State regulators said Butler Hospital failed to protect patients’ right to receive care in a safe setting when the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side allowed an unlicensed medical assistant to insert an intravenous catheter into three patients. Rhode Island requires that insertion of an IV catheter only be done by a registered nurse. The […]
Lynn Arditi
Lynn joined The Public's Radio as health reporter in 2017 after more than three decades as a journalist, including 28 years at The Providence Journal. Her series "A 911 Emergency," a project of the 2019 ProPublica Local Reporting Network, won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award in the radio/podcast category in 2020.
A native of New York City, she graduated from Oberlin College and landed her first journalism job at The Center for Investigative Reporting (now known as Reveal) in Washington, D.C., where she did story development for 60 Minutes. When the T.V. market imploded in 1987, the D.C. office of CIR closed and within a year she moved to Massachusetts to take a reporting job at the former Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, a small daily newspaper.
A year later, she moved to Providence, R.I. to work at The Providence Journal. There, she worked for several years as a bureau reporter covering schools and local issues, before she began covering statewide beats including higher education, the economy, housing and health care. During those years, she also honed her skills in narrative journalism, and served as chairwoman of the newspaper’s writing committee. Her work has been recognized by New England Associated Press News Executives Association and the Society of American Business Editors & Writers.
Posted inEducation, Health, Local
Rhode Island to require Narcan in college dorms
Rhode Island colleges will be required to stock the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, in all dormitories and college-run housing starting Sept. 1. The measure, which Gov. Dan McKee signed into law June 26, also mandates that all resident assistants in campus housing be trained in how to recognize […]
Posted inEducation, Health, Local
Union workers at Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s vote to authorize strike
The union representing roughly 2,500 nurses and other health care workers at Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital on Tuesday voted to authorize a strike, though the union stopped short of filing the mandatory 10-day strike notice. The United Nurses and Allied Professionals Local 5098 has been negotiating with the hospitals’ operator, Brown University […]
Posted inHealth, Local, Weather
Dangerous heat wave moves into Rhode Island
Temperatures in Rhode Island and southern New England have reached into the 90s and are forecast to climb to around 100 degrees on Tuesday, putting people living or working outdoors and those who are without access to air conditioning at high risk of heat-related health problems. Heat waves in the U.S. in recent decades have […]
Posted inHealth, Labor, Local
Butler Hospital could struggle to hire permanent replacements for striking nurses and other health care workers
Butler Hospital has raised the stakes in its standoff with unionized employees, announcing plans to hire permanent replacements for about 800 workers in their third week of a strike. But filling all those open positions with permanent hires at the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side will be tough, labor experts said, given hospital staffing […]
Posted inHealth, Labor, Local
Butler Hospital’s striking workers and management resume talks with federal mediators
Editor’s note: This story was updated Thursday, May 29, with the latest information. Butler Hospital and union negotiators are scheduled to return to the bargaining table with federal mediators Thursday as the two sides try to end a strike at the psychiatric hospital that has stretched into its second week. Union officials said that after […]
Posted inHealth, Labor, Local
Butler Hospital to cut off striking workers’ health benefits
Hundreds of striking workers at Butler Hospital, on Providence’s East Side, received notices that their health benefits will be terminated at the end of the month. The psychiatric hospital operated by Care New England said in a May 16 letter to nurses, mental health workers and other staff who are members of the SEIU1199 New […]
Posted inHealth, Labor, Local
Butler Hospital’s unionized employees set to strike over workplace safety and wages
Butler Hospital’s unionized nurses, mental health workers and other staff are expected to walk off their jobs at 6 a.m. on Thursday, as temporary agency staff prepare to step in to keep the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side running. Butler Hospital will remain open, and provide “safe, compassionate, and uninterrupted care” during the strike, […]
Posted inHealth, Local
Health care costs in Rhode Island continue to rise, report finds
The popularity of expensive weight-loss medications and other prescription drugs along with higher hospital costs are driving up health care spending in Rhode Island – more evidence, state regulators said, of why insurers need to reduce red tape for doctors and increase spending on primary care, according to a report released Monday. The amount of […]
Posted inHealth, Local
Brown University Health patients lose innovative remote monitoring programs
Brown University Health’s primary care group has eliminated its home care monitoring programs for about 700 patients diagnosed with heart failure, high blood pressure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD. The programs— terminated as of May 5 — allowed nurses and health coaches to remotely monitor patients by providing them with blood pressure cuffs, […]
