Photo of the Georgia Capitol Building

Health agency budgets facing cuts in coming year

This year, Georgia’s three main health agencies largely escaped the state budget knife. They may not be so fortunate in 2013. Gov. Nathan Deal’s Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) has ordered state agencies to prepare a budget that will have a 3 percent reduction in spending for both the current fiscal year’s amended budget…

Telemedicine making big difference for society’s smallest victims

A 9-year-old girl in rural Georgia discloses the unthinkable: sexual abuse by her stepfather. The case is referred to police and local child welfare officials, who contact the Stephanie V. Blank Center for Safe and Healthy Children. A doctor soon conducts a physical examination and speaks with the child. What makes this story different is…

Disabling injury doesn’t shake student’s drive to become doctor (video)

In his blog, “Thoughts on Wheels,” Hammad Aslam wrote: “I was being interviewed for something today, and when the camera was briefly turned off and the interviewer was about to pack up, I decided to let down my guard. I was all smiles before that moment, as I almost always am. Even as I discussed…

Pickens vs. Murray: A tale of two counties

Pickens vs. Murray: A tale of two counties

Frank Adams begins each day with a bowl of cereal. He used to eat a larger breakfast, complete with a serving of bacon or sausage — which he now calls “dead animals” — but he changed his ways years ago when his wife’s morning sickness kept her from cooking for him. Now 74, Adams has…

Team approach may help fill gaps in primary care

Team approach may help fill gaps in primary care

The future of primary care can look downright frightening. Georgia and the rest of the nation already have a general shortage of obstetricians, internists, pediatricians and family medicine doctors, especially in rural and urban areas. And things are getting worse. The Health Resources and Services Administration forecasts a shortage of 65,000 primary care physicians in…

What’s wrong with our community health centers?

What’s wrong with our community health centers?

As Kaiser Health News journalist Phil Galewitz studied data on the nation’s community health centers, the statistics compelled him to visit Georgia. The overall national picture, published Wednesday in a KHN and USA Today story, is that hundreds of the nation’s nearly 1,200 federally funded community health centers fall short on major quality-of-care measures, according…

Shortage of emergency drugs alarms doctors

Shortage of emergency drugs alarms doctors

Georgia emergency physicians say a shortage of drugs to treat critically ill and injured people poses a ‘‘real danger to our patients today, without relief in sight.’’ The Georgia EMS Medical Directors Advisory Council, in a letter Tuesday to the state commissioner of Public Health, said EMS physicians are adjusting protocols because of the shortages,…

Georgia gets role in Medicare ‘accountable care’

Georgia gets role in Medicare ‘accountable care’

The federal government announced Tuesday that 27 health collaboratives –- including two in Georgia — have been picked to participate in a new Medicare program that provides financial incentives for doctors and hospitals to form an “accountable care organization.” The program is called the Shared Savings Program. If the organizations improve patient care and contain…

Georgia’s famed Dr. Denmark dies at 114

Georgia’s famed Dr. Denmark dies at 114

Legendary Georgia pediatrician Dr. Leila Denmark died Sunday in Athens at age 114. Denmark lived with her daughter, Mary Hutcherson, who told GHN last year that Denmark “has a lot of fans who keep up with her.’’ The pediatrician, who practiced until she was 103, was known far beyond Georgia’s borders long before her age…

Mayo could expand more into Georgia

Mayo could expand more into Georgia

The CEO of the Mayo Clinic said Thursday that the Minnesota-based organization, fresh off a merger with a Waycross health system, is looking at establishing other hospital relationships in the region around its Jacksonville, Fla., hub. Dr. John Noseworthy, president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, told Georgia Health News in an interview that those alliances could be…