Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Medical Device Failures Brought To Light Now Bolster Lawsuits And Research
A retired Oakland, Calif., physician is among the patients citing the once-hidden Food and Drug Administration data in a suit. (Christina Jewett, )
Good morning! Here are some of your top California health stories for the day.
How Many Californians Have Died Preventable Deaths In Psychiatric Wards? The Answer Isn't Easy To Find: No single agency keeps tabs on the number of deaths at psychiatric facilities, yet they happen with startling frequency. A Los Angeles Times investigation reveals the scope of the problem in California. The Times review identified nearly 100 preventable deaths over the last decade at California psychiatric facilities. It marks the first public count of deaths at California’s mental health facilities and highlights breakdowns in care at these hospitals as well as the struggles of regulators to reduce the number of deaths. The total includes deaths for which state investigators determined that hospital negligence or malpractice was responsible, as well as all suicides and homicides, which experts say should not occur among patients on a psychiatric ward. It does not include people who died of natural causes or other health problems while admitted for a psychiatric illness. Although the number of inpatient deaths in California does not appear to be higher than national averages, the deaths reveal serious lapses in patient safety, experts say. Read more from the Soumya Karlamangla of the Los Angeles Times.
In related news from the Los Angeles Times: How To Reduce Suicides On The Psychiatric Ward
Old Pipes, Dry Wells And Shoddy Septic Tanks Plague Non-White Communities In California: Lack of access to clean drinking water remains a problem across California today and low-income communities are disproportionately affected. As many as 350,000 people lack access to potable water in the San Joaquin Valley alone. Many people say the conditions resemble the developing world; others call it the Appalachia of the West. Many labor settlements and rural communities that formed as non-white enclaves are today just miles away from more reliable water systems, and yet they remain without access. The lingering effects of such isolation are especially clear in the handful of rural colonies that once provided refuge for thousands of black farmworkers. These small towns are now predominantly Latino and are among the very first to lose water when drought comes. When water does flow, it is often tainted by arsenic or other chemicals. Read more from Jose A. Del Real of The New York Times.
Why Was Massachusetts Included On San Francisco’s List Of Places That Restrict Abortions?: San Francisco officials announced a ban on travel by city employees to Massachusetts and 21 other states whose abortion laws were deemed too restrictive by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The ban starts Jan. 1, 2020. San Francisco will not allow city contracts with Massachusetts-based companies after that date either. San Francisco Mayor London Breed's office says all the banned states “restrict abortion before viability of the fetus to live outside of the womb.” Massachusetts allows abortions up to 24 weeks. After that, abortions are only allowed in cases where the woman’s life or health is at risk. The blacklist is triggering a wide range of reactions. Read more from Martha Bebinger of WBUR.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
Ventura County Star:
Local Medi-Cal Plan Wins Awards From Government Agency
The Gold Coast Health Plan has received two awards from the California Department of Health Care Services. The publicly funded plan was recognized for the second year in a row for showing the overall most improvement in one year among Medi-Cal managed care insurance plans. A second award recognized the plan for showing the most improvement in strategy focus areas, including diabetes care, high blood pressure, childhood immunizations and prenatal and postpartum care. (11/27)
The California Health Report:
‘Human-Centered Design’ Team Aims To Help Transgender Teens Recover From Family Violence
[Addison Rose] Vincent, who is 27 and lives in Los Angeles, had designed the workshop as part of a statewide research initiative called Reimagine Lab, which deploys strategies from the product design world to identify the root causes of family violence and find new ways to prevent it. Vincent, who identifies as transgender and uses they/them pronouns, is an educator, LGBTQ+ activist and community organizer. ...In addition to the Big Bear Lake summer camp activity, the group held workshops in September for students at a middle school in Los Angeles. At an Indigenous Pride L.A. celebration in October, the team staffed a booth for transgender Native American teens. The teens painted their family trees on tiles, which they then placed together with others to form a larger community tree. (Daugherty, 11/28)
The California Health Report:
Few Home Nurses Available To Care For Children With Complex Medical Needs
Across California and the country, families with children with complex medical needs struggle to find qualified nurses to care for them. Like James [McLelland], many of these children depend on machines to keep them alive, and they require extensive, trained supervision. But historically low pay rates for home health nurses, a lack of pediatric training for in-home situations, and a disjointed system for finding caregivers has left many families without the nursing care their children desperately need and are entitled to, experts said. (Boyd-Barrett, 11/27)
The New York Times:
‘Turn Off The Sunshine’: Why Shade Is A Mark Of Privilege In Los Angeles
There is no end to the glittering emblems of privilege in this city. Teslas clog the freeways. Affluent families scramble for coveted spots in fancy kindergartens. And up in the hills of Bel-Air, where a sprawling estate just hit the market for a record $225 million, lush trees line the streets, providing welcome relief from punishing heat. They say the sun has always been the draw of Los Angeles, but these days, shade is increasingly seen as a precious commodity, as the crises of climate change and inequality converge. (Arango, 12/1)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Bay Area Death Toll From Drug Overdoses Passes 10,000
