PROVIDENCE, RI - On December 12, 2024, Governor Dan McKee and the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) highlighted the agency’s 2024 accomplishments, including promoting healthy lifestyles, ensuring the safety of food and drinking water, promoting emergency preparedness, performing infectious disease and chronic disease prevention, and ensuring health care quality and safety.

“We want to help all Rhode Islanders live healthy, fulfilling lives in our state, and thanks to our team at RIDOH, we’re making progress on that goal daily,” said Governor Dan McKee. “Whether it’s investing in safe drinking water, improving our quality of health care, or making sure all residents have access to healthier lifestyles, Rhode Island is committed to finding innovative strategies to bolster health efforts across the state. I look forward to working with Director Larkin and his team to continue our momentum in the new year.”

“We work every day - often behind the scenes - to make Rhode Island a healthier place to live, work, and play,” said Director of Health Jerry Larkin, MD. “We do this with a specific commitment to ensuring that every Rhode Islander has an equal opportunity to be healthy and thrive. We are proud of all we did during 2024 and look forward to another year of collaboration with our community partners to promote health and wellbeing throughout Rhode Island in 2025.”

RIDOH highlights for 2024 include:

Decreasing Overdose Deaths

- Preliminary data indicates Rhode Island saw a 9% decrease in drug overdose fatalities during the first quarter of 2024, compared to the first quarter of 2023. This continues the momentum Rhode Island saw in 2023, when the percentage of drug overdose deaths decreased by 7.3%. RIDOH has a range of community-focused interventions in place to prevent overdoses and save lives, many of them coordinated through Governor McKee’s Overdose Prevention Task Force. Those interventions include distributing 31,603 doses of the life-saving drug naloxone (in the first three quarters of 2024); implementing an EMS-based naloxone leave-behind program to expand naloxone distribution into the state’s rural areas; doing a targeted overdose prevention text message campaign for Rhode Islanders living in overdose hot spots; and expanding healthcare professional education on opioid prescribing and substance use disorder treatment.

Hospital Merger of Roger Williams and Our Lady of Fatima

- After months of diligent review and deliberation, RIDOH issued an approval with conditions of a Hospital Conversion Act application for the sale of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital. The prospective buyer is the Centurion Foundation. The decision contains several stringent conditions intended to ensure the financial viability of the hospitals, stable operational structures at the facilities, and a continued commitment to the needs of all patients in the hospitals’ communities. (Separate, additional approvals of Centurion Foundation's Change in Effective Control applications are also required. The review of these applications is ongoing.)

New Requirements for Rentals

- After receiving funding on July 1, 2024, RIDOH is rolling out a new statewide Rhode Island Rental Registry to help protect children and families from the lifelong effects of lead exposure. The Rhode Island Rental Registry will serve as a vital source of information about rental properties and was developed to meet the requirements of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-18-58). All landlords are required to submit current and active contact information, information about property managers, and information needed to identify individual units to the Rhode Island Rental Registry. Landlords who rent a residential property that was built before 1978 must provide a valid Certificate of Lead Conformance or other lead certificate.

State-Of-The-Art Facilities

- Substantial construction happened on the site of the new Life Sciences Hub in Providence’s Innovation and Design District. This site will include a new, 80,000-square-foot State Health Laboratory for RIDOH, as well as life science laboratories for Brown University and additional bio-technology space. The new facility is expected to be ready for occupancy in 2025.

New Opportunities in Rhode Island

- RIDOH worked to have Rhode Island rejoin the Nurse Licensure Compact, allowing nurses in 42 states who hold a nationally recognized Multi-State License to come to Rhode Island and work. Rhode Island nurses with Multi-State Licenses will also be able to work in any of these other states. Amid the current national health care worker shortage, RIDOH is doing everything possible to make it convenient and attractive to work in Rhode Island while protecting the public by enforcing compliance with the Compact.

Addressing Alzheimer’s Disease

- RIDOH helped launch a Rhode Island Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (ADRD) 2024-2029 State Plan [r20.rs6.net] in February. This ambitious plan details 36 strategic recommendations on how to improve the quality of life and accessibility of care for Rhode Islanders with dementia and their caregivers by the end of this decade. The plan was launched in partnership with Governor McKee, Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, Senator Jack Reed, the Rhode Island Office of Healthy Aging, the Alzheimer’s Association - Rhode Island Chapter, and the statewide Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Advisory Council.

Creating Safer Beaches

- RIDOH secured a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to license Crescent Park Beach in East Providence as a swimmable beach. RIDOH will continue to conduct weekly water quality monitoring during the summer months. Restroom and lifeguard facility construction will likely begin in 2025, with the opening for swimming expected in May 2026. This reopening is the culmination of several water quality improvement projects that have been implemented over the last decade by government agencies, community groups, and environmental non-profits.

Protecting Young People from Harmful Products

- RIDOH put in place several school-based initiatives to address youth vaping and help encourage students to quit using tobacco and nicotine products, including e-cigarettes. RIDOH provided education to schools on the implementation of tobacco-free model strategies and the importance of providing an alternative to suspension that includes cessation counseling and support for those caught using, held state-wide workshops for school staff, and invested in a media campaign to promote youth prevention education and available cessation resources.

Ensuring Clean Drinking Water

- Aiming to ensure that drinking water throughout Rhode Island is healthy and safe, RIDOH’s Center for Drinking Water Quality partnered with public water systems that exceeded Rhode Island’s new threshold for per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) to ensure that corrective measures will be taken. RIDOH also worked with public water systems that serve communities, schools, and workplaces to complete their inventories of service lines (pipes) as an initial step to replacing lead service lines in Rhode Island. This complimented RIDOH’s work to test for lead in drinking water in Rhode Island schools and childcare centers, in partnership with the University of Rhode Island.

New State Medical Examiner Office in Cumberland

- After operating in Providence for more than four decades, RIDOH’s Office of the State Medical Examiner began its transition to a state-of-the-art facility in Cumberland. The enhancements and improved infrastructure at this new site will increase capacity, allowing RIDOH to better support the death investigation process, provide critical information to law enforcement partners, screen deaths for public health significance, and support the families of decedents. The Office of the State Medical Examiner also hired a new Chief Medical Examiner.