CoxHealth Connection

CoxHealth named a U.S. News an World Report Best Regional Hospital

2012-02-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

CoxHealth is among the nation’s Best Regional Hospitals 2011-12, according to U. S. News & World Report. The magazine publishes its well-known Best Hospitals rankings every July; at the midpoint of the 2011-12 year, the publication’s editors have now recognized 247 hospitals outside major metropolitan areas, including CoxHealth, as Best Regional Hospitals.

“All Best Regional Hospitals are what we call ‘high performers’ in at least one medical specialty,” says Avery Comarow, U.S. News Health Rankings Editor. “They are fully capable of providing first-rate care, even to most patients who have serious conditions or need demanding procedures.”

This summer CoxHealth was recognized by U.S. News as a high-performing hospital in gynecology; ear, nose and throat care; and neurology and neurosurgery.

About CoxHealth: CoxHealth is Springfield’s only locally owned, not-for-profit health system. It is accredited by The Joint Commission and distinguished as one of the nation’s Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Systems (2006-2012).

About U.S. News: U.S. News annually evaluates nearly 5,000 hospitals in 16 different medical specialties. Hard numbers stand behind its analysis in most specialties – death rates, patient safety, procedure volume and other objective data. Physicians’ responses to a national survey, in which specialists are asked to name hospitals they consider best in their specialty for the toughest cases, also are factored in.

CMN Hospitals receives grant from Kohl’s Cares

2012-02-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

Children from Ed V. Williams Elementary in Springfield attended an assembly on Friday to learn about staying heart healthy – in kid-friendly way. It’s the kick-off of a new partnership between CoxHealth Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Kohl’s Cares that aims to identify children at risk for obesity and heart disease, and teach them and their families how to live a healthier lifestyle.

Childhood obesity has become an epidemic in the United States, and southwest Missouri is not immune. Poor eating habits, improper nutrition and a lack of exercise can lead to serious health problems as children grow. With the $45,020 donation from Kohl’s Cares, CMN Hospitals is launching the Kohl’s C.A.R.D.I.A.C. Fun program, which will work to fight the childhood obesity epidemic through a variety of fun events aimed at children ages 5-18 and their families. Through the program at-risk children and adolescents will be identified and will be able to participate in a number of fun events with their families, where they can learn more about living a healthy life.

“Studies have shown us how widespread and dangerous the epidemic of childhood obesity is. We’re thankful to Kohl’s Cares for this grant, and we’re thankful that with it we’ll be able to make a real impact on the health of local children,” says Lauren Holland (above), CoxHealth Health and Wellness coordinator and Kohl’s C.A.R.D.I.A.C. Fun coordinator.

Kohl's commitment to CoxHealth and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is made possible through the Kohl's Cares cause merchandise program. Through this initiative, Kohl’s sells $5 books and plush toys where 100 percent of net profit benefits children’s health and education programs nationwide, including hospital partnerships like this one. Kohl's has raised more than $180 million dollars through this merchandise program. In addition to the merchandise program, Kohl's Cares features the Kohl's Cares Scholarship Program, which last year recognized more than 2,100 young volunteers with a total of $410,000 in scholarships and prizes.

Through Kohl’s Associates in Action volunteer program, more than 385,000 associates have donated more than 1.2 million hours of their time since 2001 and Kohl’s has donated more than $35 million to youth-focused nonprofit organizations. Kohl’s also offers fundraising gift cards for schools and youth-serving organizations. For more information, visit Kohls.com/Cares.

CoxHealth named Top 100 Integrated Health Network

2012-02-02T07:43:00.000-08:00

CoxHealth has been named to the IMS Health Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks listing for the seventh year in a row – one of only three health systems in Missouri to make the list.

The IMS Health Top 100 list is the nation’s premiere integrated healthcare network rating system. Each year IMS evaluates nearly 600 health systems from across the country based on their ability to operate as a unified organization in each of eight categories: integration, integrated technology, contractual capabilities, outpatient utilization, financial stability, services and access, hospital utilization, and physicians.

“Integrated care means better care, and we are proud to be recognized as one of the most integrated health systems in the nation,” says Steve Edwards, CoxHealth president and CEO. “Our staff and our physicians work hard to provide a seamless, coordinated experience for our patients, and we’ve invested heavily in the tools and technology they need to achieve this goal.”

The listing was previously performed by research company SDI, which was purchased by IMS in 2011; CoxHealth is ranked 79th.

CoxHealth recognized as one of the nation’s top hospitals for neurosurgery, spinal surgery

2012-01-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

CoxHealth has been named by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the nation’s “101 Hospitals with Great Spine and Neurosurgery Programs.” The list recognizes some of the most outstanding hospitals for neurosurgery and spinal surgery care in the United States, including Johns Hopkins, Yale New Haven, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Stanford, Cedars Sinai and Barnes-Jewish.

Hospitals on this list are selected by the Becker’s Hospital Review editorial team based on nominations, quality care data, clinical accolades and contributions to the field of neurosurgery and spine care.

“It is gratifying to be recognized alongside of some of the best institutions in the world. We are deeply committed to providing world class care in southwest Missouri, and we intend to be second to none. This recognition is a reflection of years of hard work and devotion by our staff and the surgeons at Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute,” says Steve Edwards, CoxHealth President and CEO.

CoxHealth purchased SNSI in December 2010. SNSI is the largest group of neurosurgeons in the state of Missouri.

To learn more about the “101 Hospitals with Great Spine and Neurosurgery Programs,” list, visit http://beckersorthopedicandspine.com/http://beckersorthopedicandspine.com/.

CoxHealth is Springfield’s only locally owned, not-for-profit health system. It is accredited by The Joint Commission and distinguished as one of the nation’s Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Systems (2006-2012).

Becker’s Hospital Review is a bimonthly publication offering up-to-date business and legal news and analysis relating to hospitals and health systems. Each issue reaches more than 18,000 people, primarily acute-care hospital CEOs and CFOs.

Families honor heroes in Missouri Hotel fire

2012-01-26T09:14:00.000-08:00

Firefighters from Station 2 in Springfield visitedCox North Wednesday afternoon to reunite with the families they saved in lastweek’s fire at the Missouri Hotel. The firefighters were presented with aplaque from The Kitchen and a banner reading “Thank You God for EverydayHeroes.”

Dozens of children staying at Cox North signed the banner before meeting the firefighters, who handed out coloring books, stickers and wristbands. Repairs continue at the Missouri Hotel and some residents are expected to begin moving back as early as next week.

Fighting our smallest enemies

2012-01-23T15:49:00.000-08:00

Antibiotic-resistant MRSA, seen here in a culture held by medical laboratory scientist Danielle Lucore, is among the top challenges for infectious disease specialists.

For years, physicians and scientists around the world have documented an increase in the number of drug-resistant bacteria. Some new strains, such as the New Delhi strain of E. coli that recently emerged from India, show resistance to all existing antibiotics. With few new antibiotics in the development pipeline, many in the medical community have declared the situation dire.

“This is a public health emergency across the nation,” says Dr. Robin Trotman, CoxHealth infectious disease specialist and the physician who oversees the health system’s antibiotic stewardship program.

In 2008, CoxHealth launched the program, modeled on the successful programs found at larger health care institutions in major cities, to help bridge the gap between drug-resistant bugs and the lack of medicines to fight them.

By applying principles of antibiotic stewardship – matching the most appropriate antibiotic to each infection, carefully dosing the drugs to balance their effectiveness with cost and patient outcomes, and researching alternative therapies – the program aims to prevent the emergence of antibiotic-resistant infections at CoxHealth.

Pharmacist Melissa Steenhoek spends her days working on the program, acting as a steward of the system’s formulary. “I constantly review data and make recommendations for antibiotic selection and dosing to discourage antibiotic resistance and give our patients the best possible outcomes while decreasing costs,” she says.

Bacteria develop resistance over time. During prolonged or inappropriate antibiotic exposure, they adapt to overcome the very drugs created to fight them.

“Each antibiotic has a different spectrum of infection it covers,” says Steenhoek. “If a broad-spectrum antibiotic is selected when a more narrow-spectrum antibiotic would be just as effective, the broad-spectrum drugs become overused, and resistance develops.”

But by carefully overseeing the use of antibiotics, reviewing individual cases and monitoring the resistance problems that most hospitals are dealing with, Steenhoek and Dr. Trotman are able to keep CoxHealth ahead of the curve – and in some cases, change our trajectory.

One example: their work regarding MRSA infections with reduced Vancomycin susceptibility at CoxHealth. A poster the pair created on the topic was presented at a national conference hosted by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and Dr. Trotman recently spoke at a conference hosted by the Carolinas Antimicrobial Stewardship Effort and Wake Forest Medical Center on the issue.

Vancomycin is one of the most commonly used antibiotics in the hospital setting, and the treatment of choice for MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections. Dr. Trotman says research shows that MRSA is becoming resistant to Vancomycin – a dangerous development. Through the antibiotic stewardship program, he and Steenhoek looked at how to more appropriately use Vancomycin in the hospital, to reduce this level of resistance.

They developed a program that included using Vancomycin in higher doses to treat more difficult infections, stopping its use when it wasn’t needed and educating other pharmacists on how to more appropriately dose it. After a couple of years using this model, they compared the sensitivity of MRSA to Vancomycin before this project to its sensitivity afterward. They were able to show that, while most hospitals have seen an increase in MRSA infections with reduced susceptibility to Vancomycin, CoxHealth saw fewer of these cases.

“In essence, MRSA at our hospital and in our community is more sensitive to Vancomycin than it was before our program started,” says Dr. Trotman. “We’ve changed the ecosystem of the hospital.”

While the main goal of the program is improving patient outcomes, changing the way the system uses antibiotics also saves the system money. Developing best practices and order sets for the use of antibiotics in the hospital and working to keep CoxHealth in compliance with the many regulatory requirements that touch on this issue are an important part of this process. While a specific dollar amount tied to the CoxHealth Antibiotic Stewardship Program is not available, national research shows that these programs typically save hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long-term.

Currently, the antibiotic stewardship program is focused on inpatient antibiotic use, but Steenhoek is beginning to collect data through some CoxHealth walk-in clinics. The goal is to eventually expand the program – and the program’s successes – to the outpatient setting.

Says Dr. Trotman: “This is a progressive program for a community hospital. We have outcomes and metrics that show we’re making a difference.”

How ‘lean’ helps us serve our patients

2012-01-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

Patient Cynthia Ernst, who works in Physicians Billing, meets with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Erin Greer for a follow-up on her recent hand surgery. The team at Ferrell-Duncan Orthopedics is successfully handling a high volume of patients thanks to a lean project that focused on streamlining the patient experience.

If you want to know how powerful lean thinking can be, just talk to someone who’s been involved in a lean project at CoxHealth. They’ll tell you lean has improved the way their department works, but they’ll also point out how the skill of mapping the steps in a process and eliminating the waste gets internalized. Once you’ve seen it applied, it colors the way you view everything. It becomes clear that lean projects don’t just make satisfied workers, they make lean evangelists.

“The lean process is so valuable, the whole system should go through it,” says Karen Miller, medical secretary in Ferrell-Duncan Clinic’s Orthopedics department at the Bone & Joint Center. Lean thinking has her looking at everything her department does and asking “is this the best way?” or “does this add value for our patients?” “Lean really teaches you to be open minded to change. Keep your ears and eyes open and don’t get stuck in a rut.”

Miller’s first exposure to her new way of thinking came during a lean project the department conducted last spring. The project was designed to help staff members handle an increasing volume of patients while streamlining the patient experience. The lean team broke down the process from a patient’s initial phone call to having an appointment scheduled – any step that didn’t add value for the patient was a candidate for adjustment or elimination. At the same time, clinic staffers identified waste in their own work processes, which they eliminated and made their own workdays more efficient.

The orthopedics project is one of several lean projects under way at CoxHealth and leaders say the lean approach to constant improvement is key to getting the most out of the resources we have and thriving in the future.

Ken Jennings, operations administrator at Ferrell-Duncan and a lean team facilitator, spells out the need for lean in a simple equation: Volumes are up, but reimbursements are down. Quality must go up. How do we make up this difference? By improving our own processes and cutting waste and inefficiency.

“Lean projects are exactly what we need to be doing at Cox,” Jennings says. “We need all the people we have, so where do we find the resources to make it work? We have to look at and streamline every single process.”

Applying lean

At Ferrell-Duncan Orthopedics, physician turnover had left the department with fewer doctors, but the demand for orthopedic services continued to rise.

“The issue became how do we sort, separate and filter this volume, this huge need in the community for orthopedic services, in a more appropriate way,” Jennings says.

Like many people hearing the term “lean” for the first time, some staff members were leery of what applying lean thinking would mean for their work. Scott Rogers, CoxHealth’s administrative director of organizational development, says that one of the first steps to introducing a lean project is making it clear what lean is and what it is not.

Lean began as a process-improvement discipline developed by Toyota as the company sought to perfect its manufacturing processes. They created the Toyota Production System, which studies how people work and looks for ways to eliminate waste – wasted time, wasted effort and anything that doesn’t add value for the customer.

Departments like orthopedics that take on a lean project examine their own work, beginning by mapping out all the steps in a particular process, such as how patient calls are routed. The lean team will take a step back from the map and look for barriers, bottlenecks or frustrations in the system, what Jennings calls “boulders” or “stones” in the stream of daily work.

Karla Riley, certified medical assistant for Dr. Erin Greer, says mapping the scheduling process from the patient’s perspective opened the eyes of the clinical staff.

“From a clinical perspective, you think about your area, but not about the broader context,” she says. Riley says having lean team members from administration, clerical and surgical scheduling helped everyone to think beyond their individual areas of responsibility. “This puts the patient at the center and helps you see how to be more effective.”

The lean team developed what’s called a “current state map” of all the workflows in the clinic. After identifying areas for improvement, they created a “future state map” to work toward. Ideally, that future map will become their new current state map and they will develop a new future state to work toward in a cycle of constant improvement.

Chad Kuhlmann, orthopedic department supervisor, says just looking at those maps and being able to ask questions and propose solutions brought staff on board with the lean process.

“When you map everything like this, light bulbs come on,” Kuhlmann says. “The staff support was incredible. Now the team is engaged and they throw out ideas to help everybody. You see your co-workers as a resource, not as a barrier.”

Key measurements

With the department’s processes mapped out, the lean team could see where improvements were needed to help patients access care efficiently.

They began by focusing on two priorities: streamlining the way phone calls are handled and making sure patients are scheduled with the most appropriate physician for their case.

After identifying the issues, the team began working on ways to collect relevant data. Kuhlmann says having concrete data is key to making the lean process work. It removes perceptions and allows the team to work with measurable facts everyone can agree on. The lean team looked at two key measurements: the volume of calls coming into the clinic and the physician/surgery ratio, a measurement of how often a meeting with a surgeon results in a surgery.

Phone volume: The sheer volume of phone calls coming into the department was an obvious first target – simply hearing the way the phones rang constantly illustrated the need for a new process.

Staff members estimated that the main line for the department was receiving 3,200 calls each month. With the previous screening method, patients were being transferred among staff before getting to the right person. It was a process that could be frustrating for patients and staffers and calls were sometimes dropped.

Kuhlmann says that as staff members scrambled to handle the phones, they were less able to handle their regular duties in the department, a fact that was beginning to show up in Press-Ganey patient satisfaction scores.

Seeking a solution, the lean team took a “gemba walk” at Adult Medicine & Endocrinology Specialists. The gemba walk is a lean tool that involves looking closely at another group’s processes to see what can be applied to the problem at hand. They discovered Adult Medicine & Endocrinology Specialists uses an automated phone system to route their incoming calls. After seeing the system in action, the team recommended adding a phone system called Agent to the Orthopedics department.

The new system includes menus and a queuing process that allows patients to answer questions and actively assist in triaging their own calls. In its first few months of use, the system has greatly improved the way patients are connected with the appropriate areas.

The Agent phone system also provides real-time tracking of call volumes, which offers hard data that quantifies a truth staff members already knew: they are busy. In the first month, the total calls added up to more than 6,000, almost double their estimate.

“We all knew we were busy, but we didn’t see the real volume until we went through this project,” Miller says.

Now, with the Agent system in place and more calls going to the right staff member the first time, the phones have become quieter.

“Well, we don’t like to say that,” Miller says with a laugh. “As soon as we say it, they’ll start going ballistic. Let’s just say they’re peachy.”

The automated phone system frees up staff members to take care of the patients who are in the office in person rather than juggling duties answering phones. Similarly, nurses in the clinic are freed up to work with their patients with minimal interruptions.

Jennings points out that the phone changes are a good example of how eliminating waste produces a synergy of benefits for everyone involved. The more efficient system speeds things up for patients and it improves both the way employees work and the overall culture.

“Transferring calls is waste, and if staff members can’t take lunch because of trying to keep up with call volumes, that’s bad for morale.”

Physician/surgery ratio: When the team began looking at the overall workflow in the clinic, it became clear that patients and physicians would benefit from a better triage system as patients first made contact with the clinic. It wasn’t just a matter of handling the volume of calls, there needed to be a standardized way to route patients into the correct path of care. Before the lean project, there were times when patients with surgical needs were placed with non-surgical doctors and vice-versa.

“Our goal is to get the patient in the right exam room at the right time,” Jennings says.

Meeting that goal is a key to providing the best patient access for the clinic – getting patients to the care they need with the most efficient use of their time and the physician’s time. The lean team began looking at how often a visit with a surgeon was resulting in a surgery. The team wanted to improve scheduling accuracy for patients and move that ratio toward 1:1, ensuring that only patients needing surgery met with a surgeon. The team found the original number to be 2.76 patients seen for every surgery a physician scheduled.

To correct the issue, the lean team designed a clerical triage process in which schedulers ask patients a series of questions and then use a decision tree to confirm the correct course of action. The team worked with doctors to develop “scope of practice” documents for each physician. Those documents, updated quarterly, detail what surgeries and treatments a physician is currently doing and they make that information available at a glance for schedulers.

“This makes everything visual for everyone to see and it keeps the physician in the driver’s seat in terms of how they want to structure their practice,” Jennings says.

A team culture

In the first few months following the lean project, numbers tracked by the department were already showing that their efforts were paying off.

Press-Ganey scores on “ease of access to the clinic” had started around 85. By the end of October, the department had gained 5 percentage points on that question. On the question about the ease of reaching the clinic by phone, the numbers rose from the 81-82 range to the 88-89 range.

“The data reflects a positive change,” Kuhlmann says. “The patient is more in control than before and that’s a satisfier.”

Equally important is the change the project has made for the culture of the staff. The project has engaged staffers from throughout the department and given them a voice in ongoing efforts to improve their workplace.

Miller says the regular meetings offered a positive setting for staff members to discuss issues and find solutions together. She says there’s a real fellowship among co-workers and with their leaders.

“If you’re invited to join a lean project, say ‘yes’ and get involved,” Miller says. “It’s amazing. Instead of being told ‘here’s how you’re going to do it,’ the people who do a job every day have real input on how it should be done.”

Jennings says that’s what makes lean so valuable, and so empowering for the front-line staff who help drive the improvements.

