Nursing home chain bails on Ky.

Company owns 2 area facilities, blames 'litigation environment'

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Following a history of lawsuits, and in light of a litigation reform bill failing in the General Assembly this year, a major nursing home chain plans to unload its facilities in Kentucky to a Texas company.

The corporation, Extendicare Health Services, Inc., owns Pembroke Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Shady Lawn Nursing Home in Cadiz, and 19 other homes in Kentucky. In a 2009 study that ranked 10 Kentucky facilities among the country’s worst nursing homes, three of those belong to Extendicare.

Extendicare also owns facilities in 11 other states as far apart as Oregon and Pennsylvania.

Extendicare announced last week it will lease all of its Kentucky facilities to a long-term care operator in Texas for a 10-year period. The operator can extend its lease or buy the facilities if it wishes.

First line of defense

School nurses help hundreds of families

By Nick Tabor, New Era Staff Writer

In the late morning on Thursday, as the cafeteria down the hall got noisy with chatter and the shuffling of trays, Rita Poe entered the nurse’s office at Hopkinsville Middle School and took her usual seat at a table.

She carried a small case of tools for treating her seventh-grade daughter’s diabetes.

The nurse, Deana Garrett, greeted her but continued with her business: checking names off a list of kids who needed to pick up medications, putting a Band-Aid on the toe of a girl whose leg cast chafed her skin, rubbing calamine lotion onto a boy’s bug bite.
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County hurting for doctors

Shortage causes problems even for the insured

By Nick Tabor, New Era Staff Writer

Most people who have health insurance can find treatment, even if it means traveling out of the county. The uninsured can often get treatment through St. Luke Free Clinic.

But the shortage strains every part of the local health care system. It increases doctors’ workloads, leaves St. Luke short on volunteers, and limits options for all patients, often causing them inconvenience and budget problems.

As a result, some who are complacent or can’t afford the gas or time for long trips don’t seek preventive care at all. In the end, this puts an undue burden on Jennie Stuart’s emergency room, Bowers said.

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Sexual health issues lack diagnosis

County’s high rate of STDs, teen pregnancies alarming

By Nick Tabor, New Era Staff Writer

“Maybe socio-economic status has something to do with it, but personally I think at some point people have to make good choices,” Pyle wrote in an email. “It’s hard to diagnose why our pregnancy and STD rates are higher. For now all we can do is advocate, educate, screen and treat.”

But neither explanation — demographics and the ubiquity of poor sexual habits — reaches the heart of the matter. They beg the question: Why are so many residents practicing unsafe sex?

Pyle agreed that if Christian County were to wage a campaign to reduce these rates, perhaps local government, private businesses, religious organizations and health-care providers could all play a role, as they have in their support of a public smoking ban.

However, to begin treating the large-scale problem, officials would first need to diagnose it in a way no one has yet done.

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Life worth living

Hospice provides more than a peaceful end

By Nick Tabor, New Era Staff Writer

The doctor said Walker’s heart was beating at 30 percent of the healthy rate.

She would probably die, the doctor said, in three to four weeks.

A social worker told the family about Pennyroyal Hospice. Contrary to most people’s impressions, she said, hospice staff didn’t limit their scope to the comatose and those just a day or two from death. A month wasn’t too early to start using their services, she said. Anyone diagnosed with a terminal illness could qualify.

The hospice aimed to do more than palliate the death experience, she said. It aimed to help patients live better.

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Health report: County fit for Ky.

Rankings aren’t much different from state scores, previous years

By Nick Tabor, New Era Staff Writer

A county-by-county survey of the nation’s health statistics hit the Internet on Tuesday. From one perspective, Christian County’s statistics are jarring.

The county scored significantly worse than the national benchmark in premature death rates, people in poor or fair health, smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, excessive drinking, deaths in vehicle wrecks, sexually transmitted infections, teen births, preventable hospital stays, unemployment, children living in poverty, children in single-parent homes, inadequate social support, violent crime rates, limited access to healthy food, and prevalence of fast food restaurants.

But from another perspective, this report brings no surprises at all; it only shows Christian County is deeply situated in its time and place. Comparing the new data with a 2007 statewide study shows Christian County’s health has not changed much in the last five years.

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Public funds cover birth control

Health department fills role by providing contraceptives

By Nick Tabor, New Era Staff Writer

Though Planned Parenthood agencies are widely known as abortion clinics, they also offer contraceptive services to women who can’t pay out of pocket and don’t have insurance. They’re the obvious sources for many women in big cities.

But the nearest Planned Parenthood agency to Hopkinsville is in Nashville, Tenn., about 75 miles away.

Instead, the Christian County Health Department provides contraceptives to all women who come through its doors seeking them, regardless of their ability to pay, said Amy Maternowski, the department’s nursing supervisor.

In the fiscal year that ended in June, the Christian County Health Department spent $50,441 of its funds from local taxes to buy contraceptives and fund counseling related to family planning, according to data the department provided.

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