After new storm, warmup in sight ADVERTISING After new storm, warmup in sight BOSTON (AP) — A speedy winter storm that blew through parts of the Great Lakes and East on Tuesday is expected to leave a trail of warmer
After new storm, warmup in sight
BOSTON (AP) — A speedy winter storm that blew through parts of the Great Lakes and East on Tuesday is expected to leave a trail of warmer weather and rain that should provide a respite for residents weary of weeks of bitter cold but also create the potential for flooding and collapsing roofs in some areas.
Clogged storm drains could cause ponding and puddles on roads, and in Ohio the National Weather Service said the combination of melting snow and more rain could cause significant flooding. In Michigan, where several roof collapses have been reported since January, there was concern that rain on top of snow could lead to more.
Temperatures above freezing in places where the storm passed through Tuesday should move up to the 40s to mid-50s for the rest of the week, said John Cristantello of the National Weather Service in New York.
Despite the warming and some expected rain today and Friday, flooding will not be a concern in New England, said Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the weather service in Taunton, Mass.
“The snow can handle a lot of rain,” he said. “It’s not like we’re looking at temperatures into the upper 50s and mid-60s. The snow’s not going to all melt away all at once. By next week, we’ll be back down to normal and below normal temperatures.”
The storm brought “thundersnow” to Pittsburgh and areas northeast of the city.
Execution drug shortage worsens
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The nation’s shortage of execution drugs is becoming increasingly acute as more compounding pharmacies conclude that supplying the lethal chemicals is not worth the bad publicity and the legal and ethical risks.
The scarcity of drugs for lethal injections has forced states to scramble for substitutes. And experts say that whatever alternatives are found will almost certainly face costly court challenges made more complicated by laws that cloak the process in secrecy.
On Monday, the Tulsa, Okla.-based compounding pharmacy the Apothecary Shoppe agreed to stop selling pentobarbital to the Missouri Department of Corrections after the pharmacy was named in a lawsuit filed by death row inmate Michael Taylor alleging that the drug could cause “inhumane pain.”
Missouri previously paid $8,000 in cash for each dose of the drug. The settlement will probably mean changing delicate execution procedures just a week before Taylor is scheduled to die for raping and killing a 15-year-old Kansas City girl in 1989.
Gov. Jay Nixon said Tuesday that Missouri is prepared to carry out the Feb. 26 execution but declined to elaborate.
Hundreds of U.S. flights delayed
DALLAS (AP) — More than 600 U.S. flights were canceled and about 2,600 were running late on Tuesday as a winter storm swept across the Northeast.
Adding to travelers’ woes: United Airlines experienced problems with its passenger-service computer system for much of the morning.
By early afternoon, at least 450 United flights had been delayed, according to tracking service FlightAware.com, although it wasn’t clear how many of those were due to the technology issues. The total didn’t count delays on regional affiliate United Express.
Travelers took to Twitter to complain to United. Spokeswoman Jennifer Dohm told The Associated Press that the airline fixed the problem and was working to get passengers to their destinations. Glitches also led to massive delays at United in early 2012, when the computer systems of United and Continental Airlines were combined after their merger.
United wasn’t the only airline struggling to stay on schedule Tuesday. Southwest had even more delays — 700, according to FlightAware.
Spokeswoman Michelle Agnew said the delays were caused by the winter storm in the Northeast and high winds that temporarily grounded flights in Denver, a key outpost for Southwest. The airline’s on-time rating has fallen sharply — dropping to last in government rankings — since August, when it began packing more flights into peak hours of the day.
Online MD reviews: cars, movie sites more popular
CHICAGO (AP) — Doctor ratings are less popular than those of toasters, cars and movies when it comes to online consumer sites. That’s according to a survey that found most adults hadn’t checked online physician reviews — and most said a conveniently located office and accepting patients’ health insurance was more important.
Still, the sites do appear to be swaying opinions. About a third of patients who viewed online sites sought out or avoided physicians based on their ratings.
The findings come from a nationally representative Internet-based survey of 2,137 adults. Results were published online Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The 2012 survey may overestimate awareness among the general population, since about 1 in 5 Americans don’t have Internet access. But the researchers attempted to compensate for that by providing free Internet-connected computers for consumers without access.
The results suggest that online doctor ratings have gained popularity since earlier surveys. That’s a concern since there’s no way to know if a review is real or fake, or what might have motivated the reviewer, said lead author Dr. David Hanauer, a pediatrician and associate professor at the University of Michigan.
More than one-third of those surveyed had checked out online reviews for movies, restaurants, appliances or electronics, and more than 1 in 4 viewed online car ratings. But less than 1 in 5 said they had viewed online physician ratings.
Consumer reviews of doctors’ can be found on dozens of online sites, including some that only rate doctors and others like yelp.com that cover a panoply of goods and services. Most reviewers don’t include their full names or remain anonymous.
Some doctors who oppose the idea make their patients sign “gag orders” agreeing not to post comments about them online. Hanauer said he doesn’t do that. He added that he hasn’t found any reviews of himself online.
The American Medical Association — the nation’s largest physicians’ group — is wary of the sites.
“Anonymous online opinions of physicians should be taken with a grain of salt, and should certainly not be a patient’s sole source of information when looking for a new physician,” Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven, AMA’s president, said in a statement.
Hanauer questioned whether doctors should be subject to “crowdsourced” reviews like other commodities. He said doctors risk getting bad reviews for sound medical advice simply because patients don’t agree with it. For example, antibiotics only fight bacteria but parents often want pediatricians to prescribe them for kids’ colds or other viruses. Doctors’ refusals might result in a bad review, but that would be misleading, he said.
Roberta Clarke, a Boston University health care marketing specialist, said there’s no reason that doctors shouldn’t be the focus of consumer reviews, but that online sites need to do a better job of providing meaningful information.
There are no standards, some sites charge a fee to look at doctor reviews, and sites that use stars or checkmarks don’t always explain what’s being rated, Clarke said.
Oliver Kharraz, founder of ZocDoc.com said his New York-based site avoids the pitfalls of many by offering more than just reviews. Patients can schedule appointments on the site with doctors who pay to be listed, and only patients who make appointments are allowed to give reviews. Patients also get suggested topics for review including bedside manner and waiting times.
“The review needs to be done right in order for it to make sense,” he said.
Lori Goldstein, a beauty salon owner in Chicago’s suburbs, said she has used online ratings sites to help find doctors for her mother and herself, and has written bad online reviews for her fathers’ doctors because she thinks they give him too many prescriptions.
“I wanted to warn people,” she said.
But Goldstein said consumers have to be smart about using online doctor reviews.
“You have to be careful because you can’t believe everything,” she said.
