Author: Emily Rice

Emily has been with WVPB since December 2022 and is the Appalachia Health News Reporter, based in Charleston. She has worked in several areas of journalism since her graduation from Marshall University in 2016, including work as a reporter, photographer, videographer and managing editor for newsprint and magazines. Before coming to WVPB, she worked as the features editor of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, the managing editor of West Virginia Executive Magazine and as an education reporter for The Cortez Journal in Cortez, Colorado.

Southern W.Va. Health Leaders Announce Collaboration To Enhance Region’s Health Care Services

On Friday afternoon, local health providers announced a collaboration aimed at enhancing health care services in southern West Virginia.

In a conference room brimming with excited chatter, Mountain Health Network, Marshall Health, and Logan Regional Medical Center announced they have partnered to improve access to specialty care in Logan and surrounding areas.

Kevin Yingling is the president and CEO of Mountain Health Network. He said the agreement is aimed at providing care to rural areas and lessening travel time for patients.

“Mountain Health and Logan Regional Medical Center have held a longstanding mutual respect and common purpose of providing high-quality medical care for patients, close to home,” Yingling said. “We are honored that the Logan and ScionHealth teams have chosen Mountain Health and our academic medical center partners, Marshall Health…so patients and families do not need to travel long distances for advanced medical care.”

Under this initiative, specialists will be trained at Logan Regional Medical Center to provide access to specialized heart, pediatric and cancer services.

“Regardless of where West Virginians live, they deserve to be able to reach the lifesaving medical services they need and rely on,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who was in attendance. “Today’s announcement means more West Virginians receiving care, more West Virginians providing care, and more teamwork between our medical organizations.”

While some specialty care has been available at Logan Regional Medical Center, this partnership aims to add to these services by implementing workgroups of experts from each hospital that will develop programs that advance cardiology, pediatric and oncology services for patients in the Logan area.

Seminars Focus On Creating Healthy Workplaces For Employees In Recovery

A series of free virtual workshops will teach West Virginia employers to support employees recovering from substance use disorder.

The series is the product of collaboration among employment experts from Marshall University’s Robert C. Byrd Institute (RCBI) and Marshall Health’s CORE (Creating Opportunities for Recovery Employment).

Ashley Shaw is the director of CORE and brings a decade of experience in workforce development to her position.

“The focus of the webinars is to assist employers in improving strategies to recruit and retain employees,” Shaw said. “A part of that also though does include taking a look at some of the populations that are non traditional talent pools that maybe employers haven’t tapped into that might be able to benefit and serve as an asset and can be assets to employers across our region.”

Shaw said the webinar series has multiple components that make it an effective training tool to help employers see individuals as assets to their business.

“The other piece of it is addressing policy of organizations, their education, how they are training their staff,” Shaw said. “How are you ensuring that your culture is well so that not only can you assist folks that you might hire who are in recovery, that employers can take an active role in preventing substance use disorder within the workplace as well?”

A healthy workplace, or “well culture,” as defined by Shaw, focuses on policies that benefit employees and employers.

“Employers should take a look at their organization’s morale, work demands and working conditions. Are we using stigmatizing language? All of those things play a key role in building a ‘well culture’,” Shaw said. “Those are practical things that employers can put in place to better retain the staff that they do have and to better recruit into the workplace.”

The free hour-long sessions will be held Jan. 10, Feb. 14, March 14 and April 11. For more information, see RCBI’s registration form.

Hundreds Hospitalized In Post-Holiday COVID-19 Infection Spike

During his regular briefing, Gov. Jim Justice reported 551 new positive cases of COVID-19 after the holidays with 360 patients hospitalized.

Officials have often said the state has a capacity of about 500 beds, but right now staffing shortages are raising concerns after the recent spike in case numbers.

“Remember, the number at 500 really, really puts a strain on our hospitals in West Virginia. This is a big number jump,” Gov. Jim Justice said. “And literally at the end of the day, we can live with this, but I really urge you to get vaccinated and get your booster shots.”

West Virginia lost 26 more people to the virus and has 1,439 active cases, making for a daily positivity rate of 11.29 percent. Justice reported that 56 of the 360 patients hospitalized in the state are in the ICU, 17 of whom are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Coronavirus Czar Dr. Clay Marsh urged the public to take precautions for themselves and their loved one’s safety against new variants. An emerging mutation of COVID-19 called XBB1.5 now accounts for 75 percent of infections in the northeast United States and 41 percent of infections nationwide.

“So we know our older population now is going to be the one most vulnerable to those,” Marsh said. “And importantly in the United States, we just passed 100 million cases of COVID-19. And we know that this is by far the most infectious period today. And the virus continues to gain power. And so we need to also gain power to offset it.”

Cabell County Commission Approves Audit of Harm Reduction Program

The Cabell County Commission approved a resolution seeking an evaluation and audit of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department’s syringe exchange program.

