Gout Remedies: Natural Treatments You Can Try at Home

holistic primary care doctor near me :: Article Creator

Morning Notes

Clouds over Penrose Square (Flickr pool photo by Jason Gooljar)

HQ2 Workforce Shrinks — "Amazon has fallen so far behind schedule in creating new jobs at its Northern Virginia headquarters that its workforce at those offices shrank last year, the company confirmed… Sullivan said Amazon has not abandoned its target of 25,000 jobs, though a company spokesperson later clarified that it would look to meet that goal by 2038. She called HQ2 'a long-term investment' and noted that there are 1,000 open positions for the campus." [Washington Post]

Fire Union Seeking Wage Hike — "47 firefighters were unable to go home to their families this past weekend. #ACFD is at critical staffing levels, and the challenges posed by attrition and vacancies have reached historic proportions. It's time for the County Board to take decisive action." [Twitter]

Legion Baseball Coach Quits — "Bob Romano's long and successful run as the field manager of Arlington's American Legion summer baseball team has ended… Romano had planned to coach the team again this summer, having already done all of the preseason planning, like setting up a roster and securing field assignments. He changed his mind, and also stepped down as the team's administrator because of some previous issues with state American Legion administrators, that were not baseball related." [Gazette Leader]

Best GOP Fundraising Since 2016 — "Arlington Republicans raised $10,542.00 in the 1st Quarter of 2024. By comparison, the Committee raised $1,389.00 in 2023, $6,316.00 in 2022, $3,306.00 in 2021, and $4,910.00 in 2020 in the same period. The Arlington GOP raised $16,058.50 in the 1st Quarter in 2016." [Press Release]

Library Launches New Art Program — "Arlington Public Library launched a new art program—The Incubator—to provide opportunities and space for artists to showcase their work in a public setting. Each library location features opportunities for artists to display their artwork and to engage the public." [Press Release]

Refinancing for Office Buildings — "Monday Properties has refinanced two Northern Virginia office towers, including Nestle USA's headquarters in Rosslyn, which recently averted foreclosure, for a combined $206 million. The company secured a five-year, fixed-rate commercial mortgage-backed security from Citi Real Estate Funding Inc." [Washington Business Journal, Press Release]

Only Parents on School Board? — "When it comes to proposed revisions to the Arlington School Board's policy governing its own membership, one local resident has an intriguing proposition. Why not, this resident suggested, require that only parents of current students in the county school system be allowed to serve on the School Board?" [Gazette Leader]

It's Wednesday — Expect cloudy skies, a high near 70 accompanied by a southeast wind at 5-7 mph, and showers with possible thunderstorms after 5pm. Precipitation chance stands at 70%, with new rainfall amounts generally under a tenth of an inch, although higher amounts are possible in thunderstorms. On Wednesday night, chances of showers and thunderstorms continue. Otherwise, the night will be mostly cloudy with a low around 59, southeast wind at 6-8 mph, and a 60% chance of precipitation. [NWS]

Flickr pool photo by Jason Gooljar

Eye-care Practice Opens In-office Surgery Clinic For Cataracts

Almost everyone, if they live long enough, will eventually get cataracts.

By opening an in-office surgery clinic in Woodstock, Eye Care Physicians and Surgeons aims to ensure that cataract surgery is provided with more comfort and ease.

According to Stefanie Hynes, office manager and communications coordinator for Eye Care Physicians and Surgeons, the company's Woodstock location is the only office in the region that now offers cataract surgery.

Hynes said that, except for a handful of facilities in Northern Virginia, patients would have to travel to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh to receive the same services. The practice is actively performing surgeries, having opened its new surgical suite in March.

"It is really exciting that we are able to offer this within the Shenandoah Valley area," Hynes said. "It's amazing we are able to bring that to a more local community for a fraction of the cost for our patients."

A cataract is when the eye's natural lens becomes cloudy, according to The American Academy of Ophthalmology. Proteins in the lens break down, causing vision that is blurry, hazy or less colorful.

Dr. Alla Golovkina-Hynes, who opened Eye Care Physicians and Surgeons in 2011, specializes in cataracts and regularly performs cataract surgeries at the Winchester Medical Center and the Shenandoah Memorial Hospital. Now, with renovations to the Woodstock facility, the business is providing that procedure outside of hospital walls.

"It is a completely renovated location," Hynes said. "It is the same exact building it has always been, but inside, it looks absolutely amazing."

