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North Carolina Health News
NC health workers detected lead contamination in applesauce that led to a nationwide recall, several lawsuits
Quick work from a North Carolina pediatrician and Catawba County public health authorities helped detect mass lead poisoning that has affected more than 500 children in at least 44 states. Their action helped get the word out quickly to unsuspecting parents across the country about tainted applesauce. In a new...
Alcohol-monitoring for some N.C. parents could save lives. Uncertainty about the law presents a roadblock.
For months now, Michael Dean Smith said, he has feared his infant daughter will be hurt or killed in a drunk-driving related accident with the mother of his child behind the wheel. Smith, 34, of Waynesville, shares joint custody of his now 15-month-old daughter with Valery Francis, who has primary...
These paramedics are for more than just emergencies in N.C. communities
On a street corner east of Durham’s downtown, Cheryl Riley spotted a woman sitting on a ledge outside a grocery store, her upper body bobbing back and forth. Riley, a Durham County paramedic, pulled over her Ford Expedition with bright blue and yellow markings and asked the woman if she could take her vitals. After getting a go-ahead, Riley checked her blood pressure and oxygen levels.
No state budget this year means Medicaid could run low
NC Medicaid costs fluctuate each year. The state Department of Health and Human Services forecasts how costs might change and asks the legislature for funding adjustments based on those predictions. For the 2024-25 fiscal year, the department asked for almost half a billion dollars extra to meet higher costs —...
North Carolina regulators pass on establishing standards for forever chemicals
Undeterred by the sweltering heat on the grassy mall behind the legislative building in Raleigh on July 10, Democracy Green’s co-founder and executive director Sanja Whittington stepped to a microphone and delivered an impassioned plea. “We are calling upon the Environmental Management Commission to vote yes to removing PFAS...
Increased abortion restrictions complicate training, stoke worries about next generation of OB-GYNs
Rachel Jensen was excited to embark on the next phase of her training in obstetrics and gynecology — a fellowship in complex family planning in North Carolina. But when it came time for her to pack her bags and move from Baltimore, Maryland, to the Triangle last summer, Jensen found a legal landscape much different than what she had signed on for.
N.C.’s Country Doctor Museum: Preserving the legacy of rural health care
Bloodsucking leeches, coffin-shaped tablets and a mechanical “lung” are among the more than 5,000 items on display at The Country Doctor Museum in Nash County. The museum’s collection, spread across two renovated doctors’ offices from the 19th century and a building that once held horse-drawn carriages, is filled with quirky artifacts and crude instruments from the early days of modern medicine. It was founded in 1967 by Gloria Flippin Graham and Josephine Newell, local physicians who came from families of doctors.
Funeral pricing transparency may tip the scales in favor of consumers
Both of Heidi Zanan’s parents died between 2017 and 2021, which meant she had to plan two funerals in the span of four years. Working with the funeral home left her feeling frustrated, lost and abused. “You block out parts of it,” the 54-year-old Garner, North Carolina, resident said....
Sowing a community for people with disabilities
Set against the gently rolling Piedmont hills between Greensboro and Burlington, Peacehaven Community Farm is an active experiment in supporting the choices of people with disabilities to live an active and meaningful life where they choose. Beds of lettuce, collards, green beans and other seasonal staples grow alongside dahlias and...
Swim program aims to keep kids safe in the water, and becomes a national model
Growing up in land-locked Oklahoma, learning to swim wasn’t a high priority in Rebecca Pearson-Yates’ household. Nonetheless, the Greensboro mother of five made sure her children took lessons. Her youngest daughter, who will be 5 next month, started classes at the YMCA in the spring. “It’s just necessary...
N.C. House wants to spend opioid money on multiple abstinence-based recovery centers, while experts stress access to medication
Near the end of the recently recessed legislative session, the N.C. House of Representatives made an extensive budget proposal on how to spend part of the funds received by North Carolina as part of a nationwide settlement over the marketing of opioid drugs. North Carolina will receive $750 million of...
New program aims to ease summer hunger for N.C. children
Madhu Vulimiri, deputy director of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Child and Family Well-Being, says summer is often the “hungriest time of year” for food-insecure households. It can be an especially harsh season, she said, for low-income families that rely on the...
DHHS audit of mental health agency finds millions in payments to executives, law firm ahead of merger
Weeks before one of North Carolina’s state-supported behavioral health management agencies merged with another one in eastern North Carolina, there was a flurry of questionable financial activity that led to more than $4 million in payments to two top executives and back pay to the law firm that counseled the organization, according to allegations made in an internal audit conducted by the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Safe and stable housing is a foundation of successful recovery
Amy Drum has a new grandbaby she’s eager to get home to see. Drum, who lives in the town of Lincolnton, in North Carolina’s Piedmont region, had been free of heroin and methamphetamine for a good while before relapsing. It was pretty rough going for a time. She eventually got into treatment.
Expert: Rural hospitals are particularly vulnerable to increasing cyberattacks targeting health care facilities
A policy paper examining cybersecurity and threats found that cyberattacks at health care facilities have increased more than 125 percent since last year, with rural hospitals being especially vulnerable. Jenny Niblock, chief clinical officer at Citizens Health in Colby, Kansas, is co-author of. “Cybersecurity: A path to increase rural health...
Leave fireworks to the professionals, say burn docs. How to celebrate the 4th safely with your kids.
Booker T. King, a surgeon and director of the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Health has seen some gruesome things in his career, but one case in particular sticks with him. King, an Army veteran, was stationed in San Antonio, Texas, when a child, about 10 or 11...
Rip currents and bacterial threats among summer concerns at North Carolina beaches
Now that summer is here, hordes of people are flocking to the North Carolina coast, looking to pause life’s hustle and bustle in exchange for a few relaxing days filled with cool breezes and feet-lapping waves. But for some who visited the coast in June, the experience was anything...
North Carolina unveils plan to incentivize hospitals to forgive medical debt and beef up charity care
In an initiative that appears to be the first of its kind nationwide, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper and state health officials unveiled a plan today to boost federal payouts to hospitals that take specific steps to ease the burden of medical debt for low-income patients. To participate, hospitals would have...
One year into new abortion limits, N.C. patients and providers struggle to shoulder the load restrictions bring
Katherine Farris has been an abortion provider for more than 20 years, and she says that this past year has been the hardest of her career — by a long shot. Not her first year of practice when everything was new. Not the year she stepped into the role of chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic to supervise clinic operations across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Not the years she navigated COVID protocols to keep her staff and patients safe.
Future of Mission Health could hinge on what happens over the next month
July could serve as an important turning point in the saga of HCA and Mission Health. Affiliated Monitors’ series of public meetings concerning HCA’s hospitals across Western North Carolina wrapped up recently. The deadline for Dogwood Health Trust to deliver its opinion to the NC Attorney General’s office about whether HCA breached its Asset Purchase Agreement is fast approaching.
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Founded in November 2011 as a North Carolina nonprofit, NCHN is an independent news organization devoted to covering health care in the state.
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