“The people who actually touch the work being done know where the barriers are and they know what the solutions can be,” he says. “We just bring the tools so they can remove those barriers to providing better patient care.”

The team is currently focusing those tools on the clinical side of their practice. Remember those maps of the current state of processes the team developed at the beginning of the first lean project? They included what’s called a “parking lot” – a space for additional issues that fall outside the scope of the current project. The items noted there are now forming the basis of a second lean project that is tracking the entire process of care a patient goes through.

Team members are excited about the possibilities lean thinking brings as they look at the entire scope of care from the patient’s perspective. They know they’ll find ways to make things better for the people we serve every day.

Riley says: “Everything you do is for the patient and increasing value for the customer.

“Satisfied customers improve the bottom line and we want to provide the best care we can provide. That’s why I went into health care, I want to take care of people.”

About lean

Lean thought has its roots in a process improvement discipline developed by Toyota. While it began in the world of manufacturing, the lean approach can be used to examine and improve a variety of work processes. Here are a few of the terms you’re likely to hear as lean projects are deployed at CoxHealth:

Muda: A Japanese term for an activity that is wasteful and doesn’t add value.

Gemba walk: When leaders examine first-hand how work is done on the front lines. They’re visiting “gemba,” or “the real place” in Japanese.

Value stream: All the steps in a process of producing or delivering a product or service. Value streams are mapped to show the flow of information and work in the process. How work is carried out at the beginning of a lean project is defined on a current state map while a goal for how processes could be improved is spelled out in a future state map.

CoxHealth responds to fire at Missouri Hotel

2012-01-20T13:04:00.000-08:00

Updated 5 p.m., Jan. 23:

Our efforts to temporarily house Missouri Hotel residents at Cox North continue to go smoothly.

Staff from multiple departments including EVS, Security, Engineering and Volunteers continue working hard to ensure we have no significant challenges.Busses from Springfield Public Schools picked up the children staying at Cox North this morning and transported them to school.

Eighty-one displaced residents from the Missouri Hotel are now settled into 23 rooms on L200, L300 and L400 at Cox North. CoxHealth staff have been working hard since Incident Command was activated at 11 a.m. Friday morning to help ensure a smooth transition to temporary housing for these families.

Staff from the Missouri Hotel and local Red Cross chapter are also at Cox North tonight and will be on-site for the duration of this event. The CERT team and Greene County OEM are at Cox North as well, helping to manage the situation.

The latest reports state that the Missouri Hotel is expected to reopen at the end of next week. In the meantime, we have established a phone line, 269-2690, that members of the community can call if they need to reach a Missouri Hotel resident staying at Cox North. A staff member will take a message that will be posted on a message board for the residents. A public phone to make local calls is available for the residents' use.

Missouri Hotel residents will take their meals, provided by the Red Cross, in the old Emerald Garden Café area. In the near future, food support will transition from the Red cross to Franciscan Villa.

Rehabilitation of the Missouri Hotel is under way and going well. The staff anticipate some rooms will be available by mid-week and are anticipating return of the Cox residents within the week.

The situation continues to evolve and we will share more details as they become available.

How to help

The Kitchen, which operates the Missouri Hotel, is asking for cash donations or gift cards to help residents with immediate needs and with repairs. Formula and diapers top the list of immediate needs.
Those wishing to donate can call The Kitchen at 837-1500 or donate online at www.thekitcheninc.org.

Cardinals players visit kids on Pediatrics

2012-01-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

Cardinals Jason Motte and Mitchell Boggs along with Cardinals' alumnus Jason Simontacchi stopped by Pediatrics at Cox South this afternoon. The trio, who were in town for the Cardinals Caravan, met with young patients and signed hats and souvenir bats for patients and staff.

Free program for runners, taught by local experts

2012-01-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

Running is great exercise. But you can get even more out of your running program year-round if you properly train for the sport – and train for the weather.

To help, CoxHealth will present the free program “Cross Training and Cold Weather Training for Runners,” Saturday, Jan. 28, from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m.

This program includes both a lecture and lab component. During the lecture, Dr. Shannon Woods, board-certified and fellowship-trained sports medicine physician, will discuss cross training, muscle confusion and injury reduction. Mark Millsap, MEd, RRCA-USATF certified coach, will give tips on cold-weather running including proper gear. Then, CoxHealth experts in physical therapy, athletic training and fitness will be on-hand during the lab session, where you can learn more about plyometrics, strength training and cross training – and participate in a Q & A with Dr. Woods.

This program will be held in The Meyer Center Conference Room, 3545 S. National. Please call 269-INFO or visit www.coxhealth.com for more information and to register.

Departments give back to the community

2011-12-30T08:10:00.000-08:00

Departments at CoxHealth have been working this holiday season to find ways to give back to the community we serve. In recent weeks, staff members in Case Management and the F300 unit at Cox North have made Christmas brighter for children in the Springfield area.

For the second year in a row, Case Management purchased coats for students in Springfield Public Schools. The Case Management team worked with school officials to identify students in need, then they went shopping. They made the most of the funds CoxHealth employees donated by working out discounts with Kmart and Kohl’s.

Just prior to Christmas, the department delivered 75 coats, along with hats, gloves and other winter necessities. They were even able to provide a few extra coats for schools to have on hand throughout the winter.

Staff members on F300 donated dozens of presents for students at Robberson Elementary. Shown with the gifts above are: Terry Earnhart, Shanna Stafford, Dr. Edgar Galinanes and Brittney Day.

Meanwhile, staff members on F300 at Cox North adopted 21 children from kindergarten through fifth grade at Robberson Elementary. Robberson’s counselor and principal identified students most in need and the F300 staff went to work fulfilling their wish lists.

By the week before Christmas, the adopted children all had presents and stockings filled with goodies. The staffers also donated 35 new coats. Char Biamonte Stockl, Assistant Administrative Director in Psychiatric Services, says the staff members were so eager to help, the effort won’t end with the holiday season.

“We aren’t going to stop at Christmas, we want to make this a year-long, employee-engaged effort. I would like to see Easter baskets, a summer gift and fall events for these children,” she says. “We want them to always know that someone cares.”

Free infant massage classes at CoxHealth

2011-12-29T09:15:00.001-08:00

Infant massage helps parent and baby bond, builds baby’s coordination, language development and muscle tone, and may provide relief when baby experiences colic, muscle tension and more. It even helps baby sleep, lowers stress hormones and may decrease the “baby blues.”

Why wouldn’t a parent want to learn more?

The Women’s Center at CoxHealth will offer free Infant Massage classes in January. Classes will be held 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 12, and Wednesday, Jan. 18, in suite 130 of the Turner Center, 1000 E. Primrose.

New parents with their babies, and expectant parents, are invited to attend. Call 269-LADY for more information.

Have diabetes? Need to lose weight? LeanerLife is for you

2011-12-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

LeanerLife is a diabetes-focused weight loss program, sponsored by the CoxHealth Diabetes Center. This 12-week program will help you learn to make healthy lifestyle changes and develop a support network for successful weight loss.

Classes are held on Thursdays from 5-6:30 p.m., beginning Jan. 12. Topics covered include emotional eating, portion distortion, eating out, recipes and substitutions, and much more.

LeanerLife is held in the CoxHealth Diabetes Center, suite 203 of the CoxHealth Surgery Center, 960 E. Walnut Lawn. There is a $170 fee for this program and registration is required. Call 269-3900 to register. Learn more about LeanerLife by visiting http://www.coxhealth.com/body.cfm?id=3015http://www.coxhealth.com/body.cfm?id=3015.

CoxHealth offers smoking cessation classes

2011-12-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

Start 2012 off right and kick your smoking habit with the help of TIPS (Tobacco-free Individual Program) smoking cessation classes at CoxHealth.

Lifelong smokers have a 1 in 2 chance of dying from a smoking-related disease. Smoking can cause heart disease, cancer, respiratory problems, and even osteoporosis. But if you quit, you begin to experience health benefits in as little as 20 minutes.

TIPS classes will be held 5-6 p.m., Tuesdays, Jan. 10-31, and 7:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Feb. 7-28, in the CoxHealth Diabetes Center, suite 203 of the CoxHealth Surgery Center, 960 E. Walnut Lawn. Each four-week course is designed to offer you the support you need to quit. There is a $50 fee, but the program may be covered by your health insurance.

For more information or to register, call 269-4847. To learn more about TIPS and the benefits of quitting, visit http://www.coxhealth.com/body.cfm?id=3683http://www.coxhealth.com/body.cfm?id=3683.

CoxHealth announces executive leadership advancements

2011-12-29T07:59:00.000-08:00

Steven D. Edwards, incoming President & CEO of CoxHealth, announced the following executive leadership advancements effective Jan. 1, 2012:

John Duff, MD, Senior Vice President, Chief Hospital Officer: Duff’s responsibilities will include oversight of four hospitals (Cox South, Cox Walnut Lawn and Cox North in Springfield, and Cox Monett Hospital in Monett, Mo.), as well as Oxford HealthCare (home health services), Home Parenteral Services (home infusion therapy), and Cox College.

Ken Powell, MD, Chairman JOC, Chief Integrated Physicians: Powell will be responsible for integrating physician operations for CoxHealth’s Regional Services (employed physician clinics), Ferrell-Duncan Clinic (multi-specialty physician clinic), and Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute (SNSI).

Ron Prenger, Vice President, Chief Clinical Officer: Prenger’s responsibilities will encompass all hospital inpatient clinical services.

Brian Williams, Vice President, Chief Business Development: Williams will be responsible for CoxHealth Network, (managed care contracting arm for CoxHealth), Marketing and Planning, and Occupational Medicine and SNSI clinic operations.

Edwards says the changes will enhance continuity of care for patients through increased efficiencies, standardization and improved access to physician clinics.

CoxHealth is Springfield’s only locally owned, not-for-profit health system. It is accredited by The Joint Commission and distinguished as one of the nation’s Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Systems (2006-2011).

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2011-12-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

From caroling staffers to a visit from St. Nick himself, everyone is in the holiday spirit at CoxHealth. Here are a few scenes of holiday merriment as the CoxHealth family celebrates Christmas:

The team at the Cox Family Medicine Residency (above) caroled at Cox South Thursday night. They visited patients on all floors, beginning on 9 and working their way down to Labor & Delivery!

Santa and an elf were spotted in the hallways at Cox South Friday, transporting patients around the hospital and visiting children on Pediatrics.

Santa was actually transporter Bill Kezerle who has been growing out his white beard so he could play Santa for his wife Pamela’s Christmas party in the Sleep Lab. His supervisor, Eric Uffman, asked Kezerle if he would dress as Santa during his shift Friday. When transporter Katelyn Kramme heard that Bill was going to be Santa for the day, she volunteered to dress as an elf.

“We have had a wonderful time. It’s been very well received,” says Kezerle. “We have encountered several children in the hallways and their eyes get big when they see us. We went up on Peds and had a good time up there, too.”

Brownie Troop 60129 from Sherwood Elementary in Springfield visited the Cox South lobby on Thursday to sing carols for our patients and visitors.

Staff members at Ozarks Dialysis recently took the time to gather and sing Christmas carols for patients in the unit. The caroling has become an annual tradition for the staff.

"We have 28 patients at one time and we go to each and every chair to spread joy and love," says nurse manager Maggie Seiser. "For us, this is a part of what Cox is all about."

From the CoxHealth family to yours, here's wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season!

Robert Bezanson: A legacy of service

2011-12-22T10:09:00.000-08:00

When Robert Bezanson wakes up on Jan. 1, 2012, his world will have shifted beneath him. It will be the first time in three decades when he hasn’t had responsibility for CoxHealth as one of the top concerns on his mind. Since he announced his retirement in August, he’s been working on the transition to new leadership and making final preparations to take a step back from an organization he has served since 1981 and helmed as CEO since 2004.

“People have been asking me, ‘What are you going to do?’ and I just say, ‘Anything I want,’” Bezanson says with a chuckle. “It’s going to be fun when the biggest challenge is ‘will I catch a fish at Bennett Springs?’ as opposed to ‘let’s get that contract finalized.’”

As Bezanson prepares to launch his retirement, he’s ready to devote some time to hobbies like fly fishing, wood turning and photography, but he knows he’ll miss the daily efforts both large and small that are required to run a health system.

Over the last 30 years, Bezanson has honed his passion for business in service of the public good into a career that has featured him presiding over much of CoxHealth’s greatest expansion.

His arc, from a new administrator all the way to chief executive officer, parallels the trajectory of Cox from a single Springfield hospital to a multi-hospital system serving a large region. It’s a career marked with milestones – from ribbon cuttings on Medical Mile construction projects to the adoption of organizational foundations such as the Baldrige business model and the strategic plan.

When he first arrived at Cox North for an interview on a rainy day in March of 1981, he wouldn’t have predicted he’d be retiring from CoxHealth in 2011. In fact, he wouldn’t have predicted he’d be here for more than five years. He recalls visiting a field at the end of the interview and peering into the freshly excavated void that is now the foundation of Cox South. He had interviews at hospitals across the country, but there was something about the people here and the potential to get in on the ground floor of a growing system that led him to take a chance.

“When I met Neil Wortley, Charlie Edwards and Larry Wallis, I knew I really wanted to work with those individuals,” he says. “There was a management team that was a great fit and there was a hospital that was looking to the future and building a new facility.

“There was an opportunity to make a difference in the delivery of care and ultimately to make a difference in people’s lives. That’s been my main motivation over the years.”

‘A dream position’

Bezanson’s path to being a health care administrator had begun 12 years earlier. As the Vietnam draft started in 1969, Bezanson, like other men of his generation, knew he’d be serving, it was just a matter of where. He had a business degree and he decided to apply for a direct commission in the Medical Service Corps.

“I was very fortunate. Hospital administration wasn’t something I originally aspired to, but it was an area that presented itself and I took the opportunity,” he says. “As I got into it, I realized that it was a very rewarding career.”

Bezanson had a mentor who encouraged him to pursue a master’s in health care administration, which he did at Washington University in St. Louis. During that time, he did a residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where he fell in love with the operations of a large hospital system.

After three more years of service to repay his Air Force-sponsored education, Bezanson started looking for his first job. Southwest Missouri hadn’t been on his radar before his interview, but the chance to grow with a health system was inspiring.

“At Cox, I saw opportunities for learning about new construction and that’s not something you always get the chance to do early in your career,” he says. “I felt like I could learn something here.”

He figured he could work at Cox for two or three years and move on to other challenges. Soon, new challenges here began to pique his interest. The direction of South shifted from a 220-bed women’s and children’s hospital to a 500-bed tertiary care center. When the facility was finished, Bezanson joined administrator Larry Wallis in opening the new hospital. One year later, he was offered the position of administrator of Cox South. That offer changed everything.

“For me, that job was a dream position,” Bezanson says. “That’s when I realized I really could be a change agent for health care in southwest Missouri.”

Leading Cox South

In the early days of Bezanson’s time as administrator, Cox South became a competitive tertiary care center with capabilities that rivaled hospital systems around the nation.

Bezanson had hoped for a learning experience when he accepted the job and he soon found many opportunities. From the beginning, he was taking on new challenges and finding his way in uncharted territory. He presided over a number of firsts for Cox that now stand out in his mind, including:

• The launch of the Lifeline program, which provided users with a call device they could use at home to summon medical help in an emergency. Bezanson remembers being in charge of the Lifeline press conference as his first taste of staying on message and working with the media. “Sometimes leading a press conference can produce some anxious moments, but it’s a chance to tell your story, too.”

• The first Children’s Miracle Network telethon: “It was exciting; it was the unknown, doing everything with no chance of a do-over,” he says. “It turned out remarkably well and the community really responded to it.”

• Cox’s first air ambulance: Bezanson recalls the months of planning that culminated in the final, tense moments of making a deadline to get a license for Cox Air Care. All the effort paid off when he traveled to Pennsylvania to see the helicopter as it arrived from Germany for final assembly. “That was a great day,” he says.

As Bezanson’s career grew, he found new opportunities to use his business acumen to drive ongoing improvements in patient care.

In the late 1980s, Cox helped bring the first outpatient MRI service to Springfield with Ozark Magnetic Imaging, a joint venture with St. John’s. Looking back, Bezanson is especially proud of how that partnership served a community need in a cost-effective way. He credits much of the project’s success to careful planning and a strong business agreement. The project also illustrates what he says is one of the biggest lessons of his career.

“If you enter a project with another partner, you need to make sure your partner has the same values and they’re in it for the same reason,” he says. “There has to be an alignment of values, just like a marriage.”

Forming successful partnerships and negotiating business agreements has been as vital to Cox’s growth over the last three decades as any of the new services or facilities brought on line. When he speaks about his work, it’s clear that Bezanson’s passion for a good deal is driven by the positive outcomes for people – both our patients and our staff.

“There’s so much that goes on in administration that the person on the front line might not be aware of,” he says. “You have to remain focused and try to do the best you can for the patient and for employees; you can never forget that.”

He points to the partnership with Ferrell-Duncan Clinic in 1996 and the 1998 acquisition of Columbia HCA, which became Cox Walnut Lawn. In both cases, leaders were able to smoothly transition the employees into Cox.

“We managed to transfer all of those employees and keep them whole,” he says. “I’m proud of that and I think we did a great job.”

Since he became CEO in 2004, Bezanson’s career has been notable for the new construction he has led. He earned the local moniker of “Bob the Builder” as he presided over the opening of the Cox Surgery Center, the Meyer Orthopedic Center, the Cox South Emergency Department and, most recently, the critical care expansion at Cox South.

“Every ribbon cutting has been pivotal,” he says.

While each of those expansions are visual landmarks of CoxHealth’s growth, their power lies in something much deeper than bricks and mortar. The projects Bezanson has led – from new facilities to partnerships like the Clinic at Walmart – have all been based in the desire that has driven his career: to make a difference in people’s lives.

That desire is also clear when Bezanson discusses what it has meant to serve as a leader for employees.

“At employee orientation, I always tell new employees, ‘We hope to be your last employer,’” he says. “Our culture cares about the employees; we truly are a family. We believe in promoting from within; I’m a perfect example of that.”

A high point of his career was participating in CoxHealth’s centennial celebration in 2006. At the time, he had been present for one quarter of the hospital’s history. He’s proud of being a leader for the CoxHealth family and being an advocate for change within the system, even when that change wasn’t easy.

“It was a bold move to go smoke free, but it was the right thing to do,” he says. “ETO was initially controversial, but it was quickly embraced as people had more control over their time.”

He also mentions the importance of employee engagement and the value he sees in the We Want to Know survey.

“If you don’t ask them, you won’t know what’s important to employees,” he says. “You’ll never know where to set your priorities. I’m glad we’ve been able to do that and we’re still doing it every year.”

Bezanson says it’s been his commitment to the people who make CoxHealth a success that has guided him through some of the biggest challenges of his career.

“One of the worst parts of the 3-year federal investigation we went through was the fact that we weren’t allowed to be as transparent as we wanted to be with employees, medical staff, volunteers and our community,” he says. While the investigation was a challenge, Bezanson says CoxHealth has become a national model of compliance. “All of our employees and medical staff remained committed to the organization and at the end of the day we’re much stronger. When you have that kind of adversity, you pull together.”

