Health

Government subsidized senior public housing will go totally smoke-free in August.

The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation will implement no-smoking rules in residents’ apartments, forcing smokers outside to common areas.

The corporation says it will then examine other housing facilities and implement the policy “as appropriate.”

Letters went out to tenants last month, and some folks at Juneau’s Mountain View Apartments are fighting back, led by 60-year-old Ron Dean, who has smoked since he was 15.  He says he comes from a “long line of smokers.”

Dean is author of a petition protesting the new rules, and signed by nearly half the residents at Mountain View. Even non-smokers added their name, including Korean Hyun Jou.

“I cannot smoke,  but smoke is freedom in the USA,” he says.

The Mountain View tenants say the smoking ban will violate their right to privacy in their homes.

Common areas in AHFC facilities have been non-smoking for years.  Now the agency is asking all residents in senior and disabled housing units to sign an addendum to their lease saying they will take their smokes outside.

At Mountain View that means to the front or back entrances.

“It gets kind of gnarly out here in the wintertime,” Dean says, as he opens the door to the uncovered back entrance.  “I don’t want to stand there at 20 degree temperatures, 60 mile an hour winds and try and smoke a cigarette. ”

Dean says he had no trouble getting signatures on his petition.

“Here’s another man who signed the petition.  He doesn’t smoke,” Dean says, as Barry walks up the ramp.

He doesn’t give his last name, but says he gladly signed the petition.

“Government’s comin’ clear into your house now,” he says.  He agrees with the petition and says smoking “should be a person’s right in his own place.”

Dean’s petition and the signatures of 31 of Mountain View’s 69 residents have been sent to AHFC managers and board members.  The public housing division asked for comments by June 15. Operations director Michael Courtney says he’s already seen the petition.

“As we get the comments back in we’ll certainly review them,” Courtney says.

Courtney believes the comments will track the results of a 2010 survey sent to AHFC residents statewide that indicates most would prefer to live in smoke-free housing.

Colorful pie charts showing the results recently went up in the Mountain View lobby, along with the new policy and a picture of a man with a zipper-like scar down his chest.  The caption: “Do your heart a favor. Quit smoking.”

Dean says he’s done that before and has no intention of quitting now.

“I’m not worried about smoking killing me.  Something else will get me first,” he says.

As we scan the pie charts, Catherine Ryan rolls out of her apartment in a wheelchair.  She’s smoked most of her adult life, except when she was pregnant.

It’s her business, she says.  Ryan doesn’t believe the survey results are accurate.

“Since I am a smoker, if I had gotten one I absolutely would have filled it out,” she says.

AHFC has 1,542 multi-family and public housing units statewide. About that many surveys went out. Public Housing Division Director Catherine Stone says approximately 250 were returned, including 28 from Juneau.

“We blanketed everybody, so they kind of knew what was up and then we included in a resident newsletter kind of the fact that we felt we wanted to go smoke free and here’s why,” she says. 

Public housing projects across the country have been implementing smoke-free policies in residents’ apartments, including Cook Inlet Housing Authority in Anchorage.

Stone says one reason is the high cost of smoking, from a health and safety standpoint.

“We put in smoke eaters, we put in all kinds of fans and we’ve double-insulated some of our elderly units where people have respiratory issues, but they’re still exposed,” she says.

According to Stone, second hand smoke is virtually impossible to stop.  Indeed, the lobby at Mountain View smells of stale cigarette smoke.

It costs the agency an average of $500  to renovate an apartment between renters, Stone says, unless a smoker has lived in it.  Then it’s nearly five time that.

“Where there’s been a smoker we have to sometimes change the carpet.  We have to paint the walls multiple times.  Appliances can get damaged from cigarette smoke as well, the insulation around refrigerators and other appliances so we have to replace the appliances some times.  Flooring in the kitchen, things like that,” she says. 

The residents  have until August 1 to sign the lease addendum.

