North Carolina faces worrying health care landscape
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Yahoo
Triangle hospitals are seeing an increase in snake bite cases this year
Extreme heat has plagued the Triangle for several days already this year. And as temperatures have risen, local emergency departments have reported an increase in visits from snake bite patients. Snakes become more active during spring and summer months, said Dr. Ben German, an emergency department physician at WakeMed. Humans do, too, and that's one of the reasons why more snake bites occur during warmer times of year. On really hot days, though, snakes become more nocturnal, and people spend time outdoors later in the afternoons and evening. 'Around dusk seems to be the prime time for snake bites as we get into this time of year, because again, the snakes and people are more active together, and it's harder to see them,' German said. Some of these bites may be attributed to copperheads. The brown, Hershey's Kiss-shaped patterned snakes are the most common venomous snakes Triangle residents are likely to come across, and are one of just a handful of venomous snakes that live in North Carolina. Copperhead bites are rarely fatal for humans, but they may need to be treated with antivenom. The News & Observer asked WakeMed, UNC Health and Duke Health about how many patients with snake bites have been treated at their emergency departments so far this year. So far this year, WakeMed has treated slightly more snake bite cases than the same period last year. ▪ From Jan. 1-July 6, WakeMed saw 59 patients with snake bites. Of those, 33 received antivenom. ▪ Over the same period in 2024, 55 people came to WakeMed Emergency Departments with a snake bite, and 31 of them were treated with antivenom. German said snake bite cases have generally increased yearly since he began working at WakeMed in 2006, but he attributed that to an increase in the number of people moving to the area. UNC Health emergency departments have treated 112 people for snake bites so far this year. The highest number of snake bite patients visited the facilities in May and June — 39 and 45, respectively. In some of these cases, copperheads were specifically named in the diagnosis. Compared to last year, UNC Health Emergency Departments have treated more patients with snake bites so far this year. ▪ From January 2024 through early July 2024, UNC Health Emergency Departments saw 90 snake bite patients, including 45 in July. ▪ Across emergency departments, UNC Health treated at least one person with a snake bite each month in 2024. In five months — May through September — UNC Health Emergency Departments saw at least 20 people with snake bites, system-wide. And during fall and winter months, fewer patients visited emergency departments with snake bites. Duke Health hospitals typically see more than 100 patients with snake bites each year, Duke Health said in an emailed statement Thursday, July 10. And the highest number of monthly cases usually falls during July. So far this season, Duke Health has treated 33 patients with snake bites at emergency departments at three facilities — Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital and Duke Raleigh Hospital. Of those 33 cases, 11 sought treatment at Duke Health emergency departments since Tuesday, June 17. German, the WakeMed emergency physician, recommended three tips to avoid snake bites during this time of year: ▪ Wear good shoes outside. Sneakers are better than sandals, but leather shoes that cover above the ankle will work best to protect against bites to feet and lower legs. ▪ Be aware of your surroundings. Don't reach under objects or into spaces that aren't visible. Be careful when picking up debris, especially sticks, branches and mulch, which hide venomous copperheads well. ▪ If you're walking, taking out the trash or are outside for another reason later in the day or early in the morning, bring a flashlight. Have a question about your community you'd like answered? Or maybe a tip or story idea you'd like to share? The service journalism teams at The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer want to hear from you. If you have a question about the Charlotte area, send The Charlotte Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form. If you have a question about Raleigh or a Triangle area community, send The News & Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form. Do snake repellents keep snakes out of your NC yard? What experts say Snake in a drive-thru? Boa found coiled under window of Triangle McDonald's
Miami Herald
11-07-2025
- Miami Herald
The neediest people were let down again by the lawmakers they voted for. It's baffling.
