Across Georgia on Wednesday, dozens of hospitals were reporting severe ER crowding and various forms of “diversion ” — sending patients elsewhere due to capacity problems. The Delta variant of COVID-19, sweeping through the state, is rapidly increasing case numbers and hospitalizations. But exacerbating the current patient crunch is the ever-worsening shortage of health care…
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article reflected figures from another news organization that have since been revised. As the Delta variant drives a relentless COVID-19 surge, Georgia’s vaccination rate has picked up steam. A Washington Post analysis, based on CDC data, reported Tuesday that the state’s rate of new doses administered climbed 26…
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…
Georgia officials have pushed back against a federal health agency’s request for more financial information on the state’s insurance waiver plan. A letter dated July 2 says that Georgia’s approach to replace the Affordable Care Act’s healthcare.gov enrollment set-up with a privately run process has already been approved by the feds. The Georgia “Section 1332’’ waiver has…
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…
By Andy Miller and Brenda Goodman Second in a series Houston Healthcare did the typical things to promote COVID-19 vaccination among its hospital workers, including stressing the importance and safety of getting a shot. But the Warner Robins-based system’s successful vaccine effort had a personal dimension as well. The deaths of three beloved staff members…
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…
For years, in rankings of health indicators by state, Georgia typically landed in the high 30s to low 40s. But never at the bottom. The Peach State, though, has been ranked 50th, ahead of only Oklahoma, in a comparison of states and Washington, D.C., on health care for seniors. It follows a Georgia ranking of…
This article first appeared in STAT, which gave Georgia Health News permission to republish it. Photos are by Bethany Mollenkof for STAT. By Olivia Goldhill In every corner of Latasha Taylor’s home are plants she knows nothing about. After years spent shirking her mother’s calls to join her in the yard at sunrise, Taylor now…
One sign of the severity of Georgia’s nurse shortage can be seen in the bonuses offered to experienced RNs to join a hospital workforce. Some health systems in the state are paying bonuses of more than $10,000 to attract nurses. And Piedmont Healthcare, which is rapidly becoming Georgia’s biggest health system, said it has offered bonuses…