Bezanson says that ability to pull together is key to dealing with a changing health care landscape.

“We’ll be challenged, just as we have been in the past, like with the balanced budget act and situations where the revenue stream isn’t as predictable,” he says. “We have to be agile and we have to be creative, but we persevered in the past and we’ll do so in the future.”

The foundation

Predicting the future can be tricky, especially in a field that evolves as rapidly as health care. The prospect of growth inspired Bezanson during his 1981 interview, but it would have been impossible to imagine where Cox would be in 2011. Seeing the future is just as difficult, but Bezanson does have a sort of secret weapon.

“See my crystal ball?” He gestures to a glass globe perched on a bookshelf across his office. “Now you’ve seen the secret of Bezanson; he’s got a crystal ball in his office!

“Someone gave me that crystal ball when I started this job and let me tell you, it doesn’t work nearly as well as it should,” he says with a grin.

Whatever changes may come, Bezanson says CoxHealth has the advantage of a clear vision that will guide all of our decisions.

“We don’t make widgets, we take care of people when they’re at their most vulnerable,” he says. “Our work is about people and taking care of their needs. In the end, it’s all about the patient.”

Bezanson says he’s proud to be leaving CoxHealth with a strong framework that will allow us to provide the best care for our patients in the coming years.

“When I came into this position, I encouraged management to embrace a Baldrige model and the foundation is now in place for that,” he says. “We’re moving forward with deploying a lot of the components of Baldrige, which will make this an even better organization.”

Just as the past three decades have grown from the foundation being poured in a field during his first interview, Bezanson says the future of CoxHealth will be built on the work being done today by everyone who serves the organization. He says his greatest accomplishment of the last 30 years can be seen in the management team he’s developed – a team he knows has the health system well prepared for future challenges.

“I’m extraordinarily proud of being associated with CoxHealth. I know it sounds corny, but you really are only as good as the people around you,” Bezanson says. “Eighty percent of management is who you hire and we have a great team in place. That is what I’m most proud of. It’s not the buildings, it’s the people.”

CoxHealth, American Lung Association partner to present COPD class

2011-12-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

CoxHealth and the American Lung Association of the Gulf Plains Region (Springfield office) have partnered to present “COPD 101,” a free class for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and their caregivers Wednesday, Dec. 14, from 1-2 p.m.

COPD occurs when damage to your lungs blocks airflow when you exhale, making it difficult to breathe. It is most commonly caused by smoking, and is the only leading cause of death with rates that are not declining – in fact, rates of COPD are rising by approximately 16 percent each year.

While damage caused by COPD can’t be reversed, patients with this condition can take steps to improve their quality of life. This information and more will be covered in “COPD 101,” and there will be time for questions.

The class will be held in the CoxHealth Surgery Center, 960 E. Walnut Lawn. For more information, call Glenda Miller with CoxHealth at 269-3907, or Terri Stafford with the American Lung Association at 883-7177.

Christmas toy drive to benefit hospitalized children at CoxHealth

2011-12-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

This Christmas, you can help the thousands of children that are cared for at CoxHealth each year by donating to the CoxHealth Child Life Christmas Toy Drive.

Donations of a variety of newly purchased items for all ages are appreciated, including coloring books, playing cards, board games, action figures, personal care items, DVDs, video games, scrapbooking and art supplies, and more. For a complete list, visit http://www.coxhealth.com/body.cfm?id=5091.

CoxHealth’s Child Life staff work closely with hospitalized children and their families, helping kids stay calm so medical care can be provided and helping parents cope with the stress of having a hospitalized child. Donated items will be used throughout the year as rewards, prizes and gifts for these children.

Toy drive collection bins are located at Cox South, 3801 S. National, in the North Entrance lobby and in the West Pavilion lobby. For more information, call 269-6784.

Anti-gravity training gets athletes moving

2011-12-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

What if you’re an athlete, but due to an injury you can’t work out? What if you want to lose weight, but exercise is difficult and painful. What do you do?

You use the Alter G Anti-Gravity Treadmill.

It looks like a treadmill with an oversized plastic bag attached to it. And, essentially, that’s what it is. But don’t get hung up on what it looks like – it’s what it can do that makes it truly unique.

“What makes the Alter G different is that we’re able to safely and comfortably unweight a person, down to 20 percent of their body weight,” says Andy Compton, Outpatient Therapy manager. “The Alter G uses the air pressure created in the chamber to gently raise the user up without limiting their ability to move. So, a person can exercise as they normally would, but with reduced stress on their joints or on an existing injury.”

For years, therapists have had access to equipment that would allow them to remove a percentage of a patient’s body weight. But there were issues with it.

“The old equipment was a lot more cumbersome – you had to use straps and painstakingly adjust them to get the patient in the proper position, without restricting the patient’s respiratory system – to be honest, we didn’t use it much because it was uncomfortable for patients and difficult to use,” says Jason Pyrah, Sports Medicine coordinator.

With the Alter G, there is no restriction. The user dons special shorts with a zipper around the waist – this zipper is then connected to the zipper on the Alter G “bag,” creating an airtight seal. The therapist uses the treadmill’s electronic controls to set the percentage of body weight to “remove,” and as the bag fills with air, the user is gently lifted until the proper unweighting is achieved. After that, it’s just like using a regular treadmill, whatever your fitness or rehabilitation goal.

While the Alter G can be used by patients and the public with a number of different goals in mind, the staff in Outpatient Therapy uses it primarily while helping athletes recover from injuries.

“In the past, injured athletes were usually told to rest, or maybe get in the pool for exercise while they recovered. This technology is a great alternative where they can continue to run while they heal, with decreased stress on their bodies. They can recover while doing something they love to do,” says Compton.

“Our biggest goal is to get them to return to play,” says Pyrah. “Controlling how much weight they bear on their injury helps us help them recover faster.”

Another benefit to athletes is that the Alter G allows them to maintain their fitness level while they recover. Says Pyrah: “If an athlete sits out for 3 or 4 weeks to recover from an injury, when they get back on the field or the court they often can’t play for long because their fitness level has decreased – it doesn’t have anything to do with the injury that sidelined them in the first place. With this, we can allow the injury to heal while keeping their cardiovascular health up. Then when the injury is fully healed they are at the same fitness level as before.”

While the benefits to athletes are clear, Compton points out that this treadmill can benefit patients and members of the public in a number of different ways.

“For our neurological patients who often have weak muscles, it allows us to help them build endurance and work on their gait while placing less stress on their bodies,” he says. “We also see benefits for post-op patients, and even for people with back pain who are told to walk, but in a normal setting can’t because of the discomfort caused by the exercise.” Seniors also benefit greatly from the reduced joint pain the Alter G offers.

A steady flow of patients have been taking advantage of the Alter G, but the treadmill is also available for community use at certain times of the day. Free trials are available so people can experience the nearly weightless feeling, and passes can be purchased by anyone who would like to use the machine.

Everyone who has been on the Alter G says you have to experience it to understand what it can do. “I think people are amazed by it,” says Compton.

Want to try it?

The Alter G is available for community use. Call 269-5500 for a current schedule, or to schedule a free trial. Passes are also available.

Day pass - $20 (good for one 30-minute session)

12-visit pass - $144 (good for 3 months from date of purchase)

20-visit pass - $200 (good for one month from date of purchase)

MRI is a new frontier in breast cancer imaging

2011-12-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

MRI technologist Stephanie Grandestaff and the Breast Care Clinic’s Nancy Frericks test the setup of the new Aurora Breast MRI System, which recently went into service at Hulston Cancer Center.

The physicians and staff at the Breast Care Clinic now have a new tool to help them care for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Earlier this month, they began using the newly installed Aurora 1.5T Dedicated Breast MRI System.

The Aurora is the only MRI made specifically for imaging breasts, and it is the only system cleared by the FDA specifically for this purpose. For the 23,000 women screened for breast cancer at the clinic each year, the presence of the Aurora – the only one in the area – means that if cancer is found the physicians will be able to identify it and monitor it more accurately than ever before.

“The Aurora offers 3D imaging, and can routinely find a tumor as small as 2 mm in size,” says Susan Smith, director of the Breast Care Clinic. “This is significantly smaller than what you routinely find using other MRI systems.”

The Aurora will be used primarily to help stage patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and to screen those at high-risk for the disease.

MRI is used following a positive breast biopsy but prior to surgery. “We want to look closely at the other breast and check it for cancer as well,” says Smith. “Most patients will have multiple MRIs – in addition to pre-surgery appointments, we bring them back in to see what their therapy has achieved.”

Breast Care Clinic staff will also use the Aurora as a screening tool for people with a high risk of breast cancer – especially those with a strong family history of the disease. New screening guidelines for women with breast implants also require an MRI every third year, with mammograms in intervening years.

Prior to the Aurora, patients who needed a breast MRI were scanned at The Martin Center, on a traditional MRI with a dedicated breast coil. The Aurora offers enhanced patient comfort and quicker scan times on a machine with software written specifically to better image breast tissue. “We’re committed to having the most advanced care available for our patients,” Smith says.

CoxHealth receives donation to help ALS patients

2011-12-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

Representatives from the Jeff Julian ALS Foundation present a check for $15,000 to CoxHealth Foundation president Lisa Alexander. Pictured are (left to right) Tyler Watskey, Jeff Julian ALS Foundation board chair; Lisa Alexander, CoxHealth Foundation president; J.R. Hutcheson and Jeremy Loftin, Jeff Julian ALS Foundation board members.

The CoxHealth Foundation has received a $15,000 donation from the proceeds of the 2011 Julian Golf Classic and auction, hosted by the Jeff Julian ALS Foundation.

This year’s donation will be used to support the care of ALS patients at CoxHealth through rehabilitation, emergency care and speech therapy.

The Julian Golf Classic honors the life of Jeff Julian, a PGA pro who was diagnosed with ALS in the prime of his career. His wife’s family is from Branson, and the couple returned to the area to seek care for Jeff near the end of his life.

ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, and affects muscle function. There is no cure.

The yearly golf tournament and auction is held at the LedgeStone Championship Golf Course in StoneBridge, near Branson. The event is scheduled for Sept. 9 and 10. For more information on the tournament, visit www.thejulian.org. To learn more about the CoxHealth Foundation, visit www.coxhealthfoundation.com.

Osmonds Christmas show to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals

2011-11-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

Your donation to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals at CoxHealth is your admission to “Miracle on 76 Boulevard,” the Osmonds' 2011 Christmas show. This two-hour holiday show will feature the traditional fun and festivities of the holidays, plus performers The Tinocos and the Thomas Brothers, with CMN Hospitals Miracle Kids and their families as special guests.

“Miracle on 76 Boulevard” will be held Friday, Nov.11, and Saturday, Nov. 12, at 8 p.m., in the Caravelle Theater, 3446 76 Boulevard, in Branson.

Money raised during these special shows will benefit the CoxHealth CMN Hospitals C.A.R.E. Mobile, a pediatric clinic on wheels that offers basic health services to children across the Ozarks. The C.A.R.E. Mobile is available to children who have no health insurance, who do not have a primary care physician, or whose parents cannot afford to pay for necessary medical services.

Call 417-336-6100 for reservations. For additional information contact CMN Hospitals at 417-269-5437 or Tammy Felton at 417-766-9502.

Healthy recpies for Food Day

2011-10-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Dietitian Sherry Neal and dietetic intern Kelly Striker prepare butternut squash and pear soup during the Food Day demonstration at the Cox South cafeteria.

CoxHealth will celebrate Food Day on Oct. 24 with special menu selections in all Springfield cafeterias, recipe card handouts and a cooking demonstration at Cox South.

Food Day is designed to raise awareness about healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. Staff from Wellness, Fitness Centers and Food and Nutrition Services departments encourage us to think about how we can “eat clean” and “eat local” by purchasing locally grown food that is less processed and has less packaging.

“The quality of the food we eat can have a major impact on our overall health,” says Cindy Fluekiger, assistant director of Food and Nutrition Services. “We’re recognizing this day so we can all think about how to become healthier by consuming more whole foods that are grown right here at home.”

For a list of farmers’ markets, family farms and other resources for locally grown food, visit localharvest.org.

Apple Crisp

Yield: 6 ¾-cup portions

Ingredients

6 cups Local Braeburn Apples

¾ cup Lite Brown Sugar

¾ cup Rolled Oats

1 tsp. Cinnamon

½ cup Cubed cold butter

½ cup flour

Heat Oven to 375

Peel and core apples, Dice into ½“ cubes

Place apples in 9x13 pan

Combine brown sugar, oats, flour and cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle sugar mixture over apples. Bake 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is golden brown. Serve warm

Per Serving: 252 calories; 15 grams fat; 156 mg. sodium; 29 gm. carb

Butternut Squash

Yield: 4 - 4 oz. servings

Ingredients:

1½ # Butternut squash

¼ cup Lite Brown Sugar

4 tbsp Butter

Dash pumpkin pie spice

Heat Oven to 350

Peel squash, then slice in half and take out seeds. Cut squash into ¾” cubes. Toss the squash with brown sugar and butter; sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice. Lay out on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Bake for 20 minutes. Stir.

Bake an additional 15 minutes or until squash is slightly caramelized abound the edges.

Per Serving: 164 calories; 15 grams fat; 154 mg. sodium; 8 gm carb

Roasted Rosemary Red Potatoes

Yield: 5 portions

Ingredients:

1½# Red “A” locally grown potatoes

2 ounces Pure Olive oil

¾ tsp Kosher Salt

½ tsp Ground Black Pepper

1 tbsp. Minced Garlic

2 tbsp. Minced French Rosemary

Preheat oven to 350

Wash the potatoes, cut in quarters

Toss potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary

Once well coated, spread on baking sheet

Roast for 1 hour. With spatula turn the potatoes twice during the roasting process

Make sure the potatoes are golden brown and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

Per serving: 207 calories, 11 grams fat, 297 mg. sodium, 25 gm. carb

Yankee Pot Roast

Yield: 10 portions

Ingredients:

¼ cup olive oil

3 # Top Round Roast

1/3 cup Flour

½ # Pearl Onions

¼ # Baby Carrots

¼ # Diced Celery

1 Tbsp. Chopped Garlic

3 All Spice Berries

1 cup Burgandy Wine

24 ounces Beef Broth

2 Tbsp. Cornstarch

3 Tbsp. Water

Heat the oil in a heavy, cast iron pot over medium heat. Dredge the roast in flour, shake off the excess, and brown in the hot oil on all sides. Stir in the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and allspice; cook until lightly browned. Pour in the red wine and bring to a simmer before pouring in the beef broth. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until the beef is tender, about 2 to 3 hours. When the meat has finished cooking, remove to a cutting board and allow to rest for 10 minutes. While beef is resting, thicken the cooking liquid with the cornstarch. Slice the beef and serve with the gravy.

Per Serving: 379 calories, 23 gm fat, 331mg. sodium, 9 gm. carb

It’s time to 'tune in' to annual CMN Hospitals Radiothon

2011-09-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

Listen to the 2011 Radiothon to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals at CoxHealth on Power 96.5, and be a part of making miracles happen on the medical mile.

The Power 96.5 team will broadcast live, play the area’s favorite music, and share stories and interviews with area families who have been helped by your generous donations to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

The event will air Thursday, Oct. 6, and Friday, Oct. 7, from 6 a.m. – 6 p.m.; and Saturday, Oct. 8, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals of CoxHealth is a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance for sick and injured children living in the Ozarks. All proceeds benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ projects such as the C.A.R.E. Mobile, purchase medical equipment, provide financial assistance to children’s families and more. CoxHealth underwrites all administrative expenses of the charity locally, so that every dollar raised stays in our community and helps children. For more information on Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or to donate, visit www.coxhealth.com/cmn.

Working to move patients safely

2011-09-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

John Schurke, environmental access specialist at Cox Home Support, and Mandy Young, clinical therapist educator in Educational Services, practice with one of the ceiling-mounted patient lifts that will be used during training. As part of the safe patient handling initiative, a number of ceiling lifts have been installed in patient rooms throughout Cox South and additional portable lifts that can help staff members move patients are now available. Home Support has long provided the devices for home use and leaders say having more lifts available in the hospital will reduce injuries for staff and be more comfortable for patients.

If there’s any doubt about how physically demanding providing care at the bedside can be, the national statistics make it clear: health care workers suffer more overexertion injuries than any other type of worker and they have, on average, 30 percent more lost work days due to injury than the general working population.

The biggest culprit leading to those injuries? Moving and transferring patients. Between assisting non-ambulatory patients and repositioning patients in their beds, a typical health care worker may lift a total of 1.8 tons during the course of an 8-hour shift. It’s a reality that has led CoxHealth to launch a safe patient handling initiative that kicks off this month, with education and the addition of several devices that will help make moving patients safer.

Norma Curry, director of Nursing, says the initiative is about changing the culture of how caregivers handle patients. The goal is to move away from manual lifting and toward the use of devices that are safer and more comfortable for both staff and patients.

“Current practice involves taking multiple staff members to the bedside to move or transfer a patient,” Curry says. “Too frequently, our staff members are being injured.”

Those injuries not only affect the individual staff members, they cost the organization in a number of ways, including time lost when employees must be off from work and the cost of providing medical care for injured employees. Nationally, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is recommending that hospitals minimize manual lifting of patients and eliminate lifting altogether where possible. Nine states have passed legislation mandating safe patient handling programs and Missouri is expected to follow later this year.

To make the situation safer for staff and patients, CoxHealth has added a number of ceiling-mounted lifts, mobile devices and slide sheets that will help move patients. Education on the new devices will begin later this month.

“This approach is safer and more comfortable for patients,” Curry says. “It’s more comfortable to put them in one of these lifts or use slide sheets rather than lifting them under their arms.”
When the project is complete, every adult critical care bed will be equipped with a ceiling lift and nursing units will have a minimum of one room with a lift installed. Some units, such as the eighth floor, will have more lifts based on the need.

Nurse Sandi Brown has also joined CoxHealth as safe patient handling coordinator, Brown has worked in nursing for 37 years and has an extensive rehabilitation background as well as experience working with caregivers on the importance of proper body mechanics, safe lifting and the best ways to move patients.

“When you look at the number of injuries we see, we simply have to change our practice habits,” Brown says. “About 12 percent of the nursing work force nationally is affected with back injuries, that’s high in an area with a shortage of nurses.”

Jolene Palmquist, director of work injury in Rehab, says many injuries caregivers experience are the result of repeated movements, rather than a single incident. That’s why it’s so important to shift the culture of how patients are moved daily with the addition of simple devices such as slide sheets that will reduce the effort needed to adjust patients in their beds.

Ultimately, leaders agree that the changes proposed in the initiative are simply the right thing to do, both for employees and for patients.

“We’ve invested in it with the idea of keeping patients and employees safe,” Palmquist says. “That will lead to staff and patient satisfaction. When people are looking at hospitals of choice, they’ll be glad to know that CoxHealth has prioritized the safe handling of patients.”

Cox College enrollment up 23 percent

2011-09-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

Student enrollment at Cox College has reached an all-time high, with 812 students enrolled during the fall semester. This is a 23 percent increase over the same semester last year, and an 84 percent increase over the fall semester in 2008.

