Health Headlines for Wednesday, March 7
Opioid overdoses in ERs up 30 percent as crisis worsens
Washington Post
Emergency rooms saw a big jump in overdoses from opioids last year — the latest evidence the nation’s drug crisis is getting worse.
As Surgery Centers Boom, Patients Are Paying With Their Lives
Washington Post
The surgery went fine. Her doctors left for the day. Four hours later, Paulina Tam started gasping for air.
Patients Like Hospital Care At Home, But Some Insurers Are Skeptical
NPR
Phyllis Petruzzelli spent the week before Christmas struggling to breathe. When she went to the emergency department on Dec. 26, the doctor at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, near her home in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, said she had pneumonia and needed hospitalization.
REPORT: 3 WNY counties among Top 10 prescribing most pain pills
WGRZ
A report sent to Channel 2 by the New York State Department of Health shows three counties in Western New York have some of the highest rates in the state, in terms of pain pills being prescribed by doctors.
Health Department may go after grant to improve telemedicine services
Daily News
The county Department of Health hasn’t applied for the money yet, but it has its eye on a state grant that would help improve telemedicine services and infection control, among other possibilities.
SJMH officially joins UR Medicine
The Tribune
Leaders from UR Medicine and the St. James Mercy Hospital board have officially sealed the deal, announcing to staff on Tuesday that they have finalized an affiliation agreement between the two organizations.