Murder (and lies) at a state hospital | Philly Health Insider

Good morning. Today, we take you inside the investigation into a killing at a state-run psychiatric hospital. Plus, there’s news on the future home of a micro-hospital in the Philly burbs, what the Sixers’ stadium battle could mean for the biotech space, and a data dive into “science day” at the Center City courtroom where a legal fight is playing out over wildly popular weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic.

📮 How has your health system dealt with patient safety issues? For a chance to be featured in this newsletter, email us back.

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— Aubrey Whelan and Alison McCook, Inquirer health reporters, @aubreyjwhelan and @alisonmccook.

On the night of July 14, Kyle Samuels-Robey left his room at Norristown State Hospital, walked to the nurses station — and, police say, told staff at the state-run psychiatric facility that he had just “choked out” his roommate, Jacob Gonzalez.

Staffers found Gonzalez on his bed, strangled. Samuels-Robey was swiftly arrested.

Drawing on police reports, hospital inspections, and interviews with the families of both men, our big read today digs into how staffers at Norristown failed.

State inspectors who visited Norristown two days after the killing found staff lied on paperwork saying they’d conducted regular checks on the roommates. And, video footage showed, they didn’t immediately respond with a crash cart when Gonzalez was found unresponsive.

Norristown received the state’s most serious warning of “immediate jeopardy,” signaling that inspectors are concerned for the safety of the patients. Four staffers were suspended, and all employees at the facility were retrained on emergency procedures.

Read more about the troubled history of the 144-year-old institution, and why families of both roommates say Norristown’s failures should never have happened.

This week’s number: 32 million.

That’s the estimated number of U.S. adults who have taken one of the blockbuster drugs for diabetes or weight loss such as Ozempic or Wegovy.

Here’s how we crunched the numbers: Recent polling found that 1 in 8 U.S. adults have taken the drugs. Given that the 2020 Census counted 258 million adults living in the U.S., that translates to roughly 32 million American adults who have taken Ozempic or similar drugs.

We care because that’s the scope of what’s at stake in a Philly courtroom, the scene of a federal case brought by dozens of patients against the drug manufacturers, arguing that they were not adequately warned about some serious side effects of taking the medicines.

Click here to learn more about last week’s “science day” in court, as both sides of the lawsuit explained the science behind their arguments, including how Ozempic, Wegovy, and similar drugs work.

Each week, we report on the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s inspection reports at area hospitals. Today, we look at Jefferson Lansdale Hospital. State inspectors did not conduct an on-site investigation of any potential safety violations at the Montgomery County hospital between January and June.

During his medical school clerkships, Cooper University med student Milan Arya often saw patients with questions about their weight — and how to lose some of it.

Arya wrote for The Inquirer: “Do I prescribe Ozempic for the patient whose blood sugar levels are just barely into the prediabetic range? Do I recommend bariatric surgery for the patient who suffers from treatment-resistant depression and needs a psychiatrist, not a surgeon?”

Ayra shares how his personal experiences led him to practice size-inclusive medicine and tailor his patients’ care.

Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic appointed Marlow Levy the president of Darby’s Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital and Wilmington, Del.’s Saint Francis Hospital last month.

Levy, a registered nurse and Navy veteran, previously served as vice president of operations at Baptist Health System in Jacksonville, Fla., where he was also system leader for laboratory, environmental health, and protective services. He’s worked at the Mayo Clinic, UPMC, and Kaiser Permanente.

Trinity officials cited in a news release Levy’s volunteer work and “clinical acumen.”

Researchers at UPenn are getting part of $9.6 million in funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health to study how nuanced messaging about tobacco products influences people’s behavior.

UPenn scientists led by Andy Tan at the Annenberg School for Communication will investigate whether information from the FDA helps convince the nearly 30 million U.S. adults who currently smoke cigarettes to consider switching to lower-risk products, such as some types of smokeless tobacco or low-nicotine cigarettes.

Most importantly, can that messaging nudge smokers in the direction of lower-risk tobacco products without drawing in new users? Finding a way to thread that needle is key, Tan said. “It is an important challenge to be able to meet these dual goals.”

📮 Do you think it’s possible to push lower-risk tobacco products to existing smokers without drawing in new users? For a chance to be featured in this newsletter, email us back.

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