Health
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CLEARLAKE – Sutter Lakeside needs your thoughts on how our community can create healthier children.
Childhood obesity is a national epidemic. One in three children in California is overweight or at risk for being overweight.
We can turn this around by coming together in community focus groups, called “World Cafés,” to share ideas and make recommendations for programs throughout Lake County.
Sutter Lakeside Hospital and the Health Leadership Network (HLN) are inviting all interested community members to a series of “World Cafés” to do just that.
The Health Leadership Network, a network of Lake County service provider agencies, has received a grant from the California Endowment to develop countywide obesity prevention programs.
Partners in this project include our school systems, hospitals and clinics, physicians, public health, early childhood development agencies, food and agricultural programs, and concerned citizens.
The next “World Café” will be conducted in Clearlake at the Best Western El Grande Inn on Lakeshore Blvd. on Thursday, June 14, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
If you live in Clearlake, Clearlake Park or Lower Lake, plan to attend this fun evening. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited so please call and reserve your space!
For more information about the “World Café” call Leslie Lovejoy at the Wellness Center, 263- 2998 or e-mail
To reserve your space or find out when a World Café is coming to your community, contact Jill Mills, administrative assistant to the HLN, at 245-5745.
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SACRAMENTO – The State Senate on Tuesday voted 35-0 to approve a bill by Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) to allow doctors of audiology or practicing clinical Ph.D. audiologists to serve as qualified medical evaluators on the state Workers’ Compensation appeals board to consider cases involving hearing-impaired workers.
Existing law requires the administrative director of the state Division of Workers' Compensation to appoint physicians to two-year terms as qualified medical evaluators in each of the respective specialties, for the evaluation of medical-legal issues that may arise in disputed workers compensation cases.
In asking her colleagues to approve her bill (SB 557) Tuesday, Wiggins said that “audiologists are the most qualified professionals to determine whether hearing loss would impair a worker’s ability or whether hearing loss was secondary to noise exposure on the job.”
The California Academy of Audiologists, which is sponsoring SB 557, notes that other allied health professionals, even those without doctorates such as acupuncturists, can serve as qualified medical examiners (they also cite chiropractors, optometrists and psychologists. The academy asserts that “it stands to reason that audiologists should be able to do the same for hearing loss.”
“Including audiologists as experts in Workers' Comp cases will improve consumer access to professionals with special training in the assessment of hearing loss,” Wiggins said, “as well as a detailed understanding of the effects of damaging influences on the auditory mechanism that may occur in various work settings.”
Now that it has been approved by the full Senate, SB 557 next heads to the Assembly for consideration.
Wiggins represents the 2nd Senate District, which includes parts or all of Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties. Visit her Web site at http://dist02.casen.govoffice.com/.
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WASHINGTON – On May 23, the House of Representatives passed a HR 2429, a bill to help physicians maintain their medical practices at home while serving their country overseas in the Guard or the Armed Forces Reserve.
The bill, introduced by Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Sam Johnson (R-TX), fixes a limitation in Medicare law, which restricts to 60 days the amount of time a physician can fill in for another physician who is on a leave of absence.
This limit does not work for physicians in the Armed Forces Reserve and the Guard, who are absent from their practices for much longer than 60 days when they are called up for active duty.
"When these physicians are deployed, they leave behind families and jobs just like any other person in the Reserve or Guard," said Vietnam veteran Congressman Mike Thompson. "But they also leave behind their patients. Doctors who are taking care of our troops overseas shouldn't have to worry that their patients aren't being cared for here at home."
Thompson's Washington spokesperson, Anne Warden, reported that Thompson's office conducted a survey and found at least 3,000 doctors who are members of the Army Reserve or National Guard.
That number includes Dr. Brad Clair, a Lakeport doctor about to return overseas for a third tour of duty.
"This bill is just common-sense and eliminates red-tape for those serving our country – and their communities. It's time we helped our weekend warriors – who happen to be doctors – to keep their patients and their practice," said the 29-year Air Force veteran and former Vietnam prisoner of war Congressman Sam Johnson. "This bill is a slam dunk!"
Medicare currently allows physicians to enter reciprocal billing arrangements, whereby replacement physicians can care for the absent physician's patients and bill Medicare accordingly. However, these arrangements cannot last longer than a 60-day period. After 60 days, a second replacement must be found. Securing replacement physicians is an expensive and difficult process, especially for practices in remote and rural areas.
Physicians who cannot secure multiple replacements during their absence can either lose their patients to other practices or their patients must go without care. HR 2429 suspends the 60-day cap for physicians filling in for Reserve and Guard members called for duty through the rest of the calendar year.
"Passage of this bill provides an immediate fix for physicians serving right now," said Thompson. "It will help thousands of physicians protect their patients and practices when they're called to duty and away serving our country. But, we need to make sure that this problem is permanently fixed. Representative Johnson and I are planning to introduce legislation that will do that and we are optimistic that it will receive equally strong support."
This bill has been endorsed by the American Medical Association.
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LAKEPORT – Keeping children safe in our evolving society becomes more difficult each day. Parents and other caretakers are faced with constant challenges when trying to keep their children safe in this fast-paced world. Newspapers are filled each day with stories of crimes committed against children by people they trust.
A free new workshop, “What Parents Need to Know About Keeping Kids Safe,” will be provided on May 31 by Lake Family Resource Center in Lakeport. Caregivers will learn the skills needed to teach children “how to be safe.”
Traditionally, children have been taught to stay away from “strangers” because strangers are dangerous. We now know this isn’t always true. Sometimes the perpetrator of violence on a child is someone the child knows.
Participants will learn how to build a child’s confidence and how to teach them to be alert to certain behaviors in people instead of thinking strangers are the only danger to their wellbeing.
“What Parents Need to Know” will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 31, at Lake Family Resource Center, 896 Lakeport Blvd, Lakeport.
Space is limited for this free workshop. Register, or receive further information, by calling Lake Family Resource Center, 262-1611 or 1-888-775-8336.
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