State Health

PINEVILLE, La. -- For some of society's most vulnerable, a hilly patch of pine forest along this stretch of the Red River in central Louisiana has become a last refuge. More than half of the state's public hospital beds for the severely mentally ill were closed or lost during hurricanes Katrina and Rita, health professionals say, leaving them with few places to turn for treatment. Many have ended up here at Central State Hospital, on the shaded grounds of a century-old psychiatric center.

Firefighters from several area counties -- some of them suffering from cancer -- and their families urged state health officials last night to find out whether chemicals they were exposed to in training at Millersville in the 1970s -- and possibly beyond -- might be responsible for the disease. "How many have to get sick and die? Do you need to see another death certificate?" Shawna Gunter, 28, of Shady Side, asked at a meeting with the Johns Hopkins University public health investigators involved in a study of the cancers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The state health department has drafted a $480 million list of potential program cuts that, if enacted, would deprive thousands of children of free health insurance coverage and shutter four mental health facilities, and could force women to pay for their own laboratory tests after rapes, according to documents obtained yesterday by The Sun. "It basically tells people if you are sick, leave the state," said Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, a nurse and chairwoman of...

Nelson J. Sabatini, head of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, has informed his staff that he will leave his position at the end of the month. Sabatini's departure has been expected, although a date had not been set. He previously held the job under Gov. William Donald Schaefer, and reluctantly returned at the insistence of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., agreeing to stay through two legislative sessions. Sabatini, 64, plans to split his time between Hawaii and Maryland, and to launch a consulting business.

Robert W. Eastridge, a retired deputy state health secretary, died Thursday of undetermined causes at his Timonium home. He was 57. Born in Danville, Va., and raised in Middlesex in Baltimore County, he was a 1965 graduate of Kenwood High School and played varsity soccer and basketball there. He earned a psychology degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and held a master's degree in public health. He served in the Air Force as a medic before being hired by the state government in 1972 as a staff trainer and coordinator of paramedic training programs.

WASHINGTON - State Health Secretary Nelson J. Sabatini severely criticized the nation's system for regulating hospitals yesterday, warning a congressional subcommittee that patient safety problems as serious as those found at Maryland General Hospital likely are occurring across the country. "It would be a terrible mistake to categorize this as an isolated incident," Sabatini said. "I believe that the Maryland General experience is merely a symptom of a system failure." Sabatini and others who testified in the three-hour hearing before the House Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources subcommittee acknowledged that inspectors from the public and private sectors repeatedly failed to communicate with each other, failed to follow up on their own inspections and realized the extent of problems only when a second whistleblower came forward.