In the News

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Lexington Herald Leader

FRANKFORT – The oral health of Kentucky’s school children is worsening, even though more of them are covered by dental insurance today than 15 years ago.

A new report was presented Wednesday to the state’s legislature’s Interim Health and Welfare Committee, following on an earlier statewide study conducted in 2001. The report’s authors found that 41 percent of third- and sixth-graders surveyed by a dentist had at least one untreated cavity. In Eastern Kentucky, that figure rose to 53 percent, amounting to about 15,100 children in immediate need of a filling.

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HealthNewsDigest.com

ALBANY, N.Y. (October 12, 2016) —  Fewer nurse practitioners practice per capita in downstate New York compared to upstate, a recent study conducted by the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) finds.

In addition, more than 75 percent of certified nurse practitioners (NPs) in New York State are actively practicing as NPs, while another 14 percent work as registered nurses.

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Lohud – The Journal News

You may want to consider acting on that toothache you’ve been ignoring for six months, or soon the soreness in the back of your mouth could be compounded by a new headache: Finding a dentist. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, New York state may face a shortage of dentists as early as 2025, as demand is expected to far outpace supply, with 1,024 fewer full-time dentists than needed. This is expected to become the third highest state shortage in the country.

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Times Telegram

A new community health center is offering Herkimer County residents another place to turn for medical care. Valley Family Health Center, at 55 Central Plaza, Suite B in Ilion, started seeing patients part time in May and is hosting a formal ribbon cutting at noon Tuesday. The federally qualified community health center offers primary care and women’s health services.

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Utica Observer-Dispatch

It’s a fact of rural life: Sick children and their families often need to travel to see the specialists who can treat them. Youngsters with complex asthma who face frequent emergency room visits and hospital admissions need to see a pediatric pulmonologist and not just a pediatrician or family doctor, said Dr. Kris Kjolhede, co-director of the Bassett Healthcare Network’s School-Based Health Program.

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Democrat & Chronicle

We are still human, despite the high technology that increasingly shapes our lives and — we hope — our region’s economic development. So, even as photonics and other mind-blowing industries emerge, we go on aging, falling ill, getting injured, and requiring the kind of care only a human can provide. Health care workers, such as certified nursing assistants, will continue to be in high demand. In fact, the Center for Health Workforce Studies predicts New York will need more than 260,000 new nursing assistants between 2014 and 2024, and another 337,000 to fill existing positions as people leave for retirement or other reasons.

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DiagnosticImaging.com – Editor’s Corner

I recently sought to find a new primary-care physician ‘who’s located closer to where my wife and I live.

It ended up being a lot harder than I thought. Either doctors don’t take our insurance, aren’t taking new patients, or just don’t have 15 minutes to spare in the next few months.

The primary-care physician shortage is real, people. I am sure you didn’t need me to tell you that, but it’s interesting to experience firsthand an issue that we seem to talk about every day.

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Health Affairs Blog

For several decades, there has been a general consensus that the nation would benefit from an increased supply of primary care practitioners, including physicians. Most reform efforts to improve health care, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), have viewed an increased focus on primary care as essential for improving the delivery system and outcomes of care. According to the Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) demand index, these efforts are beginning to pay off.

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Albany Times Union

Samaritan Hospital eliminated 22 full- and part-time positions for licensed practical nurses who served on staff teams treating hospital patients. The employees were offered jobs in other parts of St. Peter’s Health Partners, the hospital’s parent, said Norman Dascher, chief executive of Samaritan and St. Mary’s hospitals in Troy. Eighteen accepted the positions, two declined and left the hospital and two stayed on their medical units as patient-care technicians, spokesman Michael Mullaney said. St. Peter’s Hospital uses a staff model that includes registered nurses and aides, but not LPNs, Dascher said. Samaritan will adopt this model.

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Watchdog.org

Discounting the governor and the state flag, there isn’t much that the secluded backwoods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have in common with the urban streets of Detroit. One thing they do have in common: not enough dentists. In all but seven of Michigan’s 83 counties, there is at least one area experiencing a shortage of dental professionals. It’s a truly statewide problem, one that affects a disproportionate number of children and low-income households.

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