Johnson, 63, is a retired restaurant cook who receives Medicare and Medicaid. She has diabetes, and has already met with her doctor. Afterward, Wiehrs spends another half-hour with Johnson, talking through her medication, exercise and diet.
"So it sounds like you cut back on your sweets, things that have a lot of sugars in them. What about vegetables, your portions of food?" Wiehrs asks Johnson. "Have you made any changes with that?"
"A little bit," Johnson says. "Ain't gonna lie ā a little bit."
Wierhs, 51, was a hospice nurse for 15 years and a social worker before that. Now he is one of five new care coordinators at Memorial Health, a medical system based in Savannah. He was hired to pay special attention to patients with poorly controlled chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
[For more of this story written by Sarah McCammon, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/healt...ons-talk-to-patients]
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