Your Covid game plan: Are stadiums safe?

By Phil Galewitz and Andy Miller The college football season is kicking into high gear, the NFL season starts Sept. 9, and the baseball pennant races are heating up. For the first time since 2019, nearly all stadiums will be fully open to fans. In the so-called Before Times, sitting shoulder to shoulder inside a…

Rural Georgia counties reeling from virus onslaught

“It feels like it just doesn’t end.’’ That’s how Damien Scott, CEO of Emanuel Medical Center in rural southeast Georgia, described the current covid wave and its impact on his hospital and community. All six ICU beds at the Swainsboro hospital Tuesday morning were filled with very sick virus patients, with five on ventilators. Several…

A major new chapter for Georgia Health News

Dear Readers, Too often the news about media organizations in recent years has involved cutbacks, layoffs, departures – and even publications folding. But today, Georgia Health News is stepping into the future with a wonderful new partner. The GHN operation is being enhanced by becoming a part of a large and prestigious national journalism organization, Kaiser Health…

Harmonizing for health: A choir of Parkinson’s patients

Editor’s Note: GHN is reprinting this 2019 article as a tribute to its author, Judi Kanne, an Atlanta freelance journalist and nurse who died recently.  Singing isn’t new for Mike Shortal, who is 81 and lives in Sandy Springs. He loves music, and says being a member of a choir has long been one of…

A financial boost for DeKalb clinic that cares for uninsured

By Jeremy Redmon This article is reprinted with permission from the AJC. Since it opened in 2015, the Clarkston Community Health Center has attracted long lines of impoverished patients, at times becoming so busy that it has been forced to turn some away. The volunteer-run nonprofit has provided free care to more than 5,500 immigrants, refugees…

Deaths of Despair: Two Georgia counties show stark contrast

By Ray Suarez You might assume that states wrestling with premature death from suicide and substance abuse were places of failure and decline, where the human toll of disappointment illustrates bigger problems about life. But America is more complicated than that. Understanding the evolving human condition can require both flying overhead at 30,000 feet and…

Vaccine mandates: Some Georgia hospitals move ahead

The Piedmont Healthcare system will require doctors, hospital leaders and new employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19 by Sept. 1, the Atlanta-based nonprofit organization said Monday. Other employees at Piedmont facilities will be required to get COVID shots “in the near future,’’ Piedmont said in a statement. “It’s important to consider that vaccination is a…

Unvaccinated Healthcare Workers by Hospital

What’s wrong with our map is what’s wrong with data system

By Brenda Goodman and Andy Miller  Part Three of a series Ideally, anyone should be able to look at this map we created and learn what percentage of health care workers at their local hospitals have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19. That may not be possible, however, because some hospitals say the data are incorrect. The…

A disturbing number of hospital workers still unvaccinated

By Brenda Goodman and Andy Miller Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD.  Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. This is the first of a series. Tim Oswalt had been in a Fort Worth, Texas, hospital for over a month, receiving treatment for a grapefruit-sized tumor in his chest…

Violence, stress, scrutiny weigh on police mental health

By Katja Ridderbusch Every once in a while, after working long and sometimes grueling shifts, after getting yelled at and spat on and occasionally having plastic cups thrown at him, Officer Brian Vaughan feels so worn down that he wonders if being a cop is still worth it. “I guess the answer, for now, is…