Landstuhl Volunteers — http://www.stripes.com/news/miss-america-finds-time-to-extend-thanks-at-stuttgart-1.91394

Swine Flu — http://www.stripes.com/news/military-in-europe-addressing-swine-flu-1.96653

Army halts use of WoundStat — http://www.stripes.com/news/army-halts-use-of-woundstat-1.90678

Online counseling for the armed forces — http://www.stripes.com/news/tricare-programs-offer-online-counseling-1.94249

Lead levels at Edelweiss — http://www.stripes.com/news/water-tests-find-elevated-lead-at-edelweiss-1.86065

Developing a quarantine plan for SFO

Report describes existing procedures as inadequate

Burlingame Daily News

March 1, 2008

Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

San Mateo County health officials said Friday they’re developing a plan for quarantining hundreds of international passengers should they one day arrive at San Francisco International Airport with someone who has a communicable disease

The San Mateo County grand jury released a report this week that concluded existing practices and procedures at SFO are inadequate for spotting a person with a communicable disease and dealing with hundreds of fellow travelers at the same time.

County health officials said their plan will address that criticism and other concerns raised in the grand jury’s report.

“There has been progress since the grand jury interviewed us six months ago,” SanMateo County Health official Dr. Scott Morrow said. “There is now a quarantine response plan as to how we would deal with a situation involving an entire planeload of passengers – it’s hundreds of people, 400 or 500 people.”

Morrow would not disclose specifics of the draft plan, but said it indicates where the ill passengers would be moved to.

“I very much appreciate that they brought this issue up because it has been a concern of mine for a number of years. What I hope it does is, that it increases awareness of this as an issue,” Morrow said.

One obstacle to finalizing the plan is coordinating all the government entities and agencies with a hand in SFO, Morrow said. The airport is owned by San Francisco but located in San Mateo County and operated by federal agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Authority Administration.

San Francisco health officials said although SFO is under San Mateo County’s jurisdiction, they could assist at the airport during any major emergency.

Morrow said he also agrees with the grand jury that the county needs to devote more than 10 percent of one physician’s time to the airport.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said they have not reviewed the grand jury report and could not comment. But they applauded the grand jury for looking at SFO’s preparedness.

“There are nine diseases we are primarily concerned with,” CDC spokeswoman Shelly Diaz said. Those diseases include cholera, ebola and plague.

The CDC has four staff people assigned to SFO, including a doctor, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers are trained to identify people who may have a communicable disease, Diaz said. At SFO, a person suspected of having such a disease would be quarantined on site, examined and confined to a hospital for treatment.

SFO’s quarantine station is one of 20 in the country, and the CDC wants to open additional stations overseas, Diaz said.

“Our goal is to open quarantine stations internationally so we can deal with it before it reaches our borders,” she said.

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com

Burlingame Daily News

April 22, 2007

Mills-Peninsula under federal spotlight for records release

Author: Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

Article Text:

Mills-Peninsula Health Services’ release of a Burlingame woman’s medical records has attracted the attention of the federal government, and driven her to file a lawsuit against the hospital.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights has directed the hospital to recover Peggy Adam’s records. That information was released to five different parties, including her health insurance company; CalPERS, which handles some of her job benefits; and the Medical Board of California.

Adam said she is concerned the information that was released could affect her health insurance coverage. She also said she did not believe the records are any of her employer’s business.

Officials with the Office for Civil Rights said they could not comment about the ongoing investigation. A hospital can only be fined $100 if it does not comply with the office’s orders.

Adam claims the information was released after the hospital’s privacy officer checked the wrong box on her request to have her records amended in August 2005. She had tonsil surgery at the hospital in April 2002, and she learned in mid-September 2005 that the records were released.

“It’s a federal privacy law that they violated,” Adam said.

The Office for Civil Rights ordered the hospital to write her a letter of apology, which was signed by Robert Merwin, the hospital’s chief executive officer, and dated March 23.

“Mills-Peninsula Health Services regrets that it did not respond to your August 12, 2005, request for an amendment to your medical records in the manner that you desired,” Merwin wrote. “MPHS has followed the direction of the OCR to address this situation.”

Adam has since filed two small claims lawsuits against the hospital. The first one for $5,000 has been dismissed, and the other suit for $5,000 is pending.

“It’s not about the money,” she said.

“Since September 2005, Ms. Adam has made various monetary demands from Mills-Peninsula, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000,” hospital spokeswoman Monique Beeler said.

Adam also complained to the California Department of Health Services, which investigated and ruled in the hospital’s favor, Beeler said. Her complaint against her doctor to the Medical Board of California was also dismissed in June 2005.

Adam also complained in December 2005 to the Joint Commission of Accreditation for Health Care Organizations, which evaluates and accredits health care organizations nationwide, but no action was taken, Beeler said.

Mills-Peninsula officials said they are in the process of recovering Adam’s records.

The hospital sent out letters March 26 requesting that the records be returned, and two of the recipients have indicated they no longer have the documents, Beeler said.

“OCR found that the hospital was not doing what (Adam) wanted and asked the hospital to take corrective action,” she said.

Dozens weigh in on medical facility at council meeting

PAMF proposal draws a crowd

Burlingame Daily News

October 9, 2007

Mark Abramson / Daily News Staff Writer

San Carlos residents filled the Hiller Aviation Museum Monday night to weigh in on whether the City Council should allow the Palo Alto Medical Foundation to construct a new medical complex in their city.

Seventy-two people, most of whom supported the PAMF project, signed up at the council meeting to say their piece about the proposed 436,500-square-foot medical complex with a 97-bed hospital at 301 Industrial Road.

Council members were slated to vote on whether to approve the project and its lucrative development agreement. As of press time, the council had not yet voted.

