Category: NPR

Nurses have been telling lawmakers that hospital understaffing is putting patient lives at risk. They want Michigan to follow California and Oregon and institute mandatory staffing ratios.

Fertility clinics in Alabama are contemplating next steps after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen fertilized eggs are children — and discarding them would be a crime.

Brian Mann covers the U-S opioid and fentanyl crisis for NPR. That means he talks to a lot of people struggling with addiction. Again and again, he’s heard stories of people who have succumbed to their addiction — last year 112, 000 — more than ever in history.

But when Mann traveled to Portugal to report on that country’s model for dealing with the opioid crisis, he heard a very different story. Overdose deaths in Portugal are extremely rare.

The country has taken a radically different approach to drugs – decriminalizing small amounts and publicly funding addiction services – including sites where people can use drugs like crack and heroin.

Portugal treats addiction as an illness rather than a crime. No one has to pay for addiction care, and no one scrambles to navigate a poorly regulated recovery system. Could Portugal’s approach help the U-S fight its opioid epidemic?

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The online pharmacy of entrepreneur Mark Cuban is adding two brand new Bayer drugs to its disruptor model, which relies on a radical transparency compared to the rest of the industry.

Medicare pays hospitals about double what it pays other providers for the same services. The hospital lobby is fighting hard to make sure a switch to “site-neutral payments” doesn’t become law.

Bioethicists, doctors and lawyers are weighing whether to redefine how someone should be declared dead. A change in criteria for brain death could have wide-ranging implications for patients’ care.

Bioethicists, doctors and lawyers are weighing whether to redefine how someone should be declared dead. A change in criteria for brain death could have wide-ranging implications for patients’ care.

Kush, a synthetic cannabinoid, is spreading quickly for the promise of a stress-relieving high. But what’s the impact on users — and Sierra Leonean society? And how are the authorities responding?

Kush, a synthetic cannabinoid, is spreading quickly for the promise of a stress-relieving high. But what’s the impact on users — and Sierra Leonean society? And how are the authorities responding?

That’s the adjective used by the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Immunization Division. Can the world bring this outbreak under control?