Bryant Boone lives every day now with a sense of gratitude and deepening empathy for the vicissitudes of COVID. At 48, he is insulin-dependent, thanks to coronavirus. Dr. Cyrilyn Walters is seeing cases of people with sky-high blood sugar levels at the long-haul COVID clinic at Regional One Health (and UTHSC). She is also seeing… Read More
The U.S. government has requested to intervene in a lawsuit alleging that Methodist University Hospital executives created a scheme to entice more than $1.5 billion in business from West Cancer Center by rewarding physicians with kickbacks.vcv A former CEO of Methodist University Hospital, Jeffrey Liebman, filed the lawsuit in 2017. The former dean of the School… Read More
If federal guidance on who needs a booster shot seems complicated and long, the state commissioner of health shortens it to two words: “should” and “may.” Yes, if you are 65, you should get a booster, says Dr. Lisa Piercey. The same is true of anyone living in a long-term care facility and those ages… Read More
Sutton Mora’s job requires her to stay up to date on all COVID-19 news. After all, she oversees millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief grants in her role as executive vice president and COO of the Community of Foundation of Greater Memphis. “I’m obsessive about it,” she said, adding with a laugh, “Then I will… Read More
Eighteen months into what we now know as COVID World, it’s difficult to not feel like we’re all the victims of some cosmic bait-and-switch game. COVID-19 arrived in our lives with little to no warning (well, that’s another story for another day) and was supposed to be no more inconvenient than those visiting in-laws who… Read More
The U.S. government Wednesday, Sept. 22, said it is considering filing a motion to intervene in the whistleblower case against Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and former signatories, including former CEO Gary Shorb and former CFO Chris McLean. The attorney for the U.S. said she hoped to file within a week or so. A lawyer for… Read More
In 2019 before the pandemic, the Shelby County Health Department was giving roughly 9,000 vaccinations a month. Through August of this year, the tally had dropped to 2,480 a month, leaving thousands of people – mostly children in lower socio-economic brackets – vulnerable to diseases like measles, diphtheria and chicken pox. “People were so afraid,… Read More
As Memphians, we should know better than citizens most anywhere else the value of a strong and independent public health service. That is what Dr. Robert Wood Mitchell, a former Confederate Army surgeon, called for in the summer of 1878, when he was appointed president of the Memphis Board of Health. Dr. Mitchell had seen… Read More
