News in Brief

St. John’s Home Care adds telemedicine equipment

Through a grant from Mercy Caritas, St. John’s Home Care has implemented the Health Buddy.
The Health Buddy plugs into a telephone line and an electrical outlet. It asks patients a series of simple questions about their health status. The patient answers by pushing one of its four blue buttons. The entire process takes only a few minutes.
Currently, St. John’s Home Care is using the Health Buddy to help monitor cardiac patients. A blood pressure cuff is connected to the appliance and takes readings anywhere from once a day to several times, depending on the patient. The Health Buddy also asks relevant questions about how the patient is feeling; whether the patient has gained weight in the last day (important for congestive heart failure patients who retain fluid as a symptom of their disease); questions about diet; and so on. If certain answers raise red flags, the Health Buddy instructs the patient to call St. John’s Home Care and lists the telephone number.
Regardless of the answers, the Health Buddy calls in over the phone line each night while the patient is sleeping and transfers the data to the home health office for review by a staff nurse who then evaluates the data for any needed follow up.
St. John’s Home Care nurses are all equipped with laptop computers and each morning before they make their rounds, the nurses download their patient’s charts, including Health Buddy data, so they have the most up-to-date information.

St. John's Clinic raises more than $100,000 for The Kitchen, Ozarks Food Harvest

St. John's Clinic's Force for Good, a charitable group made up of physicians, administrators and clinic staff, presented checks totaling more than $100,000 to The Kitchen and Ozarks Food Harvest Dec. 19, 2005 as part of its “Holiday Home & Harvest” charitable project.
The Force for Good is a fund within St. John’s Foundation for Community Health, which provided matching funds for the “Holiday Home & Harvest” project.
St. John's Clinic offices participate in the Force for Good's fund-raising campaign with donations, bake sales, fund-raising luncheons, casual days and a variety of other ways.
“As the leading Clinic in the region, we believe we have an opportunity and, in fact, an obligation to care for the needy in our community,” says Donn Sorensen, St. John's Clinic senior vice president and chief operating officer. “We are proud to help make a difference for Ozarks families this holiday season.”
The Force for Good's most recent endeavor was the “Will You Hold a Child’s Hand” campaign, which raised nearly $60,000 for CASA, The Child Advocacy Center, Phelps County Child Advocacy Network and CASA of South Central Missouri. Last year's holiday project, “Home For The Holidays,” raised $50,000 for The Kitchen and helped approximately 400 underprivileged families provide rent, utilities and winter necessities so they could remain in their own homes for the holidays.

SAMA, Mercy Health Plans partner in unique health plan

After a competitive bidding process, the Southwest Area Manufacturers Association has chosen Mercy Health Plans, a sister organization of St. John’s, to provide health insurance coverage to 32 of its member organizations, utilizing an innovative association health plan model.
As opposed to other association health plans, the SAMA I Health Care Consortium was viewed by insurance providers as one employer group with a uniform plan design and rate structure.
The arrangement required permission from the Missouri Department of Insurance to allow SAMA, Jenkins & Associates Insurance Consultants and Mercy Health Plans to provide a health insurance plan to small and large manufacturing companies within the SAMA organization. The consortium comprises 2,000 covered lives.
Six companies are now able to offer health insurance to employees that were not able to previously.
According to Congressman Roy Blunt, this agreement could also be important nationally.
“The consortium of the Southwest Area Manufacturers Association will be closely watched as a national model to show how association health plans can provide cost savings and access to health care coverage not only in Missouri, but across the country. I am hopeful that their efforts will be successful,” Blunt says.

Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce salutes St. John’s Clinic president

St. John’s Clinic President and plastic surgeon Walt Gaska, M.D., is one of three individuals who was honored at Highland Springs Country Club Nov. 2, 2005, at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Salute to Health Care banquet.
The chamber hosts the event each year to recognize the medical achievements and community service of local leaders in the health care industry.
Gaska moved from full-time work as a plastic surgeon to become president of St. John's Clinic, the business entity for physicians employed by St. John's. As a plastic surgeon, Gaska is known as one of the region's pioneers in breast reconstruction following mastectomy.

