The Office of the State Medical Examiner (OSME) received provisional accreditation from the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME). This is the first time the OSME has applied for accreditation and now becomes the 13th state medical examiner’s office to achieve accreditation.
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The Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) announces the extension of the public comment period for the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBS) material modification application submitted to the department on September 25, 2008. The current comment period ends October 17, 2008. The...
Rhode Island has a suicide problem affecting all populations, particularly working age adults. Suicide is the leading cause of intentional injury death in Rhode Island – claiming some 70 lives every year. Annually, there are twice as many suicides as homicides, and as many suicides as car crash...
On September 19, HEALTH was notified by the hospital that a wrong-site surgery had been performed that day in their ambulatory surgical center.
Several problems in the hospital’s surgery program were identified during HEALTH’s inspection, including failure to follow The Miriam Hospital’s (
Today, the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) confirmed the state’s first human case of West Nile Virus (WNV) in 2008. This case of WNV occurred in an immunocompromised patient who lives and works in Rhode Island and is currently being treated.
“This is an important reminder that...
Today, the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) and the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner released the ninth annual Rhode Island Health Plans’ Performance Report (2006). This report analyzes the two largest health plans that together covered more than 79% of Rhode Islanders who...
Today (September 11), the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) adult influenza program, Immunize For Life, is receiving the 2008 Vision Award from the Association of State and Territorial Health Organizations (ASTHO). This national award recognizes outstanding state health department...
The Department of Environmental Management announces that test results from three mosquito pools, or samples, from traps set in two communities on August 20 and August 25 and tested at the RI Department of Health laboratory have been confirmed positive for West Nile Virus.
The first positive...
The Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) is issuing an advisory to remind people of precautions to prevent mosquito-borne illnesses. In Rhode Island, the first mosquitoes have tested positive for the West Nile Virus (WNV). “We expect to find mosquitoes who test positive for West Nile Virus...
The Department of Health (HEALTH) advises Rhode Islanders that the state is reaching its expected annual peak of reported cases of babesiosis, ehrlichiosis and Lyme Disease. All three of these diseases are tick-borne and are transmitted by the same type of tick, the Deer tick. (To see a picture...