Healthy Start

Public health nurses and the Anne Arundel County Health Department are squabbling over quotas the department wants to institute to measure the nurses' job performance.The Health Department says the 11 nurses who administer the state's Healthy Start home-visit program in Anne Arundel should see at least 80 patients per month, a number most already meet or exceed.But the five nurses who are state employees -- the others are contract workers -- argue that their average is not that high and that meeting quotas will force them to cut corners with patients, who are pregnant mothers and newborns.

The Baltimore Health Department failed to collect financial reports from six of its subcontractors, which received more than $8.7 million in federal money, according to an audit set for release today.The subcontractor the audit highlighted as an issue of "greatest concern" is the $3.2 million Healthy Start Initiative, a prenatal support program for poor women that came under fire last fall amid allegations that the program's administrators misused millions of dollars.As a result of those problems, Healthy Start's executive director and chief financial officer were replaced.

Scores of unemployed men and women in Baltimore will be yelled at today.During the next three weeks, they will subject themselves to intense sessions during which they will be berated, intimidated and shaken emotionally. Some will break down in tears. For this, many of them will be grateful.Such is the promise of STRIVE Baltimore, an in-your-face job training and placement service not unlike boot camp in the Marines. STRIVE was heralded last year in a "60 Minutes" television broadcast and is spreading nationwide in major cities.

The Baltimore state's attorney is conducting a criminal and civil investigation into possible misuse of funds by officials for a highly touted federal program that aids poor pregnant women and their babies.Dr. Peter Beilenson, city health commissioner, confirmed yesterday that his department in the last month discovered spending discrepancies in the $3.2 million-a-year Healthy Start program and turned over the information to the office of city State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy.Details of the allegations were not provided.

IMAGINE MEDICAL researchers pinpointing a dozen drugs that might show promise in fighting cancer. They devise a test in which Mne drug produces tantalizing results. Would the headlines read: ''Anti-cancer tests fail''?Not likely. But that is what has happened in a bizarre turn of events involving the leak of a preliminary evaluation of a federal effort to reduce infant mortality and low birth-weight babies.''Top federal officials have barred researchers from releasing a report indicating that the government's most ambitious and expensive effort to reduce infant mortality may not be achieving its goal,'' said the Philadelphia Inquirer in a Nov. 12 story.

If you're looking for a 1998 calendar featuring Kate Moss or her emaciated fashion pals, steer clear of the calendar being created by Gail Leonard."There are enough calendars with skinny women," says Leonard, 41. She is wearing a slinky, black, off-the-shoulder dress with strands of gold-colored sequins. "I didn't want skinny women in my calendar."Late last month, Leonard sent a handful of Baltimore businesses and organizations a fax advertising for full-figured black women to pose for a black history calendar.

Vice President Al Gore presented an unexpected gift to a program for teen-age fathers when he visited Baltimore this week -- the $500,000 it needs to stay alive.Gore pledged another year of funding for the Baltimore Healthy Start Men's Services Program in a private meeting Tuesday night with Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a 7th District Democrat.Cummings said that he made the program a priority in a 15-minute sales pitch he made when he buttonholed Gore before the vice president sat down to a dinner with Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and other political figures Tuesday night.

Health officials expect to know this week what caused 49 people to become ill after eating food served at a luncheon during a health care conference at the Baltimore Convention Center last week.Those who became ill reported suffering stomach cramps and diarrhea after eating at a two-day conference sponsored by Healthy Start, said Dr. Peter Beilenson, Baltimore's health commissioner. None of them went to area hospitals for treatment."We're not sure what caused the [foodborne illness] outbreak," Beilenson said yesterday.

MYRON TURNER'S profile might not fit that of the usual Father's Day poster dad. But in the past year he has come much further toward that ideal than many of the other men who are being honored today for the positive roles they play.At 20, Myron Turner is the father of five daughters, ranging in age from 4 months to 5 years old. Despite his love of lacrosse, football and other sports, he dropped out of Walbrook High School in favor of spending more time as a gang leader in the lucrative drug trade on West Baltimore's mean streets.

A FEW YEARS AGO the federal government took an unusually bold risk on a social issue.It decided to get serious about reducing the nation's shamefully high infant-mortality rate and set a goal for reducing it. The Healthy Start program was charged with reducing infant deaths by 50 percent over five years.Building on local health initiatives, Baltimore applied to be one of the nation's 15 Healthy Start demonstration cities. The proposal was successful, winning for the city millions of dollars in federal .. funds -- and, equally important, accountability for actually making a difference in infant health in the city's targeted areas.