More than 10,000 people have died across the Bay Area in the drug overdose epidemic, but the main killer hasn’t been prescription painkillers for several years — methamphetamine is now the biggest cause of deaths, and overdoses on the superpotent opioid fentanyl are spiking. Nationally, hundreds of thousands of people have died in the opioid overdose crisis, using prescription painkillers and similar street drugs like heroin and fentanyl. (Allday and Fagan, 12/1)
Los Angeles Times:
Judge Tosses AIDS Group's Lawsuit Over Hollywood High-Rise
A judge has thrown out a lawsuit from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation claiming that the city’s approval of residential towers violates housing anti-discrimination laws — the latest in a string of legal defeats for the group. Superior Court Judge Robert S. Draper ruled earlier this month in favor of the city of Los Angeles and real estate companies pursuing four high-rise developments in Hollywood, all of them on Sunset Boulevard, where AIDS Healthcare has its headquarters. (Zahniser, 11/29)
Sacramento Bee:
Using Texts, Kaiser Signs Up 11,000-Plus Members For CalFresh
In the last three months, the health care team at Kaiser Permanente used text messaging to sign up more than 11,000 of its neediest California members for a government program that will give them up to $200 a month for groceries. Known as CalFresh, California’s supplemental nutrition program has one of the lowest enrollment levels of any such program in the nation. Yet in Sacramento County alone, 14 percent of roughly 1.5 million residents are food insecure, according to River City Food Bank. (Anderson, 12/2)
Capital Public Radio:
'We Need The Food That We Lost'; Low-Income Families Still Reeling From Blackouts
Across California, low-income households like the Rios family faced hunger and financial crisis as the food in their refrigerators spoiled during October’s unprecedented, deliberate blackouts. Utility companies shut down the power in certain fire-prone communities during windy, dry conditions to reduce the risk of an electric line sparking a fire. (Botts, 12/1)
Sacramento Bee:
Book Of Dreams: Your Donations Will Help Kids With Food Literacy
Before each of her classes starts at Pacific Elementary School in South Sacramento, Amber Stott directs her students in a singing cheer. This isn’t a music class – this is all about healthy eating. She yells, “fruits and veggies are the best” and her class of about 30 elementary school students responds with, “they are the best!” (Salerno, 12/2)
Los Angeles Times:
UC Is At War With Its Biggest Union Over Outsourcing Jobs
The University of California is at war with its largest union, the 26,000-member Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). November’s one-day strike, with picket lines at 10 UC campuses and five university hospitals across the state, was the sixth such angry walkout in the three years that the two sides have been fighting over a new contract. (Roosevelt, 12/1)
KPBS:
Military Families Wait For Help With Mold, Other Housing Issues
Marine and Navy families were living in hotel rooms over the holiday, and many others say they are living in unsafe conditions while they wait for the private contractor Lincoln Military Housing to address mold issues in Murphy Canyon, a military housing facility in Tierra Santa. Amanda Lopez is living in a hotel room with her husband, a Navy corpsman, and their three children. (Walsh, 12/2)
Modesto Bee:
Modesto Police Have Plan To Combat Illegal Camping When Outdoor Shelter Closes
Modesto police have started rolling out a plan to handle the potential increase in illegal camping — including in parks and downtown — and other violations of city ordinances in response to the impending closure of the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter. The outdoor shelter — a tent city of about 450 homeless people underneath the Ninth Street Bridge in Tuolumne River Regional Park — is expected to close Dec. 11, Assistant Police Chief Brandon Gillespie said in an interview last week. (Valine, 12/2)
The Associated Press:
Technology To Keep Lights On Could Help Prevent Wildfires
B. Don Russell wasn’t thinking about preventing a wildfire when he developed a tool to detect power line problems before blackouts and bigger disasters. The electrical engineering professor at Texas A&M University figured he might save a life if his creation could prevent someone from being electrocuted by a downed live wire. (12/2)
The Washington Post:
How A Fight Over Health Care Entangled Elizabeth Warren — And Reshaped The Democratic Presidential Race
In mid-November, a few dozen of the country’s most influential advocates of Medicare-for-all were reviewing details of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan to finance the proposed government-run program when they learned that she had unexpectedly changed her position. Warren (D-Mass.), who had excited liberals when she initially embraced a Medicare-for-all idea first proposed by rival presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was suggesting a more centrist idea: to delay enactment of the single-payer system and, in the interim, give consumers the choice to opt in. (Linskey, Stein and Balz, 11/30)
The Hill:
Disability Advocates Raise Concerns About Democratic Candidates' Mental Health Plans
Mental health proposals from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) have sparked backlash from some advocates with disabilities, who argue that the plans would increase involuntary institutionalization. Plans by all three presidential candidates embrace a repeal of Medicaid’s Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion, which bars the federal program from paying for inpatient psychiatric treatment in facilities with more than 16 beds, according to Sara Luterman, a Washington, D.C.-area journalist focusing on disability issues. (Budryck, 11/27)
The New York Times:
The Class Of 2000 ‘Could Have Been Anything.’ Until Opioids Hit.
