Bowling Green commission gives final passage to smoking ban

The Bowling Green City Commission gave second reading and final passage last night to a smoking ban that will apply to all indoor public places except "nursing homes, exclusive tobacco retailers and private clubs where membership is required," Andrew Robinson reports for the Bowling Green Daily News.

As on first reading, the vote at the special meeting was 3-2 and was prefaced by complaints that the measure was being rushed through because Mayor Elaine Walker will become Kentucky secretary of state on Saturday. The commission is expected to name one of its own as interim mayor then appoint someone to fill that vacancy.

Walker said she had planned to put the ban on the commission agenda next month. Its sponsor, Commissioner Brian "Slim" Nash, said, “This has been an issue since it was first introduced to this community in 2007. I don’t believe that anyone’s opinion would change given another seven days on this issue, or given another seven months.” The ban will take effect in 90 days. (Read more)

Videos aim to educate policymakers about smoke-free laws

With a statewide smoking ban proposed in the legislature, which reconvenes next week, and local ordinances still being proposed and passed, the Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy has produced eight video vignettes to help educate policy makers and leaders about communities that have gone smoke-free.

"Seeing and hearing first-hand experiences working with smoke-free laws will help educate other communities who are working towards clean indoor air for the workers and patrons in their communities," said Ellen Hahn, director of the center at the University of Kentucky. "Everyone deserves to breathe clean air."

The video vignettes feature officials from Floyd County, Clark County, Glasgow, Bardstown (right) and Radcliff. The vignettes were produced by UK College of Nursing faculty, students and staff. To view the videos, click here.

McConnell says Senate will vote on repeal of health reform law

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Fox News Sunday that the Senate would somehow vote on whether or not to repeal the health-reform law.

McConnell's Democratic counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid, has declared the House-passed repeal bill "dead on arrival" in the Senate, but Senate rules provide several ways that the issue could be put to a vote.

McConnell called the new law "the single worst piece of legislation" passed while he has been a senator. He said if the Senate does not vote for repeal, opponents will attempt to dismantle the law item by item. (Read more from The Associated Press)

Bowling Green schools buy local foods, reap rewards from state

Bowling Green Independent Schools are working with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and nearby farms and purveyors to offer locally grown food in their cafeterias, Jenna Mink of the Bowling Green Daily News reports.

This year, the district has bought locally-grown watermelons, strawberries, peaches and apples. "They're in the process of getting three types of lettuce and tomatoes," Mink reports.

The school district is also participating in the Kentucky Restaurant Rewards Program, which allows buyers of locally grown produce to get receive cash-back rewards from the state agriculture department. Bowling Green schools reportedly received a check for $1,800 for three months of food.

Students are being exposed to local foods, as well as to fruits and vegetables in general, in other ways. Through a pilot project with the Department of Agriculture, students from Bowling Green as well as Scott County are taking field trips to local orchards.

Two area elementary schools are also part of the federally-funded Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, in which grant funds help buy fresh fruit and vegetables for the students. Teachers hand out the produce as a snack three to four times a week. (Read more)

Williams says he supports a statewide smoking ban

State Senate President David Williams expressed firm support for the proposed statewide smoking ban at the Kentucky Press Association's forum for gubernatorial candidates in Louisville Friday.

"Secondhand smoke is full of carcinogens, it's a health hazard to workers ... and it ought to be stopped, and now's the time to stop it," said Williams (standing in Courier-Journal photo). Williams endorsed a ban when Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear proposed increasing cigarette taxes in 2008, but some saw that as political gamesmanship while Williams sorted out his position on the tax; he eventually supported a bill raising tobacco and alcohol taxes. The issue arose when forum moderator Al Cross (seated in photo) asked candidates what they would do to improve Kentucky's poor health status and followed up by asking their positions on a smoking ban.