“The numbers are up across both the nursing and health programs, with the most significant growth the in the Master of Science in nursing program,” says David Schoolfield, Cox College dean of enrollment management. “The demographics of our students are also changing as more students are seeking a second degree due to the economy.”

Cox College was founded in 1907. The college offers certificates in medical transcription, and medical billing and coding; Associate of Science degrees in radiography, medical assisting and nursing; a Bachelor of Science in nursing degree; a post-baccalaureate dietetic internship and a Master of Science in nursing degree.

Support drives healthy lifestyle changes

2011-09-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

Since the rollout of the Employee Health Initiative this past January, a team of experts at CoxHealth — from Food and Nutrition Services and Wellness to the fitness center and Healthy Partners — has been focused on providing the resources to help employees get healthy.

As they work toward their wellness goals, the Support Your Lifestyle Shift support group has given employees a place to share experiences and get motivated about staying healthy.

“Most people know what they need to do, it’s just a matter of doing it,” says dietitian Jenny Gardner, who runs the support group. “That’s why the support, motivation and accountability factors are so important.”

The group meets every other week on Tuesdays at 11:30 (September dates are the 6th and the 20th). The half-hour sessions let employees come during lunch. Gardner shares recipes and answers any questions participants may have. The group is a regular source of encouragement and accountability, which Gardner says are keys for anyone wanting to make a change.

“We really want to offer the service of helping people change their lifestyle,” she says.

The benefits of that service are apparent when you meet a few of the employees who are taking advantage of what the group has to offer. Below are two stories of how our co-workers are getting healthier with the help of resources here at work.

Diane Flammini
Communications

When Diane Flammini joined the Wellness program at Cox in 2010, she says she was inspired by an upcoming change in her life: she was going to be a grandmother.

“I thought, in the shape I’m in, I won’t be able to get in the floor and play with a child,” she says. “I wanted to get some of the weight off.”

She started exercising 5-6 days a week and she soon lost a few pounds and a few inches, but she quickly became frustrated with her progress. She met with dietitian David Dade, who recommended that she change the way she was eating. He worked with her on creating a 1,300 calorie-a-day diet, which Diane started in January of 2011. Since then, the combination of diet and exercise has helped her shed more than 35 pounds.

Diane says to make the change, she wanted to take advantage of all of the programs Cox has to offer. That’s why she started going to the Shift Your Lifestyle support group. The low-calorie recipes and shopping tips were helpful and Diane used the meetings as her regular weigh-ins.

“I’m one of those people who hate the scale, but it was good to see that weight loss each time. It‘s a reality check every couple of weeks,” she says. “The other people there talked about the difficulties they were having and I could relate. It became a real support group.”

In her diet, cutting out sugar has been a major key. She’s also switched to eating more frequent, smaller meals consisting of vegetables, fruits and lean meats like fish.

Sticking to the low-calorie diet was a challenge at first, but Diane says she learned about what kinds of foods could keep her feeling full without being high-calorie. Now she prepares her own food and rarely eats out, which makes it easier to manage her food intake

“The first two weeks were the hardest,” she says. “I was always hungry, especially after I exercised. David (Dade) suggested I have a glass of chocolate milk after a workout and that really helped.”

After the first few weeks, she stopped craving sweets and she was able to clear out her cabinets at home, removing cookies and chips and adding healthier options. Now she’s eating well and doing regular resistance training and cardio training at the Meyer Center.

She says anyone wanting to make a real lifestyle change will need to make those changes a priority and part of their regular schedule. That’s where benefits like the support group are helpful.

“Employees are crazy not to take advantage of programs like this,” she says. “These programs are there and we should take advantage of them, it’s been good for me.”

Cortney Freeman
Corporate Integrity

Over the last several months, Cortney Freeman says the wellness support and resources offered at Cox have helped her make health and fitness a central part of her lifestyle. If you need any evidence, check out her office in Corporate Integrity, where her desk chair is relegated to a corner while she balances at her desk on an exercise ball.

Freeman says she wanted to work on being healthier and when she saw the announcement about the Shift Your Lifestyle support group, she thought it could be a perfect fit.

“I wanted to take advantage of the free expertise,” she says. And that’s exactly what she did, attending every meeting since day one. “You have access to a trained dietitian provided by Cox. I’d be crazy not to take advantage of that.”

She started going to the support group and she rejoined the Wellness program. When she started seeing results, her husband, Brandon, joined in, which provided another boost to her efforts.

“That really made a difference, when you change your lifestyle, it’s not just your life here at Cox, it’s your whole life,” Freeman says.

And it’s important to note that the programs and the support group aren’t just about losing weight. “I’ve changed my lifestyle, I’m not on a diet, there’s no end date and the only goal is being a healthier person.”

Freeman and her husband have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, and keeping up with the two of them has been a major motivation for her change.

“I want to be in a healthier place to play with them and show them a healthy relationship with food. Weight loss is just an extra benefit.”

Working with Gardner has given her new ideas that have kept her diet and exercise programs fresh. In the past, she says she’s been bored with eating a limited number of dishes.

“They introduce new concepts and recipes and just having someone there to answer questions is great,” Freeman says. At home, Cortney and Brandon are also exploring new food options, beyond the meat and potatoes they had eaten in the past, adding in plantains, mangoes, grilled vegetables and turkey burgers. “My husband can almost admit that he likes turkey burgers as well as beef.”

She says spending time with her co-workers in the support group has helped her maintain the perspective and mindset needed to continue her success.

“When you surround yourself with people who have the same goals and are striving toward a healthy lifestyle, you can learn from them,” she says. “When you pass them in the hall, you know that they’re having the same struggle you’re having. You’re not alone.”

Now, the Freemans have worked exercise into their lifestyle. During the summer, if they go to the pool, they ride their bikes instead of driving. They’ll walk to the park or go on bike rides at the Nature Center instead of watching TV.

“My 3 year old will say, ‘I need to go for a walk around the neighborhood, I need my exercise,” Freeman says. “That’s a payoff, just being able to show her a healthy lifestyle.”

Steve Edwards named CoxHealth CEO

2011-09-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Steven D. Edwards, 45, will assume the position of president and chief executive officer of CoxHealth following the December 2011 retirement of Robert H. Bezanson, CoxHealth’s board of directors announced today. Edwards’ appointment is consistent with the Board’s succession plan.

Edwards, who joined CoxHealth in 1992, has served as CoxHealth’s executive vice president and chief operating officer since 2007. Previous positions with CoxHealth include vice president of clinical services, senior vice president of Regional Services and senior vice president and administrator of Cox Hospitals. Prior to joining CoxHealth, Edwards was assistant to the chief operating officer at Baylor University Medical Center and evening administrator at Barnes Hospital (BJC) in St. Louis.

“Steve has clearly demonstrated his integrity and leadership as part of the executive management team at CoxHealth,” said Larry W. Lipscomb, board chairman. “His compassion for our patients and commitment to the health of our community will provide the leadership and vision required for the future.”

Edwards attained his Bachelor of Science from Drury University, and his Masters of Health Administration from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He completed his post graduate fellowship at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

“Thousands of people before me have made CoxHealth their life’s work,” said Edwards. “I am determined to serve this tremendous heritage with every fiber of my being. There is no place on earth I would rather be than Springfield, Missouri, and no organization I would rather serve than CoxHealth. I am overcome with a sense of duty and humility.”

CoxHealth is a top 100 integrated health care system, six years running, and the only locally governed not-for-profit health care system based in Springfield, Missouri.

‘Magical’ event to raise funds for CMN Hospitals

2011-09-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

CoxHealth Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals will host a ‘magical’ black tie event to raise funds for the organization.

“Masquerade for Miracles” will feature dinner, beer from Mother’s Brewery, music, a silent auction, magic by Amberg Entertainment and featured entertainment the Jecobie Robert’s Comedy Hypnosis Show. Emceed by KY3’s Lisa Rose, the event will be held 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24, at The Veridian, 309 S. Ave., in Springfield.

Event tickets are $60 per person, $100 per couple or $500 for a table of ten. Tickets are limited and expected to sell quickly. For tickets and additional information, contact CoxHealth Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals at 269-6853. This event is sponsored in part by The Veridian, Liberty Bank, Reliable Imports and RV, Gracie’s Bridal, Scentsy and ViVo Modern Hair Design.

CoxHealth underwrites all administrative expenses of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals locally, so that every dollar raised stays in our community and helps children. For more information on Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or to donate, visit www.coxhealth.com/cmn or call 417/269-KIDS.

Learn healthy recipes at Cooking School

2011-09-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Many people want to eat more healthfully, but aren’t sure how to do it. Often, they’re afraid that healthy food will be tasteless and boring. But nothing could be further from the truth, and the nutrition experts at CoxHealth will prove it at the new CoxHealth Cooking School.

Held the second Tuesday of every month, CoxHealth Cooking School will feature seasonal, healthy recipes that you’ll learn how to prepare and be able to sample. Our dietitians can also answer your questions about healthy eating.

Upcoming topics include:

• Sept. 13: Go Greek – Get the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet.
• Oct. 11: Harvest Good Health – Learn recipes such as Butternut Squash and Pear Soup, Spicy Spaghetti with Ground Turkey, and Pumpkin Honey Parfait with Greek Yogurt.
• Nov. 8: Healthy Holiday Cooking – Watch our experts prepare Sweet Potato Pie, Cranberry Salad and Mushroom Alfredo Halibut.
• Dec. 13: Gifts from the Kitchen – Discover recipes for Honey Walnut Granola, Soup Mix, and Hot Cocoa or other drink mix.

The Cooking School will be held in the CoxHealth Diabetes Center classroom inside the CoxHealth Surgery Center, 960 E. Walnut Lawn, in Springfield. There is a $5 per person fee to attend. Call 269-INFO to register or for more information.

CEO Robert Bezanson announces retirement

2011-08-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

President and CEO Robert H. Bezanson will retire effective Dec. 31, 2011, Larry W. Lipscomb, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CoxHealth announced today.

“Bob has provided vision and firm leadership that has led the organization forward,” Lipscomb said. “Despite recent economically challenging times, CoxHealth is well-positioned for success now and in the future. He will be greatly missed. We wish him a healthful and joyful retirement.”

Lipscomb said the Board has asked Bezanson to serve as executive advisor to them and the new CEO for a period of time. His duties will include assistance with philanthropic efforts, support with operational continuity, and sharing his knowledge and contacts within the health care industry.

Bezanson has served as President and CEO of CoxHealth since Aug. 1, 2004. Prior to serving as CEO he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer since October 1995. Previous positions held at CoxHealth from 1981 to 1995 include Administrator of Cox South, Administrator of Shared Services, and Assistant Administrator.

Bezanson, 65, says he believes the timing is right for the transition. “The leadership is in place and can pick up the pace and not miss a step,” he said.

During his 30-year career at CoxHealth, Bezanson was involved in virtually every construction project for the health system on the Medical Mile. As President and CEO, Bezanson hosted CoxHealth’s centennial celebration in 2006, marking 100 years of service to the community. CoxHealth has been recognized as one of the nation’s Top 100 Integrated Health Networks by SDI (formerly Verispan) six times.

Most recently Bezanson oversaw $120 million in capital projects including the Meyer Orthopedic Center, CoxHealth Surgery Center and the state-of-the-art Cox South Emergency & Trauma Center. In 2010, CoxHealth was recognized as Developer of the Year by the Springfield Contractors Association, in part because the majority of these construction dollars were kept local and provided jobs at a time when the economy was faltering.

Bezanson also brought innovative technology to CoxHealth, including robotic surgery, the Toshiba 320 CT, and a new MD 902 Explorer helicopter.

Bezanson serves on the Boards of Missouri Hospital Association, VHA Mid-America, Mid-America Transplant and Springfield Innovation, Inc., and as an ex-officio Board member for Isabel’s House. He formerly served on the Boards of Springfield-Greene County Chapter of the American Cancer Society, United Way and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Executive Committee of the CoxHealth Board has appointed an Executive Search Committee that will determine the future leadership of the organization.

See the full story of Mr. Bezanson's career at CoxHealth here

Friday night lights = Friday Night Clinics

2011-08-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

CoxHealth and Ferrell-Duncan Clinic are again offering Friday Night Clinics to all area high school athletes with sports-related injuries, beginning Friday, Aug. 19 at 9 p.m. The clinics offer an alternative to crowded emergency rooms when care is needed for a non-emergent injury sustained during play.

The clinics will be held in The Bone and Joint Center, 3555 S. National, Suite 200, in Springfield. Each Friday Night Clinic team is led by an orthopedic surgeon and includes a nurse, certified athletic trainer, radiology tech and clerical staff. Minor radiology exams are also available on-site to assist the physician with patient evaluation.

Insurance claims will be filed. Coaches and athletic trainers can refer an athlete to the clinic by calling 417/269-7778. The final sports injury clinic of the season will be Thursday, Oct. 27. For more information about Friday Night Clinics, click here.

Volunteering offers a chance to give back

2011-08-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

Throughout CoxHealth, the work of being the best for those who need us is supported daily by a team of dedicated volunteers. With a constantly growing array of service options, Volunteer Services always has new opportunities for those who want to experience the personal satisfaction of being a volunteer. CoxHealth’s volunteers come from all walks of life, but they have at least one thing in common: a desire to give back to the community by supporting our patients and their families. Here are the stories of three familiar faces you may have seen making a difference around Cox South.

Susan Bryant
volunteer at the Cox South Gift Shop

When Susan Bryant left her job as a bank teller, she began looking for a part-time opportunity where she could remain active in the community. She saw an ad in a local paper seeking volunteers at the Cox South Gift Shop.

“I thought that would be perfect,” she says. That was five years ago; she’s been working in the gift shop ever since. “It’s been so nice; it’s just what I needed to fill in that spot.”

She says she likes the fast pace of the gift shop and the chance to interact with patient families.

“You meet all the people who are visiting patients and you get to feel like you’re a bright spot in their day,” Bryant says. “A lot of people just need someone to talk to and I enjoy being there for them.”

She says she had never really considered volunteering before she saw that original ad. Now, she recommends it to anyone who has a few hours a week to spare.

“The customers appreciate that you’re there and I really enjoy the people I volunteer with,” Bryant says. “It’s a great place to be, around caring, nice people who want to be there and who want to help.”

In addition to working in the gift shop, Bryant also serves on the Auxiliary Board.

“You’re doing something to help the community a little bit and that feels good,” she says. “We affect people’s lives just by being something positive.”

Jacquetta Lyman,
volunteer in Urgent Care

Jacquetta Lyman’s mother was a nurse for 20 years. But it wasn’t until her mother became ill with dementia and Jacquetta and her sister began taking care of her that Jacquetta decided she wanted to work in health care.

“When she first got sick, it was tough to accept,” Lyman says. “I had to really find the patience to take care of her. I would want somebody to treat me with the same dignity.”

After her mother passed away, Lyman went back to school to study to be a medical assistant. She completed her externship and now, as a new graduate, she’s volunteering in the Urgent Care at the Turner Center.

“The experience has been good,” she says. “I feel like I’m giving back to the community and I really enjoy that.”

She spends her mornings working at the front desk and helping patients into the facility. Recently, she’s also been assisting in the gift shop, where she enjoys being a shoulder for patient families to lean on.

“If I’m able to listen to someone’s problems when they come in and I can be someone they can talk to, that’s one of my favorite parts,” she says.

She’s planning to pursue certification as a medical assistant and eventually earn her master’s.

“I haven’t decided where I’ll specialize, I just know I want to work with patients,” she says. That’s a desire that is reinforced working with patients in the Urgent Care.

“Volunteering makes you feel good that you’re doing something to help somebody else,” she says. “I love what I do; it’s a wonderful thing.”

Brian DeSpain
volunteer in Pastoral Care and at Hulston Cancer Center

Brian DeSpain (seen above with patient Marian Walsh during his morning rounds) spent 28 years working in heavy maintenance for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway until a back injury ended his career a little more than 10 years ago. He left with disability, but he quickly got restless and needed something to do with his time. He checked into volunteering at Cox and found out about an opening in Pastoral Care.

“I feel like the Lord pointed me in this direction,” he says. “I had gone through a lot and I wanted to give something back.”

Over the last decade, he’s spent his volunteer days rounding with patients throughout the hospital. He asks if they need anything from Pastoral Care, such as a message passed on to their church or a meeting with a chaplain. Often, though, he simply offers a warm greeting and a willing ear for those who need it.

“The patients are so glad we come to see them,” he says. “They always thank us for what we do.”

He says he enjoys the people he works with and he’s constantly thankful for the relationships he’s developed while volunteering.

“Everyone I work with is so friendly,” he says. “If you have the chance to give of your time, this is a wonderful place to do that.”

When he’s not seeing 60-90 patients a day with Pastoral Care, DeSpain can often be found at the lobby desk in Hulston Cancer Center, where his wife, Sandra, works in Radiation Oncology. He greets patients, helps with wheelchairs and does everything he can to make people feel welcome.

“I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping people,” he says. “I always give the patients and visitors a big smile. That’s an important thing, just to be friendly and show them that you care.”

Want to help?

Do you know someone who would make a good volunteer? To learn more about opportunities to make an impact in the community by volunteering at CoxHealth, call 269-4169, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.

Daisy awards recognize compassionate care

2011-08-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

Three nurses at Cox South were recently honored with Daisy Awards, which recognize outstanding nursing care. Nurses receiving the award are:

Sharon Bibler, CREW critical care

Sharon was nominated by Frank Marsh (above) who joined her for her award presentation. Mr. Marsh’s father had been hospitalized several times over the course of a year, the final time in Critical Care at Cox South. From the nomination:

“From the minute Sharon came on duty we felt like she was a part of our family. She talked to us and explained everything she did. At that point, dad was pretty much in a coma-like state, but she talked to him like he could understand her. She would tell him what she was doing, like rolling him over or adjusting his pillows. Sharon treated us as if dad was her only patient.

“After dad passed, Sharon gave us all the time in the world we needed to say our goodbyes. She even came to each one of us and gave us a hug to let us know she cared. … The way Sharon handled the situation was not only professional, she made us feel like it was personal – like she was a good friend of our family. We appreciate her efforts tremendously. Sharon was the best part of that very trying time and we are very thankful she was there to help us through this process.”

Rachael Powell, Pediatrics

Rachael (center above, with with chief nursing officer Karen Kramer and nurse manager Lorinda Rehagen) was nominated by a co-worker for the extra care she provides to children on the unit. From the nomination:

“Every time we have one of our chronic kids she always does a special thing for them – she finds out what they like to eat, has it delivered and pays for it out of her own pocket, and then takes her lunch in and eats with them! These kids always look forward to this special day with Rachael. Some of our chronic kids don’t have much and the time Rachael spends with them makes them feel special.”

Aaron Daulton, 300 West

Aaron (with Karen Kramer above) was nominated by a co-worker after hearing from a patient’s family about the care he provided during a CAT Team call. From the nomination:

“Aaron had been working with this particular patient and family all day – they had a difficult decision to make determining code status. The patient was 90 years old but still very alert and not wanting to give up on life yet. Aaron spoke very compassionately with both the patient and family to help them with their difficult decision. In the end, the patient and family both agreed for her to be intubated.

