The top line: Accessible primary care is critical to population health – but problematic for healthcare facility planning. In one NC county, a healthcare system is partnering with a local church to improve accessibility with minimal investment in bricks and mortar. Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Cleveland County is one of the… Read More
How a Church-Based Clinic Is Making Primary Care More Accessible
Dawn Carter |Debating the Role of Pharmacy in Healthcare Transformation
Dawn Carter |In March, President Joe Biden announced a new test-to-treat initiative that allows some pharmacies to prescribe life-saving Covid antivirals for patients who walk in and test positive – a policy that begins to recognize the role of pharmacy in healthcare transformation. No more shuttling between a doctor’s office and pharmacy? That seems like a commonsense… Read More
Public Health Strategic Planning: Don’t Skimp on the SWOT
Brian Ackerman |As Covid-19 slowly transitions from pandemic to endemic status, state and county governments all across the country are reckoning with the lessons of a two-year public health emergency. One area getting a lot more focus: public health strategic planning. The Build Back Better Act requested more than $16 billion for healthcare infrastructure, including $7 billion… Read More
The Public Health CHA: Time for a Temperature Reading
Brian Ackerman |Back in the old days (say, 2019) county health departments rarely made news unless a popular restaurant got shut down after failing inspection. But two years of pandemic restrictions have changed all that. Headlines are now frequent and foreboding, like this one from KHN: “Missouri’s War on Public Health Shows Extent of National Rift.” The… Read More
Will Congress Finally Invest in End-of-Life Care?
Emily Cromer |End-of-life care doesn’t get much attention in Washington, despite the endless political posturing over rising healthcare costs. It’s hard to understand that indifference, given that 25 percent of Medicare spending goes toward care for people during their last year of life. If ever there were a chance to bend the curve, hospice and palliative care… Read More
The Senate Rural Health Caucus Needs NC Voices
Dawn Carter |Our founder, Dawn Carter, wrote the following opinion piece with Joann Anderson, the outgoing CEO of UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton, NC. A shortened version was published by the Raleigh News & Observer on Nov. 14, 2021. Rural healthcare is facing a crisis all across America, and North Carolina is no exception. From Belhaven to… Read More

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