Syringe exchanges are widely seen by public health experts as a key measure in preventing the spread of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis C among people who inject drugs.

“We feel that our effort has been successful while we search for people who are afflicted with this illness and get them the help they need,” said Dr. Michael E. Kilkenny, executive director of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department. “So these restrictions have had some impact on our ability to prevent disease.”

The audit of Cabell-Huntington’s program comes over a year after a new state law went into effect, Senate Bill 334, which requires programs offering syringe exchanges to host a number of other harm reduction services, force them to deny clean needles to those who don’t return with their used needles and require them to only serve clients with state IDs in order to operate.

“As a licensed entity we are fully aware that we are subject to review by not only Office of Health Facility Licensure and Certification (OHFLAC), who issues our license but also by our main granting organizations through the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) so we are certainly open and willing,” Dr. Kilkenny said. “We are actually even eager to have an inspection and make sure that we are complying with all aspects of the law. We are hopeful that the audit will provide clarity to the county commission.”

Kilkenny noted that the Cabell-Huntington Health Department’s syringe exchange program informed national harm reduction strategies and said he sees the audit as an opportunity to show success within the program and inform local citizens about the program’s benefits.

“I think we have established the basic understanding of Appalachian injection drug use and that has been used to inform the national strategy and we have been informed by the national strategy as we work toward that 2030 goal,” Dr. Kilkenny said. “I think that is what they are looking for and I think they will better understand what it is we do and how effective it is.”

State Officials Warn Of Post-Holiday COVID-19 Surge

While reports of COVID fatalities have slowed down over the holidays, state officials are asking the public to prepare for a surge and report any illness to their physicians.

Despite the encouraging news that no new COVID-19 fatalities have been reported in the last 11 days, state officials are asking the public to prepare for a surge and report any illness to their physicians.

In a press briefing Tuesday, Gov. Jim Justice, Interim Head of the DHHR Jeff Coben and Ret. Gen. James Hoyer encouraged the public to stay vigilant as fear of a post-holiday surge in cases mounts.

“I also remind you about getting your flu shot, you know, whether it be this RSV or flu or COVID,” Justice said. “There’s three things going around and pretty nasty stuff, and everything, but protect yourself as best you possibly can. We all know that wintertime is with us.”

Hoyer pointed out a vulnerable age group shown in new data from West Virginia University (WVU).

“As we continue to manage COVID and stay in this study phase, what we see is that the bulk of our hospitalizations tend to be people aged 65 and above as we pointed out, as well as with the fatalities, but what we see in the surge periods is a greater increase in hospitalizations of people in the age group 50 to 59,” Hoyer said.

State officials asked the public to stay up to date on their vaccinations, and to not depend solely on at-home tests and report any illness or positive test to their physician.

“The good news is that the numbers right now are manageable,” Hoyer said. “But as pointed out, we can continue to get people to take those vaccinations, whether it’s a flu vaccine, the COVID vaccine. Those will help us blunt those particular surges and allow us to manage our way through this more effectively.”

Omnibus Bill To Establish CDC Office Of Rural Health

The Federal 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill includes $5 million to establish an Office of Rural Health (ORH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A. Toni Young is the Executive Director of the Community Education Group (CEG) and a long-time advocate for vulnerable and at-risk communities, including advocacy for the establishment of the rural health office. .She works alongside lawmakers to combat public health crises, including HIV/AIDS, substance use disorder and opioid addiction and more.

“If we can get this office, then there’s a continuum of care for rural communities,” Young said. “So, from the prevention to thinking about it for prevention and planning at CDC, to the implementation and response that would happen at HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) in an office on Rural Health Policy, and if we can have that level of coordination, I think we can have a more robust response to the health needs of folks in rural communities, particularly in the Appalachian region.”

While the 2023 appropriations bill is still being deliberated by Congress, the establishment of the Office of Rural Health at the CDC is not being contested.

“Our focus is certainly to say, ‘We need you to see the folks of Appalachia and we need you to respond to the folks of Appalachia,” Young said. “So again, this is like a big picture saying, if we can put this piece of the puzzle together, then we can go back and say we now need you to develop a robust and coordinated plan for the health needs of the people of the Appalachian region.”

The ORH will enhance the implementation of CDC’s rural health portfolio, coordinate efforts across programs, and develop a strategic plan for rural health. The agreement also encourages ORH to accelerate innovation, make scientific and communication resources tailored to current rural public health needs, build and improve public health functions and service delivery and provide leadership in matters of public health infrastructure.

“Rural communities have been devastated by COVID-19 and other health disparities, and this new CDC office will be critical to increasing resources and raising awareness of rural Americans’ needs,” Young said. “One of the things that I think is really important for people to understand, is the role that Senators Manchin and Capito have played in this response. They too, they’ve asked the CDC, about West Virginia being included in ending the HIV epidemic. They’ve been supportive of this request for the CDC to get this Office of Rural Health.”