Williams is running in the Republican gubernatorial primary against businessman Phil Moffett, who said the scientific findings about the health effects of secondhand smoke have been "overblown." He and independent candidate Gatewood Galbraith both said property owners shoould retain the right to decide smoking policies. For C-J political writer Joe Gerth's story on the forum, click here. For a live-blog account from Kenny Colston of cn|2 Politics, go here.

Poor conditions found at Letcher County personal-care home

State inspectors found pitiable conditions when they visited Golden Years Rest Home, right, in Letcher County in December, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt-Spears report.

Kool-Aid dripping on insulin bottles, expired medications and a hallway smelling of urine and feces were among the conditions found at the personal-care home in December. Inspectors also learned the home's 35 residents could only bathe every other day because of a lack of linens, and there was no milk because the bill hadn't been paid in a month.

"Quite frankly, if children were living in the same conditions that are found at some, but not all, personal care homes, we would never tolerate it," Marsha Hockensmith, state director of protection and advocacy, told the Herald-Leader. The sub-standard conditions found at Golden Years are the latest to be discovered in personal-care homes in the state. (Read more)

Federal grant will help build assisted-living and hospice facility in Maysville

Gov. Steve Beshear presented a $800,000 community development block grant (federal money administered by the states) for the construction of a Maysville assisted-living facility and hospice inpatient facility Friday, The Ledger Independent reports.

The Hospice of Hope projects will include 32 apartment-style units in the assisted-living facility, and eight units for hospice care. The $7- to $8-million project is slated for construction this spring.

At the check presentation, Beshear said Kentuckians are finding ways to improve health care-related services, despite tough economic times. Beshear spoke of his administration's efforts to increase enrollment in KCHIP, a free or low cost health insurance program for children, and the efforts to secure $62 million for the Kentucky Prescription Assistance Program. (Read more)

Legislator wants to make hospitals, health care facilities report infections acquired by patients under their care

In the face of strong opposition from Kentucky hospitals, a Democratic legislator has filed a bill that would require all health-care facilities to report the incidence of infections acquired by patients while under their care, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Beth Musgrave reports.

"The cost of hospital-acquired infections to Kentucky's health care system is estimated to be $392 to $462 million each year," state Sen. Denise Harper Angel, left, said, calling the sum "staggering." The Louisville legislator also wants to require all health facilities to implement infection-prevention programs.

Nancy Galvagni, senior vice president of the Kentucky Hospital Association, said the federal government already requires that hospital-acquired infections be reported. "There is no need for a new state mandate which would only add additional, unneeded costs on Kentucky's hospitals and state government," she said.

Infections commonly acquired at health facilities include "urinary tract infections caused by catheters, pneumonia caused by ventilators and surgical wound infections," Musgrave reports. Some report as many as 1,400 people die in Kentucky each year from hospital-acquired infections (which hospitals prefer to call "healthcare-associated infections," keeping the acronym but spreading the blame).

Senate Bill 72 would require that health care facilities report their infection data to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services by July 1, 2012. (Read more)

Hybrid operating room, with both surgery and imaging, part of UK Chandler Hospital's $800 million expansion

A distinguishing feature of the $800 million expansion to the University of Kentucky's Chandler Hospital will be a hybrid operating room.

The 1,000-square-foot room, with a price tag of $3.2 million, allows physicians to perform surgeries as well as patient imaging and catheterization, thus giving it the "hybrid" label. The imaging is performed with help of a robotic arm, enabling doctors to get needed information without moving patients, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Mary Meehan reports. The room will allow surgeons to perform common heart procedures, such as the insertion of stents, as well as complex surgeries.

Dr. Bernard Boulanger, UK HealthCare surgical medical director, told Meehan the hybrid room will be used "every day, most of the day."

