Category: Minority Health
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
More than 4 million Americans have viral hepatitis and an estimated 85,000 become infected each year. Some forms go away on their own, but others, like Hepatitis B and C, can go on to become chronic infections that can lead serious liver damage, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and even death. But most people with chronic hepatitis do not know they are infected.
Selected articles on health: Care of the elderly falling on shoulders of the young. Why we’re losing the battle against obesity? Whither the AMA? The big profits of non-profit hospitals.
Group Health scored a perfect 100% on measures gauging how equitably large, private-sector businesses in the United States treat their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees, consumers, and investors.
Federal health officials are warning consumers not to use skin creams, beauty and antiseptic soaps, or lotions that might contain mercury after products with the toxic metal turned up in at least seven states.
On Saturday, March 17, local health organizations are hosting a free mammogram screening event in southeast Seattle focusing on African American women.The event is this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Columbia Health Center, 4400 37th Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98118.
The U.S. may soon start seeing a rising number of untreatable cases of gonorrhea unless new drugs can be found to combat emerging strains that are resistant to existing antibiotics, scientists warn in this week’s issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. “It is time to sound the alarm,” said the UW’s Dr. Judy Wasserheit, one of the authors of the journal article.
The good news: Teen pregnancies are at their lowest rate in nearly 40 years, resulting in fewer abortions and births. The bad news: While overall rates have dropped, there is still a major gap among white, Hispanic and black teenagers.
Health organizations and school districts are using Web sites and texting services to provide teens with accurate information about sex, the New York Times reports.
Experts want kids to exercise at least 60 minutes every day, but among all children, black girls are most likely to report they got no physical activity in the past week.
After 20 years of U.S. residency, rates of hypertension, diabetes and obesity rise sharply for Hispanic immigrants.
Judge rules decision to drop 11,000 people from the state’s Basic Health plan for the working poor because of their immigration status was unconstitutional.
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Lost in translation: Lack of trained interpreters can lead to medical errors
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
Some insurers deny ER coverage to people who have been drinking
Laws in more than half the states permit insurers to deny payment for medical services related to alcohol or drug use. Faced with the prospect of not getting paid for care, some ER personnel sidestep the problem by simply not testing patients’ blood or urine for alcohol.
Travel insurance can protect your wallet — and your health on vacation
Think your regular health insurance policy will cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas?
Don’t bet on it.
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