Tag: Kaiser

Kaiser to spend $49 million to settle state claims of unlawful medical squander disposal

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Undercover inspections of rubbish dumpsters at Kaiser hospitals in the Bay Space, Central Valley and Southern California identified a large amount more than just schedule trash certain for the community landfill.

They uncovered medications, syringes and healthcare tubing loaded with perhaps pathogen-laden entire body fluids. There were batteries, aerosols, cleansers, sanitizers and electronic squander. And there were being more than 10,000 paper records made up of clinical details of more than 7,700 individuals.

On Friday, Legal professional Normal Rob Bonta declared a $49 million settlement of claims introduced by the condition Office of Justice and prosecutors in 6 counties that the health treatment huge illegally disposed of hazardous and healthcare waste and individual overall health facts.

“The illegal disposal of harmful and professional medical squander puts the setting, personnel and the public at chance,” Bonta reported. “As a wellbeing treatment supplier, Kaiser need to know that it has specific authorized obligations to appropriately dispose of healthcare waste and safeguard patients’ health-related info.”

Kaiser agreed to the settlement and took fast motion to deal with the alleged violations, Bonta mentioned.

California’s Harmful Waste Regulate Regulation and Professional medical Squander Administration Act contact for individuals supplies to be gathered into marked containers and disposed at services accredited to properly cope with and dispose of them. Rules defending customer and health-related information require that they be shredded, burned or in any other case disposed of in a way that shields privateness. But individuals guidelines add time and expense to disposal.

Kaiser Permanente stated in a assertion that the corporation uncovered about 6 a long time in the past that “contrary to our demanding policies and strategies, some facilities’ landfill-bound dumpsters integrated objects that should have been disposed of differently.”

“We promptly finished an intensive auditing hard work of the squander stream at our services and established required and ongoing schooling to handle the results,” Kaiser’s assertion mentioned. “We choose this subject really seriously and have taken comprehensive obligation to admit and, in cooperation with the California Legal professional Common and county district lawyers, appropriate our performance pertaining to landfill-bound trash exactly where it may have fallen quick of our requirements.”

Kaiser added that “we are not informed of any body section staying found at any time for the duration of this investigation.”

The settlement was the end result of undercover inspections carried out by the district attorneys’ workplaces in recent years of dumpsters from 16 diverse Kaiser facilities. Through people inspections, the district attorneys’ offices examined contents of unsecured dumpsters destined for disposal at publicly available landfills.

They found hundreds of objects of harmful and healthcare squander — aerosols, cleansers, sanitizers, batteries, digital wastes, syringes, health-related tubing with overall body fluids, and pharmaceuticals — and in excess of 10,000 paper information containing the information of about 7,700 individuals.

The Department of Justice joined the district lawyers and expanded the investigation of Kaiser’s disposal practices all through the point out. Kaiser hired a specialist and executed more than 1,100 trash audits at its facilities

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Wednesday, March 8, 2023 | Kaiser Overall health News

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Oklahoma Voters Reject Whole Legalization Of Cannabis

The New York Situations claims the point out has “quietly been through a road-stage transformation” when it arrives to approving professional medical cannabis, but on Tuesday, voters turned down the option to entirely legalize the drug. Also: stiffer drug penalties viewed as in North Carolina, paid out medical go away in Colorado, and extra.


The New York Occasions:
With a Cannabis Shop on ‘Every Corner,’ Oklahoma Rejects Full Legalization

In the earlier couple several years, Oklahoma, very long a good bastion of conservatism, has quietly gone through a street-level transformation when it will come to cannabis. Dispensaries dot the landscape, with more than 400 in Oklahoma City alone. And that is just for clinical cannabis. On Tuesday, voters throughout Oklahoma opted versus likely further, according to The Connected Press, rejecting a ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational cannabis use by grownups 21 and around. With the vote, Oklahoma joined a variety of conservative states whose voters have not too long ago determined versus recreational cannabis legalization. (Goodman, 3/7)


Politico:
‘Tokelahoma’ At The Crossroads

Johnny Teehee was sworn in as law enforcement chief of Muskogee in the summer season of 2018, hardly three months soon after the condition passed a referendum legalizing professional medical cannabis. Almost five years afterwards, as he patrols the town, he is overcome by the transformation weed has wrought on this struggling jap Oklahoma town. A block absent from the 1st Baptist Church of Muskogee, where Teehee is a parishioner, is a cannabis improve procedure occupying what utilised to be the central submit business. A plot of land Teehee acquired with the intention of one particular working day setting up a house on it now sits next to a 10-acre weed farm. Dispensaries are all over the place — The Treehouse, Large Pappa’s, Blaze-n-Bake, Pure Grass, Johnny D’s. At 420 Main St. in downtown Muskogee is a weed store emblazoned with a big mural featuring the likenesses of Merle Haggard and Bob Marley. “We do smoke marijuana in Muskogee,” it proclaims, cheekily refuting the opening line of Haggard’s 1969 redneck anthem “Okie from Muskogee.” (Demko, 3/7)