660 attend annual St. John’s women’s retreat

Nearly 700 women attended the 2005 St. John’s Totally Healthy Woman Retreat at Chateau on the Lake in Branson Nov. 11-13, 2005.
Retreat attendees enjoyed hot stone massages, reflexology, yoga, Tai Chi Chih and Pilates between educational break-out sessions on intimacy, spirituality, organization, appearance, alternative medicine, financial planning, home décor, self-esteem, osteoporosis and relationship-building.
A pajama party, complete with a movie, was held Saturday night. Five attendees were chosen for makeovers and participated in a fashion show on Sunday.
Event co-hosts were Dee Dee Lennon of the Lennon Sisters and KY3 anchor Lisa Rose. Keynote speakers included Dr. Cal LeMon and certified financial planner Donna Pagano.

Lebanon hospital to offer cancer care

St. John's Hospital - Lebanon will this spring begin offering cancer care, including chemotherapy services. St. John’s board-certified oncologists will in Lebanon care for cancer patients at a new satellite clinic.
St. John’s goal with the Lebanon clinic is to provide as much local care for Lebanon area cancer patients as possible, says St. John’s oncologist Wendell Goodwin, M.D.
However, St. John’s oncology patients who receive radiation therapy or other hospital-based therapies will still need to make the commute to Springfield.
Though nearly 40 miles away, the Lebanon clinic is a satellite office of the Springfield cancer and hematology clinic.
“The quality of care will be no different,” says St. John’s oncologist Thomas Froehlich, M.D.

St. John’s physician, COO honored for dedication to quality care

The Missouri Association for Healthcare Quality presented its Distinguished Quality Professional Award to Alexander R. Hover, MD, FACP, gastroenterologist and medical director of quality resources for St. John's.
The award was presented Nov. 3, 2005 during an awards luncheon at the Missouri Hospital Association's 83rd Annual Convention & Trade Show in Osage Beach.
Hover has managed performance improvement and patient safety initiatives for St. John's Health System since 1995. One of the system's newest quality programs involves reducing infection and mortality for surgical patients. Hospital staff began giving continuous intravenous insulin to heart surgery patients to measure its effectiveness in controlling patients' blood sugar levels to improve patient outcomes. The protocol reduced postoperative infection rates, as well as length of stay, mortality rates, readmission rates and overall costs.
Hover has presented the findings from this new protocol at a national conference and the Missouri “Show Me Your Best” conference. In addition, he maintains a full-time gastroenterology practice and also serves as a medical consultant for the system's utilization management, data management and risk management departments.
St. John’s Hospital Chief Operating Officer Michele Schaefer, CHE was awarded MHA's 2005 Visionary Leadership Award for leading efforts to refine and expand the cardiovascular services of her previous employer, St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City.
“Under Michele’s leadership, St. Joseph Medical Center already had an excellent cardiology program for its patients,” says MHA President Marc D. Smith. “However, Michele envisioned building on the program’s strong reputation to create an even more satisfying medical experience for patients.”
During Schaefer’s eight-year tenure at St. Joseph Medical Center, the hospital also earned Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, an honor that has been achieved by only 169 hospitals nationwide.

St. John’s Medical Supply relocates

St. John’s Medical Supply has moved to a storefront office at 3328 S. National, in Kelly Plaza in Springfield. Services include home medical equipment, rehabilitation and mobility equipment and home respiratory equipment, as well as free delivery and set up, 24-hour emergency service and reimbursement specialists who handle all insurance claims and advice regarding co-pays and deductibles. St. John’s also operates medical supply stores in Cassville, Mountain View, Lebanon, St. Robert, Berryville, Ark., and Eureka Springs, Ark.

St. John’s Hospital’s new inpatient tower to be complete in 2006

Inpatient tower: Construction for St. John’s Hospital new inpatient tower, which will wrap around the main entrance on the south side of the hospital, will continue through the spring and summer of 2006.
The first floor concrete working was finished in December 2005. Floors are being added approximately every five weeks with the outer structure complete by August. The tower will include eight floors, 100 beds, office space, community areas and conference rooms.
St. John’s Cancer Center/Whiteside building connector: This one-story addition will connect St. John’s Cancer Center and St. John’s Clinic - Whiteside. The concrete pouring of the lower level is complete and construction is on schedule for completion in February 2007.
Ambulance garage demolition: The ambulance garage in the southwest parking lot was demolished in December 2005. The area was paved and is now used for St. John’s co-worker parking.