Hynes said the practice has been working with partners out of Kansas City that specialize in developing surgical suites and training staff. Watching the surgical suite come together has been exciting, Hynes said, describing a machine being flown in from Germany with engineers alongside it. Even more exciting is the training staff has received. Hynes, for example, was trained in sterilizing surgical tools.

"All of our staff members are being physically trained on how to do this one surgery. We can almost say that we are specialists in our individual field," Hynes said.

Often, a patient is determined to need cataract surgery when changes to their contact lens or glasses prescription no longer help. Other signs include complaining of glare in nighttime driving or resorting to practices such as using a magnifying glass to read.

Traditionally, patients receive surgery at a hospital. To qualify, they must see a primary care provider, get bloodwork, complete a physical, and may need to have an electrocardiogram test (EKG) completed. If all goes well, scheduling the surgery at a hospital can be restrictive, with only set times available. On the day of the surgery, due to IV anesthesia being administered, patients will not be able to eat or drink food the day of surgery.

"That makes some of our patients grumpy," Hynes said.

The path to in-office surgery is less involved. While the patient is evaluated and approved by Golovkina-Hynes, a visit to the primary care provider isn't needed in most cases. Patients will also likely not need bloodwork or other tests. Additionally, scheduling is more flexible, and patients can eat a light breakfast or lunch before the operation.

This is all possible because oral sedation is provided instead of anesthesia. Patients arrive an hour before surgery and receive a 5 mg valium tablet, with dosage increased as necessary.

Hynes said the operation itself would only take 15-20 minutes. It is normally pain-free, but the patient will feel some pressure.

"Dr. Hynes is very communicative throughout the entire procedure," Hynes said.

In a process that lasts around two hours, Hynes said patients often can then be driven home about 30 minutes after the surgery.

Recovery from the surgery takes about a month and allows for light activity.

Insurance often covers facility and doctor fees, at least partially. In place of the typical anesthesia charge will be an office-based fee paid out of pocket, which Hynes said is generally less than what patients pay at hospitals.

Not every patient is eligible for in-office surgery, and Golovkina-Hynes determines whether surgery should be held at the office or hospital.

Eye Care Physicians and Surgeons will still see regular patients on nonsurgical days. Hynes said the practice operates primarily on Wednesdays.

The most significant benefit of performing the procedure in the office for Hynes is the stronger bonds between patients and staff.

"Patients are going to meet all of our staff multiple times. They will know all of us. They will know all of our names," Hynes said. "All of the staff that will be preparing them are the same ones in the surgical suite with them. We're a friendly face. Stress levels go down in patients by a decent amount when they know the staff."

Hynes said the surgical team that patients will be getting to know has worked hard to give them a safe and positive experience.

"Their hard work through this process and dedication to the practice and its patients has been incredible. We wouldn't be able to do this without them," Hynes said.

'People Need Help Now'—Why NYC's Unique Long Covid Programs Aren't Enough

Get the top Racial Equity stories of the day from America's most influential oldest continuously published Black newspaper, serving the nation's largest Black and brown community. Sign up to stay connected.

Four years after Covid-19 first hit New York City, the disease is no longer a day-to-day concern for many New Yorkers. City testing sites have closed, businesses and public spaces no longer require masks, and leaders have encouraged people to return to pre-pandemic habits—but forgetting about Covid-19 is impossible for the thousands of people in the city now dealing with Long Covid, the chronic disease that can last for months or years after infection.

Once an early epicenter for Covid-19, the city has now become an early leader in responding to Long Covid. The health department and Health + Hospitals, the public healthcare system, both have unique programs to understand this complex, chronic disease and meet patients' needs, particularly in communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

The health department recently launched a new survey to study Long Covid and other long-term impacts of the Covid-19 crisis, which will follow up to 10,000 participants over several years and inform new programs for people dealing with these health issues. Meanwhile, Health + Hospitals is now two years into operating three Covid-19 Centers of Excellence—public clinics for Long Covid, along with a hotline that connects New Yorkers to the clinics and other resources.

New York City has served as a model for other state and local health agencies trying to tackle Long Covid, said Kate Murray, program manager of the Minnesota Department of Health's Long Covid program. For example, MDH "took a lot of the inspiration from our statewide survey" thanks to research done in New York City, she said.

"I'm happy to see that there is more light being shed on Long Covid and that there are a lot more resources out there now than they were back when I first started to experience symptoms in the fall of 2020," said Evette Alba, a New Yorker living in Manhattan.

