Pulling children out of a mental health crisis is tricky. Some have just run away from home while others are coming off a violent attack on a sibling or parent. They’re thinking impulsively, acting desperately and sometimes doing irrational things to change their situations. That can land them at the Johnson County Juvenile Intake and […]
Health
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Health officials: COVID surges across Kansas and Missouri as free shots go away
Last year, when COVID vaccines were still free, barely one in five Americans rolled up their sleeves for the latest dose. Now that some people will have to pay $100-plus for the shot, health officials expect even weaker demand when the next version of the vaccine comes out this fall. Meanwhile, a surprisingly strong summer […]
Posted inState Government
Around 120 Kansas kids are abandoned by their families because their mental health needs are too high
An adoptive mother knew that caring for three children from the Kansas foster system meant nurturing those kids through some truly serious problems. Yet the mother dramatically underestimated what she was taking on. Particularly the danger. Two of the adopted children made shanks out of broken glass and damaged toys. They busted up the bedrooms […]
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Safety-net clinics are struggling to fill the gap after a Utah health system closed a KCK health clinic
In a shadeless parking lot in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, last week, Lulu Herrera waited inside a parked mobile clinic. She was hoping to see a patient. Any patient. Herrera knew of hundreds who hadn’t had the care and medicine they needed since June 1, when Intermountain Health shuttered the Duchesne Clinic, just two years […]
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Kansas nursing home owners say they can’t afford to hire more staff. Advocates say it’s essential
The call came late on a cold night in February, from the Overland Park, Kansas, nursing home where Georann Whitman’s mom was living. “They said that they found her on the floor,” Whitman said. “She had gotten up in the middle of the night and had fallen.” Whitman’s 86-year-old mom, Ann Collins, had dementia. She […]
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How Missouri is getting more people to the dentist — for more than a pretty smile
Missouri Medicaid began covering teeth cleanings, and almost no other routine dental work, for adults a few years ago. But the bill for the dentist actually peering in your mouth to check teeth and gums went to the patient. While some dentists wrote off the cost of the dental exam, many patients just stayed away […]
Posted inState Government
The newest abortion law in Kansas requires putting questions to patients. Here’s what that means
What’s the harm in asking? Abortion rights supporters say quite a bit. Republicans in the state Legislature are trying to gather more data about the practice. Starting July 1, any medical professional performing an abortion is required by Kansas statute to ask patients their reasons for getting it. The law passed the Kansas Legislature this […]
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Internal tensions preceded sweeping changes at closed Wichita abortion clinic
Wichita’s largest abortion clinic remains closed more than a month after it stopped seeing patients, amid a dramatic shakeup in leadership and mass resignations by doctors and other key staff.
Posted inKansas
Experts: U.S. hospitals prone to cyberattacks like one that hurt patient care at Ascension in Wichita
In the wake of a debilitating cyberattack against one of the nation’s largest health care systems, Marvin Ruckle, a nurse at an Ascension hospital in Wichita, said he had a frightening experience: He nearly gave a baby “the wrong dose of narcotic” because of confusing paperwork. Ruckle, who has worked in the neonatal intensive care […]
Posted inKansas
Kansas prisons will give doses of opioid antidote to some inmates when they’re released
Some inmates leaving Kansas prisons are returning to civilian life with a potentially lifesaving tool in hand. The Kansas Department of Corrections recently launched a program that provides the outgoing inmates with naloxone, the opioid antidote that can quickly reverse the effects of an overdose. The medication, which is also sold under the brand name […]