“If you don’t sign it, they don’t say it, but everybody knows what the deal is, you’re out,” Dean says.

Stone says if residents don’t sign now, they will be asked to later, on the anniversary of their lease.

“From now until August 1, we’re hoping we can get people to sign, but if they don’t, you know it could be that when they come up on their annual, they choose not to live there anymore,” she says. 

Stone says the agency will help provide smoking cessation resources for smokers who want to continue living in their apartment.

The federal government says it will withdraw its appeal of a court order allowing girls of any age to buy emergency contraception, as U.S. agencies move to comply with U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman’s order that “morning-after” pills be made available for purchase without an age restriction, and without a prescription.

More than a 100 people gathered on Sandy Beach on Saturday for the Every Mile is Worth It Race. This was the third year for the 5k hosted by the South East Alaska Regional Health Consortium.

Megan Gregory is the community project coordinator with SEARHC. Gregory’s main job is working on suicide prevention projects. She says she likes planning events that focus on healthy living:

“I’m thinking it’s more important to focus on the good in life rather than pointing out the bad which is why I coordinate events like Every Mile is Worth It. Specifically at Sandy Beach on this course, because it reminds me of life. The course isn’t always easy, there’s going to be a lot of challenges along the way but there’s no better feeling than crossing the finish line.”

The 5k is a fundraiser for the Southeast Alaska Youth Ambassador Program which was founded by Gregory in 2010 who was volunteering with the One is Too Many task force.  Funds raised by the race entry fee pay for travel for youth from southeast communities to participate in meetings.

“It’s taken a while to get it off the ground and get kids engaged because when they hear suicide, you know with the stigma attached they automatically don’t want to be involved or they think ‘oh, that’s not a problem in my community,’ but we don’t want to wait for it to become an issue.”

The 5k race included both runners and walkers. Each racer had a red or black bib. Participants started the course in different directions depending on the color of their bib. The goal was that nobody knew for sure whether they were ahead or behind of someone else. Gregory says the race wasn’t about who won or lost, but just getting out there and doing it.

The state health department warns that paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP, is ever present in locally harvested shellfish.

The Alaska Division of Public Health has confirmed a case of PSP on Gravina Island near Ketchikan.

Department spokesman Greg Wilkinson says a woman was hospitalized last week for suspected PSP after eating cockles and clams harvested on the island.

Within a few minutes she experienced numbness in her lips, tingling in fingers and toes and increasing numbness in her legs.  She has since been released from the hospital.

Wilkinson says a mixture of the leftover clams and cockles returned a test result showing some of the highest saxitoxin levels ever recorded in Alaska shellfish.

PSP cannot be cooked or cleaned out of shellfish. Only commercially grown shellfish is considered safe because it is tested.

CBJ Assemblymembers voted last week to essentially break a contract for a vendor’s services at Bartlett Regional Hospital.

In an uncommon move, the Assembly’s Finance Committee on May 8th considered adding a capital improvement project and operating appropriations item of about $8.5 million total to the upcoming budget. And then, Finance Committee members promptly voted to reject those appropriations for the city-owned hospital.

The Assembly earlier had never considered funding for those items even though the contract with Cerner corporation was already signed.

“We just know that that shouldn’t have happened. So, that’s why we took the corrective action,” said Finance Committee Chair Karen Crane. The contract was an unscheduled or an unfunded item on an earlier capital improvement projects list, but Crane said that it did not go through the regular CIP process.

Because the hospital has to follow the same appropriation rules as everybody in the Assembly. That money has to be appropriated. It has not been appropriated.”

Bartlett Regional Hospital Chief Executive Officer Chris Harff said the contract was signed before Tennessee-based Quorum Health Resources left as managers of the facility.

“The maintenence costs of that contract is something that we didn’t really feel comfortable,” said Harff.

(The Hospital Board voted to do their own hiring of senior leadership in December 2011, Harff’s first day on the job was in August 2012, and the hospital board voted to officially terminate Quorum’s management contract in October 2012.)

