San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Same Old Excuse’: Newsom’s Office Takes Aim At S.F. Over Mental Health Program
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is criticizing San Francisco officials after the Chronicle reported that a woman was discouraged from petitioning the city’s new mental health court to help her daughter. After the story published, Newsom urged local governments to ramp up services for people seeking help through the program — even if they don’t qualify. The program, CARE Court, provides a new avenue to get people with severe psychotic disorders into care. It allows people to petition in court on behalf of someone they believe needs mental health treatment.  (Bollag, 10/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Deadly Listeria Outbreak Leads To Closure Of California Dairy Producer
A major California dairy producer has ceased operations following a prolonged listeria outbreak that resulted in two deaths and numerous illnesses, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday. Rizo López Foods and its owners have halted all food preparation and processing activities under an injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District. (Vaziri, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times: Will H5N1 Outbreaks In Dairy Farms Increase Milk Prices?
As a rapidly increasing number of California dairy farms suffer outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu, industry experts say it remains unclear just how the disease may affect the nation’s milk supply or pricing. As of Oct. 9, the nation’s largest milk producing state had reported 93 H5N1 outbreaks in dairy herds — nearly doubling in the span of a week. There have also been three confirmed and two presumptive cases of human infection. All five cases were among Central Valley dairy workers who had no known connection. (Rust, 20/20)

CIDRAP: Data: COVID Reinfection In Unvaccinated More Severe Than Breakthrough Infections
The rate of hospitalization and death is significantly higher after COVID-19 reinfection among unvaccinated US veterans than after breakthrough infection among never-infected vaccine recipients, according to an analysis published yesterday in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. ... The median age was 56 years, 91% were men, and 80% were White. (Van Beusekom, 10/9)

NBC News: IV Fluid Supply Crunch Forces Hospitals To Postpone Elective Surgery
Hospitals are anxiously monitoring the situation. A spokesperson for Enloe Health, a medical center in Chico, California, said it’s closely monitoring its IV fluid inventory to make sure it has enough for patients who need it. The center is also seeking out alternative suppliers. (Lovelace Jr. and Fattah, 10/9)

Becker's Hospital Review: Stanford Medicine Implements 30 AI Tools To Assist Clinicians
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Medicine has implemented more than 30 AI-powered applications to assist clinicians. During the annual "State of Stanford Medicine" event, the health system revealed that its AI-powered applications for clinicians span a wide range of functions, including screening and diagnostics, patient condition monitoring, long-term outcome prediction, and decision-making support. (Diaz, 10/9)

Sacramento Business Journal: Sacramento Fertility Clinic Acquired By Private-Equity Backed San Diego Firm
A growing network of fertility clinics has made a new acquisition in Sacramento. (10/9)

Stat: Telehealth Providers Blame DEA For Putting Their Businesses In Peril
Telehealth providers treating opioid use disorder, ADHD, and women’s health issues say the sector is in a state of frustration and chaos as the pandemic-era flexibilities that allowed their businesses to thrive are set to end with no new rules in sight. With just months to go before the ability to prescribe controlled substances online dramatically changes overnight, the vacuum of information is forcing them to devote significant energy preparing for the unknown. Companies have hired former regulatory officials to understand how hypothetical policies might impact them, and made backup plans based on speculative, third-hand sketches of proposed rules that might replace virtual prescribing flexibilities that began during the pandemic. (Palmer, Ravindranath and Aguilar, 10/10)

Becker's Hospital Review: HCA, CommonSpirit Deals Bolster Kaiser's Colorado Presence
Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is strengthening its presence in Colorado through expanded partnerships with HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit health system in the country, and CommonSpirit Health, one of the largest nonprofit systems. Chicago-based CommonSpirit operates 12 hospitals in Colorado, all of which fall within its Mountain Region division of 20 hospitals and more than 240 care sites across Colorado, Utah and Kansas. The system has expanded its partnership with Kaiser in Colorado, with a new long-term agreement that will have both systems working from a fully integrated Epic EHR system. (Condon, 10/9)

Bloomberg Law: Emergency Care Cost Disclosure Rules Vex California Justices
California’s top court struggled Wednesday with whether the state’s web of emergency service regulations offers enough price transparency to align with California’s strong legal protections for consumers, without seeming to arrive at a clear answer. Those regulations, meant to bar hospitals from turning away uninsured patients, may not offer patients enough warning about baseline fees for seeking care, some justices suggested. (Spoto, 10/9)

The Wall Street Journal: How Health Insurance Costs Outpace Inflation, In Charts
Inflation is easing across much of the economy. For healthcare? Not yet. The cost of employer health insurance rose 7% for a second straight year, maintaining a growth rate not seen in more than a decade, according to an annual survey by the healthcare nonprofit KFF. The back-to-back years of rapid increases have added more than $3,000 to the average family premium, which reached roughly $25,500 this year. (Evans, 10/9)

