Month: July 2011
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Patients in isolated rural areas have higher rates of death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease living in isolated rural areas “seem to be at greater risk” of death from COPD than those living in urban areas, even when “hospital rurality...
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Justice Dept. accuses Erlanger nursing home of collecting on ‘worthless services;’ suit is first of its kind in Kentucky
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a civil complaint against Villaspring Health Care and Rehabilitation in Erlanger and its parent company, Carespring Health Care Management, claiming they “billed Medicare and Medicaid...
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Louisville hospital merger probably means poor women won’t get their tubes tied at University Hospital any more
Women who deliver through Caesarean sections at the University of Louisville Hospital may no longer be able to get their fallopian tubes tied at the same time, Patrick Howington of the...
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Access to healthy food: A local angle is available on a national event tomorrow, and here’s a Kentucky example
Update, July 21: First Lady Michelle Obama announced Wal-Mart and other retailers plan to open or expand 1,500 stores in the next five years in areas that do not have...
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Website helps journalists, community planners, other Kentuckians in search of county-specific health data
A treasure trove of health data about every county in Kentucky is available to journalists and community planners looking to draw a statistical picture of their area. That was the...
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Defenders of small, rural hospitals take issue with study that found poor patient outcomes
A recent study that concluded small, rural “critical access hospitals” have poorer patient outcomes and lower quality of care is making waves in the medical community. A federally funded monitoring...
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All students at many Kentucky schools will get free lunches, regardless of household income
All students in as many as 102 of Kentucky’s 174 school districts will get a free lunch every day starting next month. Kentucky is one of three states to be...
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Small, rural hospitals with ‘critical access’ designation have poorer patient outcomes and lower quality of care, study finds
A study has found that small, rural hospitals with the “critical access” designation have poorer patient outcomes and lower quality of care. The analysis, performed by researchers at the Harvard...
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Overweight people tend to cluster with those who are likewise
The adage “birds of a feather flock together” seems to apply when it comes to the obesity, with a study concluding that overweight people tend to befriend others who are overweight....
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Kentucky 6th in obesity; state rate rises for 2nd consecutive year
“It’s official: Kentucky is a mecca for blubber,” The Courier-Journal‘s Darla Carter reports. The state has the sixth highest rate of obese adults, is one of just six states whose...