NEWS  For most people, outpatient surgery means a quick medical procedure that allows the recently-operated-upon to recuperate at home instead of enduring a hospital stay.
But more and more often, outpatient surgeries are being performed in doctor’s offices, instead of hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers. Office-based surgeries are the fastest-growing segment of outpatient surgeries. Because of this unprecedented growth, they’re also the least regulated. Read More>>

NEWS  When the United States was first created, its founders guaranteed the fledgling nation’s citizens the freedom to worship in any way — and to any God — they wanted.
But for Native Americans, it took almost 200 years to secure that same right with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. Toni Lodge, executive director for the NATIVE Project and NATIVE Health of Spokane, says she’s reminded of this “parallel universe” between Native Americans and every other American when it comes to health care.
“We weren’t allowed to practice our own religion until 1976,” she says. “Many assumed we had freedom of religion when we did not … It’s the same [with health care]. Many people assumed we had health care with [Indian Health Service, or IHS]. We did not.”
This year, all that changed. Read More>>

NEWS  Over the years, many have tried to make science interesting to kids. We watched Mr. Wizard explain the extraordinary within the mundane at his kitchen/laboratory counter. Beakman and his tall hair delivered facts through irrepressible eccentricity. Bill Nye told us, “Science is cool.”

None of it seemed to work. Read More>>

NEWS  In the future, older people across the country will be treated like senior citizens here in the Inland Northwest. Gentiva Health Services, one of almost 10,000 Medicare-certified agencies nationwide, is one of just 11 home health providers selected to help design the future of health care for aging Americans. And the company will be using programs it developed in the Spokane area. Read More>>

NEWS  Lacey Jones was sliding. A sophomore at Whitworth, Jones had transferred from Washington State to play softball, the sport she loved. She was practicing sliding one day in February 2002, gliding over the grass again and again, until her metal cleats dug into the turf and her ankle popped. The doctor told her it was broken, cast it and prescribed Vicodin, a commonly prescribed narcotic.
That’s when Jones began navigating the fine line between appropriately medicating her pain and abusing a drug. Read More>>

NEWS  A little more than three years ago, about 40 higher-ups from Rockwood Clinic gathered at Fotheringham House in Browne’s Addition for the clinic’s annual board retreat. That weekend, the assembly of board members, executive administrators and other health care officers made a fateful decision at the quiet bed and breakfast not far from downtown Spokane. Read More>>

NEWS  With a chill haunting the air of October, a handful of nurses came together for two days in Spokane and learned how to be doctors.
OK, they’re not quite doctors, but maybe something even better: At the end of seven semesters, these nurses will have doctorates. It’s almost an origin story for Spokane’s first superhero: the Super Nurse. Read More>>

NEWS  As executive director of the Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS) — which serves low-income as well as uninsured patients — Peg Hopkins believes she is at the front lines of health care reform.

Dr. Deborah Harper is a pediatrician working for Group Health in Spokane and is president-elect for the Washington State Medical Association. Soon she’ll be busy meeting with doctors around the state as part of her role as an advocate for better health care in Washington.

As the coordinator of a Spokane project called Health for All, clearly Ralph de Cristoforo promotes universal health coverage. Yet while he advocates health-care access as a universal right, he also views health care as an individual responsibility. Read More>>

NEWS  Brooks Ohlson grew up in Everett and completed his undergrad education at Western Washington University in Bellingham. After he was accepted to the University of Washington’s medical school, he was told he would be spending his first year in Spokane. He and his wife weren’t quite prepared for this news. Read More>>

NEWS  Even before the accident, Katie Deck, a 31-year-old mother of two, knew addiction all too well. It was her addiction to alcohol that led to a DUI. And that DUI was a wakeup call that made her decide to quit drinking once and for all.

But a mere week later — a week sober — she fell while skateboarding, tearing her ACL and meniscus. When the hospital discharged her, they prescribed her Oxycontin. Read More>>