Henry Young wants to make the UGA College of Pharmacy a fixture in communities across Georgia.
The Kroger Associate Professor in Community Pharmacy got involved with the Archway Partnership, a public service and outreach unit, soon after he arrived.
Already, the College of Engineering was sending students and faculty into the eight rural communities working with Archway. They were doing “wonderful work,” Young said, and he saw an opportunity to do the same with public health through pharmacy.
As a 2015-2016 Public Service and Outreach Faculty Fellow, he began focusing on ways to use his expertise to provide solutions to critical issues facing Georgians.
The Pulaski County Archway community had needs that neatly matched Young’s research interests in underserved, rural populations. Like many small hospitals, Taylor Regional Hospital in Hawkinsville was struggling with patient readmissions and the accompanying financial penalties from the federal government.
In collaboration with Taylor Regional Hospital, Young proposed studying what causes patients diagnosed with COPD, pneumonia and congestive heart failure to return to the hospital. The findings could have lasting impacts for rural hospitals across Georgia.
“This was an opportunity to find something of great value to rural hospitals,” said Pulaski Archway Professional Michelle Elliott.