The contract with Cerner in Kansas City, Missouri was for a new electronic medical records or EMR accounting system for Bartlett. It would’ve cost the CBJ about $7.37 million in total capital improvement project expenditures, and required an ongoing maintenance fee of $1.155 million each year.

Harff said they’re already under pressure with various rising or additional costs taking a bigger piece out of $83 million in net revenues. She said the hospital’s net income or profit has been as high as $9 million. But, now, net income is projected to be down to $3.3 million.

In the industry, for hospitals to maintain, they suggest about a 3- to 5-percent profit margin. We kind of picked a number in the middle. A budget is as good as a budget, and we all know things can happen.”

Essentially, the hospital cannot afford Cerner’s million-plus annual maintenence fee for the new EMR.

Some money, although Harff could not say how much, was paid to Cerner at signing of the contract. So far, the contract has not been implemented. Harff said the next step is negotiating with Cerner for a potential resolution.

The city, like it does in every contract, has clauses that, you know, ‘this has to be approved,’ there is processes. So, we are looking to that clause to be honest to the vendor, saying ‘we don’t know if we can really afford this,’ which leaves us other options.”

Crane said the issue was not sent onto the full Assembly for consideration, so she considers the Finance Committee’s vote to be the final word on the issue.

They are now going to have to look and see if they can’t find something less expensive.”

Hospitals and other health care providers are mandated to shift to EMR, which is essentially the modern digital version of the old paper chart. Harff said they could still qualify for federal incentives and avoid being penalized, such as with potential deductions in Medicare reimbursement, if they act quickly to get a system up and running.

We’re not in danger of losing any money. But we want to make sure that we can pay for the solution we have and be financially viable.

Bartlett does have an alternative EMR system that will need significant updating to bring online, but Harff said it should come at a much lower expense than the Cerner contract.

KTOO has contacted Cerner officials in Missouri and this story will be updated if they respond with any substantial comment.

Forty-one  peace officers have already died in the line of duty in the United States, including two in Alaska.

Peace officers across the country  celebrated their Memorial Day on Wednesday.  In Juneau, police officers gathered at noon at Evergreen Cemetery to remember fallen officers Richard Adair and Jimmy Kennedy, who died by gunfire in 1979 while responding to a call just up the hill from the cemetery.  The suspect committed suicide.

Adair is buried at Evergreen Cemetery and Juneau public safety officers traditionally lay a wreath at the grave.

Lt. Kris Sell said the wreath is a symbol of the sacrifice of Adair, Kennedy, and other fallen officers.

“We stand here today at the equivalent of the Juneau Police Officer Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That’s a place in (Washington) D.C. that is used to honor soldiers who have lost their lives,” Sell said. “We treat this sacred and honored place of Adair’s final resting place  as our place to come and give our thanks for those sacrifices.”

The Memorial Day commemoration continued last evening at JPD, where State Trooper Lt. Steve Hall remembered Village Public Safety Officer Thomas Madole and Alaska State Trooper Tage Toll, who died in separate incidents in March.

Madole was shot and killed on March 7^th in Manokotak, about 25 miles southwest of Dillingham.  Hall says it was clear Madole had established a close connection to the people of the Yup’ik Eskimo village of about 450.

“It’s a hard thing to do to move into a rural community like that and be that accepted,” Hall said.  “You really have to be an exceptional individual to have that kind of relationship that quickly with the close knit community you’re going into. So his service is evident in that by itself.”

Toll was the father of small children who had been a state trooper for about 10 years.  He died March 30^th in a helicopter crash, after rescuing a stranded snowmobiler.

“Tage was a real dedicated guy.  He moved around the state a fair bit, worked in different positions so he was known by lots and lots of members of the department,” Hall said.

President Barack Obama issued a proclamation establishing May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day. Gov. Sean Parnell has declared May 10 through 17 as Law Enforcement Memorial Week in Alaska.