Adventist Health Backs Out Of Plan To Reopen Madera Hospital: A health care system that planned to take over operations of the shuttered, bankrupt Madera Community Hospital has backed out of negotiations — calling into question whether the hospital can find a viable partner to reopen before creditors push for liquidation of its assets. Read more from The Fresno Bee, ABC30.com, and The Washington Post.
El Dorado County Resident Dies From West Nile Virus: Officials on Thursday reported the first death from West Nile Virus in El Dorado County this year. The person, who lived in West Slope, was older than 55 and died in late October. Multiple other counties including Sacramento, Yolo, and Placer also reported deaths earlier this year. Read more from CBS News Sacramento.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline’s coverage. For today's national health news, read KFF Health News’ Morning Briefing.
More News From Across The State
VC Star:
Los Robles Nurses Announce A 5-Day Strike Starting Wednesday
Hundreds of nurses and other health care workers at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks are set to launch a five-day strike starting Wednesday morning. (Kisken, 11/16)
Becker's Hospital Review:
Nurses At Struggling California Hospital Lobby To Avoid Bankruptcy
Nurses at Hollister, Calif.-based Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital are presenting a petition to the San Benito County Health Care District saying that the hospital does not need to be in bankruptcy and urging the board to avoid cutting services. (Schwartz, 11/16)
The Bakersfield Californian:
KCFD's Medic Squads Hit The Streets
A new type of first-responder unit within the Kern County Fire Department has been set up to attend to local medical emergencies — and already it has notched a success. The agency announced the new units after one of them, Medic Squad 63, performed advanced life support interventions that saved a life Wednesday. (Friend, 11/16)
Reuters:
Walgreens To Close Nearly All Pharmacies On Thanksgiving For First Time
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA.O) will close nearly all of its stores and pharmacies on Thanksgiving Day for the first time in the chain's history, amid pushback from pharmacists and technicians over poor work conditions and under-staffing. Peer CVS Health (CVS.N) also said it plans to shut all of its non-24-hour pharmacy locations early next Thursday, while Rite Aid said its pharmacies will be closed but retail stores will remain open. (11/16)
San Francisco Chronicle:
UCSF Transplant Organs Delayed By Bay Bridge Protest Closure, APEC Traffic
Traffic and protests surrounding the APEC conference in San Francisco delayed the transport of organs into and out of the city, making transplants riskier for patients awaiting critical procedures. (Ho, 11/16)
The Mercury News:
Where Did San Francisco's Homeless People Go During APEC? Not Very Far
Less than a block from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that’s brought thousands of diplomats and world leaders to San Francisco, a young man in the throes of drug addiction lay crumpled into a ball as a city worker with broom and dustpan calmly swept the downtown plaza near Fifth and Mission streets. Down a nearby alley, a half-dozen people huddled around a light post and passed butane lighters, some slowly nodding off after inhaling milky white puffs from glass pipes. (Varian, 11/17)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF Shuts Down Fake COVID Test Sites That Handed Out $5 To Patients
San Francisco health and law enforcement officials have successfully convinced a rogue outdoor virus testing operator to halt operations within the city. (Vaziri, 11/16)
Fresno Bee:
Lawyer For Chinese Operator Of Illegal Lab In Reedley Fears For His Safety In Jail
The attorney for Jia Bei Zhu, the accused operator of an illegal medical lab in Reedley, wants his client released from the Fresno County Jail out of concern for his safety. (Rodriguez, 11/16)
Fox News:
COVID And Flu Vaccine Rates Are Declining For US Health Care Workers, CDC Reports: ‘Disturbing Trend’
Fewer U.S. health care workers are keeping up to date on their COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, according to two separate reports this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For the first study, researchers pulled data from the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) for January to June 2023. They found that flu vaccine coverage was 81% among health care employees at hospitals and 47.1% at nursing homes. (Rudy, 11/16)
Reuters:
CDC Expedites Release Of 77,000 Additional Doses Of Sanofi-AstraZeneca's RSV Drug
