Health

A new emergency department is open in Raleigh. WakeMed's latest free-standing medical facility is in Brier Creek, near the Wake-Durham county line. WakeMed's Carolyn Knaup says they chose the location based on the area's rapid growth.

Carolyn Knaup: It's totally locally driven - i.e., when you need emergency care, you need it close to where you live or where you work. So, in doing our demographic assessment really felt like the Brier Creek area afforded lots of opportunity to be able to meet the need in that community.

Doctors at UNC Chapel Hill want to improve the physical health of patients with severe mental illness. U-N-C's Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health has received a grant from the Duke Endowment to create a "health home" for patients with mental illness. Director John Gilmore says people with serious mental health issues like schizophrenia sometimes have trouble tending to their physical health. Gilmore says psychiatrists treating patients at the center will look out for other problems as well.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced today what he calls the "first wave" of ramped up efforts to fight Medicaid fraud in the state. Cooper says 18 people in 10 counties have been arrested in the past week. He says the total monetary loss to the Medicaid program from these cases is more than half a million dollars.

One North Carolina hospital is using a new device to help patients who have congestive heart failure.

Wake Forest Baptist health is the first hospital in the state implanting the dual ventricular lead. In laymans terms it’s a more advanced pacemaker. The small device will help hearts pump more blood and with a better rhythm. Dr. Glenn Brammer is a Cardiac Electro Physiologist. He says this device also has 10 internal vectors that allow physicians options after the procedure.