Inflammatory breast cancer is usually diagnosed at a later stage than other breast cancers – and thus is often fatal. A new Georgia State University study has found that one of the areas with high incidence of inflammatory breast cancer is in South Georgia. The data are from 2004 to 2012, and the researchers plan…
A rural hospital in eastern Georgia has been saved from closure. Optim Medical Center-Jenkins, set to close this month, announced Monday that it has been sold to GA Medical Holdings Corp. The 25-bed “critical access’’ facility in Millen in Jenkins County was due to merge operations with another hospital in the area. It would have…
This is the sixth in a series of articles reported in Northwest Georgia, an area rich in stories about unmet health needs and about people and programs making a difference. Georgia Health News and the health and medical journalism graduate program at UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication collaborated to produce this series, made possible…
Oconee Regional Medical Center, a financially troubled Milledgeville hospital, has agreed to be sold to a California-based organization. Prime Healthcare Foundation will buy the Middle Georgia hospital for $12 million under the deal, announced Wednesday evening. The nonprofit foundation is connected with Prime Healthcare Services, which operates 44 hospitals in 14 states. “Our goal when…
Among the bills Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed this week was Senate Bill 125, which would have authorized physicians to delegate their authority to prescribe hydrocodone compound products to physician assistants. Deal cited the growing opioid epidemic as a reason for the veto, saying the legislation would be counter to the state’s efforts to halt that…
Rural Georgians are once again bearing the brunt of myopic health care policy decisions coming from Atlanta. On Tuesday, just days after the Jenkins County Hospital closure announcement, a bill designed to restore delegated prescriptive authority to Georgia’s board-certified physician assistants (PAs) treating painful injuries and other medical emergencies was vetoed by Gov. Nathan Deal….
Another rural hospital is closing its doors in Georgia. Jenkins (County) Medical Center in Millen will close in June, and its services will merge with a hospital in Sylvania in neighboring Screven County, the hospitals’ owner, Optim Health System, said Tuesday. The two hospitals are about 20 miles from each other in east Georgia, roughly…
For many rural hospitals in Georgia, the threat of closure is constant. The state has one of the highest closure rates for hospitals in the nation, and those numbers do not show any sign of slowing. Policymakers, medical professionals and those interested in rural health care converged at a symposium at the University of Georgia…
The final day of the Georgia General Assembly brought last-minute approval of some health care bills Thursday – along with disappointment over pieces of legislation that didn’t pass. The failures included the high-profile effort to halt “surprise’’ medical bills, and a proposal to require Georgia schools and day care centers to test their drinking fountains…
This week, the fortunes of rural hospitals in Georgia took a turn for the better. Voters in Monroe and Jefferson counties Tuesday approved tax increases to help preserve their rural hospitals, which are in financial danger. And a proposed tax credit upgrade for donors to rural hospitals, an idea that had appeared dead in this…