However, some Long Covid advocates and community leaders say the city could and should be doing more to address this disease. In particular, advocates say that people with Long Covid need more protection from new Covid-19 cases and more services that go beyond healthcare, such as access to food, housing, employment accommodations, disability benefits, and more.

"I think the services that were provided for Covid—they ended too suddenly," said Reverend John Udo-Okon, pastor of the World of Life International Church, which runs a food pantry and other support programs for the church's South Bronx community.

Udo-Okon worries that, while programs like the health department survey may lead to useful recommendations for new Long Covid services, the information may arrive too late for some people who are currently suffering.

"People need help now," Udo-Okon said. "People need to know where they can go for treatment, where they can go to get food, where they can get health insurance."

People protest in the hallway during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing. (AP Photo/ Mariam Zuhaib)

Public clinics offer multidisciplinary care

One of New York City's most unique Long Covid services is the Covid-19 Centers of Excellence—public clinics for New Yorkers dealing with Long Covid or other health issues after Covid-19 infection. Unlike the Long Covid clinics operated by private hospitals and research institutions, the Centers of Excellence are "committed to providing every New Yorker with care in a holistic fashion, with dignity and respect, regardless of your ability to pay," said Dr. Amanda Johnson, a primary care doctor and director of the AfterCare hotline at Health + Hospitals.

Health + Hospitals runs three of these centers, each in a neighborhood that was hard hit by Covid-19: the West Bronx; Jackson Heights, Queens; and Bushwick, Brooklyn. All three opened in early 2022 and have since seen more than 60,000 patient visits in total.

Thanks to funding from the city, Health + Hospitals was able to renovate new spaces specifically for Long Covid care. The facilities include primary care doctors, as well as a variety of specialists, from lung and heart experts to mental health services and reproductive health. The clinics can also connect people to social workers and other services.

With many specialists in one place, the Centers of Excellence make it easy for patients to see multiple doctors or have different tests done in one visit, Johnson said. "I wish more patients had access to something like that."

Alba, who started experiencing Long Covid symptoms in 2020, said she's glad that new patients have more resources available than she did then. "When I look back at those first few months, I felt very alone and no one had any answers for me," she said.

To make an appointment at the Centers of Excellence, New Yorkers dealing with Long Covid symptoms can call the AfterCare hotline at 212-COVID19 or 202-268-4319. This hotline evolved from Health + Hospitals' contact tracing efforts earlier in the pandemic, but is now a more permanent program connecting people to different resources they may need after a Covid-19 case, Johnson said.

For people who call the hotline, the Centers of Excellence are "the top resource we promote for patients who really want to connect with medical care," Johnson said. AfterCare may also refer callers to other Long Covid clinics in the city that aren't located near one of the three Centers of Excellence, although Johnson acknowledged that different clinics may be stricter about insurance or have other requirements, such as asking patients to show positive Covid-19 tests.

After medical care, the most popular resources for AfterCare callers are NYC Care, a public health insurance program, and mental health resources. Unfortunately, other resources that were present early in the pandemic, like emergency cash and rental assistance, are no longer as available as in the past, even though people may still need them, Johnson said. AfterCare is also no longer able to refer patients to a Long Covid peer support group that closed last spring due to limited funding.

In response to that group's closure, the city should create and fund other peer support options for people with Long Covid, said Gabriel San Emeterio, an advocate with the group Long Covid Justice who is living with Long Covid as well as HIV. There should be "support groups that are culturally attuned so that they can serve different communities," San Emeterio said. Alba agreed that she'd like to see more support groups in New York City, because she has found them beneficial.

Collecting data to understand community needs

The health department's recently announced long-term survey may inform new programs for New Yorkers struggling with Long Covid and other challenges following Covid-19 cases. "We know that the end of an emergency must also be the beginning of a process of learning and understanding so we are better prepared and can support COVID survivors over time," said Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan in a press release announcing the study.

To study a wide range of potential Covid-19 impacts, the department will survey a random sample of New Yorkers rather than specifically recruit people who identify as Long Covid patients. The project, which will recruit up to 10,000 participants and follow them for several years, starting with an initial survey this spring, will be used to inform future policies and programs around Long Covid, according to a statement from the agency.

It's important for local health agencies like New York City's to study Long Covid because then they can ask questions that are more specific to their communities, said Murray. Surveys by federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide a "10,000-foot view" and don't capture local needs and challenges, she said.

