By Anne Blythe There’s no doubt it was hot outdoors the day José Arturo Gónzalez Mendoza died after falling ill while harvesting sweet potatoes from a Barnes Farming field in Nash County. The heat index, which factors in humidity with the temperature, measured 96 in that part of eastern North Carolina on Sept. 5, 2023. […]
Posted inPublic Health
Navassa Superfund site cleanup begins; community looks to future opportunities
By Will Atwater About 30 people gathered at Navassa’s Town Hall last week, and another 18 tuned in virtually, to hear representatives from Greenfield Environmental Multistate Trust make a long-awaited announcement: Cleanup of the town’s Superfund site was underway. The focus of the remediation project is a 100-acre area, the former location of the Kerr-McGee […]
Posted inHospitals
In second blow, Feds now cite HCA’s Mission Hospital for violating emergency treatment standards
By Andrew R. Jones Asheville Watchdog Asheville’s Mission Hospital has violated the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA), the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told the hospital’s CEO on Thursday, again threatening to withdraw the system’s federal funding, according to a letter obtained by Asheville Watchdog. EMTALA ensures public access to emergency services […]
Posted inGender health
A Catholic doctor wanted to align his faith and his medical practice — and the result is an Atrium Health OB/GYN office in Indian Trail centered on Natural Family Planning
by Cristina Bolling The Charlotte Ledger For years, Dr. Stephen Blaha felt conflicted about the two lives he was living. On weekdays, he’d put on his white coat and perform his job as an OB/GYN with Atrium Health, which included prescribing birth control pills, tying fallopian tubes and placing IUDs to prevent pregnancy. But he was having a […]
Posted inGender health
First over-the-counter birth control pill in the U.S. expands access to contraception
By Rachel Crumpler The first over-the-counter birth control pill available in the U.S. — Opill — will soon be online and in stores, boosting convenience and access to oral contraceptives. This means people will be able to access birth control without a prescription just as easily as they can Tylenol or aspirin. The move marks […]
Posted inMedicaid
State health leaders hope lawmakers can widen Medicaid access to pricey drugs like Wegovy
By Jaymie Baxley North Carolina’s top health official hopes the state can expand Medicaid access to Wegovy — the blockbuster weight-loss drug recently approved as a treatment for cardiovascular disease by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — without breaking the bank. On Tuesday, Kody Kinsley, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human […]