Health

Update at 11:57 a.m.: Dallas County spokeswoman Maria Arita tweeted a response to reports that commissioners are considering aerial spraying. Aerial Spraying for West Nile NOT BEING PONDERED by Dallas County Commissioners. About virus: cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/w… 1.usa.gov/Rik5P6— Dallas County (@DallasCountyTx) August 7, 2012 Original Post: Dallas County is having a record…

I’m not, by nature, someone who spends much time worrying. I assume, more or less automatically, that I’m not going to contract that horrible disease, that ominous-looking strangers probably won’t murder me, that there will be time to swerve when that 18-wheeler drifts into my lane. My wife says I…

Update at 1:29 p.m.:Dr. Shannon’s email announcing his resignation, as well as board chair Donna Branson’s responses to my questions, are below. Original post: Skip over to Parkland’s website and scroll through the roster of senior executives and you’ll notice it hasn’t been updated in a while. But they still…

It’s like clockwork. Every year as summer rolls around, media outlets begin to hyperventilate about the approaching West Nile epidemic, then proceed to breathlessly report on every single human case that shows up. Public health experts dutifully slip on their white coats and talk about what a grave danger West…

Texas Republicans have been complaining loudly since the Supreme Court decided that the Affordable Care Act passed constitutional muster. The law is a huge overreach by the federal government, it’s a “stomach-punch” to the economy, Obama is a socialist, etc. etc. There’s even quite serious talk about refusing a Medicaid…

A little while ago, WFAA reported that Methodist Dallas Medical Center had made a teensy error during a recent operation and transplanted a kidney into the wrong patient. The kidney turned out to be compatible and the patient is fine, but when Methodist discovered the mistake last week, it raised…

The graph above shows the number of babies delivered each year at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Notice the steep downward trajectory, from 15,800 in 2008 to a projected 10,700 in 2013. That’s a 32-percent drop or, in layman’s terms, a shit-load fewer babies. I noticed this almost a month ago, back…

At the end of the day yesterday, the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation sent a dispatch from its president, Brook Rawlings, reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act. “Make no mistake,” Rawlings wrote. “This outcome is a net negative for every Texan — and every…

Update at 9:40 a.m.: Check out the full decision below. Original post: We were planning to try to localize the Supreme Court’s decision this morning on the Affordable Care Act, do some sort of informed, level-headed analysis like the DMN’s Michael Lindenberger prepared last night. But that would require a…

Over the weekend, the Texas Tribune published one of those eye-opening, number-crunching reports the website has made its niche. This one is about weight-loss surgery, specifically weight-loss surgery that is paid for by taxpayers. This is a relatively new phenomenon, the Tribune notes. Medicare only started covering weight-loss surgery in…

A few moments ago, Parkland sent word that John Dragovits, its executive vice president and chief financial officer, is leaving the struggling hospital. Come mid-July, he’ll become the president and COO of Anthelio, a healthcare IT provider headquartered in Dallas. The press release, of course, makes no mention of Parkland’s…

Parkland Memorial Hospital was almost shut down last year after federal inspectors threatened to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars of Medicare and Medicaid funding after finding “deficiencies that represent an immediate and serious threat to patient health and safety.” Because of its size and importance to the community,…

In case the threat of diabetes, heart disease, morbid obesity and an early (and very large) grave isn’t enough to make you eat healthier, maybe this will help: Fatty foods are also high in flame retardants. A research team led by Dr. Arnold Schecter of the University of Texas School…

The difficulties faced by military veterans returning home, from elevated divorce and suicide rates to a harsh job market, have been well documented. Turns out, many of them also don’t have health coverage. According to a study released last week by the Urban Institute, 10 percent of veterans lack health…

If you are one of the 18 million or so Texans who have health insurance, you may find something unusual in your mailbox this summer: an envelope from your insurance company stuffed with cash or, more likely, a check. That’s when the provision of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare)…