Aaron was waiting for a critical care bed while she continued to decline. Aaron called for the CAT Team and the patient was subsequently intubated in the room. Aaron stayed by her side, holding her hand. He was a great comfort to the family and they wanted to make sure this fact was passed along.”

About the award

DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. The Foundation was formed in January 2000, by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died at age 33 of complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). The only positive thing Pat’s family experienced during his eight-week illness was the skillful and compassionate care he received from his nurses - even when he was totally sedated. So they created The DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses to recognize the super-human work nurses do every day all over the country. More information can be found here.

Cox HealthPlans recognized for excellence

2011-07-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

Cox HealthPlans recently received the 2011 Organizational Excellence Award, presented by The TriZetto Group, an international provider of health care software and IT platforms.

TriZetto’s claims system is the backbone of Cox HealthPlans’ business operations. The system is used to organize information on providers and customers as well as to manage payments and the claims process. Each year, TriZetto recognizes organizations that are pursuing integrated health care and making outstanding use of the claims system.

In the last year, Cox HealthPlans has achieved an average 99.5 percent procedural accuracy rate and a 99.9 percent financial accuracy rate on its claims. Those numbers reflect how well the system has been implemented and managed by the staff at Cox HealthPlans.

“This award speaks to the financial accuracy of claims and to our ability to keep costs low,” says Cox HealthPlans CEO Jeff Bond (shown above with TriZetto CEO Trace Devanny). “For the people we insure, it demonstrates a high degree of accuracy in how we process claims.”

This year, Cox HealthPlans edged out runners-up Blue Cross of Louisiana and Blue Cross of New York to win the award.

Sewing talent pays off for seamstress

2011-07-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

Working in Linen Services at Cox South, Larissa Gibson is used to seeing torn scrubs and frayed edges on room curtains. She saw linen carts coming through the department that had zippers torn or broken and cart covers that needed to be replaced. And she saw an opportunity.

She’s been sewing since she was 15, when she spent a summer visiting her grandmother. Gibson picked up the skill quickly, learning her grandmother’s tricks as they made clothes and slipcovers for her couches. Her grandmother bought her a sewing machine and she started practicing on her own.

It’s easy to see how a woman who made her own prom dress and her own wedding dress would look at a worn cart cover and think: “I bet I could fix that.”

That’s what she told linen manager Patty Scott and Environmental Services director Ronnie Lightfoot about several of the items that were coming through the department. They saw the opportunity as well. Over the last year and a half, the skill Gibson learned from her grandmother has been helping CoxHealth save money and get more out of the resources we already have.

“I was amazed that I had somebody with that skill in my department,” Scott says. Gibson fixed a few hems on blankets and curtains and before long people were bringing her items to repair. “Ronnie and I just decided we need to get her a sewing machine!”

Scott and Lightfoot set up a sewing station in Linen Services and worked with HR to create a job description and a pay scale to make Gibson an official in-house seamstress. Over the last year, the work has expanded and Gibson has devoted many of her shifts in Linen Services to sewing.

In the past, a scrub top with a torn pocket would have become a rag and Cox would spend $13 to get a new scrub top. Gibson is now able to repair those items and get them back in service.
She’s reupholstering stools used in surgery and she’s creating custom covers for arm pads in the operating room.

“If the cushion covers get a pinhole in them, the OR can’t use them,” Gibson says. “But the padding is still good – instead of throwing them out, we can just replace the covers.”
Recovering the pads can be done quickly and it eliminates the need to replace the pads entirely at a cost of $300-$400 apiece.

Her work is also creating efficiencies for staff working on patient floors. The cubicle curtains in patient rooms come in a few different sizes, but the tags would frequently come off, making it hard to tell what size a folded curtain is. Gibson has fixed that by color coding the stitching at the curtain’s edge – when it’s time to replace a red-stitched curtain, simply grab another red one and it’s a perfect fit.

She’s also been able to alter curtains and reattach the netting that can become torn at the top.

“When you have a cubicle curtain that might cost $500 and you can alter it or repair it instead of buying new, that’s huge,” Scott says. “If you have to send something out to be repaired, it can cost $100-$150. Larissa can stitch those back up in 20 minutes.”

The work continues to pour in as more departments find out about Gibson’s talents and Scott and Lightfoot say it shows no sign of slowing down.

“Larissa has a fabulous skill set and a gift,” Lightfoot says. “Last year we saved between $50,000 and $60,000 just by having Larissa use her skills to do repairs.”

Gibson says she couldn’t be happier that the hobby she picked up from her grandma is paying off in her daily work.

“My grandmother is really proud,” she says with a laugh. “She’s one of those people who can do anything: she sews, she was a florist, she does carpentry, she does it all. I try to be a lot like her. She was a great person to learn from.”

CoxHealth expert applauds new mammography recommendations

2011-07-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

Joanne Schahuber, director of the CoxHealth Breast Care Clinic, fully agrees with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommendation that all women with an average risk of breast cancer should be offered annual screening mammograms at age 40.

“This new recommendation from the ACOG agrees with the long-standing guidelines from the American Cancer Society (ACS), which we have always endorsed,” she says. “Research has proven that early detection of breast cancer through mammography saves lives.”
In 2009, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommended that women seek mammograms every other year beginning at age 50, upending the existing ACS guidelines. This recommendation raised concerns in the mammography community and caused significant confusion among women.

“We quickly noticed in our clinic that a significant number of women over the age of 40 were not scheduling their annual follow-up mammograms. When contacted, these women provided the task force recommendations as their reason,” Schahuber says.

While happy the ACOG has come out in support of the ACS guidelines, Schahuber remains concerned that many women are confused about when to begin annual mammograms.

“Women need to begin annual mammograms at age 40, sooner if they have certain risk factors. We are concerned that ten years from now, we’ll see more women with breast cancer that could have been caught earlier, had they not delayed their mammograms.”

Night out supports Good Samaritan Fund

2011-07-21T08:05:00.000-07:00

Join CoxHealth at Zan the Club, 311 S. Patton Ave., for the Women’s Red Hot Night event 6 – 8:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 4.

Sit back, relax with your friends and enjoy a wine tasting, food, massages, manicures, hair design, a take-home gift, complimentary valet parking and much more.

Event proceeds will benefit the CoxHealth Foundation Good Samaritan Fund, which helps the uninsured and underinsured pay their medical bills. Every month more than 100 applications for assistance from this fund are received, yet only 30-40 people are able to be helped. Events like this bolster the fund, and help the Foundation help more people in the Ozarks.

There is a $35 per person fee. For more information or to reserve your seat, call 269-7037 or visit www.coxhealthfoundation.com.

Lorenzo Williams Charity Weekend kicks off

2011-07-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

The Lorenzo Williams & Friends Charity Weekend got under way today with a golf tournament at the Millwood Golf & Racquet Club. The charity weekend features several current and former Missouri Tigers currently playing in the NFL; proceeds benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. A youth football camp is also planned for Saturday.

Williams (shown above with his mother) and several of the players will also take part in an autograph event benefiting CMH Hospitals on Saturday night. The event will be held 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 9, at Big Whiskey’s American Bar & Grill at 311 Park Central East in downtown Springfield.

Several former Missouri Tigers currently playing in the NFL are scheduled to be in attendance. They include: Jeremy Maclin (Philadelphia Eagles), Blaine Gabbert (Jacksonville Jaguars), Brad Smith (New York Jets), Sean Weatherspoon (Atlanta Falcons), Aldon Smith (San Francisco 49ers), Martin Rucker (Dallas Cowboys), William Moore (Atlanta Falcons), Danario Alexander (St. Louis Rams), Chase Daniel (New Orleans Saints), Atyyiah Ellison (New England Patriots), CJ Mosely (Jacksonville Jaguars) and others.

Admission to the autograph session is $25 per person. Or, take advantage of the Big Whiskey’s Special for $10 per person with a Big Whiskey’s food/drink receipt dated June 24-July 7, 2011 (minimum $10 receipt). Each paid admission allows for up to two individual items autographed (no limit to number of autographs per item; player appearances subject to change without notice).

In Joplin tornado's wake: Hope rises

2011-07-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

On the Thursday after the Joplin tornado, CoxHealth Connection editor Randy Berger visited the city to report on CoxHealth’s role in the recovery efforts. While the devastation is overwhelming — EMT Chris Lecompte examines the damage near St. John’s (top) — it’s outweighed by the spirit of hope we’ve seen in Joplin. Below is Berger's column from the July issue of CoxHealth Connection, along with images from photographers Russ Weller and Heather Van Gelder:

Everything you would say when faced with a disaster like the tornado that struck Joplin on May 22 falls short when you’re standing in a debris field that used to be a neighborhood. “Unbelievable.” “Otherworldly.” “There are no words.”

All those expressions are trite, but accurate.

When I arrived in Joplin along with Pre-Hospital’s Pat Brown and Mike Dawson, the city was entering its fourth day of search and rescue. Dawson was planning to check in with CoxHealth ambulance crews that had been providing coverage non-stop in the storm’s wake. Brown, a Joplin native, had volunteered to take us on a tour of the devastation in her hometown. Media Technology’s Russ Weller and Heather Van Gelder were gathering video and still images and I, with a notebook and pen, was planning to find words to convey the indescribable.

As we pull into Joplin, parts of Range Line Road near I-44 appear normal, with the exception of rescue vehicles and road signs twisted into abstract sculptures. Turning into a neighborhood on 20th Street, everything changes. West of Range Line, the reference points for what life was like before 5:35 that Sunday afternoon are few: a home with a single wall surrounded by splintered debris, a closet – dress shirts and polos hanging neatly inside – standing alone on a foundation.

As we get closer to the center of the tornado’s path, there are no signs of what had been houses, only unrecognizable debris, all the way to the horizon. On that Thursday morning, only two things remained vertical in the disaster area: tree trunks, minus all limbs and bark, and people – Joplin residents, rescue workers and volunteers taking the first steps toward rebuilding. With so much destroyed, the people from Joplin and the surrounding areas who converged on the disaster zone to help stand out in stark relief.

Over the next few hours, we had the chance to see many people who embody the spirit that will drive Joplin’s recovery. You see it in first responders, law enforcement and National Guard troops working the streets. You see it in the volunteers doing cleanup, barbecuing food and handing out water on street corners.

And you see it in the humbly recounted stories of CoxHealth employees who were on the scene that night and have played an ongoing role in the weeks since. To them, they were just doing their jobs, but their work in the first few days was the leading edge of a tide of recovery efforts and community support that is now even larger than an EF5 tornado.

By now, we all have personal stories about where we were on the evening of May 22. Emergency Department director John Archer had just returned to Springfield from a 2,800-mile motorcycle ride. He had heard a storm was coming, but he didn’t realize how bad things were until he got a call from assistant ED director Crystal White. She had seen that St. John’s in Joplin had been struck by a tornado and was on her way in to work.

White prepared the ED for an onslaught of patients while Archer worked with Dr. John Duff, senior vice president of hospital services, to set up Incident Command. By 7:30 p.m., ED staff had been called and were on standby; many staff members had already come in, anticipating the worst.

“We were doing the best we could to get all of our patients out of the department, either admitted or discharged,” White says. “Everyone was working to get that done. The entire hospital worked unbelievably well that night, from Med-Surg and ICUs to EVS and Central Supply.”

The department also identified nine nurses, six techs and three ED physicians who were dispatched to Joplin with two vehicles full of supplies. Ham radio operators arrived in the command center in the South ED, allowing for some of the earliest contact with first responders in Joplin.

It wasn’t until 2 a.m. that the first patients arrived in the ED and the horror of what had happened became obvious. The department received multiple trauma victims, people who had been trapped under walls and patients who had been impaled by flying debris.

“We deal with trauma every day, but nothing like this,” White says. Many of the ED staff were in tears from the stories they were hearing. Nursing home residents explained how they had been trapped in rubble, a young mother had taken cover at home only to have her two small children ripped out of her arms, a man who had covered his wife with his own body in Walmart to protect her awoke to learn that he had survived, but she had not.

“He was having a lot of trouble understanding that,” White says. “All night, the chaplains and social services helped us tremendously, not only with patients but with our staff as they coped with this tragedy.”

Throughout the evening, Pre-Hospital crews were seeing that tragedy unfold before them in Joplin. Paramedic Jason Blum and his partner, EMT Stacie Mountain, were on one of the first ambulances to arrive. They bypassed the main damage path as they came into Joplin, but signs of destruction were apparent everywhere.

“It looked like a war zone. Shell-shocked people were standing around on the sidewalks, just watching this convoy of ambulances roll in,” Blum says.

After stopping at an EMS staging area, the pair arrived at Memorial Hall. On the way, they passed several pickup trucks loaded with injured patients and the bodies of storm victims.

“The main triage area at Memorial Hall was like walking into a movie,” Mountain says. “Bloodied people were walking around, more people were being carried in. It was overwhelming.”

Mountain and Blum say that for the size of the disaster, the response was surprisingly well organized. Hundreds of patients had arrived at Memorial Hall, but hundreds of health care workers were also on the scene, ready to help.

By 10 p.m., Pre-Hospital had 15 CoxHealth ambulances in Joplin helping transport patients.

“Our immediate mission was trying to move patients out of Joplin,” says Mike Dawson, EMS operations manager. “This was a massive effort for EMS. On a regular Sunday, 15 ambulances cover four of our regular response areas. To deploy 15 ambulances in 3 or 4 hours is a remarkable thing.”

For the first two days, EMS crews continued to transport patients to relieve first-aid and triage stations as well as Freeman Hospital, which was undamaged but overrun with patients.

By day four, Cox EMS crews were working out of a temporary staging area at Freeman, where they were responding to local emergency calls. As we pulled up to the hospital with Brown and Dawson on Thursday morning, a Freeman nurse came up to our vehicle and thanked the pair for the help CoxHealth EMS was providing – “You guys have been great,” she said. Dawson and Brown say they’d been fortunate to hear that sentiment quite a bit recently.

“The Cox EMS people have been really talked about in this area,” Dawson says. “We’ve had a phenomenal outpouring of bravery and tireless work that our people have put in to make this possible.”

All across Joplin, health care workers were putting in extra work to make sure that those who needed care could still receive it, even as almost a third of the city lay in ruin. After making our stop at Freeman, we went up Range Line to Joplin’s north side, where we found the staff of Oxford HealthCare operating out of the lobby of Destiny Church.

Carl Wilson, a regional director at Oxford HealthCare in Joplin, had been at his home near Webb City on Sunday evening when the tornado struck. After the storm passed, he drove into Joplin to check on the Oxford headquarters, which was near St. John’s Hospital. The facility was destroyed. Oxford’s emergency backup location was at St. Mary’s Catholic Church – seen in the photo above – where all that remains standing is the cross.

As he drove near the scene only an hour after the tornado, Wilson says he was struck both by the devastation and the early signs of human resilience.

“It was pure mayhem on one hand, but then you had people out there doing whatever they could to help another person,” he says.

An Oxford employee was a member at Destiny Church and the pastor offered the building as a temporary office space. By 8 a.m. Monday, Oxford was up and running in the church lobby. Since phone lines were down, staff members worked to comb the neighborhoods, frequently on foot, tracking down clients.

Oxford president Karen Thomas told us that by Wednesday, staff members had made contact with all of their nearly 2,000 clients in the Joplin area.

“Our staff has been dedicated,” Thomas says. “The devastation has been emotionally draining, but they’ve jumped in and they did whatever they needed to do to meet people’s needs.”

On that Thursday morning, you could look east from the now-iconic shell of St. John’s Hospital and see people working to meet the needs of their neighbors in a field of twisted rubble. Looking at the debris, the phrase that comes to mind is “nothing looks like anything.” Without Joplin resident Pat Brown (above) to tell us about what kinds of homes and businesses had existed there just four days earlier, it would have been impossible to imagine.

Brown also shared some important perspective. She lived in Pierce City when an F3 tornado flattened the town in 2003, and she’s seen that town rebound. She reminded us that while the devastation right now is overwhelming, it will be overcome in time.

Even as we were talking on day four, you could already see the first signs of rebirth: Amid the stubble of twisted tree trunks, a crew was raising the first wall of a new building, festooned with an American flag. Near Main Street, someone had scrawled in black spray paint on a newly exposed living-room wall: “Down but NOT out.”

“This is a tragic, tragic thing and everybody here has their own story,” Brown says. On Sunday evening, she had been at work when the storm hit. Working in EMS, she says she’s developed the ability to keep some emotional distance during a crisis.

“We have compassion for our patients, but we have to turn off the emotional side of things a bit,” she says. “We have to be able to separate ourselves to do what’s expected of us.”

That was especially difficult on Sunday night, as Brown came in to do her job as a regional manager for EMS, while hoping her own family was safe in a basement in Joplin.

“This is my hometown; it was emotional when I turned on the TV and saw St. John’s,” she says. “I saw open fields that I knew weren’t open fields before. And I couldn’t get a hold of my family.”

As she scrambled to get ambulance crews together, off-duty staffers started calling, telling her they were on their way in. Her family was fine and out of the storm’s path, but in those first few hours, it was the support of her co-workers that let her do such an important job in a time of crisis.

The worst of times focused everyone on the task at hand. In the weeks since, that kind of focus has persisted on a community-wide scale in Joplin and southwest Missouri. In the months ahead as we help our neighbors rebuild, we should find ourselves inspired and driven by the spirit of teamwork and community that our CoxHealth family showed in those dark first days.

“That night, I thought, ‘I have the best team in the world,’” Brown says. “I had crews who came in and helped – they let me do my job and they helped me do my job. I’m so proud of them; they’re good people.”

How to help

A team from Joplin has launched a website that is a comprehensive resource for people affected by the storm and for those who wish to help. It can be found at RebuildJoplin.org.

Meet NFL players, help local kids

2011-06-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

An upcoming autograph session with the NFL's Lorenzo Williams (seen above with his family in the Pediatrics unit at Cox South) will benefit Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. The event is part of the third annual Lorenzo Williams and Friends Charity Weekend, which includes a benefit golf tournament and a football camp.

This autograph event will be held 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 9, at Big Whiskey’s American Bar & Grill at 311 Park Central East in downtown Springfield.

Several former Missouri Tigers currently playing in the NFL are scheduled to be in attendance. They include: Jeremy Maclin (Philadelphia Eagles), Blaine Gabbert (Jacksonville Jaguars), Brad Smith (New York Jets), Sean Weatherspoon (Atlanta Falcons), Aldon Smith (San Francisco 49ers), Martin Rucker (Dallas Cowboys), William Moore (Atlanta Falcons), Danario Alexander (St. Louis Rams), Chase Daniel (New Orleans Saints), Atyyiah Ellison (New England Patriots), CJ Mosely (Jacksonville Jaguars) and others.

Admission to the autograph session is $25 per person. Or, take advantage of the Big Whiskey’s Special for $10 per person with a Big Whiskey’s food/drink receipt dated June 24-July 7, 2011 (minimum $10 receipt). Each paid admission allows for up to two individual items autographed (no limit to number of autographs per item).

For more information, contact Kelly Anderson at 417/269-1830 or Brian Cheever at 417/861-2860. All proceeds will benefit CoxHealth Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. (Player appearances subject to change without notice.)

More information can be found here.