In other health and fitness news from across the U.S. —


AP:
NC Senate Considers Stiffer Penalties For Drug Distribution 

As fentanyl overdoses proceed to plague communities throughout North Carolina, the condition Senate is thinking of laws to increase punishments for drug sellers whose distribution of the synthetic opioid outcomes in an overdose demise. A bill that superior Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee would revise state guidelines to develop higher-quality felony offenses for deaths induced by distributing certain managed substances and undertaking so with malice. It would also maximize great amounts for trafficking heroin, fentanyl and carfentanil, environment a sliding scaled primarily based on drug quantity. (Schoenbaum, 3/7)

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Tuesday, February 7, 2023 | Kaiser Health and fitness Information

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Non-public Equity Had Solid Calendar year In Health Treatment Despite 2022 ‘Headwinds’

Modern day Healthcare reviews that there was a about 15% bump in personal fairness overall health treatment solutions bargains in 2022 around 2021. Independently, CVS is mentioned to be in close proximity to a $10.5 billion deal to acquire Oak Street Health Inc. Staff members shortages, info breaches, and good quality of care matters are amongst other news.


Present day Healthcare:
Headwinds Didn’t Quell Healthcare Non-public Equity Bargains In 2022

Personal equity companies experienced a person of their strongest yrs however for health care providers deal exercise in 2022, according to an evaluation PitchBook printed Monday. An approximated 863 healthcare expert services non-public equity specials were declared or shut very last year. That’s a virtually 15% lessen from 2021, but a additional than 18% increase from 2020, the market study organization noted. PitchBook extrapolated the once-a-year estimate employing recorded offers via the 3rd quarter and historic data to approximate fourth quarter transactions. (Hudson, 2/6)


The Wall Avenue Journal:
CVS Nearing $10.5 Billion Offer For Most important-Care Service provider Oak Road Health and fitness

CVS Well being Corp. is near to an settlement to obtain Oak Road Health and fitness Inc. for about $10.5 billion including credit card debt, a offer that would promptly expand the huge health care company’s footprint of principal-treatment doctors with a massive community of senior-focused clinics, in accordance to folks with information of the issue. (Mathews, Thomas and Cooper, 2/6)

On staff members shortages —


Stateline:
States Strive To Reverse Scarcity Of Paramedics, EMTs

Previous year, the turnover amount for full-time crisis medical professionals, acknowledged as EMTs, was 36% and for complete-time paramedics, it was 27%, in accordance to an American Ambulance Affiliation survey. The turnover amount contains both of those resignations and firings, but virtually all of the EMTs and paramedics who remaining did so voluntarily. Much more than a person-3rd of new hires don’t last through their first yr, the survey uncovered. (Mercer, 2/6)


The Baltimore Sunshine:
Maryland Hospitals Launch Advertising and marketing Campaign To Grow Workforce

The Maryland Clinic Association and the state’s 60 hospitals and health systems introduced a digital advertising campaign Monday to inspire learners and other individuals searching for new options to be a part of the wellness treatment field. The campaign, slugged as JoinMdHealth, involves outreach on social media, as well as a internet site that lists open up wellness treatment work opportunities across the state, schooling prerequisites for selected clinic jobs, and tips on how to afford higher education. (Roberts, 2/7)


Fashionable Health care:
Distant Prescribing In Limbo As Federal COVID-19 Unexpected emergency Ends

The coming end of the COVID-19 public health and fitness unexpected emergency and pandemic-period telehealth flexibilities could rattle an currently besieged behavioral wellbeing program and power companies to make ethical decisions. The public wellbeing unexpected emergency, which President Biden will finish May perhaps 11, allowed clinicians to prescribe controlled substance remedies by means of telehealth without an office environment go to. (Perna

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Thursday, April 7, 2022 | Kaiser Health News

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Covid Outbreak Hits DC Elites After Gridiron Dinner

Those who tested positive following the event — where high-profile government players and journalists mixed indoors, unmasked — include the U.S. attorney general, commerce secretary, the vice president’s communications director, congressional lawmakers, and others. President Joe Biden did not attend.


