San Joaquin County Health Digest

More than 6,000 residents live outside the targeted 5-minute accident, fire and police response-time zone in southwest Manteca.

Dozens of members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, including vocational nurses, social workers, kitchen and janitorial staff, picketed outside the Sutter Center for Psychiatry

A ribbon-cutting was held April 25 to celebrate the opening of the Richard A. Pittman VA Clinic at 6505 South Manthey Road in French Camp.

Newsom-backed bill would allow Arizona abortion providers to practice in California as the Republican-led state restricts access.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new ad blasts GOP efforts to make it harder for people to leave states with abortion bans and seek treatment elsewhere.

Water suppliers say the costs will be massive, with rates increasing for many consumers. Known as the “Erin Brockovich” chemical, hexavalent chromium is found statewide.

Chinese Hospital, located in the heart of this city's legendary Chinatown, struggles with many of the same financial and demographic challenges that plague small independent hospitals in underserved areas across the country.

These professionals provide essential services, but their pay and working conditions do not reflect their value, and their health suffers.

Evictions have exacerbated homelessness nationwide, increasing the rate of homeless infants and toddlers. Most of those children are not enrolled in early education programs.

Disputes between insurers and providers can lead to entire hospital systems suddenly leaving the plans.

After bringing his story all the way to the University of California Board of Regents, a disabled UC Berkeley student has prompted the UC to ensure emergency evacuation chairs are in every multi-storied building in the 10-university system.

San Joaquin Public Health Officer Dr. Maggie Park reports that TB cases are increasing in the state, with a 55% rise in cases in 2022-2023 in the county.

Lawyers from the conservative Christian group that won the case to overturn Roe v. Wade are returning to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in pursuit of an urgent priority: shutting down access to abortion pills for women across the country.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday that he is throwing his weight behind legislation to bar medical debt from showing up on consumer credit reports, a Democratic-led effort to offer protection to patients squeezed by health care bills.

Proposition E broadens police surveillance powers and Proposition F mandates drug screening and treatment for people receiving county welfare benefits who are suspected of drug use.

Nurses complain of short staffing, high patient to nurse ratios, and long shifts without breaks.

A report of a 12 month study which ended in February indicates almost half of those cited for drug usage were not residents of the city, leading to questions about city approaches to drug addiction.

The monthly rate of antidepressants being dispensed to young people increased about 64% more quickly during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics.

Health providers and addiction experts warn the funding structure is unstable for a California initiative that steers patients with substance use disorder into long-term treatment.

The United States is knee-deep in what some experts call the opioid epidemic's "fourth wave," which is not only placing drug users at greater risk but is also complicating efforts to address the nation's drug problem.

For weeks, Anthem Blue Cross enrollees who receive health care from the University of California were in suspense, as the health system and one of its largest insurance partners struggled to reach a new contract.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may soon drop its isolation guidance for people with COVID-19. The planned change was reported in the Washington Post.

While temperatures aren’t warm enough for mosquitoes to run rampant, now’s the time to prevent breeding grounds.

Nearly 2 million Medi-Cal enrollees can now accumulate savings and property without limitations and still qualify for the state's health insurance program for low-income residents.

The Central Valley faces acute demand for behavioral health workers, which is why the San Joaquin County Behavioral Health Services agency partnered with the nonprofit HealthForce Partners of Northern San Joaquin Valley.

States are plowing billions of dollars into a high-stakes health care experiment that’s exploding around the country: using scarce public health insurance money to provide housing for the poorest and sickest Americans.

One year after California became the first state to require its public universities to provide the abortion pill to students, basic information on where or how students can obtain the medication is lacking.

The All of Us mobile tour heads to the San Joaquin Valley this spring, with the aim of finding people from a wide range of communities to enroll in the study.

When wildfire smoke and extreme heat combine, they create “a synergistic effect” or an “additional burden” on people’s health, researchers say.

Each fall, millions of hunters across North America bag deer. Over the winter, people chow down on the venison steaks, sausage, and burgers made from the animals.

As Californians increasingly feel the health effects of climate change, state leaders are adopting sweeping policies they hope will fend off the worst impacts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom crafted the measure to reform California’s mental health system, including a $6.4-billion bond for new facilities.