State Health

Dr. Michelle A. Gourdine, Baltimore County's top health official for nearly a decade, has been appointed deputy secretary of public health services for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, according to state officials. The appointment by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will take effect Feb. 1. Gourdine, a board-certified pediatrician, has served as the county's health officer since 1995 and oversees about 550 employees and a $44 million budget, county officials said. As deputy secretary, Gourdine, 42, will oversee seven areas of the state health agency, including those dealing with alcohol and drug abuse, AIDS and community health.

Like a one-two punch, two major Maryland employers in the health care service and pharmaceutical industries were the targets last week of multibillion-dollar acquisition deals. Both homegrown companies — Human Genome Sciences Inc. and Catalyst Health Solutions Inc. — are based in Rockville. Both were courted by out-of-state companies. Human Genome ultimately rebuffed a $2.6 billion offer by biopharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, saying it was too low. But Catalyst agreed to be acquired by a larger Illinois competitor for $4.4 billion, and Human Genome has officially acknowledged it's on the market.

In a sweeping plan released yesterday, state health officials outlined Maryland's top health problems and strategies to fix them. Children's health emerged as the No. 1 priority, followed by substance abuse, cancer and access to health care. Improving the public health infrastructure to deal with threats like bioterrorism also made the list of top 10 priorities. According to the plan, many public health workers around the state don't have access to the state health department's secure computer network to get timely, essential information, and data systems need to be integrated and updated.

The state Board of Physicians Tuesday suspended the license of a Salisbury pain doctor, who the board said had not been using proper safeguards in prescribing opiates. Separately, state health officials had suspended Dr. Brent R. Fox's authority to write prescriptions for opiates and other controlled dangerous substances last week after their own investigation showed he was prescribing drugs in amounts outside of standards and was not conducting thorough exams of patients. The new action means the doctor can't practice medicine in Maryland for now. The doctor had been referred to the state by a managed-care organization with which Fox was affiliated, and the state has become more aggressive in tackling abuse of highly addictive painkillers.

ANNAPOLIS -- As a Republican candidate for governor last year, Dr. Ross Z. Pierpont needled Democratic Gov. William Donald Schaefer as a "big spender" who is too free with taxpayers' money and too eager to dole out jobs to political insiders.But Dr. Pierpont says those labels do not apply to his case, even though the Schaefer administration managed in these desperate economic times to set aside as much as $77,480 to hire the 74-year-old surgeon to help out at the state health department.Dr.

A year into a new effort to expand health coverage, recession-weary Marylanders are flocking to the state's Medicaid program in numbers far greater than expected, costing the state $50 million more in the process. As of this week, 44,255 additional state residents had enrolled in Maryland's Medicaid system after income limits were significantly relaxed, outpacing projections that enrollment would increase by 26,605. Officials say the economic downturn has swelled the ranks of the unemployed, driving more people than expected into the public plan.

A veteran federal official who held department management posts in the Reagan and first Bush administrations was nominated by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday to replace departing state health secretary Nelson J. Sabatini. S. Anthony McCann, 61, would earn $155,000 a year as secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, a job he is scheduled to start next month. The department manages more than $6 billion in state and federal funds, including nearly $4 billion for Medicaid programs, and is viewed as a probable source of spending cuts as Ehrlich seeks to balance the budget without new taxes.

Dr. Martin P. Wasserman, former state health secretary, has been appointed director of the health division of the Oregon Department of Human Services, officials announced yesterday. Wasserman, 58, is director of Maryland's Office to End Smoking at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. A physician and lawyer, he headed the state health department from 1995 to April 1999, overseeing the launching of the managed care program for the poor. Last year, he received the American Medical Association's Nathan Davis Award as state health official of the year.

Just as flu activity has begun to pick up in Maryland, state health officials are relaxing restrictions on those eligible to receive vaccine to prevent it. Following the lead of the nation's top public health agency, the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced yesterday that everyone age 50 and older should be able to get a shot. Because of the nationwide vaccine shortage, vaccinations had been limited on a voluntary basis to those 64 and older, those with chronic illnesses, pregnant women, children younger than 2 and health care workers.

