April 2007
Welcome to St. John's Physician e-Update, a quarterly e-newsletter designed to communicate information about new procedures and services offered at St. John's to our referring physicians. Please feel free to forward this to any of your colleagues. We hope you'll find these updates useful in your practice and would appreciate any feedback you have.
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 Chronic
low back pain: work-up and treatment
By
Alan Scarrow, MD, JD, Chairman, St. John's Neurosurgery
Recently at St. John’s there has been a significant amount of effort made toward
improving the care of patients with spine related symptoms. This group of
patients have experienced a significant increase in the cost of their care with
annual increases (measured in dollars per member per month for patients with
Mercy Health Plans benefits) exceeding 12 percent. This has prompted a group of
physicians and administrators involved in the care of spine patients at St.
John’s to form a Spine Task Force (STF) whose purpose is to identify underlying
causes for this increase in cost and ameliorate them with "best practice"
solutions. One of the most significant issues the STF has identified thus far is
the work up, imaging and treatment of patients with chronic low back pain.
Read more
 Pediatric Surgery Service: Pediatric Abdominal Pain and
Constipation
By
Gregg Ford, M.D., and Rita Snavely, RN, FNP
“Abdominal pain” in a child is one of the
more common complaints leading to evaluation by a health care provider. The
etiology of such pain is usually clinically quite obvious; occasionally the
source of abdominal pain may be subtle and elusive. In a two-year review of all
children (0-18 years of age) admitted to St. John's Hospital for evaluation of
abdominal pain only 6 percent were found to have a surgical disease. The more
common causes of the pain were gastroenteritis, dehydration, pneumonia, and
constipation.
Read more
 St. John's Vascular Center
screenings detect variety of conditions
By
Jay Sparks, M.D.
St. John’s Vascular
Center offers reduced-rate screenings Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at St.
John’s Hospital in Springfield. The screenings are recommended for patients over
the age of 50 and smoke or are diabetic and/or have high cholesterol.
The $60 painless screenings consist of three
parts. First, a risk factor history is reviewed noting age, hypertension,
hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery or vascular disease, and
family history. Second, the exams consist of abdominal aortic ultrasound,
carotid Dopplers, and ankle-brachial indices. Finally, the results are provided
to the patients and their primary care physicians in a standardized format with
recommendations for ongoing care.
Read more
 Hospice - The Most Commonly Missed Medicare Benefit
By Galen Hasler, M.D., Medical Director, St. John's HospiceCare
Your patient, along with others, may be among the 60 percent missing their
Medicare provided hospice benefit during their last year of life. Why? Most of
us have more fear of facing death than we would like to admit. When I realized
this for myself, as a practicing oncologist, I was determined to change.
Read more
eConsults now available on stjohns.com
St. John’s recently launched a new and unique way
for the public to access services provided at St. John’s Spine Center. The
eConsult made its debut on stjohns.com in March. This service
provides any person with Web access the opportunity to obtain an online medical
opinion from a St. John’s spine physician regarding the diagnosis and treatment
options for their spine-related symptoms
Read more
St. John's Clinic-Eye Specialists first in area to offer
high-performance LASIK
 LASIK
eye surgery, which corrects nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism,
continues to be the most popular elective surgery in the United States. However,
until recently, freedom from glasses and contact lenses often came with a price:
the potential need for second procedures or enhancements to correct LASIK-induced night vision problems, such as glare or halos. The Allegretto Wave
excimer laser system is the first LASIK device built specifically to address
certain optical distortions that are the chief cause of nighttime visual
disturbances.
Read more
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