Physicians win Docs vs. Nurses softball game

2011-06-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

The physicians' team at CoxHealth was victorious in the second annual Doctors vs. Nurses softball game held Sunday night at Killian Softball Complex in Springfield.

The doctors won by a score of 7-5, making next year's game a tie-breaker in the series.

The annual community event raises money for the Nursing Practice & Excellence Fund managed by the CoxHealth Foundation. The fund assists nurses with professional growth activities that are not covered by tuition reimbursement (such as conferences, reference books, journal subscriptions, etc). When the Fund reaches $10,000.00, plans include awarding scholarships for nursing.

Messages of support for Joplin

2011-06-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

On a recent post on our internal blog, we asked CoxHealth staff members to share their thoughts and messages of support for the Joplin community after the May 22 tornado. We received an incredible response and many of the messages will appear in the summer edition of HealthSense magazine. We wanted to include a few more here and encourage all of our readers to share their own thoughts on the CoxHealth Facebook page.

“Please know there are many praying and thinking of you all! Missourians are tough - but when you feel weak there will always be those to lean on. God says in his word to lean and trust in him. Proverbs 3:5-6: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path.’ God Bless!” — Michelle

“I just want to say you all are my heroes who have stood strong and made it through the storm. You are all amazing; my thoughts and prayers are with you.” — Jodi

“Just know words cannot express what our hearts feel for you and your situation. Just know many people are trying to care for you now when you are hurting the most through donations of time, money and prayers. We will keep helping until you have recovered. There are those of us far away who are caring for your injured. Try to stay positive and find simple joys each day. You will recover. With love and prayers for you and your community.” — Elena

“My thoughts and prayers are with as you go through this very hard time. May God grant you comfort, patience and wisdom in the days ahead.” — Joyce

“Joplin is one of the best places in the world. Although I only lived in Joplin for four years, I could feel the closeness and bond that the people of the community have. People in Joplin will do anything for you. … I have had much faith in our fellow human beings by the outpouring of help, love, and support for the area. It is truly amazing to see people from all over the country going to help our neighbors in Joplin.” — Jennell

“‘If you are going through hell, keep going.’" — Churchill. It’s one of my favorite quotes and it describes what Joplin is faced with right now. Please know across Missouri we will be holding you up in our hearts. I hope you find all the support you need as you work through this terrible challenge and rebuild.” — Carla

“I was so impressed with what I saw when I went to Joplin last Saturday. I expected to see misery and sorrow but what I saw was multitudes of people who gathered together to help their fellow man. Hundreds of people providing comfort and support to the Joplin people by cutting trees and carrying limbs to the curb. They were there helping people sorting through what was left of their lives. There were people driving around passing out food and cold water to the workers as well as the Joplin citizens. There were many food stations on corners cooking food and handing on sodas and water to anyone there. God was truly there in the faces and the attitude of all that I spoke with. Joplin, you will survive in the face of this tragedy as I only saw strength in all that you were going through.” — Pam

Fifth Clinic at Walmart to open June 13

2011-06-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Walmart and CoxHealth today announced the Ozarks’ newest location of “The Clinic at Walmart” operated by CoxHealth. This convenient care clinic will open Monday, June 13, inside the Walmart located at 2825 N. Kansas Expressway in Springfield.

The clinic will provide convenient, affordable access to basic health care services seven days a week, with no appointment necessary. The walk-in health clinic is the fifth owned and operated by CoxHealth in a Walmart. The clinic will be open for walk-in care Monday through Saturday 10 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

For busy customers who need care, especially after working hours or on weekends, the clinic will treat common health ailments and offer routine services. These include acne, bladder infections, blood sugar testing, camp and school physicals, cholesterol screening, common vaccinations, earaches, flu, insect bites and stings, minor wounds, sinus infections, upper respiratory infections, wart removal and more.

“We know that seven-day-a-week walk-in clinics fill a community need for convenient and affordable care. That’s why we’re working with Walmart to expand access to that kind of quality care for all residents in our area,” said David Taylor, vice president of CoxHealth Regional Services.

“Walmart is dedicated to serving our customers and our communities, and this type of clinic helps expand their access to quality health care,” said Bruce Shepard, Walmart’s director of healthcare innovations. “CoxHealth is a highly respected health care provider with experience operating walk-in clinics in our stores, so we know this will serve our customers well.”

For further information about “The Clinic at Walmart”, please visit www.walmart.com/clinics. For more information about CoxHealth, please visit www.coxhealth.com.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Telethon raises $1.4 million for area children

2011-06-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

The 26th annual Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Telethon raised $1,403,000 to benefit local sick and injured children thanks to the outpouring of generosity from people in the community, despite difficult financial times.

“We could not have asked for a better event,” says Heather Zoromski, director of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals at CoxHealth. “We could not continue to help families across the Ozarks without the donors, sponsors, volunteers and help from CoxHealth.”

Zoromski acknowledged the generosity of a few sponsors including the following: Sensory Integrations, Downhome Productions, Re/Max, Great Southern, Credit Unions for Kids, Price Cutter Charity Championship, CoxHealth, MSU Dance Bear-A-Thon, Mason’s, Dairy Queen, Kum & Go, KY3 and Walmart.

KY3 televised the event live beginning June 4 and ending at 5 p.m., Sunday, June 5, making it possible for the children’s charity to share “Miracle Kid” stories with the communities served by CMN Hospitals and CoxHealth.

About CMN Hospitals: Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals of CoxHealth is a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to sick and injured children in the Ozarks. CoxHealth underwrites all administrative expenses of the charity locally, so that every dollar raised stays in our community and helps children. For more information on Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or to donate, visit www.coxhealth.com/cmn.

'Miracle Kids' take part in Medical Mile

2011-06-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

This year’s Medical Mile was a special event for two local kids who have been a part of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals family for much of their young lives.

Danielle Roeder, 12, and 7-year-old Blake Shanks both participated in the event, something that would have seemed impossible only a few years ago.

Danielle (center, in pink above) had been in a wheelchair, diagnosed with L-Dopa Responsive Dystonia. Doctors were hoping she might walk again someday, but there were no guarantees. With medication, a hip surgery and years of physical therapy, Danielle can now walk and run.

Despite battling the flu Saturday morning, she was determined to press on alongside her dad, Greg, several friends from school and many of her dad’s co-workers from the Springfield Police Department.

“I’m excited — it’s my first race,” she says. “Without CMN I probably wouldn’t be here.”

On Saturday, Blake Shanks made a return appearance in the event, running with his parents and younger sister.

“He’s been here year after year running the mile with a smile on his face,” his mom, Amanda, says.

When Blake was born, doctors thought a heart defect would prevent him from ever playing sports. As he’s grown and received medical care, he has turned into a budding athlete, playing basketball and baseball.

“He has defeated all the odds and he surprises his doctors every time we see them,” Amanda says.

For both families, support from CMN Hospitals has been key – helping with bills, travel expenses and serving as a local resource the young families could turn to.

“They’ve helped us with so much, it’s important for us to give back,” Danielle’s mom, Suzanne, says. “They do such great work for kids.”

“You never think you’ll need help from a charity,” Amanda says. “Now the staff at CMN are an extended family to all of us. We’re good friends with everyone who works there; I love all of them.”

Employee donations benefit Oxford HealthCare's Joplin staff

2011-05-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the generosity of CoxHealth employees the CoxHealth Foundation sent personalized care packages to 15 Oxford HealthCare employees who lost their homes in the Joplin tornado.

The Joplin office of Oxford HealthCare was destroyed but employees have set up temporary offices in a local church. They've pulled together to check on their patients and they have been able to make contact with all of their clients over the last few days.

At the Foundation office, tubs were labeled with each person’s name and then filled with personal hygiene items, baby items as needed, toys and books for the children, clothing, trash bags and other necessities. Also sent were new towels, blankets, and pillows.

“All these donations came pouring in with one email to our employees about their fellow co-workers in need, we are so fortunate to have such caring people here at CoxHealth,” says Lisa Alexander, president, CoxHealth Foundation.

Teamwork is key in Joplin tornado effort

2011-05-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

In this week’s installment of his weekly blog for CoxHealth staff, Dr. John Duff, senior vice president of hospital services, talks about the early response efforts following the Joplin tornado. Given the wide impact of Sunday’s disaster, we wanted to share his thoughts with you:

"This week the nation is focused on the devastation in the Joplin community. The tornado resulted in a historic loss of life, injuries and destruction to their town. The stories of personal hardship and tragedy that are now emerging are truly heartbreaking. Our region and state have responded to the needs in Joplin with an outpouring of support, assistance and resources.

CoxHealth has joined in the response and our staff members have been a major part of the effort. Sunday evening preparation began in anticipation of the injured patients and transfer of patients from the seriously damaged St. John’s (Joplin) hospital. Many staffers gladly worked additional shifts and longer hours. Our physicians provided treatment for the injured and ill patients brought to the Emergency Department. They also were of great assistance opening up critical care and unit beds as rapidly as possible to make room for the Joplin patients.

Our new Emergency Department and Incident Command Center provided the space and resources necessary to support the staff and physicians as they went about their work. The years of careful planning and attention to detail in the Emergency Department paid off during this disaster. Everyone who played a role in the development of this space should be proud.

Many of our staff members have felt personal loss and challenges as a result of the tornado. I’ve heard about worries over family and friends who may be unaccounted for or who are injured. At least six Cox employees have had total losses of their homes.

Donations are being accepted in their honor through the Cox Family Assistance Fund. The Oxford Joplin office was totally destroyed. The Oxford staff is working out of a church in order to continue to provide care to their patients, some of whom have not yet been located.

Disasters bring out generosity in people. As early as Sunday night, physicians, nurses and EMTs, at the request of Missouri Hospital Association, were dispatched to the Joplin area and assisted with the immediate response. CoxHealth has provided needed medical supplies, ambulances, staff and clinical services to the surrounding area. At this time, the Joplin medical community is adequately staffed by the St. John’s (Joplin) displaced workers as well as individuals from the Kansas City area. Our Nursing Administration Office is currently managing a list of clinical staff at CoxHealth who would be willing to assist in Joplin or elsewhere should the need arise.

The CoxHealth Foundation is coordinating employees’ donations of personal supplies for Joplin residents. We know the needs won’t end soon. As the immediate crisis ends, cleanup and rebuilding will begin and assistance from all of us will be just as valuable as it already has been.

We are blessed to have caring, compassionate and talented people at CoxHealth and in our community. I’d like to thank all who have helped for their response to this disaster. Remember to keep the Joplin community in your thoughts as they recover and rebuild."

CoxHealth responds to Joplin tornado

2011-05-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

Following the tornado in Joplin, CoxHealth has received approximately 100 patients, and patients continue to report to our Emergency Department.

Our top priority is opening hospital beds to care for tornado victims. We’re asking people with loved ones in the hospital who are ready to be discharged to make transportation arrangements as soon as possible.

For storm victims who are being discharged from the hospital and do not have a place to go, we are working to arrange transportation to the Red Cross shelter at Missouri Southern State University.

If you need to check on a loved one who is a patient at CoxHealth, please call 417-269-3211.

In the early response to the disaster, CoxHealth dispatched five EMS crews, three ER physicians and nine ER nurses as well as ER and operating room supplies to the Joplin area. Staff members continue to volunteer to assist both in Joplin and in Springfield hospitals.

More updates will be released as additional information becomes available.

Sign up now for diabetes charity golf tournament

2011-05-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

Spots are still available for the CoxHealth Auxiliary’s D-Day Fore Diabetes charity golf tournament. The registration deadline is May 31.

The tournament will be held Monday, June 6, beginning at 8 a.m., at Millwood Country Club, 3700 East Millwood Drive, in Ozark.

Proceeds from the two-person scramble, shotgun-start event will benefit the CoxHealth Diabetes Center. The center offers diabetes education, support groups, weight loss classes and more to people in the Ozarks living with this disease.

The $90 per person registration fee includes green fees, cart and a meal. Prizes will be paid to the top three finishing teams, with first place payout at $500, second place at $300 and third place at $200. Prize payout is based on 20 teams per flight. Call 269-4169 for more information or to sign up.

Each year, the Missouri Association of Hospital Auxiliaries commits to a cause selected by the organization’s president. The current president has selected diabetes as the cause hospital auxiliaries around the state will work to support.

Sponsorship opportunities are also available. All donors will be recognized. For more information about sponsorship opportunities or to register for the tournament, call the CoxHealth Volunteer Services office at 269-4169.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals annual telethon to be held June 4-5

2011-05-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

For more than 25 years, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals of CoxHealth has financially supported sick and injured Ozarks’ children and their families by helping with medically related travel expenses, medical equipment purchases and much more.

The 2011 CMN Hospitals Telethon is the public’s chance to become a part of the miracle. The telethon will air live on KY3 10:30 p.m. – Midnight, Saturday, June 4, and 8 am. – 5 p.m., Sunday, June 5. The broadcast, live from Cox South in Springfield, will feature the stories of many local children who have been helped by the charity. Last year, the telethon raised $1,374,521 despite the difficult financial times.

“We could not have asked for a better event,” said Heather Zoromski, director of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, of the 2010 telethon. “We could not continue to help families across the Ozarks without the donors, sponsors, volunteers and help from CoxHealth,” she says.

Sign up now to run Medical Mile

2011-05-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Registration is now open for the annual CoxHealth Medical Mile and 5K Run/Walk. This year marks the 20th anniversary for the event, and all participants will receive a special commemorative medal and T-shirt in celebration. The event will be held at 7 a.m., Saturday, June 4, rain or shine.

All proceeds from the race benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals of CoxHealth. The charity helps sick and injured Ozarks’ children and their families with medically related travel expenses, medical equipment purchases and much more.

Participants can choose to compete in the Medical Mile or 5K Run/Walk, walk for fun in the Mile Madness event, or take part in all three events. The morning’s activities will also include an award ceremony with KY3’s Ned Reynolds; a Kids Carnival area with inflatables and refreshments; tours of the C.A.R.E. Mobile; visits with Pet Therapy of the Ozarks; fun with Louie, The Springfield Cardinals mascot; and more.

Pre-registration is available now at any CoxHealth Fitness Centers location or you can register online at coxhealth.com. Participants can pick up their packets in Conference Room A at The Meyer Center, 3545 S. National, from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m., Friday, June 3.

Race day registration and packet pick up is available for limited times. Please see http://www.coxhealth.com/body.cfm?id=4510 or call 269-3282 for more information on race day registration, entry fees and more.

Air Care pilot receives national honors for service

2011-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Cox Air Care pilot Steve Allen was recently presented with three awards that recognize his career in aviation and his expertise in aviation safety.

Allen retired from the Army National Guard in January, having served a total of 37 years in active duty and the reserves. He’s been an Air Care pilot for the last two years and he previously flew with Air Care when the department had a helicopter stationed in Branson.

At this year’s National Guard Aviation Safety Conference, held in March at Lake of the Ozarks, Allen received:

The Gary B. Hayes Award for Aviation Safety – An annual honor presented by the National Guard that recognizes significant contributions to National Guard aviation.

Order of St. Michael – A peer-nominated award presented by the Army Aviation Association of America that recognizes significant contributions to Army aviation.

Army Legion of Merit – One of the highest non-combat medals a service member can receive. The medal recognizes exceptional conduct and lifetime achievement.

Allen says he gravitated toward specializing in aviation safety after doing “just about every aviation job in the Army.” He served as an assault helicopter pilot, a maintenance officer and a heavy-lift cargo pilot, among other things.

“I always wanted to be the guy looking out for the troops and getting the job done without anyone getting hurt,” he says.

He earned a master’s in aviation safety and began flying medical helicopters in the years after his active-duty service.

“There’s really nothing you can do with a helicopter that’s more satisfying than picking someone up who needs a trip to the hospital.”

Nursing students get global perspective

2011-05-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

Global citizenship. Cultural diversity. High-impact experiences. These are ideas that have become cornerstones of traditional higher education in the United States, as colleges and universities work through study abroad programs to prepare their students for life in what has increasingly become a “smaller” world.

But for many nursing students, that cultural aspect of their education has been more difficult to come by. While most nursing colleges have long offered elective cultural diversity courses that typically include a week or two spent abroad, it is very rare for a nursing school to offer a true overseas clinical experience as part of the regular curriculum. Thanks to a new collaboration with Mercy Hospital in Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), India, Cox College is one of only a handful of nursing colleges in the United States that now does.

Dr. Anne Brett, president of Cox College, says the school has been looking for an opportunity to expose students to true cultural diversity for some time.

“We currently send students to Haiti with a mission group as part of a cultural diversity class,” she says. “They go for two weeks and do great things, but it’s not a nursing course. We wanted to do more.”

That “more” will begin in February 2012, when a group of 10 Cox College students and one faculty member will travel to Kolkata for a six-week clinical rotation as part of a semester-long course on community health. While at Mercy Hospital, the students will observe the care provided throughout the facility – the 173-bed hospital has a critical care unit, an OR, a full-service obstetrics program and more.

Students will also visit other facilities in India, including Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying. They’ll also travel to several clinics outside Kolkata operated by Mercy staff, where the students will be able to perform primary care assessments. They will keep up with their classmates through online learning and Cox College discussion boards, sharing their Kolkata experience with those still in Springfield.

“We may only have 10 students in Kolkata, but all 40 students in the class will benefit from what they’re learning,” says Dr. Tricia Wagner, dean of nursing.

The relationship with Mercy Hospital developed from Cox College’s ties to Evangel University. Dr. Mike Tenneson, an Evangel professor who serves as academic advisor to Evangel’s pre-nursing students, traveled to Kolkata last year to do mission work. While there he spent time at Mercy Hospital and, knowing that Cox College was interested in developing an international study program, he floated the possibility to leadership at Mercy.

Mercy was interested, and arrangements were made for a hospital representative to visit with Cox College leadership while stateside. After that visit, and after a lot of emailing back and forth about the logistics, Dr. Brett says it started to look like the program was going to get off the ground.

“That’s when I said to Tricia, ‘If we’re going to do this we need to go look at it. Because I need to not only see it but feel it, so I know as an administrator and as a parent that I would be comfortable sending our students there,’” says Brett.

In March, Brett, along with Wagner and Tenneson, traveled to Mercy Hospital to make an in-person assessment of the facility. The group spent time in the hospital and visited some of the Mercy clinics and the Mercy nursing school. While they were struck by the differences between Kolkata and Springfield, the group came away satisfied that Cox College students could not only successfully complete their clinical education, but that they might be able to share some of their knowledge with Indian health care providers, particularly the nursing students.

“There are a lot of opportunities to really make this a collaborative experience,” Brett says.

While there, students will also help with Mercy’s feeding program, which provides meals to 25,000 of India’s poor every day. They will be able to live in a hostel about a block away from the hospital. College leaders hope these experiences help the students not only refine their nursing skills, but give them a better sense of how health care is practiced around the world.

“We are so cutting edge at Cox that seeing robotic surgery and labor and delivery suites is normal to us,” says Wagner. “When you see nurses working without gloves and removing their shoes to work in critical care units you get a whole different view of how health care is practiced elsewhere.”

Now that the agreement is in place, the college is busily putting the final pieces of the course together. Brett expects the first two weeks, which will occur before these final-year nursing students go overseas, to be heavily loaded with cultural information.

