Daily Rounds: Pill-Mill Shutdown; Soda Nation; Another Hospital Merger; Ballad Of The Working Mom

Florida Laws Shutting ‘Pill Mills’ - NYTimes.com "Florida has long been the nation’s center of the illegal sale of prescription drugs: Doctors here bought 89 percent of all the Oxycodone sold in the country last year. At its peak, so many out-of-staters flocked to Florida to buy drugs at more than 1,000 pain clinics that the state earned the nickname “Oxy Express.” But with the help of tougher laws, officials have moved aggressively this year to shut down so-called pill mills and disrupt the pipeline that moves the drugs north. In the past year, more than 400 clinics were either shut down or closed their doors." (nytimes.com)

Half of Americans drink daily soda, sweet beverage - Boston.com "Half of Americans drink a soda or sugary beverage each day — and some are downing a lot. One in 20 people drinks the equivalent of more than four cans of soda each day, even though health officials say sweetened beverages should be limited to less than half a can. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the figures Wednesday in a report said to be the government's first to offer national statistics for both adults and kids." (boston.com)

Westerly Hospital takes first step toward merger - PBN.com - Providence Business News "Westerly Hospital and Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, a 280-bed facility that serves eastern Connecticut, western Rhode Island and Fishers Island in New York, have entered into an “exclusive, non-binding letter to intent to explore a strategic alliance between the health care systems,” according to a news release from Westerly Hospital...
Landmark Medical Center with 214 beds, which has been in state receivership since 2008, is being acquired by Steward Health Care system, a Boston-based company with 14,000 employees and 1 million patients in 85 Massachusetts communities. (pbn.com)

The Ballad Of A Working Mom: Guilt, Anxiety, Exhaustion And Guilt : The Baby Project : NPR "When I think about leaving my baby with someone else and not being with her all day, every day, my stomach literally hurts. I think about her missing me, wondering where I am, and if I'm ever coming back. The thought of getting two kids — plus my husband and myself — up, dressed and out of the house in the morning is enough to make me break out in a cold sweat. We were having enough trouble when we had just one kid — how are we ever going to handle it with two?" (npr.org)