Becker's Hospital Review: A 'Transformational Era Of Nursing' On The Horizon
Nursing is in a "transformational era," leaders told Becker's. From developments in AI and virtual nursing, to shifts in workforce needs and demand, they say the changes are a matter of when, not if. Here, [Jesus Cepero of Stanford (Calif.) Medicine Children's Health and three other] leaders discuss what changes they expect to see in the next five years. (Taylor, 10/9)

Los Angeles Times: Dozens File Suit Against Former OB-GYN And Cedars-Sinai
Thirty-five women are suing a Beverly Hills obstetrician-gynecologist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and other medical practices where the doctor worked, alleging decades of sexual and medical misconduct that the health facilities enabled and concealed. The lawsuit, filed late Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that Dr. Barry Brock had, for years, made lewd and unsettling comments to patients; groped their breasts and genitals during medically unnecessary exams, sometimes without gloves; and engaged in “female genital mutilation” by giving women unneeded sutures, among other reported misconduct. (Alpert Reyes and Purtill, 10/8)

LAist: These SoCal Doctors Are Combating False Health Info On TikTok By Making Their Own Videos
TikTok can be, uh, problematic. Especially when it comes to health. You’ll find videos of blackhead clearing creams that look too good to be true, a questionable mouth-taping trend that’s supposed to help you sleep better, and the definitely-not-recommended NyQuil Chicken challenge. Now, the platform and the World Health Organization are partnering to ensure more reliable information on the app by tapping global health creators, including ones in Southern California, in a year-long program. (Hernández, 10/10)

Orange County Register: California Physician Accused Of Falsely Attributing Patient Death To COVID-19 Vaccination 
A physician accused of falsely claiming that a stroke patient died at the former Fountain Valley Regional Hospital from the Moderna COVID-19 vaccination faces disciplinary action from the Medical Board of California. (Schwebke, 10/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Marin County’s Largest Homeless Tent Encampment Gets Cleared.
A growing group of homeless people found refuge in recent years on the strips of grass along San Rafael’s two-block-long Mahon Creek Path. But as tents and other structures ballooned, so did complaints about trash, fires, violence and other problems. ... On Thursday, city officials were finally disbanding the encampment, known as Camp Integrity. While some of the encampment’s residents will be forced to pick up their belongings and set up camp elsewhere, dozens have been offered a different alternative: a spot in the city’s new sanctioned camping area. (Angst, 10/10)

USA Today: Most High School Students Say They've Had A Traumatic Experience As A Kid
A new study found that 3 in 4 high school students experienced at least one potentially traumatic event involving violence, abuse or exposure to mental health or substance use problems. And, notably, 1 in 5 high school students said they experienced at least four of these potentially traumatic events.Health experts call these events adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, and they've been shown to increase the risk of developing chronic health problems and mental health issues in adulthood. (Rodriguez, 10/9)

Roll Call: Survey: Most Adults Affected By Suicide, Want More Prevention
Nearly all U.S. adults agree that more action can be taken to reduce suicide deaths, with about three-fifths also reporting they have been personally affected by suicide, according to national survey data released Wednesday. Sixty-one percent of adults said they know someone who has considered, attempted or died by suicide, according to the 2024 Public Perception of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Poll, conducted by The Harris Poll. The biennial survey found that number has consistently risen, from 53 percent in 2018 to 55 percent in 2020 and 59 percent in 2022. (Raman, 10/9)

Reuters: Illumina Launches Compact, Low-Cost Gene Sequencing Devices
Medical equipment maker Illumina (ILMN.O) announced on Wednesday its new series of smaller, low-cost benchtop gene sequencers, to make sequencing accessible to more research and testing labs. New generation sequencers, like Illumina's MiSeq devices, help determine the sequence of DNA or RNA to study genetic variation associated with diseases and diagnose rare genetic conditions. ... The new MiSeq i100 systems can be placed on benchtops, allowing smaller labs, which typically outsource gene sequencing, to have these capabilities in-house. (Singh and Satija, 10/9)

CIDRAP: Phase 3 Data Support Use Of Combination Antibiotic For Multidrug-Resistant Infections
An international team of investigators this week published phase 3 clinical trial data supporting aztreonam-avibactam as a potential therapeutic option for patients with serious gram-negative bacterial infections with limited treatment options. ... It was approved in April by the European Medicines Agency based on the results of two phase 3 clinical trials that evaluated its efficacy in treating several types of multidrug-resistant infections. (Dall, 10/9)