Georgia’s got a couple of great rural hospitals

Two Georgia hospitals made Leapfrog’s list of the best in the country — specifically the “Top Rural Hospitals” category: AdventHealth Gordon in Calhoun, and Floyd Polk Medical Center in Cedartown. Congrats!

“Top Hospitals have better systems in place to prevent medication errors, higher quality on maternity care and lower infection rates, among other laudable qualities.”

FYI: ACA enrollment extended

Let your patients know: Obamacare enrollment has been extended until December 18 because of outages and other issues with the Healthcare.gov website.

Who’s the best pharmacist you know?

It’s that time of year — time to start choosing the best of the best in Georgia pharmacy, and that means we need your nominations for the 2020 awards. They’ll be presented at the 2020 Georgia Pharmacy Convention in Asheville, N.C.

What are these awards? you ask.

  • The Distinguished Young Pharmacist Award
  • The Excellence in Innovation Award
  • The Larry Braden Meritorious Service Award
  • The Bowl of Hygeia

Learn more about them and nominate a pharmacist today. Visit our awards page at GPhA.org/awards for more information on award criteria, and to make your nominations. Deadline for submissions is February 1, 2020.

Coffee vs dementia?

“Can drinking coffee actually reduce dementia risk?” The answer is yes — why, up to five cups (i.e., 2.5 American mugs) a day sure can! It can even reduce your risk of Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer, type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, and can improve your physical performance.

So say researchers at The Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee: “ISIC members are six of the major European coffee companies: illycaffè, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Lavazza, Nestlé, Paulig, and Tchibo.”

More vaping research is coming out

And it’s not good. The latest: Vaping, while maybe not as bad as tobacco, raises e-cig users’ risk of lung diseases — asthma, bronchitis, COPD, emphysema — by 30%. Smoking tobacco increases that risk by 260%. And smoking and vaping? That more than triples the risk of lung disease.

What’s a good alternative to opioids?

It depends on the patient and the pain, of course. Learn the best options with GPhA’s new live webinar, “Opioid Stewardship 101: Optimizing Non-Opioid Analgesic Therapy.”

The course is one hour long, ACPE-approved, and it also meets an education requirement for the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation Champions of Opioid Safety program.

Deets: Thursday, January 30, 2020; 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. (from your favorite Internet connection). Just $20 for GPhA members ($50 for non-members).

Hiccups top the list

When it comes to health, Google released the top 10 searches in 2019:

  1. How to lower blood pressure
  2. What is keto?
  3. How to get rid of hiccups
  4. How long does the flu last?
  5. What causes hiccups?
  6. What causes kidney stones?
  7. What is HPV?
  8. How to lower cholesterol
  9. How many calories should I eat a day?
  10. How long does alcohol stay in your system?

(What, you need a link? Sheesh. Here you go.)

Congress punts on 4th and short

No drug-pricing law this time around from any side. But (in terms of healthcare), Congress did raise the tobacco/vaping age to 21, repealed some ACA taxes (yes, that means raising the deficit), and allowed federal research on gun violence. It will pick up the drug debate in May.

Well, hello there

Feeling stressed at work? The good folks at Washington State University have a solution.

Saved you a click

“This Is the Age Where Life Has the Most Meaning“: 60.

“That’s the age when people report feeling that there’s the most meaning in their lives, and they have the least need to search for meaning.” Still want to click? Here’s the study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

The long read: The long reach of the ACA

So what happens if Obamacare is overturned? In short: A mess.

Forgetting the obvious — that 500,000+ Georgians (and 19.5 million other Americans) could lose health insurance — the law has broad implications for people with private insurance: children being able to stay on their parents’ plans, no-copays for preventative care, lifetime out-of-pocket caps … you get the idea.

Check out “What Else Disappears If The ACA Is Overturned?“