health
Weekend humor from Celia Rivenbark: Taking steps to Fit(bit) in with the cool travelers
I was eagerly anticipating a bucket list trip to Italy in a few months until the fine folks at the travel agency began to send increasingly ominous emails harping on the need to be able to “walk long distances” and “negotiate steep steps with rough, irregular surfaces.” Perhaps they misunderstood my desire to visit, which […]
The racial gap in infant death rates in NC widened, while the overall infant mortality rate plateaued
The state’s infant mortality rate has dropped significantly in the three decades since getting babies to their first birthdays became an official goal for the state back in the early 1990s. But in the years the state’s plan for healthy communities targeted the racial gap between Black and white babies’ death rates, that gap has […]
Hot debate in NC health care on freeing advanced practice nurses from doctors’ supervision
The legislative committee considering Medicaid expansion and access to health care in North Carolina took up the contentious issue of allowing nurses with advanced degrees diagnose illnesses and prescribe medicine without doctor supervision. In a sometimes testy debate that lasted for more than three hours, doctors, nurses, and legislators went back and forth, referencing studies […]
Report: Black patients get more bed sores and infections than white patients at the same hospital
Black patients are more likely to suffer hospital injuries such as bed sores and post-surgery health problems than are white patients treated at the same hospital. An Urban Institute report released Tuesday on disproportionate rates of injury among Black patients is based on discharge records from hospitals in 26 states including North Carolina. The Urban […]
Bill with new abortion restrictions clears first legislative hurdle
A bill that would further limit legal access to abortion in the state took its first step toward becoming law Tuesday, with a favorable vote in the N.C. House Health Committee. House Bill 453 would prohibit a doctor from performing an abortion if a pregnant woman wants one due to the race of the fetus […]
Responses to COVID-19 offer the chance to address racism in healthcare, experts said
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into stark relief how the health care system fails people with low incomes and people of color, panelists at a Duke University Margolis Center forum said last week. Longstanding inequities in health care put people of color at greater risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms and death. The inequities continue with […]
NC has one of the highest rates of uninsured people. New council considers what to do.
A group of doctors, businesspeople, legislators and others are part of a group that Gov. Roy Cooper announced Friday that will consider ways get health insurance to more people. The North Carolina Council for Health Care Coverage convened its first meeting today at 10 a.m. A video stream is available. The council is convened by […]
Governor: Key to easing restrictions starts with the three T’s
Gov. Roy Cooper is not ready to set a date for when North Carolina will lift restrictions and businesses can resume their normal operations. But Cooper signaled a path forward on Wednesday that would include testing, tracing and identifying trends. “Experts tell us it would be dangerous to lift our restrictions all at once. Rather […]
The Status of Women in NC – with NC Department of Administration Secretary Machelle Sanders and NC Council for Women and Youth Involvement Director Mary Williams-Stover
Read the full report: The Status of Women in North Carolina: Health and Wellness
Status of Women in North Carolina: Health and Wellness report launches next week
The Council for Women and Youth Involvement is releasing its 2019 Status of Women in North Carolina: Health and Wellness report next week. The report, the second of four to be released by the council in partnership with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, will be officially launched at events in Asheville on June 25th and in Wilmington on June […]
With the numbers of unvaccinated children on the rise, some pediatricians take a get tough approach
Here’s a startling statistic: North Carolina’s vaccination rate for toddlers has dropped by almost ten percent in the last few years. The data published in a story by North Carolina Health News on Wednesday, comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report a record number of measles cases hitting the U.S. this year. […]
There’s no way to fix Medicaid work reporting requirements
The conversation about expanding Medicaid in North Carolina has been growing, but proposals to make the program less accessible and less efficient are still casting a shadow. Work-reporting requirements are an unnecessary and harmful barrier that would keep North Carolinians from accessing medical coverage. Evidence — from across the nation and from other programs like […]