Nursing home exec’s loophole may haunt Georgia

He wanted to fix rural America’s broken nursing homes. Now, taxpayers may be on the hook for $76 million. By Max Blau This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Georgia Health News is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Nearly 20 years ago, Ronnie…

Another rural hospital to close in Georgia, this time in Commerce

A northeast Georgia hospital is closing due to financial losses, becoming the second rural facility in the state to announce in recent weeks that it plans to shut down. Northridge Medical Center, a nonprofit 90-bed hospital in Commerce, will close effective Oct. 31, said an official with its parent company, Ethica Health & Retirement Communities,…

State reaches 200,000 COVID-19 case mark; county hot spots remain 

Georgia has passed the 200,000 mark in COVID-19 cases and is close to exceeding 4,000 deaths from the virus. The state Department of Public Health, in its Wednesday report, said that COVID-19 cases increased by 3,817 in the past day to reach 201,713, less than one month after the state hit the milestone of 100,000…

Rural hospitals face COVID challenges of patient transfers, staffing

Evans Memorial Hospital in southeast Georgia recently struggled to find someone to accept the transfer of a very sick COVID-19 patient. After Evans staff called 14 hospitals, one finally agreed to take the patient. That hospital turned out to be two states away — in Bowling Green, Ky. The patient was flown to the Kentucky…

Rural hospital plans October closure; COVID was the last straw

The financial blow from COVID-19 has helped force the closure of a rural hospital in Georgia. Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center was facing financial challenges even before the pandemic struck, and Randolph County, where it is located, has among the highest per-capita infection rates in the state. “It has become increasingly difficult for small, critical-access hospitals…

Prison COVID cases fuel new hot spot; state’s map draws criticism

The most recent COVID-19 hot spot in Georgia has been identified after an outbreak at a federal prison. Wayne County, in southeast Georgia, has the 10th-highest rate among U.S. counties of cases per resident, according to figures reported by the New York Times. That’s been driven by FCI Jesup, a federal prison in the county that…

Latinos in Georgia feel doubly vulnerable to COVID-19

David was working as a laborer at a North Georgia construction site in May when he began to feel body pains and chills. A Latino from El Salvador, David, who requested anonymity for this article, was eventually admitted to a hospital with a severe case of COVID-19. His brother, who like him does not have…

Rapid rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations worries health care leaders

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are soaring across Georgia, with more than 300 additional patients reported in hospitals statewide between Thursday and Monday. Officials representing hospitals in major metropolitan areas, as well as rural counties, told GHN on Tuesday that the surge in inpatients has come over the past week or two. Many of the newly hospitalized…

Detention center cases boost Stewart County as infection hot spot

The latest Georgia county to show up on a national ‘‘hot spot’’ list for high rates of COVID-19 is Stewart County, at least in part linked to an outbreak in the immigration detention center there. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says on its website that through June 30, 55 detainees at the Stewart…

Clinch County at high risk of big virus impact, analysis says

An analysis of counties especially vulnerable to a major COVID-19 outbreak points to a South Georgia county as having the highest risk in the nation. The health index, published by the New York Times, places Clinch County ahead of several other counties in the Southeastern region of the nation as most at risk, based on…