Andy Miller, interim Southern Bureau Editor, has been a health care journalist for 29 years. Miller graduated from Duke in 1973 and received a master’s in education from Duke in 1979. He was a social studies teacher and basketball coach before switching careers to journalism. He entered the master’s in journalism program at University of North Carolina in 1984. He was hired by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he had editing and reporting positions before switching to health care in 1992. He covered that beat until 2009, when he retired. He launched Georgia Health News in 2010, where he continued as editor and CEO until Georgia Health News joined KHN.
Georgia has seen several rural hospitals shutter in the past decade, but this year Atlanta has joined other urban centers with facility closures. The Wellstar announcement has stoked the political debate over Medicaid expansion ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
Public records show "forever chemicals" have turned up in water samples collected from home water wells, churches, schools, military bases, nursing homes, and municipal water supplies in small towns. They also are present in nearly every American’s blood, according to studies. Now, despite recent advances, the work to address PFAS proliferation in the U.S. resembles the halting, decades-long campaign to eliminate lead and its health risks.
In recent years, the medical profession has developed techniques to help save more gunshot victims, such as evacuating patients rapidly. But some trauma surgeons say that even those improvements can save only a fraction of patients when military-style rifles inflict the injury.