Cathy Price's words stopped me cold. She's a 72-year-old woman who worked as a nurse at Martin General in a rural part of North Carolina. That area stands to be particularly hard hit by the 'big beautiful bill' Republicans passed and President Donald Trump signed into law on the 249th anniversary of this country's birth. Martin General was part of ECU Health, a not-for-profit system that serves about 1.4 million people in eastern North Carolina, including rural areas in Martin County. ECU planned to reopen Martin General, at least for emergency and some diagnostic services. It closed in 2023, then North Carolina finally agreed to expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), giving residents hope their local hospital would return. The nearest hospital is a 30- to 40-minute drive away. 'We're in a life-and-death crisis,' Price told The New York Times. 'People's lives are on the line because of the hospital not being here.' She knows the dire situation facing rural residents in Martin County, and elsewhere. Still, she told The Times she supports President Trump's supposed efforts to rid Medicaid of fraud and waste. What she and many other Trump supporters don't seem to understand is that in the eyes of Trump and most other Republicans in Washington, D.C. — including the ones rural North Carolina residents sent to the nation's capital to represent them — they are the fraud and waste. They are the lazy 'able-bodied' people, supposedly addicted to government assistance, who hate having to take care of themselves. They are the problem Republicans are trying to solve, the sacrifice the GOP just made to ensure the wealthiest Americans and corporations can receive yet another massive tax cut. The wealthiest Americans did not need even more money in their pockets, but Price's neighbors and friends in Martin County need the health care that will be taken away, or may never materialize, because of the 'big beautiful bill' billionaire Trump can't stop crowing about. The Medicaid coverage that, as recalled in The Times article, allowed 58-year-old Lori Kelley in Harrisburg to save a finger and detect two tumors? That might be going away. But at least private plane and yacht owners are gonna have yet another way to write off some of their tax obligations. For decades now, rural residents have been flocking to the Republican Party. It's mostly been white rural residents, but a small but not-insignificant number of Black and brown rural residents have joined them. Theories abound as to why. Political analysts will point to policies such as NAFTA, which has been blamed for the loss of manufacturing jobs in rural areas. I grew up in St. Stephen, S.C., and saw the Georgia Pacific paper plant that had sustained us close and leave a devastating void. At least four of my family members worked there. As a journalist, I documented the closing of a bevy of manufacturing plants, including International Paper and Georgetown Steel in Georgetown, and an electricity-producing plant in Conway. The shifts in manufacturing are complex and multilayered. They've caused real harm to real people. But there is no one cause, which is why I don't believe that can explain the voting shifts. And the two parties have been exceedingly clear about their priorities. When Democrats are given power, they fight to expand health care coverage, strengthen the safety net and argue for a living wage and higher taxes on the wealthy. The GOP does the opposite. (The same can be said of how the parties view disaster preparedness and assistance. The Trump administration is trying to dismantle FEMA even as natural disasters are causing even more harm and killing more people. Democrats want to better fund such agencies.) During Trump's first term, one of the Republicans' top goals was to fully uproot Obamacare, risking the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and the health of millions. The 'big beautiful bill' helped the GOP partially accomplish that goal – at the expense of Price and her rural North Carolina neighbors. It's one of the most baffling truisms of the modern political era. The neediest Americans repeatedly empower the people most likely to ignore their most-pressing needs.
Associated Press
10-07-2025
- Associated Press
North Carolina's first standalone children's hospital set to bring 8,000 jobs to a Raleigh suburb
APEX, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's first standalone children's hospital will be built in a bedroom community near the state capital, the project's health systems announced Thursday, creating a campus estimated to bring 8,000 jobs to the area. UNC Health and Duke Health announced in January an agreement to jointly build the proposed 500-bed pediatric hospital and linked facilities in the state's Research Triangle region, which includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. At that time, the specific location wasn't finalized. But leaders of the health systems said Thursday that the 'North Carolina Children's' project will be constructed about 20 miles (32.19 kilometers) southwest of downtown Raleigh in Apex, a town of 77,000 already surging in population thanks to the region's strong technology economy. The 230-acre (93.1-hectare) campus will also include a children's outpatient care center, over 100 behavioral health beds and a research and education center operated by Duke University and University of North Carolina medical schools. The campus is poised to be integrated into a long-discussed mixed-use development location called Veridea that will include thousands of new homes, retail, dining, office and research space, as well as a new Wake Technical Community College campus. 'This campus will create a brighter, healthier future for generations of children and adolescents across North Carolina and the Southeast, and we're thrilled to have Apex as our home and partner,' UNC Heatlh CEO Dr. Wesley Burks said in a news release. A groundbreaking for the hospital campus is now expected in 2027, with construction anticipated to take six years. North Carolina Children's Health also issued on Thursday a request for information from potential design and construction contractors for the project. There are children's hospitals already in North Carolina, including those operated by the University of North Carolina and Duke University health systems that are attached to their main campuses in the Triangle. The Apex location 'will ensure that the Triangle remains a hub and a destination for the best pediatric scientists, teachers and clinicians — convenient to both medical school campuses,' said Dr. Mary Klotman, dean of the Duke University medical school and a Duke Health executive. The health systems have said the hospital campus project could cost from $2 billion to $3 billion, with a massive private fundraising effort ahead. The project has already received $320 million from state legislators. The next state budget, still being negotiated by House and Senate Republicans that ultimately would head to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein's desk, also could contain more project funds. Stein said in an interview Thursday that beyond the economic opportunity the project will spark, 'I'm really excited about what the children's hospital means for children of North Carolina who are sick and in need of the best, most sophisticated, advanced medical interventions to live long, healthy lives.'
