Texas Department of State Health Services

Texas is behind the curve on releasing timely information on the coronavirus. Here’s why.

FOIFT2020-04-06T15:44:38-05:00

By John Tedesco, Alex Stuckey, Stephanie Lamm, Matt DempseyHouston ChronicleOriginally published April 4, 2020 Texas is bracing for a pandemic that is projected to kill tens of thousands of people across the U.S., but health officials and state leaders are struggling to provide the public with timely updates on how many people are infected and how many hospital beds and ventilators are available for the critically ill. Other states across the country have been providing coronavirus hospitalization figures for weeks. On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that 827 people have been hospitalized in Texas. But the true number of cases is [...]

Texas is behind the curve on releasing timely information on the coronavirus. Here’s why.FOIFT2020-04-06T15:44:38-05:00

Texas blows grant for funds to combat opioids, tries to keep records secret

FOIFT2016-11-22T15:31:01-06:00

By Edgard Walters and Isabelle Taft The Texas Tribune Originally published Nov. 20, 2016 Faced with a rising death toll from opioid abuse, Texas public health officials in May decided to apply for a $1 million federal grant to purchase Naloxone, a drug that, if administered during an overdose, can save the life of a person addicted to heroin or pain pills. The Texas Department of State Health Services hired an outside grant writer to begin drafting a proposal, which was due at the end of the month. As the deadline drew closer, outside researchers and public health workers were brought in to help. [...]

Texas blows grant for funds to combat opioids, tries to keep records secretFOIFT2016-11-22T15:31:01-06:00

Reasons for Texas’ surge in pregnancy-related deaths cloaked in secrecy, bad data

FOIFT2016-09-28T18:39:42-05:00

By J. David McSwane and Terri Langford The Dallas Morning News Originally published Sept. 28, 2016 The rate of pregnancy-related deaths among Texas women nearly doubled in recent years, a national study found this month, while a separate state-commissioned study found black women are especially vulnerable. Researchers can't say why maternal death rates are higher in Texas than any other state, and the reasons are likely to remain hidden. That's because the data and records that could provide answers to the maternal death quandary are being kept secret by the Department of State Health Services, which has refused to disclose even [...]

Reasons for Texas’ surge in pregnancy-related deaths cloaked in secrecy, bad dataFOIFT2016-09-28T18:39:42-05:00

Editorial: Texas AG off-base in decision not to release chemical locations

FOIFT2014-07-08T13:53:05-05:00

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Originally published July 7, 2014 Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s comments about disclosure of where dangerous chemicals are stored in the state proved to be almost as explosive as a bin of ammonium nitrate. Abbott, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, has been criticized after his office ruled the Texas Department of State Health Services did not have to release the names and locations of the storage facilities, something the agency had routinely done in the past. That decision seemed particularly odd coming just a year after the horrific explosion of a fertilizer plant in West, when fire ignited a [...]

Editorial: Texas AG off-base in decision not to release chemical locationsFOIFT2014-07-08T13:53:05-05:00

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