“The project will provide high-quality health care … it will provide well-compensated jobs for skilled workers,” Collette Meunier, the planner hired by the city to handle the project, told the council.

The development agreement between the city and PAMF would generate $91 million over 50 years for San Carlos. The agreement includes a $9 million endowment, $17.1 million in guaranteed use tax revenues, $1.5 million for the San Carlos Educational Foundation, and $1 million to improve athletic fields and facilities.

April Carlson, the president of the educational foundation, said the $1.5 million would benefit the children for years.

“PAMF is a high-caliber organization … we will have a world-class health facility in our city,” she said.

“The citizens of San Carlos want this project,” resident Wayne Kennedy said. “PAMF is by far the most reliable long-term partner for a 50-year-period at that site. I don’t think we could do any better.”

As part of the deal, PAMF has agreed to pay for road improvements to mitigate increased traffic from its project and other future development in the area.

Opponents of PAMF’s facilities say it would snarl traffic in the area; hurt Sequoia Hospital; and exacerbate a regional nursing shortage. They also argue that it is not needed, with all the other hospitals on the Peninsula.

“PAMF will cause increased traffic and noise to our residents as well as reduce the value of their homes,” said resident Kathleen Lynch.

“What concerns me is, we may have excess capacity (with the PAMF facility),” Sequoia Hospital President Glenna Vaskelis said.

Vaskelis disputed the results of a PAMF study that found more hospital beds are needed.

PAMF Vice President Cecilia Montalvo gave the council a petition that she said was signed by 5,500 people and business officials from San Carlos.

A vast majority of the residents support PAMF’s project, said resident Ron Collins.

“This decision is about the best use of the site,” Collins said. “It is time for this to be approved.”

PAMF officials say that if approved, they want the facility to open sometime in 2012.

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com

Construction of new Peninsula Medical Center begins

Burlingame Daily News

November 2, 2006

Mark Abramson

Work on the new Peninsula Medical Center officially got under way Wednesday after eight years of planning.

Dignitaries, including U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, marked the milestone during a groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site, which is adjacent to the existing 52-year-old Peninsula Medical Center at 1783 El Camino Real in Burlingame. The old building will be torn down once the new building opens in July 2010, and the land will be used for parking.

Flanked by construction equipment used to build a nearly completed 820-stall parking garage, hospital officials and elected officials took turns donning hard hats and shoveling dirt.

“It’s hard to believe today has finally arrived,” said Bob Merwin, chief executive officer ofMills-Peninsula Health Services. “We are excited.”

Merwin said the $528 million project has gone through a number of changes over time.

“It’s maybe gotten to be a better project along the way,” said John Loder, president of theMills-Peninsula Hospital Foundation.

Lantos told the audience assembled on the hospital’s concrete helicopter pad that although the federal government pays a lot of attention to health care, “where the work really gets done is at the local level.” He called the 243-bed hospital a “phenomenal project.”

“We are very fortunate to have such an outstanding hospital in San Mateo County,” said Board of Supervisors President Jerry Hill.

The project is expected to cost $40 million more than was previously estimated, which Mills-Peninsula chief operating officer Jeff Gerard has attributed to the rising cost of building materials and a construction labor shortage.

Some of the costs are the product of a building boom in China, he said.

The rising costs have had some impact on the project, including that the new hospital will most likely reuse some items, such as furniture and other non medical equipment, to save money. And the helicopter pad will be scrapped, because the existing and newhospital are not trauma centers.

However, Gerard said, “We stayed true to the project overall.”

Hospital employees have helped out by donating more than $1.5 million to the project, which was matched by anonymous board members. The employee donations total is a state record for a non-profit community hospital with fewer than 2,000 workers, hospital officials said.

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.

Cancer study published

Report looks at lung cancer detection in men, women

Palo Alto Daily News

November 7, 2006

Mark Abramson

Mills-Peninsula Health Services’ efforts to stay at the forefront in lung cancer detection and treatment include its participation in an international study that was recently recognized in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Mills’ and other participants’ findings on using CT scanners to detect lung cancer in its early stages was reported in the Oct. 26 issue of the prestigious medical journal. Mills is one of 40 medical centers or hospitals worldwide that continues to participate in the ongoing study known as the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program. The study was conducted on people who have smoked for up to 30 years, and it has involved screening more than 31,500 people from 1993 to 2005.

According to The New England Journal of Medicine article, the project determined that more than 80 percent of the people diagnosed with lung cancer through annual CT scanner screenings found the disease at an early stage. The study concludes that annual CT screenings can detect lung cancer at an early stage when it is more curable.

“As a community hospital, our mission is to be consistently ahead in science and technology,” said Shelby Speas, who oversees Mills’ Dorothy E. Schneider Cancer Center. “We are thrilled to be ahead of the curve (by being in the project). Having the technology, it is kind of the ticket to participate in these studies.”

Mills-Peninsula has been involved in the study since 2001, after Dr. Barry Sheppard – the cancer center’s chief physician – found out about the project and asked to participate.

“I am surprised with how well we have done with identifying cancers early and how significant the survival rate is,” Sheppard said.

A formal screening test, however, for diagnosing lung cancer needs to be developed, he said. The illness kills more people annually in the United States than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined.

“Women are at risk with lower smoking exposure than men are,” Sheppard said. “We know who is at risk and if we find a screening test, we could detect it better.”

According to Mills-Peninsula officials, the study also determined that women are more likely to survive lung cancer once they are diagnosed.

Mills officials say they hope their continued participation with the early detection project will help yield even more discoveries about lung cancer.

“Given the success so far, I would expect we would participate for several more years,” Speas said.

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com.