean and sober each day. The rate of drug use among high-school seniors has been cut nearly in half since its peak years of 1978 and 1979, to 22.3% in 2008. Prevention and treatment have been producing steady results.

 

The criminal justice system has been transformed over the past 15 years. Adult and juvenile drug courts are now common in most states. Nationwide there are more than 2,000 drug courts pushing low-level offenders to get treatment when drug use brings them into the criminal justice system. Child welfare and family courts also push drug treatment -- many endangerment and neglect cases involve an adult with a substance abuse problem. The criminal justice system has become the most powerful force in the country supporting addiction treatment, exactly the opposite of the critics' depiction.

 

Intervention is spreading in the health-care system with the prospect that screening for substance abuse will become as common as checking blood pressure for hypertension. In addition, we have legally and successfully instituted random drug screening programs in schools that are as promising as systems in place in the military and many workplaces. The rate of positive tests in the workplace are lower today than they have been since comprehensive national reporting began -- 3.8% of workers tested positive for drugs in 2007, down from 13.6% in 1988.

 

What is the alternative to the progress we are making? We have made the kind of compromises with alcohol that some suggest making with illegal drugs. Nonetheless, roughly one in 10 of the more than 100 million Americans who drink each month suffer from alcoholism. Illegal drug use touches roughly 19 million Americans each month with more than one-third of those suffering from abuse or addiction. Will these people be better off if drugs are legalized?

 

Those who propose abandoning control efforts never face up to the consequences of an America where upwards of 50 million or more people use drugs regularly. Nor do they consider the consequences to Latin America if such a vast number of people in the U.S. use drugs.

 

Alternative regulatory schemes give little attention to how a free society will function when it sells known disease-causing poisons that are more powerful than alcohol and that profoundly attack the user's capacity for free action.

 

The policies that drive down drug use attack both demand and supply. Controlling supply reduces consumption as it chokes off access to all types of drugs. No nation that has tried to avoid controlling supply has been able to stand by its permissive approach. Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have all experimented with being more accepting of drugs, only to backtrack later when the resulting destruction was clear. The U.S. has also been more permissive in the past than it is today, only to pay a huge price for the mistake. The predictable costs in addiction and disease are unsustainable.

 

We have seen dramatic proof that institutions of law and democracy can prevail over narco-terrorists. Colombia has attacked drug production and the violent groups that profited from it. In the process, it transformed its national security and made its streets safer. What nation in South America -- or anywhere -- has reduced violence and human rights abuses more than Colombia since 2002? Could President Álvaro Uribe have done this by surrendering to the drug trade?

 

Today there is terrible violence in Mexico. Those who carry out attacks do so with the intention of making us stop resisting them. But what narco-terrorists want is power, not control of the drug trade. These terrorists are growing more violent because over the past three to four years the money that criminal organizations get from trafficking meth and cocaine has dropped sharply -- perhaps by 50% or more. To bankroll their activities, they are now kidnapping, extorting and grabbing power. The drug trade is a tool, not the cause of these violent criminal groups.

 

Making it easier to produce and traffic drugs will strengthen, not weaken, these terrorists. Mexican President Felipe Calderon knows this, which is why he and a large majority of his people are fighting for their democracy and are reaching out for our help.

 

Mr. Walters is executive vice president of the Hudson Institute and was director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George W. Bush.

 

Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

Suicide advocacy isn't hospice work

 

Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor

Friday, March 6, 2009

 

We take strong exception to the quote from the attorney representing two members of the Final Exit Network cited at the end of The Baltimore Sun's article "2 in aided-suicide case won't fight extradition" (Feb. 28). Attorney Michael Kaminkow's comparison of the work of his clients to that of a hospice is appallingly misleading.

 

Hospice affirms life in all that it does. We do not hasten death, nor do we advocate for those who do.

 

The 30 provider members of the Hospice and Palliative Care Network of Maryland, which serve more than 15,000 patients and families annually, are dedicated to providing compassionate care and skill in alleviating pain and supporting patients and families at a most important time.

 

Our members categorically reject comparisons of their work to that of those who advocate assisted suicide.

 

Erwin E. Abrams

Christine Crabbs

Annapolis

 

The writers are, respectively, the president and the executive director of the Hospice and Palliative Care Network of Maryland.

 

Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.

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