USA Today (6/27, Vestal) runs a Pew Stateline piece reporting that “a ‘telepsychiatry’ program that allows psychiatrists to examine South Carolina patients through videoconferencing, reducing the average wait time” for psychiatric evaluations “from four days to less than 10 hours.” Some 20 hospitals participate in the program, which, according to a study conducted by the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, “has reduced the frequency of hospital readmissions and involuntary commitments.”

A similar program was rolled out in North Carolina in 2010, “and a dozen other states, including Alabama, Kentucky and Wisconsin, plan to follow suit.”

Related Links:

— “Rural hospitals speeding up psychiatric evaluations,” Christine Vestal, USA Today, June 27, 2014.

USA Today (6/26) reports that a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that excessive drinking was the cause of one in 10 deaths among working-age adults between 2006 and 2010. The paper notes that the CDC defined excessive drinking activities to include “binge drinking, heavy weekly alcohol consumption and drinking while underage or pregnant.” The CDC found those activities instigated “long-term health effects such as liver disease and heart disease, as well as short-period effects such as violence, alcohol poisoning, car crashes and drowning.”

The Washington Post (6/27, Bernstein) “To Your Health” blog reports that CDC researchers estimated that “excessive drinking cost the United States about $224 billion in 2006, or about $1.90 per drink” in public health costs. The study found that deaths caused by excessive drinking varied greatly by state from the 16.9% of deaths occurring in New Mexico as the highest to the 7.6% of deaths occurring in Maryland as the lowest nationwide.

Related Links:

— “Drinking behind 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults,” Hoai-Tran Bui, USA Today, June 27, 2014.