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it has expedited the release of more than 77,000 additional doses of Sanofi and AstraZeneca's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) drug Beyfortus. The additional doses, which the CDC said will be distributed immediately to physicians and hospitals, will help improve the availability of the drug at a time when a surge in cases of the disease is outpacing supply. (11/16)
Reuters:
'Staggering' Rise In Measles Cases Last Year, Says WHO And CDC
There was a “staggering” annual rise in measles cases and deaths in 2022, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Cases jumped by 18% to an estimated 9 million, and deaths to 136,000, mostly among children, the health agencies said in a joint statement on Thursday. There were large or disruptive outbreaks in 37 countries last year, the majority in Africa, compared to 22 in 2021. (Rigby, 11/16)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Great American Smokeout Aims To Reduce Smoking Rates, Increase Lung Cancer Screenings
The cancer society joined with Kern County Public Health, Blue Zones Project Bakersfield, and Adventist Health to hold a joint news conference Thursday morning to kick off the Great American Smoke Out of Kern County — and to emphasize the importance of early lung cancer screening aimed at reducing cancer deaths. (Mayer, 11/16)
The New York Times:
Why Some Seniors Are Choosing Pot Over Pills
Seniors are one of the fastest-growing populations of cannabis users in the United States. While some older adults have used pot for decades, studies suggest that others are turning to the drug for the first time to help them sleep better, dampen pain or treat anxiety — especially when prescription drugs, which often come with unwanted side effects, don’t work as intended. In 2007, only about 0.4 percent of people age 65 and older in the United States had reported using cannabis in the past year, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That number rose to almost 3 percent by 2016. As of 2022, it was at more than 8 percent. (Caron, 11/16)
AP:
A Cannabis Worker Died On The Job From An Asthma Attack. It’s The First Reported Case In US
The U.S. cannabis production industry’s first reported occupational asthma death took the life of a worker in Massachusetts, federal health and safety officials said. The woman, 27, was working in a cannabis cultivation and processing facility when she experienced worsening work-related respiratory symptoms that ended in a fatal asthma attack in January 2022, officials said in a federal report published Thursday. The report states that allergic diseases such as asthma are a growing concern in the U.S. cannabis industry, which has grown rapidly in recent years thanks to a wave of state-level legalizations. (Whittle, 11/16)
El Tecolote:
California Advocates Continue The Fight For Better Health Data On Indigenous Communities
Indigenous peoples with roots in Latin America have long gone unrecognized in California government datasets. Here’s what advocates plan to do after Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that aimed to change that. (Aguilera, 11/16)
Sacramento Bee:
Rocklin Parents Voice Opposition To Parents Rights Policy
The Rocklin Unified School Board received hundreds of messages from students, teachers, staff, and residents, calling on its five members not to pass a parental notification policy in September, according to 1,350 pages of public records reviewed by The Sacramento Bee. (Hatch, 11/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Eric Kay’s Appeal Denied In Fentanyl Case That Killed Angels Pitcher Tyler Skaggs
A federal court has rejected former Angels communications director Eric Kay’s appeal of his two felony convictions in the death of Tyler Skaggs in a terse, four-page ruling that affirmed Kay’s guilt for supplying the fentanyl-laced oxycodone that killed the Angels pitcher in 2019. (Henson, 11/16)
Axios:
Christmas Minus The Tree: Health Policy Gridlocked As Congress Bolts
By punting their spending disputes past the holidays, House Republicans have put the kibosh on what's become an annual rite for health care interests: the year-end legislative grab bag sometimes known as the Christmas tree. It's the first December since 2012 without a critical funding deadline, Raymond James analyst Chris Meekins notes. (Bettelheim, 11/17)
The New York Times:
Biden Signs Spending Bill, Staving Off A Government Shutdown
President Biden signed a short-term government funding bill on Thursday, narrowly averting a government shutdown but leaving a larger spending clash for Congress early next year. The Senate gave final approval to the package late Wednesday, about 48 hours before a shutdown deadline at midnight Friday. In a two-step plan, the bill funds congressional priorities including military construction, veterans affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department through Jan. 19. Other agencies would be funded until Feb. 2. (Friedman, 11/17)