State health officials have issued an emergency order shutting down a Randallstown assisted care facility after learning that a worker with a prior murder conviction is accused of using an ax handle to attack a resident. The emergency order against Peace in the Valley at 10518 Marriottsville Road was issued by Health Secretary Georges C. Benjamin last week. Officials said yesterday that they had moved 10 residents to other facilities. Carol Benner, director of the Office of Health Care Quality, said as many as 11 additional residents will have to be moved.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a warning Tuesday about skin creams that may contain mercury.  One of those creams, Crema Aguamary, has been linked to one case of mercury poisoning in the state. It was purchased in Mexico and used by somebody in Maryland. Mercury in skin creams can cause memory problems and problems with the nervous system, kidneys, skin, blood pressure, and digestive tract, according to state health officials. Unborn babies, infants and children are especially sensitive to the effects of mercury.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibits the sale of skin-bleaching products containing mercury in the United States.  Products that contain the ingredients mercury, mercurio, mercuric, mercurous, or calomel should not be used, DHMH cautioned.

State auditors have questioned $88,000 in claims paid to health care providers by the Family Health Administration in the last two fiscal years. The auditors said in a report made public Tuesday that the FHA, which provides health care services to at-risk communities, did not adequately make sure claims were legitimate. For instance, from January 2008 to July 2009 the agency paid for several medical procedures that were considered questionable because records show accompanying care, such as anesthesia, was not provided.

Maryland is right to move ahead with plans for establishing a state health-insurance exchange, despite uncertainty over the ultimate outcome of pending court challenges to the federal health-care reform law. Even if the Supreme Court were eventually to find that all or parts of the federal law violated the Constitution - such as the individual mandate requiring everyone to buy private insurance - a vigorous state exchange would still make quality care...

I felt just terrible Monday morning, March 24th, as I drove to work, listening to Linda Raines, executive director of the Mental Health Association of Maryland, and Lori Doyle, chief operating officer of Mosaic Community Services, Inc., on WYPR's Maryland Morning radio program talking about the proposed cuts to the mental health budget. I have been a community psychiatrist for 20 years and have seen services to my patients shrink for the last 15 years, as the money to the Maryland Public Mental Health System has shrunk each year.

I am the current president of the Community Behavioral Health Association of Maryland (CBH), a group of long established, mission-driven providers of community mental health care to the poorest and neediest Maryland citizens. I was pleased to read your editorial comment ("The General Assembly's to-do list," March 27 ) supporting an increase in alcohol tax. You note — correctly — that the dime-a drink proposal was to provide funds for mental health care; however, the bill on the table now — SB 994 — raises less money, raises it more slowly, and, most importantly, does not fund those distressed though deserving programs.

Nearly 100 people have reported symptoms of viral gastroenteritis after a weekend swim meet at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, state health officials said. Several athletes got sick on the pool deck during the finals session of the Maryland State Swimming Championships on Saturday, according to a letter on the Maryland Swimming website. Of the 99 people who reported illnesses to Maryland Swimming after the weekend's events, 89 were swimmers, about seven or eight others were officials or coaches on the pool deck and others were parents or spectators, said Raymond Brown, the organization' s general chair.

The top Maryland gubernatorial candidates focused on improving the state's health care system yesterday, with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announcing a new program to expand access for the working poor and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley unveiling a plan to attract and retain nurses. Speaking at a health clinic in Park Heights, Ehrlich announced the start of a program that will allow about 22,000 more low- to moderate-income Marylanders to get free primary health care with little additional investment from the state.

Opponents of proposed cuts to state health programs criticized Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday for threatening drastic reductions in medical services for the poor. Members of Health Care for All Coalition, a nonprofit organization that advocates for improving health care coverage for Marylanders, gathered for a news conference and rally at the Men's Health Center on North Avenue with several elected officials and public health leaders. The group is trying to garner opposition to the state Health Department's proposed $480 million in cuts that, if enacted, would make thousands of children ineligible for free health insurance coverage and close four mental health facilities.

Charles Carter Putnam, former director of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, died Feb. 21 of heart failure at the Carroll Hospice Dove House in Westminster. He was 91. The son of a railroader and a saleswoman, Mr. Putnam was born in Baltimore and raised in Woodlawn. He was a 1937 graduate of Catonsville High School. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1943 and served as a radar mechanic with the 316th Troop Carrier. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of corporal.