Thursday, May 2, 2013
When no dentist is available, people turn to the ER in local hospitals.
A swollen jaw, fever, and a throbbing toothache are definite signs that a dental visit is needed as soon as possible. But with no dental insurance, no regular dentist and no cash to spend on costly dental treatment, many people seek hospital emergency departments for relief from dental pain and discomfort. The ER at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens has seen a steady rise in dental-related visits over the past four years. In 2010 the hospital recorded 226 dental-related visits, up from 159 visits in 2009; the number rose to 327 in 2011 and to 355 in 2012. Athens Regional Medical Center does not separately track dental-related ER visits but Registered Nurse Kathleen Kriebel, who works on the emergency services, sees a lot of patients …
Monday, February 25, 2013
The Nurses Clinic and Mercy Health Center are both swamped.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- Ian Branam
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Monday, February 25
The demand for free health care in the Athens area far exceeds what Mercy Health Center and the Athens Nurses Clinic are able to provide. “We have hundreds of people calling for ten slots,” said Mary Baxter, office manager for Mercy Health Center. “We want to care for the patients we have, care for them well, but we have limited resources.” Mercy operates on a first-come, first-served basis. They open a call-in line on Tuesday nights,, and the first ten people who get through will be given appointments. “If we could recruit (volunteers) for every day of the week, we would be open every day of the week,” said Baxter. One reason for the crush is that Mercy also accepts patients from Jackson, Barrow, Madison, Oconee, and Oglethorpe …
Monday, May 23, 2011
A wireless network will enhance operations.
The Athens Nurses Clinic is moving on to bigger and better things, and a group of students at the University of Georgia has helped the clinic make it all possible. The clinic offers free health care to low-income and homeless clients. The staff is adjusting to a high-security, wireless computer network established by a team of four students in from assistant professor John Mativo's network design class. Eric Howell, 55, returned to the university to obtain a political science degree. He quickly emerged as the team leader, lending his plethora of experience to a project that called for something new to mesh with something old. "For non-profits, you don't want to do bleeding edge," explained Howell, whose Howell Technology Group Inc., in …
April Bailey
5:54 pm on Thursday, May 2, 2013
They do but the state of Georgia is really strict on what dental hygienists can do without supervision. more ›