John Stucke

Water restrictions were lifted today at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center after successful efforts to eradicate bacteria that can cause Legionnaires’ disease from the hospital’s water supply.

Washington state is enacting several new laws designed to comply and prepare for federal health care reform. Just as state officials are preparing for reforms, so too are hospitals, insurance companies, businesses, physician clinics and agencies and organizations that represent the poor. The changes are coming amid the backdrop of deep budget cuts states are making in the wake of the recession and enduring economic malaise.

A new state law is making it more difficult for parents to send their children to school without first getting immunized against diseases. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire on Monday, would require parents to receive a written certificate of exemption by a licensed health care provider to enroll their children in public schools without the recommended battery of vaccinations designed to protect children.

A new state law is making it more difficult for parents to send their children to school without first getting immunized against diseases. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire on Monday, would require parents to receive a written certificate of exemption by a licensed health care provider to enroll their children in public schools without the recommended battery of vaccinations designed to protect children.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., this week introduced a Republican proposal touted as a way to corral Medicaid spending by giving states more say in who qualifies and who doesn’t. Medicaid, an entitlement program that helps pay the medical bills of millions of poor and disabled people, has grown in scope and expense.

Workers performed a chlorine flush of Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center’s water system Tuesday in hopes of killing clusters of bacteria that can cause Legionnaire’s disease. Some patients have gone days without showers and baths and the hospital has served and sold bottled water to staff, patients and visitors after three Sacred Heart patients tested positive for Legionella bacteria this year.

Journalist and author Kim Barker, scheduled to read tonight from her critically acclaimed book “Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan,” cautions that the death of Osama bin Laden means little in the day-to-day difficulties of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The stunning American raid on bin Laden’s compound in the Pakistan city of Abbottabad will make the restive country more dangerous for foreigners and moderate and liberal lawmakers, academics and leaders throughout the country of 187 million people, she said.

Washington lawmakers have passed a forceful measure envisioned to help upward of 50,000 small businesses attain health insurance for their employees. They did it by creating what’s called a health insurance exchange, a device that every state is compelled to use to comply with federal health reform.

 Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center is restricting showers, serving bottled water and replacing parts of its water system after three patients tested positive for the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease. The first patient, an elderly man with a weakened immune system, died. Dr. Jeff Collins, chief medical officer of Sacred Heart, said the bacterial infection has not been blamed for his death.

Group Health Cooperative plans to buy one of Spokane’s largest family medicine practices. Columbia Medical Associates, which includes 30 primary care physicians who work in 14 clinics scattered across the Spokane area, would become the latest physicians group to align with a one of the region’s major health care providers.

Providence Health Care’s plan to buy two large cardiology practices in Spokane may have been abandoned in the wake of a ruling by federal antitrust regulators. The Federal Trade Commission began reviewing Providence’s proposed purchase of Spokane Cardiology and Heart Clinics Northwest last year. While the clinics and Providence – which operates Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center – envisioned closing the deal last fall, the subsequent FTC review altered those plans.

The detection of trace amounts of radioactive isotope iodine-131 this week in milk being sold in Spokane has raised anew questions about the extent of radiation exposure from the Japanese nuclear crisis. But officials say people are exposed to more radiation from being in their homes each day than from drinking milk.

The detection of trace amounts radioactive isotope Iodine-131 this week in milk being sold in Spokane has raised anew questions about the extent of radiation exposure from the Japan nuclear crisis. But officials say people are exposed to more radiation in their homes each day than from drinking milk.

 Consumers were told Wednesday not to worry about low levels of radiation found by federal health and safety regulators testing milk samples in Spokane.  “After the disaster in Japan, many of us are understandably on heightened alert about the possibility of exposure to radiation,” said state Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. “Today’s news about the infinitely small level of radiation in milk in Spokane is bound to trigger these concerns.”

Minimal but still acceptable levels of radiation have been detected in Spokane-area milk, federal health and safety regulators confirmed today.