Minnesota's department is doing its own Long Covid surveys, similar to New York City. In both places, health officials are consulting with community members on the research. The New York City department has set up an advisory group that includes Long Covid advocates and leaders of organizations serving communities disproportionately affected by Covid-19. This group has "provided feedback on questions and topics to be covered in the first survey, as well as recommendations on survey accessibility," said department spokesperson Patrick Gallahue in a statement.

Data from the survey "will inform policy makers and program planners on the needs and barriers to support services for those experiencing long-term physical and mental health problems," Gallahue said. The current study builds on a smaller-scale study that the health department conducted in 2022, along with input from academic and government researchers, he said.

Udo-Okon, who has been involved with the advisory group, said he hopes the survey will help inform new Long Covid programs, but wants to make sure a diverse group of New Yorkers is represented in the data. People who may not have internet or smartphone access or have other barriers to conducting an online survey should still be included in research, he said.

Doja A., founder of local public health project the Health Stellium, who asked not to use their last name, similarly said the survey is "a good first step," but has to include a wide variety of New Yorkers. Accurate data is important to establishing exactly how Long Covid is affecting the city—and which communities have been hardest-hit—so the city can "allocate funding appropriately," they said.

The health department's Long Covid research may expand further if a City Council bill is passed. This bill, introduced last fall by Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, would require the health department to assess "needs and gaps in services for people experiencing Long Covid and associated diseases in New York City."

"Suffering a potentially debilitating illness is terrible enough without policymakers leaving wide-open gaps in the programs and services landscape," Cabán said in a statement to the Amsterdam News and the Sick Times. "This community needs assessment will help us identify and understand those gaps, so that we can take action to address them and ensure that our neighbors who are suffering can get the care and support they are currently being denied."

More direct services are needed

While New York City's government has taken more action on Long Covid than other cities and states, health advocates like Doja and San Emeterio say the city could do more to support people who are currently sick, as well as those who are at risk of developing Long Covid.

"New York is continuing to talk about Covid as if it's in the past," Doja said. "It's not. There are people still getting Covid… getting Long Covid every day." They pointed to the city school district ending its required quarantine for students who test positive for Covid-19, after a recent guidance change from the CDC, as one example of a policy that could lead to more Long Covid cases.

To address the ongoing risks of Covid-19 and Long Covid, the city should continue to make tests, masks, treatments, and other resources easily available and advertise them to people, Doja said. The Health Stellium is fundraising to provide some of these resources, in the absence of more public services. While there are still a handful of public testing sites and a hotline to help people access Paxlovid, the Covid-19 antiviral, they're poorly advertised and inaccessible for many New Yorkers, Doja said.

More outreach about Long Covid is crucial, said San Emeterio—"There needs to be a two-pronged approach: educating [healthcare] providers and educating the public." Without public education, people who may be dealing with Long Covid may not recognize their symptoms and seek care, San Emeterio said.

In one initiative to improve outreach, the health department has supported a program called Building Resiliency and Vaccine Equity (BRAVE) that will fund community and faith-based organizations to raise awareness about Covid-19 and flu vaccines, as well as Long Covid. "Hopefully, this new program will put boots on the ground" and give people valuable information, said Udo-Okon, whose church received a grant from BRAVE.

Eric J. Chow, chief of communicable disease epidemiology and immunizations at the Seattle & King County health department in Washington State,, agreed that Covid-19 resources and communications can still be valuable for higher-risk people. "I know a lot of people who have Long Covid or are concerned about Long Covid feel like they're left behind" when leaders take emphasis off Covid-19 precautions, he said.

Like New York City, the Seattle & King County health department is working on Long Covid research, although it doesn't have the funding to conduct a survey like New York's, Chow said. Additional federal funding for local agencies to address Long Covid would help more places follow NYC's footsteps, he added.

Along with Covid-specific resources, many New Yorkers still facing long-term challenges from this disease need direct support for food, housing, employment, and other aspects of day-to-day life, Udo-Okon said. He remembers how, early in the pandemic, city agencies and many organizations collaborated. "Covid brought us closer together," he said. "Finding ways to keep that mobilization is critical" in preparing for the next crisis.

This story was a collaboration between the Amsterdam News and the Sick Times, a nonprofit newsroom focused on Long Covid, related chronic diseases, and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Support our Racial Equity Journalism

Amsterdam News is renowned for its reporting of the news of the day from a Black perspective for 113 years. Donors who choose to give monthly or annually will receive Amsterdam News' Weekly E-Edition and acclaimed free weekday newsletter Editorially Black delivered by email.

ORF Virus Treatment