Surgeon and bestselling author Atul Gawande writes that he never learned about mortality in medical school. He learned to examine, prescribe and operate, but not how to help patients die well. It wasn’t until he was a practicing surgeon that he confronted the idea of a “good” death — a death consistent with a life…
A financially troubled company, which has closed five nursing homes in Georgia, one as recently as June, has been cited by federal regulators for multiple problems for a facility it still operates in Eastman. Residents of Eastman Healthcare & Rehab, in south-central Georgia, have dealt with sewage backups, unsafe hot water, insect problems, toilets leaking…
One in four Georgia nursing homes received the lowest rating – one star – in the latest federal quality rankings of long-term care facilities in the United States. The 27.6 percent of one-star nursing homes in Georgia ranks the state second in the Southeast. Louisiana, with 28.8 percent, was the region’s worst in its rate…
An estimated 130,000 Georgians have Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia, and the number is expected to increase greatly over the next decade. This growth has led to the creation of memory care units within residential care facilities just like the ones from Fountain Square of Lompoc: Memory Care. These memory care units deliver specialized…
More Georgia facilities run by a financially troubled nursing home operator are under federal and state regulatory scrutiny, a state health care agency said Thursday. Clyde Reese, commissioner of the Department of Community Health, made the disclosure during an interview with GHN. He did not specify the number or location of the nursing homes operated…
This article is the product of a collaboration between Georgia Health News and the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, a partnership made possible by the Ford Foundation and Grady College. More articles on health care in rural Georgia will follow this one in Georgia Health News. The nursing home had closed and…
“I have cleaned bed pans. I have cleaned the potty chair,” says Carol Lively, pausing to think before counting off the next task on her fingers. “I have changed dressings. I got to learn about open wound care, and I learned about prosthetics when I was young.” Lively, who is 44 and lives in Watkinsville,…
Federal health officials, citing potential harm to patients, is stopping Medicare and Medicaid payments to a fourth Georgia nursing home operated by a Tennessee-based company. Three of those Georgia facilities run by New Beginnings Care have closed, with state officials helping to relocate more than 200 patients. The fourth facility, in Abbeville, south of Macon,…
The state’s powerful nursing home association has named a Florida industry leader as its new president and CEO. Tony Marshall will take over the Georgia Health Care Association positions that have been vacant since Jon Howell resigned May 1. At the time of Howell’s resignation, the trade group said he was stepping down “to preserve the…
Just as they do every Monday morning, the two older women meet up at a Decatur church, ready to roll. Billie Jo Corell and Charlotte Patton have shared a Meals on Wheels route for a few years now. They come from different backgrounds. Billie Jo hails from the northeastern part of the country, and Charlotte Patton was raised in…