MORE ON: public health

Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Report finds fewer unhealthy air days in California

April 20, 2012, 12:05 AM
California air pollution reached unhealthy levels less often in 2011 than a decade ago, according to a report released this week by a state association of regional air district officers. Compared with 2000, there were about 74 percent fewer days of “unhealthy air” statewide... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Life expectancy varies by ZIP code in San Joaquin Valley

March 9, 2012, 12:05 AM
Where you live can be an indicator of how long you'll live, according to a new study on San Joaquin Valley health. Published by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, the report found that in counties spanning from Tulare to Stanislaus, life expectancy... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Poor, minority residents face most health risks with climate change

February 3, 2012, 12:05 AM
Poor, urban and minority residents are most at risk for health problems linked to climate change, according to a new California Department of Public Health analysis of Los Angeles and Fresno counties. The department examined social and environmental factors ranging from the rising sea level to... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Study: Bay Area's urban planning must address public health

January 11, 2012, 12:05 AM
For nearly four years, Cassandra Martin lived in West Oakland, a few blocks from two freeways and the city’s port. This has made her an accidental expert on air pollution. “I used to wonder what that black stuff was on the windowsill,” said Martin, who was diagnosed... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

HIV, AIDs rates rise sharply among blacks, Hispanics

December 1, 2011, 12:05 AM
The profile of HIV and AIDS patients in California has shifted significantly since the disease first made headlines 30 years ago, reflecting the success of drugs to extend patients’ lives and the failures to stem the spread of the disease in diverse communities. A statewide analysis of... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Lawyers, doctors team up to reduce health disparities

November 11, 2011, 12:05 AM
On Kate Marr’s first day practicing law at The Children’s Clinic in Long Beach last week, she met with the mother of an asthmatic 7-year-old. Health clinic workers sent the woman, a Mexican immigrant, to Marr's office because they suspected there was a connection between the boy... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

State health officials launch probe into hospitals with high infection rates

October 13, 2010, 12:05 AM
California health regulators are joining state and federal investigators in examining the practices of Prime Healthcare, a Southern California hospital chain with an unusually high rate of life-threatening infections, according to letters released to California Watch yesterday. In the letter... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

How California state law helps whooping cough spread

July 26, 2010, 12:05 AM
Two quirks in California law run counter to the efforts of public health officials who are hoping to put a lid on the rapidly spreading whooping cough epidemic in the state. California is one of 11 states that do not require children to get a booster when they enter middle school, which is... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Are 10,000 kindergartners driving whooping cough epidemic?

July 20, 2010, 12:05 AM
Seven of the 12 California counties with the highest whooping cough rates also have above average rates of kindergarten students showing up to school with "personal-belief" vaccine waivers, a California Watch review of state data shows. The state’s emerging whooping cough... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

'Personal belief' vaccine waivers drive whooping cough cases in Marin County

June 25, 2010, 12:05 AM
Preliminary data from state public health officials show that the state’s richest and one of its poorest counties are leaders in the number of whooping cough cases, as cases of the illness are mounting to epidemic proportions. (See the data in a spreadsheet below.) The reasons for the... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Regulators take aim at medical privacy violations

June 11, 2010, 12:44 AM
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was among the celebrity victims of medical record privacy breaches when a UCLA researcher peered into his patient file in 2003, court records show. Whether he knew about it or not was unclear as of press time Thursday. But true to action hero form, Schwarzenegger... + read more
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

State moves to revoke license of embattled hospitals

April 20, 2010, 12:09 AM
One week after Medicare announced that it will stop reimbursing two Riverside hospitals for care, state public health officials sent a letter yesterday telling executives that they plan to take the hospitals’ license away (in this case, two hospitals operate under one state license). ... + read more
mrsa, staph, superbug
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

MRSA bacterial battleground moves closer to home

February 19, 2010, 12:04 AM
For years, MRSA bacterial infections were chiefly the bane of nursing homes. Then the so-called “superbug” moved into hospitals, infecting 1 out of every 6 patients in 2001. Now, California researchers have identified several new fronts: homes, playgrounds, gyms and schools. See... + read more
California Watch, hospitals, Medicare, Inland Empire, Universal Health Services
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Medicare officials weigh funding fate of two Riverside County hospitals

February 2, 2010, 12:20 AM
Medicare officials do not take the decision they face in coming weeks lightly. They are weighing whether to offer two troubled hospitals additional chances to improve or to give up and “decertify” them. That's Medicare-speak for cutting off their funding, a move that's devastating to a... + read more
arnold schwarzenegger, public health, infant mortality, california budget
Daily Report: Health and Welfare

Raw budget politics: Schwarzenegger cuts infant health program

January 28, 2010, 5:30 AM
Hearings on budget cuts to health and human services began this week, raising the specter of another brutal summer of political deal-making. One budget cut from last year, though, has since come into a new and harsher light. Michael Rothfeld of the Los Angeles Times wrote about one decision to... + read more
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