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House approves measure allowing nurses to prescribe opioid care
A measure to widely expand the number of healthcare providers legally allowed to prescribe medications used to treat individuals with opioid addiction in Tennessee has landed on the desk of Gov. Bill Lee. Tennessee, thus far, has been the only state in the nation that has barred nurse practitioners or physician assistance from providing medication-assisted […]
More Nashville restaurants sue insurance carriers
In the past week, four more Nashville restaurants have entered into legal battles with their insurance companies over failing to pay pandemic-related business losses. Acme Feed & Seed, The Southern Steak & Oyster, Bajo Sexto Taco and The 404 kitchen (the latter two owned by the same management company, LGW) have each filed separate lawsuits […]
Tennessee’s Hispanic community absorbs a third of COVID cases
Manuel Caló, a 56-year-old Nashville construction worker from Guatemala, fell so ill so quickly that, although he took the test for COVID-19, he couldn’t wait for the results. Friends took him to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was placed on oxygen and hospitalized for four days. Even feeling so sick, Caló had to overcome […]
State House committee advances bill criminalizing abortion after heartbeat detected
A bill criminalizing abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected was approved by members of a House health committee on Tuesday, even as some lawmakers voting in favor of it said they had not read it in its final form, including one of the bill’s sponsors. The bill was amended by Rep. Bryan Terry, R-Murfreesboro, […]
COVID fears reduce jail populations
COVID-19 may be succeeding where criminal justice reform advocates have long tried — and failed — in reducing overcrowding in many of Tennessee’s county jails. Jailers freed more than 9,200 women and men from local lockups across Tennessee between February and May, a 31 percent reduction in average daily inmate populations, according to a report […]
COVID poses challenges in group homes for developmental disabilities
In mid-May Gov. Bill Lee announced that Tennesseans with intellectual and developmental disabilities served by state programs would receive universal COVID-19 testing. The results so far? In six group homes, multiple people have tested positive. Three intermediate care facilities — which typically house individuals with severe or profound disabilities who are also medically fragile — […]
More teens in state custody test positive for COVID
More teens in state custody have tested positive for coronavirus at a Department of Children’s Services youth detention facility in Fayette County. A total of 21 teenage boys have tested positive at the Wilder Youth Development Center in Somerville, Tenn, located about 35 miles from Memphis. The 120-bed facility houses teens, ages 13 to 19, […]
Tennessee hospitals losing $1 billion each month
Tennessee’s hospitals are collectively losing $1 billion each month, for a projected total of about $3.5 billion since the pandemic began, Wendy Long, president and CEO of the Tennessee Hospital Association told lawmakers Wednesday. While federal and state funding and grants have begun to flow to the state’s hospitals, there remains a “significant financial deficit,” […]
Nashville health director authorized distribution of private patient data
At the center of continued controversy over sharing COVID-19 patient information with police is Dr. Michael Caldwell, who stepped into the job as the city’s newest public health director the day after Nashville’s first identified coronavirus case. It was Caldwell who decided to provide lists with the names and addresses of positive COVID-19 individuals in […]
Metro Nashville data share draws controversy with Metro Councilmembers
A conference call between Nashville health officials and council members on Thursday revealed a deep and continuing divide over the city’s practice of sharing names and addresses of COVID-19 positive individuals with law enforcement. In one of the most heated moments of the 40-minute call, Dr. Alex Jahangir — chair of Nashville health department known […]
Administration ends practice of sharing patient information with law enforcement
Gov. Bill Lee’s administration will stop giving daily lists of patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 to law enforcement, but the sharing of private patient information continues in Tennessee’s capitol city. The practice of sharing patient information with law enforcement and first responders drew outrage from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, the Tennessee Black […]
Opioids and COVID: Caught between two epidemics
Mark Sriedfertg was helping a friend move last week, when he noticed she had disappeared. He found her in the bathroom, blue-lipped and unconscious on the floor. “I didn’t have Narcan,” said Sriedfertg, who, at 58, has been in recovery from opioid addiction for nine months. “I applied ice to her groin and the top […]