Health

Both sides are hurdling toward a strike as contract negotiations have halted between Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and the union representing the hospital’s technical workers.

Amid increased scrutiny on PFAS levels in city drinking water, Spokane is joining a lawsuit against the companies that manufacture the dangerous chemical.

Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center’s technical workers have submitted notice to strike beginning next Monday as contract negotiations stall.

For years, local concerns over dangerous substances infiltrating drinking water have been on the West Plains, where firefighting chemicals seeped into the ground at the Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base.

Many older adults rely on opioid pain medications to help relieve short-term pain or for persistent chronic pain. But seniors might not be the first group that pops into your head when you think about overdose or dependence on opioid drugs. Realistically, they have just as much risk (and sometimes more) of dependence, substance use disorder and overdose as any other person prescribed opioid pain medication.

Public water systems across the country will be required to test for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances under new federal regulations announced Wednesday.

Caitlin Quaempts, a new Spokane medical school graduate, has lined up a family medicine residency this June for a path she hopes leads back to the Yakama Nation. After her three-year residency in Klamath Falls, Oregon, she'd like to be a family practice doctor for tribal members – just as her father has. She is a Yakama direct descendent of her dad, Rex Matthew Quaempts, a longtime family doctor for Indian Health Services. Another classmate, Lili Szabo, recently matched to a Spokane internal medicine residency with Providence Sacred Heart, and she hopes to remain here. Both Quaempts and Szabo are among a 2024 class of 60 graduates from the University of Washington School of Medicine's Spokane site. They celebrated "match day" on March 15 for their selections into medical residency programs.

A researcher in pivotal sleep studies is scheduled to speak Tuesday night at Gonzaga University about why enough nightly slumber ties into brain wellness. Jeffrey Iliff, a sleep researcher at the University of Washington School of Medicine, plans to share new findings and advice on how to ensure the right type of sleep that's needed for the brain to function at its best. For audience questions, he'll be joined later by Dr. Don Howard, a Providence sleep medicine specialist and pulmonary doctor. The 6 p.m. Next Generation Medicine lecture, hosted by the UW School of Medicine and GU health partnership, is scheduled at the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center.

Newly ratified by more than 1,400 health care workers at Deaconess and Valley hospitals, the new MultiCare contract includes up to a 25% wage increase for some workers.

ATLANTA – Disrupting dopamine levels and causing inflammation, oxidative stress and cellular damage, secondhand vape exposure can significantly damage a child, potentially even contributing to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. That’s according to a recent study by Atlanta-based Emory University.

Spokane International Airport is pushing back against a “disappointing” state Department of Ecology order to begin PFAS cleanup planning – stating the airport will move forward with its own investigation into the presence of the toxic chemicals.

The Washington Department of Ecology has ordered Spokane International Airport to begin making cleanup plans for PFAS, dangerous chemicals to which people on the West Plains have been exposed for decades, after the two sides negotiated unsuccessfully for six months.

On the verge of a labor strike, service and tech workers at Deaconess and Valley hospitals reached a tentative agreement with hospital system MultiCare late last week.

Before pickleball, racquetball bounced to the heights of popularity in sports. The fast-paced game boomed in the 1980s and into the 1990s, but then faded from the limelight. That doesn't mean racquetball has vanished in the Spokane area, said longtime player Rich Carver. Carver expects 100 enthusiasts will join a May 17-19 racquetball tournament at the Spokane Club. He estimates about 150 people in the area play regularly.

Federal officials are warning health care providers to be on the lookout for invasive meningococcal disease, a rare but potentially deadly illness that has increased in prevalence in recent years and requires prompt treatment with antibiotics to prevent long-term disability or death.