By Janet Craig Certificate of Need (CON) has been both a blessing and a burden for hospitals as they have adapted to some of the biggest changes in the healthcare market. While CON laws can assist a hospital in opposing competitors coming into its home territory, recruiting and retaining physicians has often required many hospitals…
Rural nursing homes as cultural centers
By Cait Crenshaw With over 300 long-term care facilities in Kentucky, many in rural areas, the mission to reverse the stigma of long-term care from institutions to communities is vital for the industry and the thousands of Kentuckians it cares for daily. Rural Focus A new project is tackling this problem by putting six acclaimed,…
Rural health around Ky: challenges and solutions
Access to healthcare services is critical to good health, yet rural residents in Kentucky face a variety of access barriers that limit their ability to obtain the care they need. Economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational shortcomings, sheer isolation with limited access to transportation and lack of recognition by legislators all conspire to create…
Increasing access to care through prescriber-driven pharmacist protocols
By: Cindy Stowe, PharmD, and Patricia Rippetoe Freeman, PharmD Standing orders and clinical protocols allow the delivery of prescribed care based on an agreed upon set of criteria. Pharmacists practicing in health system settings have had broad authority to provide protocol-driven care for many years. In contrast, community pharmacists’ authority to provide protocol-driven care has been limited to the provision of immunization services, and, more recently,…
American Cancer Society outlines legislative priorities
Expanding access to palliative care top goal. By: Lori Earnshaw, MD, Turner West and Kristy Young The need to improve serious illness care is particularly exigent in Kentucky because of our high prevalence of cancer and other serious illnesses and with the aging of the population. The Center to Advance Palliative Care defines palliative care as specialized care for people living with serious…
2017 Healthcare Leaders: Insights from the Physician Community
By Ben Keeton Each year, Medical News talks with healthcare leaders from across the Commonwealth to get their perspective on the changing landscape of healthcare. This year, we focused on leaders within the physician community to understand the opportunities and challenges that they face in improving healthcare across Kentucky. Leaders include: (click to view profile)…