The wife of a retired Atlanta physician recently got a stunning lesson when her husband spent some time in a hospital. “We realized there might be a problem when he was not served breakfast along with the other patients,” she said. That was when they were told he had not actually been admitted to the…
This past August, while in class at Roswell High School, 17-year-old Andrew Hawks suddenly felt his heart rate go up. He knew it was something worse than just a passing feeling. He was sent to the school clinic. Staffers there phoned his father, who immediately drove to the school with the intent of picking up…
Johnnie Collier, 71, recently went to Mercy Care’s downtown Atlanta facility to have a tooth extracted. He said it had been hurting him for many years. Another patient, David Perlete, 63, who is uninsured, also had a painful tooth pulled there. Other facilities charge hundreds of dollars, he said. Despite the work of charity clinics…
Planning ahead for a public health emergency is a daunting task. From the H1N1 flu to West Nile virus, or even a possible biohazard, each state is mandated to have a plan in place. Every state must inform its citizens when the public’s health is at risk. In Georgia, the Department of Public Health has…
“It’s about people,” said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat. Johnson was referring to proposed legislation (H.R. 1507) to provide enhanced services for those affected by dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. It’s the Health Outcomes, Planning, and Education Act, also known as the HOPE Act. If passed, the bill would provide Medicare coverage for clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and…
The ultimate goal of patient-centered care is to heal the patient. But the Affordable Care Act has begun linking hospital reimbursements partly to patients’ satisfaction — how they feel about their experience. In a Gallup Business Journal article, Jennifer Robison says the health care industry is concerned about the right “patient experience” and is striving…
Georgia nurses are concerned that lack of funding for their state licensing board will create problems in protecting patients from an impaired, unlicensed or dangerous nurse. A new law that goes into effect Monday will require nurses to report suspected professional violations to the Georgia Board of Nursing. But the Georgia Nurses Association (GNA) says…
Becky Carver, public health nurse for the health district based in Waycross, works with perinatal partners to educate expectant parents about safe sleeping practices. “An infant’s death is heartbreaking,’’ Carver says. “I’ve seen losses. In the Deep South, we see things like inadequate bedding, babies and parents sleeping together in recliners, and over-bundling on hot…
Overweight patients are being encouraged to take a walk, if not a hike. A unique collaboration between the Georgia Association of Physician Assistants (GAPA) and Georgia State Parks seeks to promote physical fitness in a fresh-air way. For a day trip to one of Georgia’s state parks, there’s normally a $5 parking fee. But nowadays,…
Health literacy is becoming a Georgia priority — though there’s still plenty of room for improvement. The state’s schools of medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, pharmacy and education, as well as community organizations, are all working on improving people’s ability to understand health information so they can make good decisions about their medical care. An…