The latest Department of State Health Services news from The Texas Tribune.
State health officials have pulled guidelines allowing abortion facilities to use pre-recorded telephone messages to provide informed consent to patients off of their website. They said concerns raised by Rep. Frank Corte, who is seeking an AG opinion on the matter, "may have merit." Full Story
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A national study released today ranks nearly every county in Texas — and in the rest of the country — by mortality and morbidity rates, and the health factors that contribute to them. Full Story
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The number of Texas physicians who use electronic medical records has been on the rise for the last four years, according to a Texas Medical Association study. Full Story
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The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has released its best bets for how to meet the 5 percent budget reduction requested by Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders. Full Story
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Immunization advocates want to expand our vaccination database, but the well-educated, middle-class parents who oppose them are organized and driven — and could force lawmakers to take sides in the tussle between personal freedom and public health. Full Story
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Advocates for vaccination records say a complete registry of shots would help the state navigate major health crises. Opponents say it would jeopardize patient privacy. Lawmakers like the potential cost savings, but they still aren’t sure where they stand. Full Story
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If doctors in Texas are going to start using electronic medical records, somebody has to teach them how to do it. The state's universities are gearing up to teach the teachers. Full Story
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Three challenges stand between Texas and the era of electronic medical records: convincing doctors to use them, figuing out how to safely share and protect them and finding a way to pay for them. Full Story
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Two very different Texans in the U.S. House of Representatives — Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and John Carter, R-Round Rock — respond to the president's State of the Union address. Full Story
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With each day that passes, David Nicholson fears that the man who killed his profoundly disabled brother will join the ranks of state school workers who are never convicted for their heinous acts. Full Story
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State employees who commit heinous acts against Texas' most profoundly disabled citizens rarely get charged with crimes, let alone go to jail. A Texas Tribune review of a decade’s worth of abuse and neglect firings at state institutions found that just 16 percent of the most violent or negligent employees were ever charged with crimes. Full Story
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Some physicians in undeserved areas of Texas worry that the doctor shortage is not being addressed in the health care reform debate. As part of his continuing exploration of the effort to rewrite health care policy, KUT's Nathan Bernier talked to an East Austin doctor who's doing his best to serve as many patients as possible. Full Story
Members of Congress are working to reconcile two massive health care bills that Texas doctors say will affect their practices and their patients. As part of his continuing exploration of how the effort to rewrite health care policy is playing here, KUT's Nathan Bernier talked to an eye doctor in North Austin. Full Story
In rural counties, recruiting doctors is the single biggest health care challenge. Twenty-seven counties have no primary care physicians. Full Story
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As Congress wrestles with the fine print of massive health care legislation, doctors in Texas say both their practices and their patients will be affected. Nathan Bernier reports for KUT News from Athens, about three hours northeast of Austin, where a doctor reveals the unique challenges of providing care in a small town. Full Story
It’s no time to be an advocate for rural health care. Rural lawmakers say they're consistently outnumbered and under-represented — and that redistricting will only make matters worse. Full Story
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The state is working to get poor Texans food stamps quicker, but it's not fast enough for many families, and too many children are getting their only hot meal at school, according to Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. Full Story
Emergency medicine doctors say trauma victims must receive care within the “golden hour” to survive. But many rural Texas counties aren’t anywhere near hospitals that can handle complex injuries or illness. Full Story
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Dozens of rural Texas counties have no primary care doctors, no hospitals, no pharmacies. Many Texans live more than an hour from basic medical care. And some border communities have so little health care that U.S. citizens cross over into Mexico to get it. Full Story
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Roll your own political videos ... interactive travel maps of your federal and state legislators ... scary movies, to keep the kids out of the border's scary drug wars ... puttting dropouts back in class ... rates squeezing families out of home health care ... how many lobby and trade associations do teachers in Texas need? ... enjoying the silence before an expected two-month siege of political advertising ... the dean of Texas political writers gets shut out of the gubernatorial debates ... and we have an interactive database of the state's best and worst public schools. The best of our best for a short news week, from December 19 to 26, 2009. Full Story
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