Health Wagon sets free Health Fair for Wise, Clintwood March 6-7

The organization will debut its latest piece of diagnostic equipment — an ultrasound machine — at next month’s fair thanks to a partnership with health care groups the Philips Foundation, Barnabas Health and RAD-AID.

Meet Lindy White

White recently began her new duty as vice president and CEO of Ballad Health’s Kingsport Market Operations to lead Holston Valley Medical Center and Indian Path Community Hospital. In her most recent role, she served as CEO of Providence Northeast Hospital in Columbia, S.C., a part of Lifepoint Health.

Ballad's Deaton speaks on servant leadership

Eric Deaton, the senior vice president of market operations at Ballad Health, had some advice about change for United Way officials and member agencies last week. “When going through change, you’ve got two choices. You can be bitter or you can be better.”

Speakers voice concerns about Ballad’s plans at public hearing

Support for Ballad Health was nonexistent at Thursday’s public hearing at Northeast State Community College as more than 35 people — including former and current Ballad employees, emergency medical technicians and former patients — expressed dissatisfaction and concern about the hospital system, post-merger.

Ballad Health named BMS health care provider

The partnership means Ballad Health will handle all medical situations at the track’s events at no cost to its guests.

Region's chambers back Ballad Health COPA

The support groups included the Kingsport, Bristol, Johnson City/Jonesborough/Washington County and Smyth County, Va., chambers, the Greene County Partnership and the Joint Economic Development Board of Unicoi County. Their joint letter also highlighted the many advantages and benefits the merger has produced throughout the region.

Ballad Health, United Way commit $300K for third grade reading initiatives

Reading proficiently by the third grade has long been considered a predictor of a student’s future academic success. Even so, only one in three students read proficiently by that point. That’s one reason why Ballad Health and seven local United Way organizations have committed $300,000 to third grade reading initiatives in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

Therapy dogs don red for heart awareness at HVMC

Seven of the 80-strong Holston Valley Medical Center Therapy Dogs visited the hospital on Friday -- this time decked out a bit more colorfully than usual.

While seeing patients, both canines and their owners wore red vests, frills, ribbons

Emergency landing in Church Hill for rescue helicopter

No patients were on board Thursday morning when a Ballad One Medevac Helicopter made an emergency landing in Church Hill. The helicopter was reportedly responding to a medical emergency in Hancock County shortly before 11 a.m. when pilots encountered snow and activated the de-icer, after which they detected smoke.

Ballad to reopen Lee hospital

No other hospital system in the nation is reopening or building rural hospitals, Ballad Health CEO Alan Levine told reporters after an announcement that Ballad would reopen Lee County Regional Medical Center. “This is what Ballad Health was created to do, and this is the benefit of the merger,” he said.

Community gets moving through the holidays to log 50,000 activity miles

The Holiday Hop competition was a virtual, micro fitness challenge issued by Healthy Kingsport to keep individuals and teams moving through the holiday season. The competition ran from Thanksgiving to the new year.

Ballad Health about to turn one

““Whether you supported the merger or not, the goal of the Wellmont board at that time was to create something better for our future,” said Ballad Health’s Eric Deaton, senior vice president of Market Operations. “If a local merger had not been in place, a potential merger of either or both systems with outside corporations could have meant immediate closure of some of our rural hospitals.”

Ballad details NICU plans

A 23-page response to the Tennessee Department of Health includes a myriad of statistics, as well as details about how downgrading Holston Valley Medical Center’s NICU from a Level III to a Level I nursery will impact newborns and mothers in the region.

Is diet soda really nothing but bubble trouble?

The idea of consuming 30-34 five-pound bags of sugar in 365 days sounds really farfetched, right? Consider the following: An average 12-ounce can of regular soda contains 8-12 teaspoons of sugar. It takes only four 12-ounce cans of regular soda to equal ¼ pounds of sugar.

Apps make it easier than ever to get fit and healthy

The meteoric rise of healthrelated apps makes it easier than ever to get and stay healthy. There are more than 100,000 health apps, most of which are available through the Apple app and Google Play stores, with about 1,000 more being created every month.