Volunteers were out early Friday canvassing the streets, canyons and riverbanks as part of San Diego County’s annual homeless count. But one stat is already known: The number of homeless people dying in the county increased significantly in 2017, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office. Last year, the office recorded 126 homeless deaths — up 17 percent over the 108 ... Read More »
Steven Nelson had decided he wanted to be a nurse. He had spent his teens in trouble and his early 20s in prison. Finally, in his mid-30s, with a steady job as a receptionist in an urgent care and five kids to support, he believed he had found his calling. “He tried to get his life together,” said Gloria Hawkins, ... Read More »
Quality of care in the nation’s hospices came under the spotlight in August when the agency that runs Medicare rated some 3,800 facilities nationally, including about two dozen in San Diego County, on seven measures. Now, the same federal agency that published the online scorecard, Hospice Compare, is getting attention because its website has flaws, and that has delayed the ... Read More »
A state legislator who is leading an inquiry into the escalating rates of diabetes and heart disease highlighted inewsource data. Read More »
To identify the increase in diabetes-related amputations in California, inewsource analyzed data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the agency that collects information about the care provided to patients discharged from California hospitals. The data, compiled at the request of inewsource, includes more than 100 separate billing codes, by body part and procedure, detailing patients treated ... Read More »
Clinicians are amputating more toes, legs, ankles and feet of patients with diabetes in California — and San Diego County in particular — in a “shocking” trend that has mystified diabetes experts here and across the country. Statewide, lower-limb amputations increased by more than 31 percent from 2010 to 2016 when adjusted for population change. In San Diego County, the ... Read More »
It’s been a long goodbye for San Diego Hospice, an institution that helped people die with dignity and without pain. Read More »
Some doctors are taking their patients with diabetes off of Invokana because of black box warning about higher risk of toe, foot, ankle and leg amputations. Read More »
For the first time, Medicare officials have posted online quality scores for some 3,800 hospice providers — including about two dozen in San Diego County. The scores are on a website launched Wednesday called Hospice Compare. And most San Diego hospices did well on most measures compared with national averages. Kate Goodrich of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ... Read More »
Despite rumors of its death, the Healthy California Act, a bill that would create a massive single-payer insurance system for nearly all 39 million Golden State residents, is alive and, in the eyes of its supporters, imperative. Read More »
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