Montana

In Montana, many problems with newborn screening

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Screenings

Editor’s note: Montana’s newborn screening program depends on speed to save babies from a plethora of deadly disorders at birth. But the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services fought for 10 months to keep hospitals’ performance records hidden from public view, before finally agreeing to release the data with hospital names.

The results are not good, highlighting the importance of transparency and accountability to ensure an effective newborn screening program for Montana families. Continue Reading →

CapreAir_Variable
Montana

Limited weekend lab hours add to delays

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Building

In Montana and 26 other states around the country, newborn screening samples are not processed on the weekends, creating unnecessary delays that put little lives at big risk. The Montana Public Health Laboratory is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with limited hours on Saturdays. The lab is closed on Sundays. Continue Reading →

Montana

State lab courier system explained

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Courier Route Map

September is newborn screening awareness month. And one of the key components of Montana’s newborn screening program is the state courier system connected to the Montana Public Health Laboratory in Helena.

Medical Logistic Solutions, with locations in Billings and Bozeman, has the state contract that includes the majority of healthcare facilities with birthing centers in Montana. Drivers pick up the newborn screening blood samples from healthcare facilities and provide same-day delivery to the lab for testing, with coverage in more than 50 Montana cities. Continue Reading →

Diversions

Nonstop action, amazing athleticism at Indian relay

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Start

If you weren’t one of the 5,000 people thronging the grandstand at MetraPark in Billings on Sunday, take my advice: you’ll want to be there next year for the finale of the All Nations Indian Relay Championships.

It’s a spectacle like no other, with all the crazy bravado of a Mountain Dew-fueled extreme sport, complete with frenetic announcers, blaring rock music, a giant instant-replay screen and screaming fans. Continue Reading →

At Your Service

At Your Service: Praising the Lord a little too loudly

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Elevation

Elevation Church, 711 Fourth Ave. N.
Service: 11 a.m., Sunday, March 15, 2015
Length of service: 1 hour, 22 minutes. Length of sermon: 40 minutes

During the first 22 minutes of the service at Elevation Church, my sympathies were with an elderly woman sitting in the row of chairs behind me.

She had her hands over her ears all that time, while the Rev. Dave Carroll and his band cranked out the four loudest songs I had yet encountered on my church visits. Continue Reading →

Diversions

Best hotel, livable cities: Welcome to Montana

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Ranch

Business Insider released its list of the 30 best hotels in the world this week, and if you scroll down through its gallery of photos it’s not hard to understand why most of the swank joints made the list.

There are magnificent beachside accommodations in Indonesia, Maldives, Mexico and St. Lucia, luxurious digs in cities like Paris, Prague and Chicago, and castles and palaces in Ireland, Italy and Hungary. Continue Reading →

From the Outpost

David Crisp: The Internet and the death of simple pleasures

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Crisp

I was thinking the other day about how much I hate computers. It’s not just that they have turned every American worker into a computer maintenance technician, or that ads pop up in the middle of the screen while I am trying to read something.

It isn’t even that the only language computers seem to understand is profanity, nor that the screen may suddenly go blank at some crucial point. Continue Reading →