A blog about News, Health & Wellness, and Family & Home.
Real Name: The Pulse Member Since: April 08, 2006 Last Signed In: April 23, 2009 Profile Views: 9811 Blog Views: 53962 When a trip to urgent care brings a visit from CPS New ratings released for health plans, providers My last B.com blog post: Thanks for everything! Ombudsman: Budget cuts hurt long-term care Kern's longstanding battle with the mosquito Read the complaint filed against Dr. Freesemann, others Tips to avoid hospital, school infections BPD: Drug cache found in Dr. Freesemann's home, motor home The budget dust settles: How did health programs fare? Prominent doctor arrested in drug investigation August 06 September 06 October 06 November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 December 08 January 09 February 09 March 09 April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09
Here's some sites I find useful and interesting: Some fun blogs I like, some health and some random: Got a blog or link to add to this list? Please let me know at ehagedorn@bakersfield.com. 
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Location:
420 34th St,
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Instead of striking Tuesday, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital nurses will be voting on their new contract. The nurses and the hospital's management have reached an agreement. But while both parties seem to have the same contract, hearing them talk about it would lead you to think otherwise. For example, take the nurse-to-patient ratios. The final contract says the hospital will follow the law, and the ratios are attached as an appendix. But if the law changes, "we'll then comply...
We may be past the days of faking a high temperature by putting the thermometer to the closest lightbulb, but we are definitely not past playing hooky.
And chances are we are still getting away with it.
A new study, commissioned by CareerBuilder.com, found that 32 percent of workers said they called in sick when they felt well at least once in the last year. One-in-10 admitted to doing so three times or more.
One-in-four workers said they consider their sick days to be equivalent...
I must admit — I have a thing for Campbell's chicken noodle soup.
It's my Ramen noodles. It got me through college, and right this second, I probably have five or six cans of it sitting in my cupboard. I eat a bowl of it, with a side of grilled cheese sandwich, at least once a week.
There's just something about the little cubes of chicken and its bright yellow glow.
So you must understand my let down when I saw it on The Center for Science in the Public Interest's list of...
Rather than write a separate blog posting on each of these thrilling topics, I decided to toss them all together, turkey-sandwich-relished-with-stuffing-the-day-af ter-Thanksgiving style.
Pilgrim buggery
Think we're more advanced than our forefathers in the mono-chromatic attire and buckled shoes? Maybe not as much as we think.
A columnist with MSNBC gives some historical perspective on the Pilgrim's' views on sex.
To this day there are some in this country who believe sex laws...
We put a lot of trust in doctors. If a person in a white jacket tells us to do something, most of us do it without much hesitation.
Remember the Stanley Milgram experiment from psychology class? Participants were instructed by a man in a white coat to shock the person on the other side of the wall for every answer that person got wrong. A majority of the participants obeyed the researcher until the end, until the the person on the other side of the wall — who in reality was an actor...
Location:
420 34th St,
Bakersfield, CA 93301
The California Nurses Association, which represents the Memorial nurses, gave the hospital notice Tuesday afternoon of a Dec. 5 strike, said Diane Hirsch-Garcia, contract negotiator with CNA. If the nurses strike, it won't affect business at Memorial, said Jon Van Boening, Memorial's president and CEO. Now that the date has been set, Memorial can take a tally of the nurses who are planning to strike and determine how many replacement nurses to bring in, he said. Once this is done,...
Location:
420 34th St,
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Saturday night, a little past 9 p.m., a group of nurses from Bakersfield Memorial Hospital gathered in Lorene's restaurant downtown. They seemed a little tired from the drama of the week, but they were nonetheless feeling triumphant. The votes had been counted. They were going to strike. Well over 75 percent of the roughly 400 nurses at Memorial voted, and 97 percent voted to strike, said Diane Hirsch-Garcia, contract negotiator with the California Nurses Association, in a...
The impulse might be to implicitly trust the person with the white coat and stethoscope, but you should always ask questions about any diagnosis or treatment you receive.
This is especially important with clinical trials, highly regimented research studies where drugs and procedures are tested on humans.
These drugs are not FDA-approved. For some, these drugs are the ticket to health, but they can also carry unknown side effects.
ClinicalTrials.gov has a list of questions you...
While illegal immigrants accounted for 33 percent of health spending in L.A. County in 2000, they use disproportionately fewer medical services than other people, according to a new study by the Rand Corp.
Here are some things to chew on:
The undocumented constitute 12 percent of the non-elderly population but accounted for 6 percent of spending.
Total spending by the undocumented was $6.4 billion, of which 17 percent ($1.1 billion) was paid by public sources....
Like other health-related issues in Kern County, the effects of the nursing shortage are probably being felt more acutely here than in other sunnier, more luxurious locales.
All the more reason to think of solutions now before the effects of the shortage get worse.
Consider these facts:
Kern County recently got an F for not having enough nurses per capita. The county has 345 nursing jobs per 100,000 people. The state nurse ratio is 622 per 100,000, below the national average of...
Location:
5080 California Ave. Suite 200,
Bakersfield, CA 93309
Remember the big "Made in USA" push? I was in elementary school at the time. Commercials touting clothes with the "Made in USA" tags used to air all the time. The made-locally branding seems to have waned a bit, but there's still signs of it here and there. One example is the two new Medicare Advantage plans GEMCare is pushing. The "local" angle is big with GEMCare. I heard it many times during the reporting of the story I did on the plans. Some...
It's about as pleasant as standing in line at the DMV, but if you are over 65 or disabled, it might save you money on your prescriptions.
Enrollment for the Medicare prescription drug plans starts Wednesday. Here are some places you can go to for more information about this:
Medicare: 1-800-MEDICARE (633-4227) and www.medicare.gov
Social Security Administration: 800-772-1213 and www.ssa.gov
California Department of Managed Health Care: 888-HMO-2219 (466-2219) and www.dmhc.ca.gov...
It seems that the government is being more prudish than its people.A study was just released, saying that most Americans favor comprehensive sex education over abstinence-only education, regardless of their political bias.According to a story by Reuters:Of the nearly 1,110 U.S. adults they surveyed, 82 percent supported programs that discuss abstinence as well as other methods for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Half were in outright opposition to abstinence-only...
Location:
3711 Columbus St,
Bakersfield, CA 93306
As promised, here's a guide full of tips on how to eat healthy if you have diabetes or if you just want to straighten out your diet. Do you have any tips to add to this? Anything you do at home that you think other people could benefit from? The Diabetic Chef Right foods keep diabetics, or the average Joe, healthy BY EMILY HAGEDORN, Californian staff writer e-mail: ehagedorn@bakersfield.com Like a true food connoisseur, Chris Smith picks out the gems most grocery shoppers...
Location:
5901 Truxtun Avenue,
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Emergency surgery leaves blood bank short The Bakersfield Californian After an emergency operation at a local hospital seriously depleted Houchin Blood Bank’s supply, the blood bank is asking residents to help refill its stock. The surgery early this morning took about 30 units of O positive blood — the most common type — and 12 units of platelets, said Linda Kyle, collection director at Houchin. “All those blood...
The one-stop-shop mentality is hitting doctor's offices with the rising popularity of "medspas."
Have you gone to one of these? What was the experience like?
Flu shot ... facial, too?
Medical spas growing in popularity with physicians and their patients, offering services without a co-pay
BY EMILY HAGEDORN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: ehagedorn@bakersfield.com
Medical spas offer luxuries not only to patients, but also to physicians: cash payment and no...
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