Trinity Wound Care Center Recognized
The Trinity Comprehensive Wound Care Center has been recognized as a Diversified Clinical Services (DCS) Center of Distinction. This designation was achieved by the Wound Care Center in its first month of eligibility. Less than a quarter of DSC’s wound care centers qualified for this recognition. In order to qualify, DCS required significant return rates on patient satisfaction surveys, i-heal data entry within two weeks, in addition to meeting quality outcome measures.
“We are delighted to enjoy such recognition only a year after seeing our first patient. Our dedicated wound care team’s desire is to continue helping more people heal in the years ahead,” says G. Blaine Bishop, Jr., MD, Medical Director of Trinity’s Comprehensive Wound Care Center.
Crestwood CON for Elective PCI
In October, Crestwood Medical Center requested a Certificate of Need (CON) from the Alabama State Certificate of Need Review Board to permanently establish elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) services in addition to its existing diagnostic cardiac catheterization and emergency PCI services.
Since 2006, Crestwood, along with its team of board certified interventional cardiologists, has been performing elective PCIs (also known as angioplasty) through its participation in the Atlantic Cardiovascular Patient Outcomes Research Team (C-PORT) trials, sponsored by John Hopkins Medical Institutes. The C-PORT trials seek to determine whether elective PCI can be safely performed in hospitals that do not offer open-heart surgery on site.
Due to its successful outcomes with emergent PCIs, Crestwood was one of only 35 hospitals in the nation and the only hospital in Alabama selected to participate in the Atlantic C-PORT trials for elective PCI services. Crestwood is also one of the first hospitals in the state to report a consistent door-to-balloon time of less than 90 minutes and currently consistently averages 72 minutes. According to the American College of Cardiology, the national average is approximately 123 minutes.
Princeton Launches Texting Service For Er Wait Time
Princeton Baptist Medical Center is launching the new service that encourages residents to text their zip code to 437-411. Within seconds, a reply provides the current emergency room wait time.
“Patients who have serious medical emergencies such as stroke, cardiac conditions and trauma are always seen immediately,” said Dr. Jeremy Rogers, medical director of Princeton’s emergency department. “But for non-emergent patients, ER texting provides valuable information before they arrive.”
A second text, depending on the patient’s zip code, will provide information about the nearest Baptist Health Center, which may help to avoid an emergency visit for non-emergency care. If he wishes, the patient can call or choose the option to be automatically connected to the BHC Clinic, where an appointment can be scheduled for the next or often even the same day.
The ER at Princeton BMC treated almost 42,000 patients last year, and most recent patient satisfaction scores rated Princeton’s ER at 93 percent, in the “good to excellent” category. The hospital anticipates that the convenience and instantaneous manner of the new ER texting service will increase patient satisfaction.
Moody One of Four Doctors Nationwide Named to WebMD Health Heroes
WebMD Health Corporation, a leading source of health information services, serving consumers, physicians, and healthcare professionals with online portals and a magazine with 1.3 million readers per month, announced their 2011Health Heroes award winners on November 4. The WebMD annual Health Heroes program recognizes extraordinary Americans who raise awareness and promote solutions for better health.
“We are proud to honor four Health Heroes who are changing the health landscape for all of us,” said Colleen Paretty, Executive Editor.
This year, Dr. Thomas E. Moody from BIrmingham was chosen as one of the four Health Heroes for his work screening men across Alabama for prostate cancer. Moody’s team has screened over 3,700 men free for prostate cancer and has found numerous cancers.