Public Health

The Baylor Scott & White Emergency Center in Forney (Texas) was evacuated Tuesday morning following reports of a suspicious odor, reports The Patch.

Surgical and emergency services at Chicago-based Jesse Brown VA Medical Center have been unavailable or disrupted since chemical fumes engulfed operating rooms and floods damaged the emergency department nearly one month ago, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Emergency rooms at hospitals in Syracuse, N.Y., have collectively been on diversion for more than 117 hours between Jan. 1 and Jan. 21, a nearly 9-fold increase from the same period in 2016, reports Syracuse.com

A study, published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, examined opioid use among older adults in nursing homes.

West Virginia pharmacies dispensed 31.3 million fewer doses of opioids, anti-anxiety medications and amphetamines in 2017, marking a 12 percent decline in controlled substance dispensation from the year prior, according to an annual report from the state's pharmacy board cited…

Between 2012 and 2016, the average price for an outpatient emergency room visit rose 31 percent to $1,917, according a recent Health Care Cost Institute report.

Indiana University Health Paoli Hospital will close its obstetrics unit at the end of March, which will affect 10 employees, according to WBIW.

Officials at Dayton, Ohio-based Premier Health said an increasingly competitive healthcare landscape and an inefficient use of space were major contributors to officials' decision to close Good Samaritan Hospital, also in Dayton, by the end of the year, according to…

Taunton, Mass.-based Morton Hospital notified the state department of public health it intends to close its maternity ward, according to a Taunton Daily Gazette report.

Eric Hargan, acting secretary for HHS, on Jan. 19 renewed the agency's declaration of public health emergency, effective Wednesday, for the nation's ongoing opioid crisis.