Tagged: public health

Louisiana's Office of Public Health is going statewide with a plan that officials say cut past-due restaurant and retail food inspections by at least one-third during a nine-parish pilot that began in February.

Assistant Secretary J.T. Lane said Thursday that he's making other changes to fix problems noted in a highly critical state audit released last month.

The audit said his office gave permits to restaurants that failed to correct violations and didn't meet its own standards — such as inspecting restaurants four times a year.

A groundbreaking will be held at 2 p.m., marking the start of a new full-service hospital for New Orleans East. It’s a major step forward in Hurricane Katrina recovery.

The deadline is approaching this week for governors who opted out of provisions of the Affordable Care Act to change their minds. Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal is refusing to set up a state-run health insurance exchange for people who can’t afford plans in the current market.

Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu is turning up the pressure on Jindal. She wants the state to establish a system under the new guidelines instead of having the federal government impose general standards.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is making another push to get people who worked on the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil disaster cleanup to enroll in a long-term health study.

Dr. Dale Sandler, chief of the agency's epidemiology branch, said Tuesday that more than 29,000 people have enrolled so far. But, she says, the goal is to get 35,000 to 40,000 people signed up before enrollment in the study ends Dec. 31.

The Advocate reports enrollment started March 2011.