The big news to come up in the Bull City on Tuesday was a health-care story -- but one which had nothing to do with the swine flu panic.
Duke's health system announced that it would lead a $1 million Durham Health Innovations initiative (funded jointly by Duke and an NIH grant) over the next seven months. The outcome of the planning effort, which will include the community? As the H-S puts it, a plan for "reallocating existing health spending" to provide new ways to focus on improving the overall healthiness of a community, not simply the acute response to moments of health-care crisis like disease and illness.
It's a long-held truism in health care, and one that I still remember as the centerpiece of David Cutler's teachings on the American health care system: we spend more on health care services per capita than any nation, yet many countries outpace us for life expectancy. Simply put, they're living healthier, or are providing more of a focus on longer-term preventative care and overall wellness.
And that seems to be the focus of Duke's efforts, which will focus on community outreach and treating patients in their neighborhoods, rather than waiting for much-sicker patients to come to Duke for care.
The H-S (#1, #2) and the N&O have very good coverage. It's worth a read. In other news:
- In the other big health care story, fifteen possible cases of swine flu in N.C. have come back negative, though public health officials continue to stress it's a question of when, not if, the puzzling new virus arrives. (N&O)
- State employees, including teachers, will take a 0.5% pay cut this year and get ten hours of unpaid flexible time off in exchange. This covers about 6% of the additional $1 billion in shortfall the state government faces after April tax revenues didn't meet expectations (H-S, among other sources)
- South Durham activists are working to raise up to $10,000 for an independent survey of the area where New Hope Creek flows into Jordan Lake in order to determine the so-called normal pool level. The Haw River Assembly's Elaine Chiosso claims that surveyors have different measures that could find different results, which in turn could impact the ability to develop a controversial assemblage of land near NC 751 and Fayetteville Rd. One anonymous South Durham resident is offering a $1,000 challenge grant to boost giving. (H-S)
- Duke's globalization initiative moves forward with two Fuqua partnerships with two Dubai institutions, in one of the first actualizations of the worldwide strategy unveiled last fall. (H-S)
- The American Lung Assn. gave Durham Co. a C grade for so-called 24-hour particle pollution, but a failing grade for its number of ozone days. From 2005-08, Durham had twenty ozone days and four dangerous short-term particle days; Orange/Chatham had none of the latter and got a top A grade in that category. (H-S)
- A D.P.D. officer acquitted of criminal charges for an alleged assault outside a Raleigh sports bar in 2006, and who was still removed from his job after an internal investigation, is pressing for a settlement to a lawsuit he has pending against the City that would allow him to re-apply for a municipal job. (H-S)
alot of teachers are not just getting cuts...they're getting laid off. 2 friends of mine got their letters over the weekend. :(
Posted by: TSQ75 | April 29, 2009 at 12:39 PM