Saint Vincent’s Hospital is getting some help from the state to deal with its financial crisis.

NY1 has confirmed that Governor David Paterson is authorizing $6 million for the cash-strapped hospital to help it make payroll.

The funds will come out of a hospital restructuring program supervised by the state.

The governor will meet with the hospital’s board, elected officials, and lenders tomorrow to discuss possible ways the hospital can restructure.

Continuum Health Partners has submitted a proposal to take over the hospital and convert it to a community health center. The plan includes eliminating inpatient care and surgical services, and scaling back emergency services.

Saint Vincent’s is $700 million in debt.

Source: NY1

Protecting the water New Yorkers drink is the goal behind several settlements announced today between the state and medical facilities.

Under the agreement announced by State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today, five medical facilities have agreed to stop releasing pharmaceuticals into the New York City watershed. Those drugs end up in the watershed when they’re flushed down toilets.

Cuomo says the city’s water is safe and to date only trace amounts of pharmaceuticals have ended up in the drinking supply.

“We want to stop it from becoming a problem,” Cuomo said. “All too often, we only respond once it’s a problem and then we have to work very hard to fix it. We want to stop this from being a problem.”

The facilities have also agreed to pay for past violations of the law and the cost of the investigation. Additionally, they will institute take-back systems so households can bring the facilities the pharmaceuticals and they can be disposed of properly.

Cuomo says he is trying to work with 10 other medical facilities to reach a similar agreement.

Source: NY1

In an effort to combat childhood obesity, the city’s highest school board voted Wednesday to change vendors for school vending machines.

The new machines will dispense drinks and snacks that adhere to strict nutritional guidelines. Snacks such as wasabi peas, diced peaches and seven grain crackers will now be sold.

That means food companies will need to develop new nutritional products.

“Leading the way for Pepsi for example to develop new products and we expect exactly the same thing to happen on the snack side as well,” said David Ross of the New York City Department of Education. “We know that starting with there will be much healthier products in the machine but we hope going forward that there will be more healthy products. So we’ll have, in effect, led the way for the country.”

Some parents who attended the vote voiced their concerns over the recent regulation of school bake sales.

They claim the Department of Education is forbidding bake sales in order to drive more business to the vending machine companies.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein argues the bake sales are being regulated due to health concerns over obesity.

Source: NY1

New York City’s comptroller says an audit of the Health Department by his office shows the agency did not inspect all of the city’s licensed restaurants last year and during the first half of this year.

The audit’s findings were issued on Monday by Comptroller William Thompson, Jr., who is also a Democratic mayoral candidate.

He says the audit shows health inspectors examined only 22 percent of restaurants with permits during fiscal year 2008, which began July 1, 2008 and ended June 30, 2009.

A Health Department released a statement Monday saying it inspected 80 percent of the city’s restaurants during that time.

The department also rejected the audit’s claim that inspectors did not perform timely follow-ups to ensure violations were corrected in restaurants that had failed inspections.

Source: AP

Suffolk County has reported a seventh death from swine flu.

County health officials said Friday that the latest victim was a Town of East Hampton man between the ages of 25 and 35 who also had a serious underlying medical condition.

Suffolk Health Commissioner Dr. Humayun Chaudhry said the man died on Thursday. Authorities say the man had been admitted to the hospital on July 10 with a fever and pneumonia and later tested positive for swine flu.

Suffolk County has reported 160 confirmed cases of swine flu. Nassau County has reported two deaths from swine flu and has reported 98 confirmed cases.

Source: AP

Working Families Party circulates an online petition charging that five Democratic lawmakers are balking at legislation pushed by congressional leaders.

Source: Crains New York Continue Reading This Article Here

Facing a crisis in its pension fund, 1199, New York’s giant health care union, reached an innovative settlement on Monday that calls for forgoing nearly a billion dollars in raises for 145,000 union members so that hospitals can increase their pension contributions to safeguard future retirement benefits.

The union, formally called 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, agreed to a wage freeze for next year, but also — in a move that parallels Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s proposal for municipal employees — accepted less generous pensions for future hires.

With the union’s pension fund losing $3.5 billion — or one-third its value — in recent years, mostly because of losses in stock market investments, 1199 feared that the fund would have to reduce promised pension payments to not only 48,000 current retirees, but also tens of thousands of current workers.

Source: NY Times Continue Reading This Article Here

As New York City braces for a second wave of swine flu this fall, health officials are making plans to carve space out of hospitals, clinics and other buildings to screen people before they can overwhelm emergency rooms.

Hospital and city officials said in interviews that the biggest surprise from the swine flu that swept the city last spring was the surge of visits to emergency rooms by people, especially children, sick with the flu and by a far larger number of people fearing they had it.

A major focus of planning for the fall, officials say, is to avoid being swamped by a similar, possibly bigger, demand for emergency room services. Some hospital officials are advocating putting out daily swine flu bulletins — modeled after announcements on alternate-side parking or lottery numbers — about issues like when to seek treatment.

Source: NY Times Continue Reading This Article Here

Health officials say this year’s swine flu epidemic has killed at least 47 people in New York. That’s nine more than previously known.

Almost all of the city’s victims had underlying medical conditions that put them more at risk from the virus. Those illnesses included asthma, diabetes or an immune system deficiency. Most people who catch the bug have only mild symptoms.

More than 900 New Yorkers have been hospitalized with swine flu since April.

There have been no new hospitalizations reported in July. The city says the number of people getting treatment for flu symptoms is now lower than when the outbreak began.

Source: AP

Long Island’s Nassau County is reporting a second death linked to swine flu.

County health officials on Tuesday said a minor with multiple underlying medical conditions died on July 1. The minor had been hospitalized since June 25.

On Monday, Suffolk County recorded a fifth death linked to swine flu. That victim, a Babylon woman between the ages of 55 and 65, also had multiple underlying medical problems. She died on July 4.

Suffolk has recorded 136 confirmed cases of swine flu. Nassau reports 98 confirmed cases.

Source: AP