The Minford High School Class of 2000, in rural Minford, Ohio, began its freshman year as a typical class. It had its jocks and its cheerleaders, its slackers and its overachievers. But by the time the group entered its final year, its members said, painkillers were nearly ubiquitous, found in classrooms, school bathrooms and at weekend parties. Over the next decade, Scioto County, which includes Minford, would become ground zero in the state’s fight against opioids. It would lead Ohio with its rates of fatal drug overdoses, drug-related incarcerations and babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. (Levin, 12/2)
Politico:
'Black Hole' Of Medical Records Contributes To Deaths, Mistreatment At The Border
The Department of Homeland Security's inadequate medical technology and record-management for the thousands of migrants who pass through its custody are contributing to poor care and even deaths, according to lawsuit records reviewed by POLITICO. A review by POLITICO of 22 deaths of detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody between 2013 and 2018 revealed malfunctioning software and troubling gaps in use of technology, such as failure to properly document patient care or scribbling documentation in the margins of forms. (Tahir, 12/1)
NPR/ProPublica:
Why TeamHealth, Owned By Blackstone Group, Stopped Suing Poor Patients
After nine visits to the emergency room at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., in 2016 and 2017, Jennifer Brooks began receiving bills from an entity she'd never heard of, Southeastern Emergency Physicians. Unsure what the bills were for, Brooks, a stay-at-home mother, said she ignored them until they were sent to collections. She made payment arrangements, but when she was late, she said the collection agency demanded $500, which she didn't have. (Thomas, Miller, Raghavendran and Burke, 11/27)
NPR:
Vaping's Surge Brings New Problems Environmental Waste
In her office at Boulder High School, the assistant principal has a large cardboard box where she can toss the spoils of her ongoing battle with the newest student addiction. "This is what I call the box of death," says Kristen Lewis. "This is everything that we've confiscated." The box is filled with vape pens like Juuls, the leading brand of e-cigarettes, dozens of disposable pods for nicotine liquid, and even a lonely box of Marlboros. (Daley, 11/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
GE Pitches Investors On Its Health-Care Unit, A Steady Source Of Cash
General Electric Co. aims to excite investors about its health-care unit, a business that was tagged to be cast off but is now central to the company’s turnaround efforts. GE Healthcare, which is based in Chicago and employs more than 50,000 people, makes magnetic-resonance-imaging machines and other hospital equipment. At the depths of its crisis, GE set plans to spin off the division. Now, Chief Executive Larry Culp refers to it as one of the conglomerate’s pillars. (Gryta, 12/1)
The New York Times:
How A Divided Left Is Losing The Battle On Abortion
In late September, a woman in her 70s arrived at a skilled nursing facility in suburban Houston after several weeks in the hospital. Her leg had been amputated after a long-ago knee replacement became infected; she also suffered from diabetes, depression, anxiety and general muscular weakness. An occupational therapist named Susan Nielson began working with her an hour a day, five days a week. Gradually, the patient became more mobile. With assistance and encouragement, she could transfer from her bed to a wheelchair, get herself to the bathroom for personal grooming and lift light weights to build her endurance. (Dias and Lerer, 12/1)
Reuters:
Pfizer, Novartis Lead $2 Billion Spending Spree On Gene Therapy Production
Eleven drugmakers led by Pfizer and Novartis have set aside a combined $2 billion to invest in gene therapy manufacturing since 2018, according to a Reuters analysis, in a drive to better control production of the world's priciest medicines. The full scope of Novartis' $500 million plan, revealed to Reuters in an interview with the company's gene therapy chief, has not been previously disclosed. It is second only to Pfizer, which has allocated $600 million to build its own gene therapy manufacturing plants, according to filings and interviews with industry executives. (11/27)
The New York Times:
New Strawberry-Flavored H.I.V. Drugs For Babies Are Offered At $1 A Day
About 80,000 babies and toddlers die of AIDS each year, mostly in Africa, in part because their medicines come in hard pills or bitter syrups that are very difficult for small children to swallow or keep down. But on Friday, the Indian generic drug manufacturer Cipla announced a new, more palatable pediatric formulation. The new drug, called Quadrimune, comes in strawberry-flavored granules the size of grains of sugar that can be mixed with milk or sprinkled on baby cereal. Experts said it could save the lives of thousands of children each year. (McNeil, 11/29)
The Associated Press:
MRIs Of Dense Breasts Find More Cancer But Also False Alarms
Giving women with very dense breasts an MRI scan in addition to a mammogram led to fewer missed cancers but also to a lot of false alarms and treatments that might not have been needed, a large study found. The results give a clearer picture of the tradeoffs involved in such testing, but they can't answer the biggest question — whether it saves lives. (11/27)