The Hill:
COVID-19 Cases Among Key DC Players Jump After Gridiron Dinner

At least five high-profile Washington players have tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the star-studded Gridiron Club dinner last weekend, one of whom is considered a close contact of Vice President Harris. Harris’ Communications Director Jamal Simmons, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) have all tested positive for breakthrough COVID-19 cases after attending Saturday night’s event. (Schnell, 4/6)


The Washington Post:
After Gridiron Dinner, A Covid Outbreak Among Washington A-List Guests 

A-list guests were asked to show proof of vaccination but not negative tests, and many mingled freely without masks at the dinner at the downtown Renaissance Washington Hotel. … The Washington Post has learned of about a half-dozen journalists as well as members of the White House and National Security Council staffs who said they tested positive after the event. Their names are being withheld because they have not announced their status publicly. Tom DeFrank, a contributing columnist for National Journal and president of the Gridiron Club, said that as of Wednesday afternoon, the group knew of 14 guests who had tested positive. (Farhi, Roberts and Abutaleb, 4/6)


Los Angeles Times:
Vice President’s Staffer, Others Test Positive For The Coronavirus

Vice President Kamala Harris’ communications director tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday, the second close contact of the vice president to become infected in less than a month. Harris’ office did not announce test results for the vice president, but a statement from her press secretary, Kirsten Allen, said she was following official guidance and “plans to continue with her public schedule,” implying that she is not ill. Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, tested positive last month for the coronavirus. (Bierman, 4/6)


The New York Times:
An Invisible Party Crasher Has Washington Feeling Uneasy

President Biden did not attend the Gridiron, but he has appeared, mask-free, at several events this week, even as cases rise inside his administration, among lawmakers, in the news media and throughout the capital. His maskless appearance also calls into question the safety protocols that stand between a 79-year-old president and a wily virus that is adept at evading even stringent safety measures. (Rogers, 4/6)

Health Workers Experiencing Moral Trauma From War Against Covid

Many health care workers report trauma-like symptoms similar to combat veterans such as depression or a lower-quality of life, a study finds. NPR also reports on how people particularly vulnerable to covid are also traumatized.

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Monday, March 28, 2022 | Kaiser Health and fitness Information

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Research Reveals Ache Notion Can Be Lessened By Nostalgia

In the course of a study about feelings of suffering, scientists have identified that emotions of nostalgia can actually direct to weaker pain sensations. Meanwhile a report in Bangor Day by day Information states no one is familiar with just how a lot chemical air pollution from “forever” substances is located in Maine rivers.


CNN:
Nostalgia Can Reduce Perception Of Soreness, Analyze Demonstrates

The upcoming time you sense soreness, you may well take into account skipping the ibuprofen and achieving as a substitute for an old picture. Nostalgia — that sentimental experience of longing for the earlier — can lessen soreness notion, according to new exploration printed in the journal JNeurosci. Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Liaoning Regular University requested research participants to level their degree of agony from heat stimulation though seeking at shots that were being nostalgic — depicting old cartoons, childhood online games or retro candy — in contrast with a lot more contemporary photos. In the course of the tasks, an MRI equipment also scanned the 34 individuals. Researchers discovered that observing pictures that activated childhood recollections was connected to participants reporting weaker thoughts of ache. (Kent, 3/28)

In environmental information —


Bangor Daily News:
No 1 Is familiar with How Numerous Gallons Of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Flowing In Maine’s Waters

Therapy vegetation launch millions of gallons of wastewater into Maine’s waterways just about every day that could include elevated ranges of so-termed for good substances that are used in a extensive selection of client products and solutions and have been linked to long-phrase wellbeing and environmental threats. But as Maine races to improved understand how widespread its PFAS contamination trouble is, particularly on farms and in landfills, there is tiny recognized about the level of contamination in the wastewater these plants are releasing, nor about the concentration of forever chemical compounds constructing up in the Maine rivers on to which it is introduced. (Loftus, 3/28)


AP:
Vermont Officials Request Extra Time To Exam Schools For PCBs 

Vermont condition officials have questioned the legislature for a lot more time to take a look at more mature colleges for PCBs, a unsafe team of chemical compounds usually made use of in building resources and electrical equipment just before 1980.The PCB screening application is component of a law passed by the Legislature last 12 months. It necessitates each faculty created or renovated prior to 1980 to examination their indoor air for PCBs by July 1, 2024. The laws arrived soon after the closure of Burlington Large College two decades in the past mainly because of the discovery of PCB contamination in air samples. (3/27)

KHN:
Local weather Alter May possibly Press The US Towards The ‘Goldilocks Zone’ For West Nile Virus 

Michael Keasling of Lakewood, Colorado, was an electrician who cherished large trucks, fast autos, and Harley-Davidsons. He’d struggled with diabetic issues since he was a teen, needing a kidney transplant from his sister to continue

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