How daylight saving time can seriously affect your healthVideo
CHICAGO — Brunch dates and flag football games might be a little easier to get to this Sunday, when phones grace early-risers with an extra hour of rest before alarm clocks go off. The downside: Next week across most of the U.S., the sun will set well before many folks...
‘One of a kind’ parking cashier at West Penn Hospital sets tone for patients, visitors
Most patients and family members visiting West Penn Hospital — especially those who park in the Liberty Avenue parking garage — pass Cora Brandon. The parking cashier, who started working at the Bloomfield hospital 17 years ago in the cafeteria, holds court behind her glass window to greet visitors or...
Excela Health reports $36.2M loss for fiscal year ending June 30
Westmoreland County-based Excela Health, which merged with Butler Health System in January to form Independence Health, lost $36.2 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, according to a new disclosure report. That’s $15 million more than losses reported in the previous fiscal year ending in June 2022, when it...
Inflation, end of additional covid-era SNAP benefits increase need for food pantry assistance
Every month, volunteers at the Mt. Pleasant Area Food Pantry see more and more unfamiliar faces. “This is the busiest we’ve ever been. Not just my pantry but every pantry,” said Marie Ochaba, head coordinator of the pantry at Church of God on West Main Street. “I’m probably signing up...
It’s time to buy health insurance through the marketplace. Experts suggest doing your research first
It’s time to pick health coverage for next year on the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces, and experts caution against focusing your choice on price alone. In order to prevent thousands of dollars in financial surprises, buyers should know what a plan covers, how it works and what costs you...
What to know about the latest eyedrops recall
John Shields expects more calls to Allegheny Eye Associates in Lower Burrell from concerned customers after federal regulators issued another recall on eyedrops. The Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings for 26 over-the-counter eye care products because of the potential for infection that could result in partial vision loss...
U.S. infant mortality rate rose last year — CDC says it’s the largest increase in 2 decades
NEW YORK — The U.S. infant mortality rate rose 3% last year — the largest increase in two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. White and Native American infants, infant boys and babies born at 37 weeks or earlier had significant death rate increases. The CDC’s...
Maryland man who received 2nd pig heart transplant dies, hospital says
WASHINGTON — The second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig has died, nearly six weeks after the highly experimental surgery, his Maryland doctors announced Tuesday. Lawrence Faucette, 58, was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant when he received the genetically modified pig...
Women who lost children help lead effort to reduce Black infant mortality rate in Allegheny County
Jenea Edwards sometimes feels a twinge of sadness when she sees a little girl. There was a time when Edwards looked forward to matching mother-daughter outfits and making visits to the nail salon together. Now it’s a reminder of what could have been. With one big kick on the way...
Raw dog food recalled after it tests positive for salmonella
Blue Ridge Beef of North Carolina is recalling raw dog food that has tested positive for salmonella. Breeders Choice dog food was distributed to retailers in five states including Pennsylvania, according to an announcement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The dog food was distributed in 2-pound logs between...
List of nursing homes cited for abuse can be incomplete, arbitrary, experts say
A review of state nursing home inspection reports reveals no mention of two patients who died about a year ago at Quality Life Services-Chicora after being given fatal doses of insulin. Registered nurse Heather Pressdee, who is charged in the killings, told investigators “she felt bad for their quality of...
Staffing shortages leave nursing homes overwhelmed, patients vulnerable, experts sayVideo
Mary Ellen Cross lived some of the best days of her life each December when she spent hour upon hour baking cookies and wrapping gifts, carefully crafting what she hoped would be the perfect, magical Christmas for her family. The baking began weeks in advance, sometimes with her eclectic playlist...
Staffing shortages plague nursing homes; some fear patient care threatened
An employee at a Westmoreland County nursing home says the conditions of her job have brought her to tears. Residents regularly have to wait for help and often go hungry because of a lack of people to feed them. A single staffer sometimes is asked to care for 60 residents...
Nursing home rating system criticized over reliability, accuracy
Tools designed to help families researching a nursing home are obscure and often criticized by industry experts over their reliability and accuracy. The Care Compare website maintained by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services houses detailed data about nursing homes, provides quality-of-care ratings and flags homes for incidents...
2% of kids and 7% of adults have received the new covid shots, U.S. data show
NEW YORK — A month after federal officials recommended new versions of covid-19 vaccines, 7% of U.S. adults and 2% of children have gotten a shot. One expert called the rates “abysmal.” The numbers, presented Thursday at a meeting held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come from...
Armstrong County hospital considers affiliation with Indiana, Punxsutawney hospitals
Armstrong County Memorial Hospital said Wednesday it is considering a possible affiliation with the hospitals in Indiana and Punxsutawney, in another sign of Western Pennsylvania’s hospitals banding together in a difficult time for community health care systems. The Kittanning-based hospital said Wednesday it signed a nonbinding letter of intent “to...
Few transplant surgeons are Black. Giving medical students a rare peek at organ donation may help
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It’s long after midnight when the bustling operating room suddenly falls quiet — a moment of silence to honor the man lying on the table. This is no ordinary surgery. Detrick Witherspoon died before ever being wheeled in, and now two wide-eyed medical students are about to...
Bad tech, staffing shortages hinder Pa. as it reassesses health care coverage for thousands
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is struggling with faulty technology, persistent staffing shortages, and flawed procedures as it reassesses health care coverage for hundreds of thousands of...
Former attorney works to bring resources to those with rare genetic disease
Mark Christman had people around him, but he still felt lonely. “When you have a rare disease, it makes you feel alone,” said Christman, who was diagnosed in 1977 with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD, a genetic disorder that causes weakening of the skeletal muscles. “I had never met another...
Pig heart transplant recipient reaches 1-month mark, pushing through physical therapy
WASHINGTON — It’s been a month since a Maryland man became the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig — and hospital video released Friday shows he’s working hard to recover. Lawrence Faucette was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant when doctors...
CVS Health pulls some cough-and-cold treatments with ingredient deemed ineffective by doctors
CVS Health is pulling from its shelves some cough-and-cold treatments that contain an ingredient that has been deemed ineffective by doctors and researchers. The drug store chain said it will remove a small number of products that contain phenylephrine as the only active ingredient. CVS also said it will still...
Allegheny General nurses vote in favor of potential strike
Nurses at one of Pittsburgh’s largest hospitals are on the verge of strike. There are more than 1,200 nurses and nurse practitioners unionized at Allegheny General Hospital, and they voted Tuesday to deliver notice of a potential strike to hospital ownership if their requests for raises are not met, according...
Amazon will start testing drones that will drop prescriptions on your doorstep
Amazon will soon make prescription drugs fall from the sky when the e-commerce giant becomes the latest company to test drone deliveries for medications. The company said Wednesday that customers in College Station, Texas, can now get prescriptions delivered by a drone within an hour of placing their order. The...
Study: Climbing 5 flights of stairs a day may reduce heart disease risk
Climbing five flights of stairs can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 20% according to a recent study published in Atherosclerosis Journal. The study collected data from more than 400,000 adult participants in the United Kingdom. “These findings highlight the potential advantages of stair climbing as a primary...
Long covid study links lingering virus with bowel-to-brain havoc
Covid may trigger complex biological reactions from the bowel to the brain, leading to persistent neurological symptoms in some people, according to a study that points the way toward a treatment. Viral vestiges in the gastrointestinal tracts of a subset of long-covidpatients may drive chronic inflammation that interferes with a...
