YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center’s Sleep Disorders Center recently received accreditation from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM).

To receive a five-year accreditation, a sleep center must meet or exceed all standards for professional health care as designated by the AASM. The accreditation process involves a detailed inspection of facilities and staff, including an evaluation of testing procedures, patient contacts and physician training.

“(Regional’s) ce

  Yakima Neighborhood Health Services is conducting a training Saturday in Grandview at the middle school to help build family health literacy. The presentation is based on the book “What to do When Your Child is Sick.”

  Families will be followed for six months after the training, which will teach parents about common childhood illnesses in hopes of preventing visits to the emergency room and time away from work or school.

  Pre-registration is required. Contact Amy Gaulke at Yakima Neighbor

  YAKIMA, Wash. -- A free diabetes screening will be held Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at the Southeast Yakima Community Center, 1211 S. 7th St.
  
  The event is sponsored by Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.

   The test requires fasting with nothing caloric to eat or drink for eight hours prior to the test.

  — Leah Beth Ward

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Highgate Senior Living and Memorial Education Center are offering free memory screenings. They also need volunteers to help.

The screenings are Thursday and Friday Nov. 19 and 20 from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at the Memorial Education Center, 2506 W. Nob Hill Blvd.

For more information, contact Mandy Trujillo, 509-972-4141 or highgateykcrc@msn.com.
 
Trujillo, community relations coordinator at Highgate, said memory screenings are a significant first step toward finding out if a pers

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is backing legislation to allow workers to earn up to 56 hours of paid leave to care for themselves or their family. It’s an effort to prevent the spread of swine flu by ensuring that employees can afford to stay home while they are sick.

Murray spoke to a Senate committee this morning about the Healthy Families Act.

“This problem is not new, but the current H1N1 crisis has demonstrated so clearly the consequences and costs of employees coming into work sick, and the

A trade publication called Dairy Herd Management published a story yesterday summarizing research by WSU professors and a Monsanto scientist who found dairies are much more environmentally friendly today than they were in 1944. Those who would romanticize the ‘40s are just plain wrong, the authors say. 

But Jean Mendoza, a nurse from White Swan, has asked the National Academy of Science to repudiate the claims of the authors, first published earlier this year in the Journal of Animal Scien

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The Yakima County chapter of the NAACP will hold a health-care forum on Nov. 16 at the Southeast Community Center, 1211 S. 7th St., from 6:30-8 p.m.

Panelists include Dennis Klukhan, administrator of the Yakima Health District, and Dr. Sawraj Singh, who will address health-care disparities, flu vaccination, health insurance and the economic effects on health-care services.

The forum is part of the “880” campaign by the national NAACP, which is to draw attention to health dispar

The rhetoric is heating up over health-care reform. Read the latest GOP attack from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers here.

— Leah Beth Ward

Another hospital has come out against Initiative 1033. Earlier this week, the board of commissioners of Kittitas Valley Community Hospital (KVCH) passed a resolution in opposition to Tim Eyman’s I-1033, saying it would threaten the hospital’s financial viability and hurt its ability to provide quality health services.

The Washington State Hospital Association projects that the Kittitas hospital would see a reduction in Medicaid payment of more than $1.3 million over the next six years.
 
“We c

YAKIMA, Wash. -- It was salt in the wound today for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.

The state Department of Health announced that nine new hospitals have been approved to add elective angioplasty to their cardiac services. Not on the list is Memorial, which is suing the state in federal court over the rules that let hospitals add the procedure.

The state’s decision is the result of legislation passed in 2007. The law directed the Health Department to develop rules to determine where there wa