Category: Health Care
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Docs Up in Arms
by James A. Bacon A letter from 128 physicians to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors has urged the Board to uphold academic freedom, free speech and patient safety by replacing UVA Health Systems CEO Craig Kent and medical school Dean Melina Kibbe. In the letter issued last week, the physicians accused Kent and…
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COVID Virus Makes Leap to Wild Animals
by James A. Bacon Hey, childless cat ladies, you might be giving your pets COVID! OK, I’ll admit this story really doesn’t have anything to do with childless cat ladies. I’m shamelessly piggybacking on the J.D. Vance childless-cat-lady furor. I should be trying to panic all pet owners, not just childless cat ladies. You all…
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Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease?
by James A. Bacon Dave Singer is a radiologist at a Virginia hospital. He’s not a front-line physician with primary responsibility for patient care, but, as an in-house expert in reading x-rays, CT scans, MRI scans, and other medical images, he reviews hundreds of cases weekly. His vantage point allows him to spot patterns that…
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COVID Questions Linger
by James A. Bacon There is still much we don’t know about the COVID-19 virus and the effect it has on the human body. One enduring mystery is the syndrome dubbed “long COVID,” when symptoms persist months or years after the infection. Why do some people get it while others don’t? What are the risk…
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Youngkin Tackles Maternal Health Disparities the Right Way
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin has launched an initiative to address disparities in maternal healthcare outcomes, and he’s doing it right. Rather than presupposing what the problem is and what the solutions are, he is resurrecting the Task Force on Maternal Health Data Quality Measures to do a deep dive into the data…
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Maybe We Should Discuss the Political Determinants of Health
by James A. Bacon As it takes up the issue of “social determinants of health,” the Joint Commission on Health Care is probing the social and economic origins of unequal health outcomes for different population groups in Virginia, according to Radio IQ. By defining the issue as social determinants of health, as opposed to social…
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Is Something Wrong at UVA Health?
by James A. Bacon An anonymous group of Charlottesville residents has organized to bring attention to issues troubling the $3.3 billion UVA Health division of the University of Virginia. Calling itself Parrhesia — Greek for speaking candidly and freely — the group of “concerned citizens of Charlottesville and patients of UVA Health” portrays the healthcare…
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Fewer Children Seeking ER Treatment for Cannabis Ingestion
by James A. Bacon The number of pediatric patients visiting hospital emergency rooms in cannabis-related incidents fell 21.5% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period the year before, a decline that some attribute to bipartisan legislation regulating the production, sale, and potency of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana-related products. A Virginia Hospital…
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We’re Doctors. Implicit Bias Training Has No Place in Medicine.
by Martin Caplan, MD, and Kenneth Lipstock, MD Apparently, Virginia’s doctors and nurses are racist. This is the message of two bills that are moving through the state legislature. The bills would force medical professionals to take ongoing “implicit bias training” to get and keep their license. The problem is that such training is insulting, dangerous, and…
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Covid vs. Religious Freedom at UVA
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia has paid more than $1.8 million in legal fees fighting a lawsuit filed by UVA Health employees who were fired, despite religious objections, for refusing to take the Covid vaccine. And that’s just through November. Given the continuing litigation, billing has likely passed the $2 million mark.…
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Public Health Covid Rules Were Nothing But Voodoo
by Kerry Dougherty We tried to tell you. Those of us with common sense were attacked for it though. Back in 2020, when we were being accused of wanting to kill grandma because we knew the “rules” coming from our public health officials were — for lack of a better term — unconstitutional bullshit, we…
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Slasher Ordered to Reimburse Medical Bills of his Victim
by Kerry Dougherty Several things strike me about this crime and restitution story out of Patrick County. First, after Larry Puckett nearly stabbed Justin Hawkes to death in the fall of 2019, Mr. Hawkes incurred about $120,000 in medical bills. Because the injured man was indigent, Medicaid stepped in and negotiated the price down to…
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The Impact of Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need Laws on Nursing Home and Home Health Care Availability and Expenditures
by James C. Sherlock I have come across a major study in the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine that made a point that I have not explored sufficiently to this point. It discusses the intersection of nursing homes, home health care, CON laws like Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law, and…
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National Academy of Sciences Offers Superb Recommendations for Fixing Virginia’s Nursing Home Crisis
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes, we need to listen. I just finished the 806-page 2022 report “The National Imperative to Improve Nursing Home Quality: Honoring Our Commitment to Residents, Families, and Staff” by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). It is downloadable at the link. That study and report were utterly professional and thorough, as…
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The Virginia State Budget and the Rising Costs of Registered Nurses
by James C. Sherlock I was asked yesterday by a reader about the relationship between nursing homes, rising registered nurse salaries and the new Virginia budget agreement. Good questions. Virginia’s workforce includes nearly 70,000 registered nurses. The state pays its workers, but it also pays its Medicaid share for private sector nurses. Pay for private…