John Stucke

A union representing 1,100 health care and service workers is engaged in a contract fight with the new owner of Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital and Medical Center. Community Health Systems Inc. bought the hospitals less than six months ago. In five months, the two have made little progress in labor relations.

The possibility that a second-grader at Roosevelt Elementary has tuberculosis has prompted an investigation by health officials who are asking her classmates and other students who ride the same school bus to undergo blood tests. The Spokane Regional Health District sent letters home with children who attend the public school at 14th Avenue and Bernard Street.

Spokane hospitals will not allow physicians to prescribe or administer lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients, opting out of a voter-approved initiative that allows the controversial practice. Executives at Deaconess Medical Center, along with Valley Medical Center and Hospital, announced their decision Thursday.

State health investigators are still attempting to solve several cases of food-borne infections that have caused several pregnant women to lose their babies since January. They suspect the women in Yakima, Klickitat and King counties ate unpasteurized cheese that was contaminated with listeria bacteria.

More than a dozen high school wrestlers and fans infected with whooping cough attended the Washington state high school wrestling tournament in Tacoma two weeks ago, and state health officials fear a large-scale outbreak of the disease, which has now been reported across the state. Also called pertussis, the contagious disease is especially dangerous – even deadly – for babies younger than 18 months who have not completed their early childhood vaccines.

Government spending cuts are unraveling safety nets that help foster children in Spokane County receive medical care. It’s another blow to the critical help offered to at-risk children, poor pregnant women and others, said Elaine Conley, director of the Spokane Regional Health District’s Community and Family Services Division.

Government spending cuts are unraveling safety nets that help foster children in Spokane County receive medical care.

A serious case of botulism in Spokane has prompted warnings from food preservation experts and health officials to follow strict safety rules when canning vegetables at home. A nurse in her 30s, along with two children younger than 10, were stricken with the nerve toxin after eating improperly canned green beans from a backyard garden. All three were given an antitoxin that was flown to Spokane from a special storage facility in Seattle.

A serious case of botulism in Spokane has prompted warnings from food preservation experts and health officials to follow strict safety rules when canning vegetables at home.

Two physicians have been selected as finalists to lead the Spokane Regional Health District after a 2 1/2-year vacancy. Health board members have scheduled a special meeting for March 13 in anticipation of making a contract offer.

Two people in Spokane have been sickened by salmonella food poisoning directly linked to tainted peanut products that have led to expansive food recalls and a criminal investigation. Health officials are awaiting test results on a third person. Yet they believe more than 100 people may have been affected, citing statistics showing that for every positive test there may be 40 or more others who were sickened but did not seek medical care.

Two people in Spokane have been sickened by salmonella food poisoning directly linked to tainted peanut products that have led to expansive food recalls and a criminal investigation.

Premera Blue Cross is selling its startup Arizona health insurance subsidiary amid mounting cash losses and an inability to gain a foothold in the competitive Southwest market. “We had hoped to build a strong health insurance plan,” said spokeswoman Jodi Coffey, “but we couldn’t build it quickly enough to be viable.”

Gonzaga University officials said Wednesday the school will not be affected by the bankruptcy filing of the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, the Jesuit order that covers five Northwest states. “Gonzaga was separately incorporated and registered with the Secretary of State in Washington in 1894,” Gonzaga’s president, the Rev. Robert Spitzer, wrote in a letter to supporters. “Gonzaga University’s assets are its own and not subject to others’ creditors.”

The victims of pedophile Jesuit priests in the Northwest may eye the riches of Gonzaga University and other religiously affiliated organizations for compensation in the wake of the religious order’s bankruptcy filing this week. But it’s an idea that Gonzaga officials dismissed Wednesday. The Spokane-based university, along with Seattle University and Gonzaga Prep, will not be ensnared by the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of the Oregon Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order spanning five Northwest states.

Washington hospitals are standardizing the codes used to summon help, so that “code blue,” for example, would always mean “cardiac arrest.” The changes follow a survey that showed at least eight codes were used to call for help when a patient’s heart stopped.

Washington hospitals are adopting new communication safety measures so that no matter what medical center a patient is in, “code blue,” for example, means cardiac arrest.

Even as the Spokane Regional Health District board contemplates changing its management structure to take the top job away from a medical professional, state Sen. Chris Marr is going a different direction. He has proposed legislation that would pull politics out of health districts by removing most of the politicians who dominate the board positions.

A Spokane County man has been accused of running an Internet-based Ponzi scheme that lured about 200 investors with promises of easy money on what turned out to be a bogus loan program. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says Craig Jolly pocketed at least $628,000 of the $4 million solicited from 200 investors, using it to pay for an all-terrain vehicle, tractor rentals, medical bills for a hand injury, a Toyota Tundra truck, tools, supplies and his own money-losing stock trades on E-Trade.