Reya Johnson sat in her living room with her 15-month-old daughter Andrea, a bright-eyed child who couldn't stop smiling. They sang nursery rhymes and played pitty-pat, tapping their palms lightly together. Ms. Johnson, 38, was showing Peggy White, a caseworker from Baltimore's Healthy Start initiative, the progress Andrea had made since her last visit. Healthy Start helps pregnant women and new mothers with counseling, medical care and other services. Ms. White watched as Andrea eagerly pretended to read a colorful brochure and recited rhymes with her mother.

A pregnant 17-year-old in a disheveled apartment who says her first baby died last year. An obese woman in her 20s who fights violently with her neighbors despite being five months pregnant. A 19-year-old woman with a month-old infant strapped to her stomach who wanders the streets all day because she's afraid to return to her grandmother's home where she witnessed a gruesome murder last week. These are the faces of the public health crisis in Baltimore that is the city's tragic infant mortality rate.

It makes good sense: Give a low-income pregnant woman intensive care and support and make sure she gets proper nutrition - and her baby will be healthier at birth with a lower probability of developmental problems. That's the aim of Healthy Start, a federally funded program with 100 projects across the country, including one in Baltimore. But reauthorization of the program has been languishing in Congress since 2005. Legislation that would give Healthy Start, which saves money and lives, more time and perhaps more money is finally moving and deserves to pass sooner rather than later.

Keishaun Watson was the first to show up. She brought along her week-old daughter, Kaeden, who dozed in a Winnie-the-Pooh stroller. Next came Sierra Watkins with an equally new-to-this-world infant, a boy named Tyree. The two mothers were soon joined by about a dozen other women, all from East Baltimore and all in various stages of pregnancy or motherhood. Some hoisted chubby-cheeked toddlers over their heads, some cooed over sleeping infants, and some patted bulging bellies. The women -- and one stoic dad -- gathered yesterday at a city Healthy Start clinic not far from Johns Hopkins Hospital to talk about one thing: nursing, how to do it, why it is important, and how to tell pesky relatives that the bottle is not an option.

After Hours Mixer set for tomorrow The Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce will hold an After Hours Mixer from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Chart House, 300 2nd St., Annapolis. The event will provide participants an opportunity to celebrate the holidays and network with fellow chamber members. The cost is $10 for advance payment, $15 at the door and $25 for nonmembers. Information: 410-266-3960. DoodleSport.com aimed at dog lovers Amy Vansant Brunell, chief executive of Vansant Creations Web Development, has designed and launched a new Web site for dog lovers, Doodle Sport.

People in Sandtown-Winchester know Sheila Washington, and know she won't burn her sources. So she hears everything: Who's dropped out, who's smoking crack, who's been fighting, who's in jail - and most important, who's expecting. Most days Miss Sheila, as almost everyone calls her, trolls the neighborhood, scouting. She talks to the ladies braiding hair on stoops, the old men sitting on rickety porches, the glaring drug dealers standing on corners - anyone who might know someone who's got a baby on the way. "Where the pregnant ladies at?"

Baltimore had the lowest infant mortality rate in its history last year, an improvement that city officials attributed to an aggressive campaign to seek out and treat pregnant women with health problems. The mortality rate fell from 11.9 deaths per 1,000 births in 2001 to 10.4 deaths last year, according to preliminary figures released yesterday. For the first time last year, infant mortality among blacks dropped below the national average for blacks. Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, Baltimore health commissioner, called the decline one of the most important accomplishments of his 11-year tenure as commissioner.

The race for the 8th Congressional District seat in Montgomery County is on pace to be one of the most expensive in the nation, with the incumbent and her two challengers having raised more than $1 million each, financial disclosure reports filed yesterday show. While candidates in Baltimore County's 2nd District haven't been able to match those figures, fund raising in that race - which got under way three months ago - has also gotten off to a healthy start, with County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger reporting more than $460,000 in donations, more than twice as much as the leading Republican, former U.S. Rep. Helen Delich Bentley.

Despite the discovery of millions of dollars in unpaid bills and more than $750,000 in improper expenditures, no criminal charges will be brought in a more than yearlong investigation of a federally funded Baltimore program to help needy pregnant women. Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth Ritter confirmed yesterday that she had informed the board of Baltimore's Healthy Start program at a meeting Tuesday of the decision not to seek indictments in the case. "At this time, we've declined prosecution because there is nothing to act on," Ritter said.

Public health nurses and the Anne Arundel County Health Department are squabbling over quotas the department wants to institute to measure the nurses' job performance.The Health Department says the 11 nurses who administer the state's Healthy Start home-visit program in Anne Arundel should see at least 80 patients per month, a number most already meet or exceed.But the five nurses who are state employees -- the others are contract workers -- argue that their average is not that high and that meeting quotas will force them to cut corners with patients, who are pregnant mothers and newborns.