“We want these students to have an understanding of the Indian people and their culture before they go,” she says.

The cost to students will be approximately $2,500, in addition to their regular tuition and fees. That will cover their transportation, visa, room and board, and any medications they may need, such as those that prevent malaria and typhoid. If that cost is added as a section fee for the class, Dr. Brett says students may be able to use financial aid to help offset the cost.

The college will spend the same amount to send a faculty member with the group. That faculty member will teach the Cox College students in India as well as an online course, maintaining a regular full workload.
The college is planning to hold an orientation session in the fall before students register for classes, so that those who are interested in the India experience can learn more. But it won’t be a first-come, first-served opportunity. Interested students will also go through an interview process to see if they are the right fit for the program.

“Six weeks is a long time to be out of your culture,” says Brett. “We need to ask these students what their objectives are, why they want to go and what their travel experience is. We need to make sure we have the right group.”

A lot is hinging on that first group’s experiences. If they’re successful, Cox College may eventually send two groups a year to Mercy Hospital, and radiography students may be able to do rotations at Mercy’s clinics. In time, Brett says Cox College may be able to really affect nursing care in India through their online master’s in nursing program. Indian nursing students could take the online courses and then complete their in-person training when the Cox College faculty member is in Kolkata for the clinical rotation.

But more than anything, both Brett and Wagner believe this experience will arm students with the knowledge they need to succeed.

Says Wagner: “We are educating nurses at Cox College who will make a difference in a wide variety of places. We want to give them the tools to broaden their horizons and dream big.”

Recipes make healthy eating easy

2011-04-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

CoxHealth's cafeterias offer a variety of healthy options throughout the day, including those marked as "Best Bites." Here are a couple of recipes for popular Best Bite dishes you can make at home:

Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Sauce

Ingredients: (8 servings)

1/4 cup Sun-dried tomatoes

12 oz Pasta, your choice

4 cloves Garlic, minced

1-2 tsp Olive Oil

1 cup Spinach

3 oz Feta cheese, crumbled

Ground pepper to taste

1. Soak sun-dried tomatoes in hot water for 30 minutes; drain. Slice into thin strips.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions.

3. Sauté garlic in oil over medium-low heat 2-3 minutes.

4. Add black pepper and tomatoes; toss.

5. Add spinach; toss and heat through.

6. Toss with pasta; garnish with feta cheese.

Nutritionals

Calories: 228

Fat: 6 grams

Sodium: 172 mg

Citrus Salmon

Ingredients: (8 servings)

1 cup Orange Juice

1/2 cup Lime Juice

6 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced

1 tsp Olive Oil

1/3 cup Cilantro, finely chopped (optional)

2-2.5 lbs Salmon Fillets

Kosher Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

In a shallow glass or ceramic bowl, whisk together the orange and lime juice, and garlic. Add the olive oil, whisking until blended. Stir in the 1/3 cup cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper. Lay the salmon in the bowl and carefully turn to marinade. Cover and let the salmon marinate for 30-60 minutes at room temperature, turning the fish once. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until flaky but moist. Serve the salmon with a teaspoon of the marinade drizzled over the top and garnish with cilantro.

Nutritionals

Calories: 180

Fat: 7 grams

Sodium: 110 mg

Nurses honored with Daisy award

2011-04-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

Four CoxHealth nurses recently received the organization's second round of Daisy Awards. The Daisy Awards recognize outstanding nursing care. Nurses receiving the award are:

Janna Woodall, CREW

Woodall was nominated by a member of a patient’s family for support she provided to the family during a patient’s final days. From the nomination: “The compassion (Janna) showed was so meaningful. She answered all the questions we had and I could sense that she genuinely cared. Because I could sense her compassion, when she would put her hand on my shoulder while passing by it was like a true healing touch that comforted me and I appreciate that.”

Chandra Graham and Heather Coulter, Adult Psych II (pictured with chief nursing officer Karen Kramer)

Graham and Coulter were nominated by staff members on the unit after they successfully guided the unit through a period of transition. From the nomination: “They have gone above and beyond any job description to contribute the very best they have to offer for CoxHealth’s Adult Psychiatry units. They do it compassionately, exceptionally and thoroughly. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to succeed individually, or offer our patients the best care that we all strive to provide.”

Latoya Compton, ED South

Compton was nominated by a family member of a patient she cared for in the ER. From the nomination: “Latoya was kind, upbeat and compassionate with just the initial greeting. She was empathetic and genuinely concerned. ... She went above and beyond her job duties as she ensured my husband’s pain level was tolerable before he was discharged.”

A few Best Bite recipes

2011-04-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here at CoxHealth, our dietitians create a variety of healthy options that are offered in the cafeteria as "Best Bite" entrees. Once a week, they share a cooking demo on an entree and share the recipes with anyone who'd like to prepare them at home. Here are recipes from the meal prepared at the latest Best Bite class:

Simple Steamed Green Beans

Ingredients: (4 servings)

1 1/2 pound Fresh or Frozen Green Beans

(about 1 inch long)

2 Tbs Butter or margarine

1 tsp Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Pepper

Directions:

Prepare fresh green beans by snapping them or cutting them to approx 1 inch long in length and rinsing them.

Over a pot of boiling water, steam beans for 15-20 minutes (until just tender with a little “bite” to them; Remove steamed beans and turn into a serving bowl.

Add all of the rest of the ingredients, seasoning to taste.

Nutritionals:

Calories: 113

Protein: 3 grams

Fat: 7 grams

Carbs: 0 grams

Sodium: 69 mg

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Fiber: 0 grams

Hawaiian Pork Chops

Ingredients: (4 servings)

4 (1/2 inch Lean Pork Loin Chops

thick)

1 (8 oz) can Pineapple slices in own juice

2 Green onions, diced

2 Tbs Brown sugar

1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg

Directions:

Drain and reserve juice from canned pineapple. Place pork chops in baking dish that is lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Mix 3 tablespoons of the reserved pineapple juice with brown sugar and nutmeg. Spoon half of the mixture over the pork chops. Top with pineapple slices and diced green onion. Spoon remaining mixture over pineapple. Cover and bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Uncover and bake 20 minutes longer, spoon sauce over chops occasionally.

Nutritionals

Calories: 306

Protein: 38 grams

Fat: 10 grams

Carbs: 13 grams

Sodium: 79 mg

Cholesterol: 94 mg

Fiber: .5 grams

Perfect Long-Grain Brown Rice

Ingredients: (4 servings)

1 cup Long-grain brown rice

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

2 cups Water

Directions:

In a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, combine rice, 2 cups water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Stir once, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 50 minutes. (Do not lift lid or stir!) Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes; fluff with a fork and serve.

Nutritionals

Calories: 109

Protein: 3 grams

Fat: .88 grams

Carbs: 22.5 grams

Sodium: 5 mg

Cholesterol: 0 mg

Fiber: 2 grams

Remembering Neil Wortley

2011-03-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

Neil Wortley, former administrator and one of CoxHealth's best ambassadors, passed away Monday morning at his home at the age of 89. Our prayers and thoughts are with his family and many friends.

Mr. Wortley had a rich history with CoxHealth. He became administrator of Cox Medical Centers in 1952 and, with the exception of eight years with the Missouri Department of Health, held that position until his semi-retirement in 1985. Under his guidance the medical center grew from a 496-bed hospital in 1965 to a regional health center that included 510-bed Cox South. In his later years, he served Cox as administrator emeritus and focused on fundraising to support hospital services and patients.

Mr. Wortley is likely best remembered by his Cox “family” for his hospital rounds. Holiday rounds were often celebrated with a festive costume ranging from bunny ears at Easter to flashing lights at Christmas time. He loved Cox and the employees and spread his good will generously with us all.

Memorial Services will be held at 1 p.m., Saturday, April 2, in First and Calvary Presbyterian Church, under the direction of Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday in the funeral home.

Mr. Wortley: A Living Legacy
CoxHealth Connection, May 2006

During CoxHealth's 2006 centennial celebration, then-Corporate Communications director Chris Whitley wrote this profile of Neil Wortley. This piece covers Mr. Wortley’s long history with the organization while capturing the spirit that made him a CoxHealth legend. We wanted to share it again with everyone who had the pleasure of working with Mr. Wortley.

It’s a good life these days, being Neil Wortley.

You’re still an early riser, though perhaps not as early as when you ran Cox Hospitals and would make rounds at all hours — weekdays, weekends and holidays alike. These days, you have the luxury of going back to bed after breakfast if you want, so sometimes that’s exactly what you do — but only now and then.

There is too much going on in your world to miss.

At 84 years old, you are more alive than plenty of people half your age. Three times a week, you drive yourself to the Meyer Fitness Center, where you pump iron and break sweat, not just as exercise for the body and mind, but as an act of stubborn defiance against time.

You still fit into the same old Burge School of Nursing sweat suit that you wore three decades ago. Okay, you admit, it’s “a little tight” in a place or two, but it makes you chuckle when you realize it’s older than most of the youngsters zipping around you on the running track.

You still crack jokes with folks wherever you go around town.

And yes, you devil, you are still stealing hugs and kisses from pretty girls of all ages. Nobody but you could get away with this.

Best of all, people genuinely love and respect you for who you are, and for all you’ve done to help build CoxHealth into what it is, even though so many of these folks are too young to have a clue about all that you did over four decades as administrative assistant, administrator and CEO.

It’s a safe bet that few people know you grew up in the little town of Lake Odessa, Michigan, where you return each year for your class reunion, or that you earned the nickname “Digger” because of a youthful apprenticeship at your Uncle Walter’s furniture store and funeral parlor.

No one would be all that surprised to learn that you were drawn to a career as a mortician because, as you say, “that’s a profession that allows you to really serve people when they really need you.”

That’s so you, the serving of other people.

Even when it’s not entirely a voluntary act, as it was in 1942 when the draft marched you off to basic training at Camp Robinson in Little Rock, Ark., and then to a surgical technician’s job at O’Reilly Army Medical Hospital in Springfield.

The Army Medical Corps brought you to Springfield, and O’Reilly brought profound changes to your life. How could anyone not be changed, working in a place where the daily mission was to patch up the lives of young men who had come home in pieces from World War II? You were so good at it that you eventually became a trainer of medics.

Your hospital career had begun.

Coming to O’Reilly changed your world in a bigger way. A blind date with Mary Orr, a doctor’s daughter from Ash Grove, led you to the altar. Actually, it led to your sister-in-law’s house, where on a three-day pass from the Army, you and Mary married. You remember every bit of that day, right down to the fried chicken you ate that evening at Riverside Inn.

Mary, herself a nurse, would be your devoted partner and confidante for the next 44 years, until she passed in 1989. She had been with you that Sunday afternoon in 1947 when you were flipping through one of her Dad’s old AMA Journals, and you stopped to notice a CAREER OPPORTUNITY advertisement that said a hospital administrator could make as much as $12,000 a year.

“Wow,” you thought to yourself. “This could be it for me.”

How right you were.

Living in a $25-a-month garage apartment at 662 ½ Hampton Street, with eldest son Neil Christopher barely a toddler, daughter Carolyn Bahaja still in her crib and little David Calvin not yet a twinkle in your eye, you enrolled at Southwest Missouri State College. In 1950, after three short years of studying business administration, and thanks to summer classes, Mary’s patience and the GI Bill, you emerged with a bachelor’s degree.

From there you went directly to the hospital administration program at Washington University in St. Louis, which returned you to Springfield for an internship at Burge Hospital in 1951.

Burge was a bustling place at the time, and a perfect learning laboratory for a bright young administrative resident. By 1949, a philanthropic force of nature by the name of Lester Edmund Cox had taken control of the hospital. The place had only 90 beds when you landed. But because of Mr. Cox, a renaissance was underway, and you found yourself squarely in the middle of the action. At least for a while, you did.

In May 1956 — half a century ago — you answered a call to work for the Missouri Department of Health and Welfare in Jefferson City. Nursing home regulations were new to the Show-Me State, and it became your job to apply them. You also were in charge of Missouri’s involvement with the federal Hill-Burton Act, a magnificent boon for community hospitals like Burge because it provided cash grants that allowed them to expand. For nine years, your hand with Hill-Burton helped grow hospitals all over the state.

That fact was not lost on Lester E. Cox. One of his friends, radio magnate Ralph Foster, who knew you from his service with the state’s hospital advisory board, called you one day with a dinner invitation. So you and Mary drove down to Springfield, and along with attorneys Wally Walter and John K. Hulston, you ate and talked. Mr. Cox, a direct man, made it known that he wanted you to “come back home and make the floors shine.”

You brazenly told him that you’d accept his offer to return as administrator of Burge-Protestant Hospital, but on one condition: Charlie Edwards, who was working at Bothwell Memorial Hospital in Sedalia, had to come with you.

Mr. Cox said yes, and you said OK, and on August 1, 1965, you came back to Springfield as administrator of Burge-Protestant.

Brilliant as he was, not even Mr. Cox could have possibly known what a deal he’d made. There was Charlie, a serious, sedate, almost shy sort of fellow who focused on the ledgers, the fiscal nuts and bolts of running a hospital. And there you were, outgoing, gregarious, a people pusher to Charlie’s pencil pusher, the right brain to his left.

Together you were dynamite. That’s what folks who were around then still say about the two of you. You and Charlie came to a hospital that Mr. Cox had brought back from the brink of closing in the 1940s, and together you really made the place hum.

These were the 1960s, the Space Age was in full throttle, and our nation’s technology race against the Russians almost seemed mirrored here at home in a smaller way, as you strove to make Burge-Protestant the better hospital in town with the newest innovations, the best equipment, the most modern facilities, the first with this and that. From then, and on into the 1970s, you helped bring in cobalt treatments for cancer, you pioneered the concept of a mobile coronary care unit, and you launched the Baby Buggy—a mobile intensive care nursery for infants. Even after Mr. Cox passed away in 1968, and the hospital was named in his honor the following year, you and his son, Lester L. Cox, kept forging ahead with ambitious plans.

For all the serious time you put into your work, you never hesitated to make things fun. How many of your peers ever put on bunny ears, or a referee’s outfit, or a lepruchaun’s costume, or, for crying out loud, fishnet panty hose, as goofy ways to boost morale around the hospital? Don’t deny it. You could be a real fruitcake at times, if that’s what you thought was needed to give the troops a lift.

Speaking of crazy, it really makes you smile, knowing what a nut some folks thought you were back in the late ‘70s when you said Cox should build a women’s and children’s hospital in Hester Gibson’s corn field, way out south of town. But see, Cox South worked out fine, right through a change order that added floors to the initial design and turned it into a full-service hospital that’s now about to celebrate its 21st anniversary.

The same year Cox South opened, you retired. On June 28, 1985, you handed over the keys to Charlie Edwards, who became executive administrator, and you became administrator emeritus, which you continue to define by your behavior as meaning “one who still makes rounds because he still cares deeply about this place.”

There are far more places on campus to make rounds today than there were when you stopped making them for a paycheck. Places proudly bearing the names of your benevolent friends — Hulston, Martin, Meyer, Turner, Wheeler. All around CoxHealth, there are still plenty of familiar names on ID tags, too, including that of Steve Edwards, Charlie’s son, who runs South, and who freely admits he’d be a fool not to listen when you drop by his office as you do, with your observations and suggestions.

Yes sir, you are still running this hospital in your head, although you freely admit that you would not trade the joys of retirement for the headaches of managed care and physician relations and inadequate Medicaid reimbursements and, oh, let’s not get into them all.

CoxHealth is in very good hands today, you declare. The men and women who run the place have a smart view of the future, as far as you’re concerned. The Cox Medical Park project that will replace Cox North in a few more years is a good example of that.

Still, you confess that when the bulldozers start to push against the old hospital walls, it’s going to be a bittersweet day. You invested so much of your life there. Your youngest son was born there. You’re only halfway joking when you say you’d like to buy North and keep it going, if only you could win Powerball first.

Proudly, you point out that Springfield is already Luckytown, having CoxHealth as its largest and only locally-governed health care system.

But you’re beyond modest about the role you played in making it so.

“We had outstanding leadership from our board, we had hundreds of great staff, doctors, nurses, technicians, cafeteria people, maintenance folks, food service folks, you name it,” you say. “They’re the ones who made the hospital what it was, and that’s still true.

“I was just fortunate to have a little part in it, myself.”

Home Support, HPS unveil new facility

2011-03-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

CoxHealth Home Support and Home Parenteral Services unveiled their new location in Springfield during a public open house on Tuesday evening.

Visitors and guests toured the facility at 2240 W. Sunset, which houses both Home Support and HPS.

The new two-story building includes a showroom, additional patient consultation rooms and a significantly larger warehouse for the supplies and devices the two groups provide to patients.

Home Parenteral Services provides in-home services such as home infusion, total parenteral nutrition (TPN), enteral nutrition and ostomy supplies. Their staff includes includes pharmacists, registered pharmacy technicians, registered nurses and case managers who are specialists in oncology, parenteral and enteral therapy.

CoxHealth Home Support offers a full line of medical equipment and supplies for patients who need such things as lift chairs, walkers or mobile oxygen therapy systems.

The new facility offers more showroom space for Home Support supplies such as CPAP masks and support frames for patient beds.

Visitors tour the HPS pharmacy as staff members prepare supplies for home infusion and total parenteral nutrition.

The new facility features a large warehouse that will reduce ordering and allow more supplies to be in stock when patients need them. The facility also includes space for future expansion.

Caring for kids beyond medicine

2011-03-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Above: Four-year-old Abigail Phillips tries out a pulse oximeter like the one she’ll wear in surgery during one of Child Life’s Pre-Op Parties. Child life specialist Ashley Norman led Abigail and her parents, Katie and Justin, through what they could expect on the day of surgery. Katie was even able to join Abigail during the OR setup process through CoxHealth’s Family Surgery program.

A few days before her tonsillectomy, 4-year-old Abigail Phillips came to the Pediatrics unit at Cox South for a party that was a bit outside of the typical pre-school social scene. The toys and refreshments were there, but they were paired with an in-depth look at what will happen on the day of her surgery.

On a Thursday evening, Abigail and her parents, Justin and Katie Phillips of Springfield, came to one of the weekly pre-operative parties presented by the staff of CoxHealth’s Child Life department. The events are designed to offer education and help reassure young patients and their families before their procedures. Child life specialist Ashley Norman walked the trio through the surgery process, demonstrating the surgical attire and equipment and taking the whole family on a tour of the operating room.

Abigail and her parents were able to ask questions and see first-hand how the process would work. Katie even planned to don one of Surgery’s “bunny suits” and join Abigail in the operating room as she awaited anesthesia.

Not many hospitals offer that kind of behind-the-scenes access, but it’s possible at CoxHealth because of the work done by the Child Life department. Several child life specialists work with children throughout the hospital in a variety of areas, from pre-surgery education to providing support for patients and their families on the Pediatrics unit.

This month, Child Life is celebrating 20 years of service at CoxHealth. Now, as the field of child life is growing nationally, the department is looking toward the future and seeing an increasing number of young patients.