To test the efficiency of the room's design, a to-scale model was built out of Styrofoam in which doctors, nurses and technicians simulated procedures. The renovation, which is in its second phase, will also add eight standard operating rooms to the facility, each of which will cost $1 million. (Read more)

As expected, Beshear asks legislature to move $100 million from next year's Medicaid budget to make up this year's shortfall

Gov. Steve Beshear, left, is urging the legislature to pass legislation that would rectify a $100 million shortfall in the 2011 Medicaid budget. If it doesn't, Beshear said payments for health care providers who treat Medicaid patients would decrease by 30 percent, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Jack Brammer reports.

"With thousands of of Kentuckians joining the program every month, its passage is critical to ensuring vulnerable Kentuckians get the services they need, and that health care providers do not see unnecessary drastic reductions in reimbursement payments," Beshear said in a press release issued yesterday.

The 2010-2012 budget assumed the state would receive $100 million more from the federal government than it actually got. Beshear is asking the legislature to reallocate $166.5 million from "next year's Medicaid budget to the current year. To make up the resulting shortfall in fiscal year 2012, Beshear said the state would expand the use of private contractors to provide Medicaid services," Brammer reports.

Senate President David Williams objected to the governor's proposal. Williams, who is running for governor this year, said Beshear has yet to cut $125.5 million in Medicaid costs, which he promised he would do last year. (Read more)

Kentucky gets an 'F' for how it handles food-borne illnesses

Kentucky is one of 13 states to receive an "F" for the way it handles food-borne illnesses, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Mary Meehan reports.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest report looked at data from the Centers for Disease and Prevention from 1998 to 2007. Ironically, the report gave the highest letter grades to the states that had the highest incidences of food-borne illness. "Those states are the most likely to have robust detection and reporting systems," the CSPI concluded.

"States that aggressively investigate outbreaks and report them to CDC can help nail down the foods that are responsible for making people sick," said CSPI Food Safety Director Caroline Smith DeWaal. "But when states aren't detecting outbreaks, interviewing victims, identifying suspect food sources, or connecting with federal officials, outbreaks can grow larger and more frequent."

During the period of study, Kentucky only reported 25 outbreaks, resulting in 193 people getting ill. Of those outbreaks, 75 percent involved 26 to 50 people, Meehan reports.

Dr. William Hacker, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, said sizable changes have been made in the past five years, including hiring 18 epidemiologists to help prevent and study outbreaks. "I believe the report doesn't actively reflect what is happening in Kentucky," he said.

Seven states, including Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, were given "A" grades. Kentucky, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia all received failing grades. The study noted the states with the lowest grades are in climates "conducive to pathogen growth." (Read more)

For a fact sheet on new legislation that addresses gaps in outbreak reporting, click here.

Kentucky one of six states to join Cervical Cancer-Free America

Kentucky is one of six states that has joined the Cervical Cancer-Free America initiative, led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The announcement was made today as the country observes National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.

As part of the initiative, members are encouraging public health officials to form coalitions to increase vaccination rates for girls ages 10 to 18 and encourage cervical cancer screening with the Pap test or, when appropriate, the human papillomavirus (HPV) test.

Kentucky ranks fifth nationwide in the number of new cervical cancer cases each year. "Each week, four to five women are diagnosed and, regrettably, at least one woman dies of the disease in Kentucky," reports Dr. Robert Hilgers, founder of the Kentucky Cervical Cancer Coalition.

HPV causes almost all cervical cancers, Hilgers said. There are no symptoms when first infected, but precancerous changes can take place at the cellular level. Precancerous changes can lead to cancer that involves the bladder, intestines, lungs and brain. "Patients usually do not have problems until the cancer becomes symptomatic or advanced and difficult to cure," Hilgers writes.

"The goal of eliminating cervical cancer is a lofty one, but eminently achievable," said Jennifer S. Smith, associate professor of epidemiology at UNC-Chapel Hill and director of CCFA. "(Our initiative) is working to make this vision a reality by driving state and local prevention programs, and ensuring that successful strategies are shared among states."

Every year, more than 12,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, American Cancer Society numbers show. Of those, 4,000 die. CCFA's new website features fact sheets, brochures and multimedia and online resources. (Read more)