The Cumberland County Department of Public Health is partnering with the public school system to hold evening clinics for back-to-school and COVID-19 immunization clinics for schoolchildren and teenagers in grades kindergarten through 12.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced plans to  accelerate the launch of Medicaid expansion  to Oct. 1, which is about three months earlier than expected.

Despite the fact that the public health emergency has ended and life has more or less gone back to normal for most people, COVID-19 is still around. And cases are on the rise across Cumberland County.

Jill Sergison, a certified nurse-midwife, stood amid a crowd of nearly a thousand people on May 13 wearing a rainbow-colored clinic escort vest and a white coat as Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed …

A recent study estimates that 230 billion tiny pieces of plastic the thickness of a human hair and 670 million microplastics about the size of a grain of sand flow into the Pamlico Sound from the Neuse River Basin each year. To reach that estimate, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Sea Grant researchers sampled 15 freshwater locations between Wake County to Craven County from August 2020 to July 2021.

North Carolina’s dental profession sometimes gets blamed for being too reluctant to make any changes to laws defining who can practice dentistry in the state in order to keep a tight lock on who gets licensed to provide oral health care. There could be more change, albeit incremental, if a bill making its way through legislative committees is approved.

Last August, during a routine surveillance flyover, Samantha Krop spotted something odd at White Oak Farm, a Wayne County biogas and industrial hog farm operation. In May 2022, the owners reported that nearly a million gallons of hog feces, decomposing hog carcasses and food waste seeped from a failed hog waste “digester” and spread over surrounding fields. Of the total waste amount, 10,745 gallons also entered the Nahunta Swamp. “I noticed that the …

The  N.C. Department of Health and  Human  Services  hopes to accelerate the launch of Medicaid expansion, potentially giving more than 600,000 low-income residents access to health insurance coverage as early as Oct. 1.

For years, Katie and her husband have used traditional forms of birth control to prevent pregnancy. The 28-year-old knew that if it failed, she could always get an abortion.  When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, Katie began to think she needed more protection. She recently had her fallopian tubes removed by a Charlotte doctor. 

Parents of children who attend Beaver Dam Elementary School have been warned about high levels of lead in the water there. Chipped paint at the school prompted the Cumberland County Department of Public Health to test for lead in the water of the school in the southeastern part of the county.

Six years after it was first revealed that Chemours and its predecessor, Dupont, had been dumping dangerous chemicals into the Cape Fear River for decades, a new study by North Carolina State University scientists has found elevated levels of PFAS in the blood of pet dogs and horses within a few miles of the factory.

The repeatedly delayed rollout of specialized health care plans for tens of thousands of Medicaid beneficiaries — those with complex, often behavioral health needs — has been postponed indefinitely, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday. 

In March 2022, John called the police to his home in Mecklenburg County because his 16-year-old son, Paul, was experiencing a violent behavioral health episode. “We don’t feel safe. We don’t know what to do. We really need treatment for him. Please help us,” John remembers telling hospital staff as he explained the violent episodes at home.

On a warm summer evening, laughter fills a gym furnished with red and black fitness equipment as more than 20 people attempt to grab clothespins attached to each other’s shirts.  Participants range from young teenagers to those who are starting to gray around the temples. Some have cognitive and physical disabilities and join in with the families and other members of the CrossFit community.

The Cumberland County Department of Public Health is reminding parents and guardians about the importance of getting their children up-to-date immunizations for the upcoming school year.

After graduating from a medical school in the Northeast, Caledonia Buckheit came south to Duke University Hospital to complete her obstetrics and gynecology residency. She finished last June and found work in North Carolina — ready to provide comprehensive reproductive health care to patients, including abortion. Just weeks after finishing, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization  eliminated the constitutional right to abortion that had existed for nearly half a century.

Two longtime emergency room doctors have blown the whistle on what they say is fraudulent overcharging by HCA Healthcare, which owns Mission Health, and its medical staffing company, TeamHealth, according to a recently unsealed lawsuit filed last year.

Many of North Carolina’s so-called rural counties bear little resemblance to the pastoral hamlets that people tend to picture when they think of rural living. In reality, the 78 counties that fall under the common statistical definition of “rural” are home to about 40% of the state’s population, and North Carolina’s rural population is — next to Texas — the largest in the U.S. 

Federal regulators have threatened to terminate Medicare funding for a psychiatric hospital in eastern North Carolina after a series of visits to the facility, which started with a complaint alleging mistreatment and sexual assault of an 11-year-old patient. 

Methodist University and Cape Fear Valley Health are partnering to open a four-year medical school that will welcome students in July 2026. The Center for Medical Education and Neuroscience at at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center will house the new medical school with a focus on providing better medical care for rural and underserved populations and diversifying the physician workforce in the area, officials said Monday as a news conference to announce the initiative.

The popular Medicare Advantage program, known for attractive perks yet questioned for some policies, is facing a recent series of critiques about its practices and cost to the U.S. …

As health care costs continue to rise, executives of North Carolina’s nine largest nonprofit hospital systems have received double- and triple-digit percentage raises over the past decade, according to a report released by the State Treasurer's Office.

Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation and Methodist University will partner for the 2023 Step Up 4 Health and Wellness Expo. It will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 15 in Duggins Soccer Stadium on the Methodist campus.

Health care in Cumberland County and surrounding communities takes a quantum leap Friday when Cape Fear Valley Health unveils the $33 million Medical Education Center & Neuroscience Institute. You can see for yourself.

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on Monday is scheduled to consider staff-recommended options for how to spend opioid settlement money. The commissioners will consider four proposals …