Modern Healthcare:
Community Health Center Funding Delay Sparks Anxiety
Few people enjoy witnessing a dysfunctional Congress run up against one deadline after another just to avoid shutting down the government, but if you lead a community health center, you have little choice but to watch and hope. Congress narrowly avoided a shutdown in September but at that time only extended funding until this Friday. At the same time, lawmakers failed to reauthorize multi-year funding for federally qualified health centers, granting them the same brief reprieve. (McAuliff, 11/16)
NBC News:
Child And Teen Cancer Deaths Fell 24% In The Last 2 Decades, CDC Says
The rate of child and teen cancer deaths in the U.S. fell 24% from 2001 to 2021, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report looked at death rates for Black, Hispanic and non-Hispanic white youths up to 19 years old. Those three groups comprised 92% of all youth cancer deaths in 2021, the report noted. Death rates among children of all ages in those groups dropped between 2001 and 2011. But after 2011, only children 9 and younger saw "significant" declines. (Mogg, 11/16)
USA Today:
On Preterm Labor, U.S. Gets Failing Grade (Again) In New Report
The U.S. has landed another poor grade when it comes to preterm births, with festering disparities in outcomes for Black and Native women that are life-threatening, according to a new annual report. Preterm birth, when babies are born before 37 weeks gestation, is among the leading causes of infant death in the U.S., according to the March of Dimes. Outcomes across the country improved only slightly this year. ...The March of Dimes gave the U.S. a D+ grade in its “State of Maternal and Infant Health for American Families” report card published Thursday. (Cuevas, 11/16)
CalMatters:
As Maternity Wards Close, Here's How CA Can Prevent Stillbirths
A study released by the California Hospital Association earlier this year indicates that a fifth of California’s hospitals are in danger of closing. CalMatters found that more than 40 hospitals have closed their maternity wards over the last decade, and 27 of those occurred over the last three years. (Allie Felker, 11/15)
Fresno Bee:
Real Or Fake, We’re Getting Too Many Drugs From China
One of our nation’s greatest economic and health vulnerabilities is reliance on China for pharmaceutical drugs. Approximately 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients used to make drugs are produced overseas, primarily in China and India. (Tim Huelskamp, 11/16)
Los Angeles Daily News:
Despite Newsom Veto, California Can Lead On Psychedelics Policy
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent decision to veto a bill that would have decriminalized the possession and personal use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms in California was met with widespread disappointment. Gov. Newsom cited a need for more research and the implementation of guidelines before decriminalization would be possible. (Ben Lightburn, 11/16)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Our Water Is Polluted With 'Forever Chemicals'. Here's How Some Agencies Are Stepping In.
While tap water in California is considered safe by most standards, specific contaminants are finding their way into the drinking water supply. Take per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals”) for example, which have been shown to have serious adverse effects on human health, including cancer, thyroid disorders, ulcerative colitis, infertility. (Mike Digiannantonio, 11/15)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
A Promising Model For Prison Reform
A bold experiment at San Quentin, California’s oldest prison, promises better results for inmates and corrections workers alike. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the experiment in March. The prison that was once home to the nation’s largest number of death row inmates will become the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, with a focus on training and education. Lawmakers approved $380 million for the transformation in June. (11/17)
Los Angeles Times:
Norway Provides A Model For California Prison Reform
Durham was one of about a dozen members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, or CCPOA, the union that represents the women and men who work in our prisons, who let me tag along with them to Norway recently. They were there to see firsthand what all the hype is when it comes to the so-called Scandinavian model of incarceration, which California hopes to import in coming months. (Anita Chabria, 11/17)