John Stucke

A program that feeds nutritious meals to senior citizens across Spokane County will be cut by more than half because of budgeting errors and reductions. “This is going to leave a lot of people in dire straights,” said Ronald O’Brian, a regular at Mid City Concerns Senior Center on West Second Avenue. “There are elderly folks, a lot of women, too, who come down here for a good, warm lunch.”

On a night when all eyes were on vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, local viewers say the Alaska governor rebounded from a series of media interviews that raised doubts about her competence and delivered a solid performance. Republicans watching the debate at Gonzaga University said she reassured American voters that she has the intellect to be vice president, along with political grit and personal appeal.

Providence Health Care plans to withdraw its lawsuit against Empire Health Services amid worries that the litigation would stop the sale of Deaconess Medical Center. Community Health Systems, which has received regulatory approval to buy the hospitals for $156 million and planned to complete the transaction Sept. 30, said this week that the lawsuit was a deal-killer. Providence insisted that the lawsuit was outside the bounds of the sale, arguing that it focused entirely on ownership and contractual issues surrounding the joint venture Inland Northwest Health Services.

Sacred Heart Medical Center plans to spend $175 million during the next five years on an expansion project that will add 173 patient beds and reshape the hospital campus. The building plans could buoy the local construction industry as the hospital becomes the largest in the state with 796 licensed beds, according to tallies from the Washington State Hospital Association.

The region’s largest health insurer is in a high-stakes contract fight with Sacred Heart Medical Center’s parent company that could pin higher medical bills on patients next year. It’s a dispute among health sector leaders earning multimillion-dollar profits at a time when businesses and many workers are struggling to pay double-digit premium increases nearly every year, and medical bills continue to bankrupt families.

Kootenai Health is buying the largest network of clinics in North Idaho in a move that will broaden the reach of Kootenai County’s largest health care provider. The six North Idaho Medical Care Centers have 23 physicians and 90 employees. Together the clinics draw 50,000 patient visits each year.

More young gay men have become oblivious to the ravages of AIDS, adopting risky sex behaviors that threaten to usher in a new wave of infections. It’s a worrisome scenario that has health officials trying to solve the age-old mystery of how to change the behaviors of teens.

Many parents in Washington and Idaho fail to have their children vaccinated against deadly diseases, according to a report issued Thursday. Both states are among the bottom five nationally for vaccination rates, according to the report, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report measured vaccination coverage rates for children ages 19 months to 35 months.

A Coeur d’Alene pharmacist’s pursuit of two suspects in a prescription-drug robbery spree Wednesday led to their arrests. Police hope the arrests of Hayden Lake residents Patrick Augerlavoie, 32, and Carrie Augerlavoie, 29, will slow a rash of holdups at pharmacies across the Inland Northwest.

Regional hospitals are reporting fewer surgery mistakes and serious accidents in 2008. Called adverse events, hospitals in Washington had to begin publicly reporting more of their mistakes, ranging from pressure sores to suicides and botched surgeries, following medical liability reform legislation in 2006.

The buyer of Deaconess Medical Center has agreed to more generous charitable care guidelines for the hospital. It’s a move that seals state regulatory approval of the $156 million takeover, and soothes concerns of local organizations worried about the level of care Deaconess will provide to the region’s poorest residents when it becomes part of Community Health Systems Inc., the nation’s largest publicly traded hospital company.

Northwest states may be sun-starved for much of the year, yet residents are more apt to suffer or die from skin cancer than those in most other states. Scientists say there are plenty of factors to blame – a large fair-skinned Caucasian population and outdoor-oriented lifestyles among them. Still, for Washington and Oregon, where a large part of the population spends more time wearing raincoats than swimsuits, it’s a curiosity that skin cancer rates are so high.

The proposed sale of Empire Health Services has received a necessary green light by the Washington attorney general’s office – one of two key state approvals needed to turn ownership of Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital & Medical Center over to a national hospital company. The state’s legal officials concluded that Community Health Systems’ $144 million offer complied with the law.