END-OF-LIFE CARE

DNR Directions

The Utah Department of Health has come up with a system to ensure that terminally ill patients who do not want to be resuscitated have their wishes respected when emergency medical service (EMS) responders come to their assistance. From now on, patients who receive approval from their physicians may obtain “Medic Alert” bracelets or necklaces that are inscribed with Do-Not-Resuscitate orders. Provided by the nonprofit Medic Alert Foundation, the devices will give clear and legal directions to EMS responders about the patient’s desire to forego CPR or other life-prolonging measures. “It is a legal way for choices to be recognized and honored,” said Don Wood, DNR program manager for the department’s Bureau of EMS.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Testing Homes

In an effort to prevent illness—and lawsuits—the Bear River Health Department in Utah will inspect homes for methamphetamine-related chemicals for a $150 fee. The program was hatched after a young couple who bought a local house said they suffered headaches, diarrhea and rashes caused by the residue of meth that had been manufactured in the home. They sued the previous owners, a real-estate agent and a realty firm, according to an Associated Press report in the Salt Lake Tribune. “Your main customer will be realtors,” Logan Police Sgt. Bret Randall was quoted as saying. “It’d be the best $150 that realtor will ever spend.”

NURSING SHORTAGE

If You Build It. . .

Idaho Gov. Jim Risch plans to ask the Legislature to forestall an imminent nursing shortage by constructing new nursing education buildings at two state colleges. Last year, 800 qualified people who applied for nursing education in Idaho were turned away because of a shortage of classroom space and faculty. Risch, whose term ends in January, hopes the Legislature will spend more than $37 million to construct the new facilities, according to an article by the Associated Press. Risch said he’s “not totally set in stone on this funding,” but he plans to suggest in his budget address that the Legislature pay for construction by taking $18.5 million from the state’s $208 million surplus and buying 20-year bonds for the rest. By 2020, the state will have only 40 percent of the nurses needed to care for its aging population, the governor said. Meanwhile, in a recent Health Affairs blog, nursing expert Linda Aiken suggested a number of ways to solve the nursing shortage and debunked seven “myths” about it. Nationwide, she wrote, the nursing shortage will increase to 800,000 by 2020.