Physician assistants can help ease the shortage of primary care physicians, according to a study released earlier this month. There’s only one problem with implementing that solution in Georgia, at least right now: The state also has a shortage of PAs. With that gap in mind, though, the Georgia campus of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic…
Recent problems with the Affordable Care Act — a poorly functioning insurance exchange website and an uproar over canceled policies — have dominated headlines and reignited political debates. But Jonathan Blum has a positive message to deliver about the ACA and its effect on the Medicare program, which covers about 1.4 million Georgians. Blum, principal…
A Tifton lab that runs drug screens on urine samples from Georgia, Florida and two other states has been paying physicians cash rebates for the tests they order, according to a report from Health News Florida. Documents obtained by HNF show that Veritas Laboratories LLC in Tifton, which conducts complex tests that can bring hundreds…
Emergency medicine is unique. At any time of the day or night, practitioners in an ER must be ready to treat any kind of problem, said Dr. Sam Kini, a veteran emergency physician. Patients rush in with everything from chest pains to vaginal discharge. Among the common problems are back pains, abdominal cramps, fevers, bruises…
The fictional “Nurse Jackie,” in the Showtime series of the same name, is a very competent nurse in a busy emergency room. She’s also addicted to prescription painkillers: Percocet, Vicodin, OxyContin. This portrayal of addiction is jarring, but it’s not wildly unrealistic. Drug abuse among people in the health professions is reportedly about at the…
WellStar Health System said Wednesday that is planning its third “health park’’ in Cobb County. The facility will be located in the Smyrna/Vinings area, an affluent area close to the city of Atlanta. It is expected to open in late 2015 or early 2016, WellStar said. The health park concept seeks to provide an array…
Consider this alarming scenario: A doctor prescribes the wrong dosage of a drug for a patient. The nurse working the case does not spot the doctor’s error. The pharmacist also fails to notice the problem, and fills the prescription as written. Who’s at fault for putting the patient in danger? More than any individual, flaws…
A state health agency board gave initial approval Thursday to offering care coordination services to 450,000 Medicaid beneficiaries who have disabilities or are elderly. The proposal for the “aged, blind and disabled’’ population comes as part of the state’s move to improve care and reduce spending. This beneficiary category represents roughly 28 percent of Medicaid…
WellStar Health System and Walgreens announced an agreement Tuesday to collaborate on treating patients who seek care in eight health clinics run by the pharmacy chain in the northwest suburbs of Atlanta. WellStar said it will help handle patients’ health conditions that require a higher level of care than the Walgreens clinics provide. “We’re interested in expanding…
On the evening of Sept. 30, Palmer Feibelman received an email he didn’t expect. It informed him that he might not be receiving his monthly stipend of $2,122 from the U.S. Navy due to the government shutdown. Feibelman is a first-year medical student at the Georgia Regents University-University of Georgia Medical Partnership in Athens and a…