“Parents may not be seeking services until kids are really sick, so we’re finding ourselves working with more families who have kids in critical situations,” says Rana Post, Child Life coordinator. Over the last 20 years, length-of-stay times have also dropped, meaning that Child Life staffers work with more families than ever before. Post says that increased volume is also raising the profile of Child Life, a great thing for a department whose work is widespread, but not always understood.

“There’s more awareness now, when staff members see a child come into a waiting room, they’ll pick up the phone and call us,” Post says. “They know we’re here to help, not just with pediatric patients, but with any children who come into contact with the hospital system.”

The department’s role

Post has worked in the department for 13 years and she says she regularly encounters co-workers who are unclear on what, exactly, she and her staff do. It happens frequently enough that she jokes about having a sort of five-minute “elevator in-service” speech to sum it all up.

“It can be hard to put it into a nutshell, but basically we offer the psychosocial aspect of health care,” Post says. “We’re seeing what things we can provide for patients and their families that are going to get them through their medical situation.”

Explanations are occasionally required since one of the ways Child Life staff members are most frequently seen is visiting patient rooms with toys and games for children.

“People say we’re the fun ones or the play ladies,” child life specialist Amanda Eddington says. “But there’s a lot more substance to what we do.”

Behind the high-visibility toys, Eddington, Post, Norman and the Child Life team spend their days educating kids and families, helping parents who are coping with a child’s illness and supporting medical staff who are providing care to children.

“Of course, we are also very fun,” Post adds with a grin.

On a typical day, the team begins with patients scheduled for surgery at Cox South, Meyer Orthopedic Center and CoxHealth Surgery Center. They do the final preparation for parents and they facilitate coping for children – anything that’s needed to make the experience as smooth as possible.

“That’s what our role always goes back to: How do I get this individual child through this particular experience and have the best outcome?” Post says. “Is it through supporting staff? Are the parents upset and do they need support? Does the child need a distraction?”
After the surgery preparation, they round on the patients in Pediatrics. They meet with patients and families and assess how the kids are doing and what their goals should be to help them get home as quickly as possible.

Post says a lot of Child Life’s work with patients involves helping children comply with doctors’ orders. For example, patients may need to consume a certain amount of fluids and getting a child to do that can require some creativity. Post recently helped a 3-year-old boy get all of his fluids by making snow cones, with him crushing the ice and choosing his flavors.

“We try to allow children some control,” Post says. “We can offer options, but it’s ultimately up to them to eat or take medication – we offer support to make the process as smooth as possible.”

The support Child Life offers also extends to parents and hospital staff.

“We may touch base with these families three, four or 10 times per day, to see how they’re doing and see what they need,” Eddington says. Child Life staff members serve as an advocate for parents, listening to concerns and offering suggestions. They also support medical staff as they care for children, helping kids stay calm by providing interaction or a distraction.

“We’re always working on how we can best assist a patient or a family,” Eddington says. “Sometimes we’re working with the patient, sometimes the family and sometimes we’re supporting the staff. Sometimes it’s all three.”

A leader in the field

It’s rare for a general hospital to have a dedicated child life staff and in CoxHealth’s case it’s made possible through funding from Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Through CMN Hospitals’ support, the department is staffed 77 hours per week and is available to patients 12-14 hours a day. That kind of presence is key to one of the department’s main goals: providing service that goes beyond what one might expect from a children’s unit in a community hospital.

“We really pride ourselves on doing cutting-edge things; the types of things that metro children’s hospitals do,” Post says.

In fact, there are several areas in which CoxHealth’s Child Life department is leading the way in services for children.

When Abigail Phillips went into the OR for her tonsillectomy, her mom was able to come along through Child Life’s Family Surgery Program. The program allows one parent or support person to be present in the OR with their child until they are calm or asleep for their surgery.

It’s an idea that many hospitals are just now coming around to, but the program at Cox has been in place for 15 years.

“We were doing that earlier than a lot of hospitals and we’re seeing more hospitals now who are wanting to do something similar,” Post says. “They’re using our charting, our programming and our education to build their programs.”

In recent years, Post has done presentations about the program in front of national audiences, including at Mayo Clinic.

“When we go to conferences, we find that other hospitals are asking about that program. They want to know about our policies and how we educate our families,” Eddington says. “It’s really cool to be able to have the Family Surgery Program here.”

In addition to sharing their work at conferences, Post and Eddington keep track of what other professionals are doing through the Child Life Council’s online forum, a worldwide network of specialists that tracks issues in the field.

Eddington says the forum is key to problem solving and finding solutions for patients. She recently spoke with a specialist in Florida about a new technique that uses a medication to numb the area before an IV stick. While the medication has never been used at CoxHealth, in Florida it has been successful in emergency rooms. Eddington is currently working with a representative to trial the medication on the seventh floor.

“That’s a big part of our jobs, advocating for children and one of the easiest ways is pain management,” Eddington says.

“We look at family-centered care and the overarching trends so we can address them here,” Post says. “We want to see what’s working in other places and bring it here.”

Technology’s evolving role

Post says that in her 13 years with the department, she’s seen a variety of changes, ranging from the acuity of pediatric patients to the need for more staff and family support. By far, though, the biggest changes have been in technology, on both the clinical side and in Child Life itself.

Educational materials for a variety of medical procedures have to be updated more frequently than ever and the Internet is changing the way specialists reach out to patients. With more patients traveling to Springfield from outlying areas, and more pre-admission interviews being conducted by phone, child life specialists are relying on an online tour created with help from Marketing and Planning. The online presentation covers much of the same information as the live class, presented in an easy-to-understand format that helps orient patients prior to their surgery.

Funding from CMN Hospitals has helped the department add computers and the latest video games on the Pediatrics floor and Eddington says a grant may soon allow the addition of another technology that’s becoming popular with patients: the iPad.

The device’s portability and versatility are proving to be effective in other hospital settings around the country. Post says there are apps that can distract kids during a procedure – helping them hold still during a test, for example – as well as apps that can illustrate procedures with video that will supplement the in-person education Child Life already offers.

“When a child is going for their first CT scan, for example, we can do preparation with photos and videos and then with the same iPad they can play games or look at something distracting to help them hold still for the test,” Eddington says. “The iPad has been very successful out in the field and there are some exciting possibilities with it.”

No matter what technology brings, though, child life leaders say it will only be a more advanced supplement to the basics of what child life specialists offer. They point to one wall in the Child Life office, lined with bins that are filled to the brim with those brightly colored toys that they’re so often seen with.

“Those are our distraction bins; those toys are like our tools, our armor,” Post says. “It’s all about doing anything we need to do to support children. We can talk to kids on their level and put them at ease, which ultimately supports them in getting better and getting to go home.”

Golfers: sharpen your skills at free clinic

2011-03-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

There are still a few spaces left for CoxHealth’s free golf clinic 8 a.m. – noon, Saturday, March 12. The event will cover chipping, driving, putting, irons and how fitness affects your game.

Attendees will also learn techniques to help prevent injuries, and learn how to increase their flexibility to improve their game. A physician, physical therapist and athletic trainer will present at this clinic.

This free clinic will be held in conference rooms B and C at the CoxHealth Meyer Center, 3545 S. National. To register, call 269-9898 or visit www.coxhealth.com.

CoxHealth nurse presents at national conference

2011-03-07T08:19:00.000-08:00

CoxHealth nurse Kim Cash, BSN, RN, delivered the presentation “Creating an Innovative Care Delivery Model” at the Professional Practice Models Conference held at Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, Texas last month.

Cash is a nurse manager at Cox South. Her presentation featured the goals, approach and development of the nursing practice model in use at CoxHealth. Cash highlighted how the model is used to align nursing practice throughout a large, integrated health system.

Free workshop helps you gear up for spring cycling season

2011-03-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

Experienced cyclists and those who would like to get started can attend the CoxHealth Fitness Centers Bike Maintenance Workshop from 6 – 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 9.

This free, two-hour seminar will include an overall presentation and then allow for hands-on training in specific areas such as chain and tire maintenance and repair, appropriate clothing and equipment, training strategy, and heart rate guidelines.

This program will be held at The Meyer Center, 3545 S. National in Springfield. For more information or to reserve your spot, call 269-3282.

Tune in to CMN Hospitals annual radiothon

2011-03-01T08:44:00.000-08:00

Listen to the 2011 Radiothon to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals at CoxHealth on STAR 92.9, and be a part of making miracles happen on the medical mile.

The STAR 92.9 team will broadcast live, play the area’s favorite music, and share stories and interviews with area families who have been helped by your generous donations to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Last year’s event raised nearly $49,000 for sick and injured children in the Ozarks.

The event will air Thursday, March 3, and Friday, March 4, from 6 a.m. – 6 p.m.; and Saturday, March 5, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals of CoxHealth is a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance for sick and injured children living in the Ozarks. All proceeds benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ projects such as the C.A.R.E. Mobile, purchase medical equipment, provide financial assistance to children’s families and more.

CoxHealth underwrites all administrative expenses of the charity locally, so that every dollar raised stays in our community and helps children. For more information on Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or to donate, visit www.coxhealth.com/cmn.

Join CoxHealth for the 23rd annual Special Delivery Baby Affair this Saturday

2011-03-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

Whether you’re planning a pregnancy, already expecting, or a brand-new parent – or even a new or expecting grandparent – the 2011 CoxHealth Special Delivery Baby Affair is for you!

Come and go as you like, and enjoy this special event designed with all things baby and parenting in mind. The event is 9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Saturday, March 5, in the Cox South West Pavilion (former Outpatient entrance), 3801 S. National. Participants can take advantage of a full day of activities including seminars on infant massage, breastfeeding while working, the popular Dollars and Sense of Having a Baby class, and more.

There will be a maternity fashion show, door prizes throughout the day and displays by merchants and community agencies. With a $2 donation to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, you get a chance to win a conversion crib, mattress and bedding for your nursery from Bella Baby.

For a complete schedule of events or for more information, call The Women’s Center at 269-LADY, or visit www.coxhealth.com.

OTC scholarships open doors for students

2011-02-28T07:03:00.000-08:00

Loyd Stockton (above) is currently using the OTC scholarship to begin his studies as an occupational therapy assistant. Stockton, whose wife works in the neuro unit at Cox South, is currently enrolled in OTC’s allied health studies program.

In the fall of 2010 the first students took advantage of the CoxHealth Scholarship at Ozarks Technical Community College.

Nicole Bargas learned about the scholarship from her dad, a respiratory therapist at Cox South.

“To be considered for the scholarship, the students must be a spouse or child of a CoxHealth employee and enrolled in a pre-allied health or allied health program,” says Stephanie Brown, director of development at OTC.

Allied health programs include: emergency medical technician, physical therapy assistant, medical laboratory technician and occupational therapy assistant. Other covered programs are Associate of Science in nursing, practical nursing, respiratory therapy, surgical technology or health information technology.

“I am taking classes in the physical therapy assistant program. Fall was my first semester at OTC and the scholarship was a great help,” says Bargas. After graduation she hopes to use her degree to work with athletes and sports teams.

CoxHealth and St. John’s each provide $25,000 per semester toward the scholarships.
“Both hospitals made a five-year commitment to OTC. This is a great opportunity for our students,” says Brown.

This scholarship benefits spouses and dependents of employees, as well as the community. “The scholarships help ensure that our community has professionals to meet the growing demand in health care,” says John Hursh, vice president of Human Resources at CoxHealth.

Hursh believes that many of the graduates who benefit from the scholarship will stay in the Springfield area.

“If their parents or spouse have a positive experience working here, then the graduate will be more likely to pursue employment at CoxHealth,” says Hursh.

Loyd Stockton, an occupational therapy assistant student, is interested in employment at CoxHealth after he graduates in May. Stockton was already enrolled in the allied health program at OTC when his wife, who works in the neuro unit at Cox South, told him about the new scholarship.

“The scholarship has helped with classes, books and the extra lab fees that are required for many of the allied health classes,” says Stockton. He chose this program after he volunteered at the nursing home where his mother works and he observed occupational therapists working with residents.

“I knew I wanted to work with patients and help them as much as I could,” he says.
Once students graduate from an allied health program, they also have the option of continuing their education at Cox College.

For more information about the CoxHealth Scholarship at OTC, visit otc.edu/foundation.

Nurse's quick action prevents a tragedy

2011-02-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

On a Monday afternoon in early November, Linda Meeker was relaxing in her living room when her doorbell rang. As she got up to answer the door, she recognized the bearded gentleman standing on the porch and his silver Ford pickup parked on the street.

“As soon as I saw him, I knew who he was; he grabbed me and gave me a big hug,” Linda says.

The man at the door was Dallas “Doc” Pendergrass and he had come to see his hero. In minutes, Linda and Doc were talking like old friends, even though it was the first time they had spoken to one another. They had crossed paths once before, but only Linda remembered their first meeting. On that day just two weeks earlier Doc had been, for lack of a more delicate term, dead.

Now, he was very much alive, thanks to the quick action taken by Linda and her neighbors when Doc had the most terrifying event of his life, right in the middle of their street.

On the afternoon of October 14, Linda, a nurse in CoxHealth’s Women and Newborn unit, was enjoying the final day of her vacation. Just after the noon news on TV, Linda’s Husband, Chuck, headed out to pick up lunch. He had seen a pickup pulling a trailer pass the house and now, as he backed out of the driveway, he saw the pickup parked in the street. A neighbor was standing at the driver’s door and he flagged Chuck down.

Inside the truck, Doc Pendergrass was slumped over the steering wheel. Chuck opened the door and tried to wake Pendergrass. He was unresponsive and coated with sweat, which made Chuck fear he had had a heart attack.

“I called my wife and said, ‘You need to get out here right now, there’s a guy in trouble,’” he says. “She felt his pulse and said, “This man’s dead.’ It was terrifying, we just saw him drive past our house.”

A neighbor called 911 as Linda and Chuck lifted the driver’s limp, 160-pound frame out onto a blanket they had laid in the street. He didn’t have a pulse and he wasn’t breathing. Linda began CPR.

“I was praying the whole the time,” Linda recalls. “If God wanted this man to live, He needed to do something quickly.”

Linda says it’s difficult to guess how many minutes she spent performing chest compressions. Maybe five that felt like 10. But then, the man regained a weak pulse. And he began gasping for air.

“It was an emotional thing when he took his first breath,” Linda says. “All the time I was praying for God to help me, I remember that so well. It was his decision, not mine, to bring him back.”

Doc hadn’t regained consciousness, but he was breathing and Linda could hear the sirens of an approaching ambulance in the distance.

Doc was at Cox South for six days after the incident. He remembers coming down the Meekers’ street and getting ready to back into a neighbor’s driveway. His memory goes black at that point and the next thing he recalls is waking up in the hospital and desperately wanting to remove the tube in his throat.

“I just remember being scared. I realized something terrible had happened. I had never been in that bad of condition before,” he says. “All I could think of was my kids and my grandsons. It was quite a scary experience.”

His family told him about the nurse who had saved his life, but he didn’t hear the full story until he came to visit Linda and Chuck at their home.

“I’d been wanting to come meet these people,” Doc says. “When she came to the door, I told her, ‘I don’t care how big a boy your husband is, I’ve got to hug you.’”

As Linda and Chuck explained what had happened, Doc says he was amazed by what Linda had done for a man she had never met.

“It was emotional for me, I owe these people my life, literally,” he says. “I thank God for these people. I just can’t say enough.”

During and after his hospitalization, doctors at Cox performed a number of tests to try to understand what had happened to the 63-year-old retired carpenter. So far, a heart attack has been ruled out, but a root cause hasn’t been determined.

Linda says that whatever occurred, she’s just thankful she was in a position to help.

“You just never dream that something like this is going to happen,” she says. Linda has been a nurse at CoxHealth for 36 years and she says her regular training made doing CPR almost automatic.

“You never know when you start doing CPR on a person, especially outside of the hospital, what the outcome is going to be. It‘s amazing that he’s up and out of the hospital and able to come see me. That was a huge reward just to see that.”

Doc says that meeting Linda, Chuck and a few of the neighbors who helped out that day has been a life-changing experience.

“She saved my life and for that I’ll forever be grateful. I can’t praise these people enough for being the kind of people they are and for what they did,” he says. “They’ve really reaffirmed my faith in humanity.”

Support CMN Hospitals while you celebrate National Pancake Day this Tuesday

2011-02-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

Join IHOP and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals of CoxHealth for IHOP’s National Pancake Day celebration Tuesday, March 1, from 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.

Visit any local IHOP location and receive one free short stack of IHOP’s famous buttermilk pancakes. While you eat, you can make a donation to help Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals provide financial assistance to the families of sick and injured children in the Ozarks.

For more information about IHOP National Pancake Day, visit www.ihoppancakeday.com or call the CoxHealth Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals office at 269-KIDS.

CoxHealth underwrites all administrative expenses of the charity locally, so that every dollar raised stays in our community and helps children. For more information on Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or to donate, visit www.coxhealth.com/cmn.

Eat at Chick-fil-A during Miracle Week, help local children

2011-02-24T10:44:00.000-08:00

You can enjoy your favorite Chick-fil-A foods, and help CoxHealth Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals at the same time. During Chick-fil-A’s Miracle Week, Monday, Feb. 28 – Saturday, March 5, mention Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals when you order.

Chick-fil-A will then donate 15 percent of your total bill to CMN Hospitals at CoxHealth.

For more information about Chick-fil-A’s Miracle Week, call the CoxHealth Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals office at 269-KIDS. Deliveries and gift card purchases are not included.

CoxHealth underwrites all administrative expenses of the charity locally, so that every dollar raised stays in our community and helps children. For more information on Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or to donate, visit www.coxhealth.com/cmn.

CoxHealth needs volunteers in variety of areas

2011-02-24T10:42:00.000-08:00

Whether it's bringing some cheer to a lonely patient, delivering flowers from loved ones or making a sick child less anxious, our volunteers have a great and lasting impact on our patients.

Currently, volunteers are most needed in the following areas:

• Information desks at all facilities – We need volunteers to help staff these areas, especially during the evening and on weekends. Duties include providing patient information from our directory and giving directions to visitors and callers.
• Gift Shops at all facilities – We need volunteers who can help customers make selections, run the cash registers, set up window displays, deliver items to patient rooms and more.

If you are interested, contact the Volunteer Office at 269-4169, or visit coxhealth.com for more information and to submit an application.

New ICU's framework takes shape

2011-02-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

The foundation for the new ICU at Cox South is now mostly complete and crews used last week’s nice weather to work on the building’s steel frame. Despite the snowstorm earlier this month, the project is still on schedule and scheduled to open as planned in October.

Media Technology’s Russ Weller captured these images of the construction on Friday. You can see the partial story at the top that will be glassed-in to allow for natural lighting similar to what we have in the Emergency Department. The space immediately under the clear story will be the new ICU and beneath it is space for the Materials Management department. The framework will continue to extend toward the north and join up with the existing ICU.

You can follow the ICU construction on coxhealth.com by clicking the yellow hard-hat icon labeled “construction updates” on the main page. Not only will you read about construction activity, but you can watch the construction through a live web camera.

CoxHealth Stroke Center one of only 71 in U.S. to receive Stroke Association honor

2011-02-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

The CoxHealth Stroke Center has been named to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll list. CoxHealth is the only health system in our area, and one of only 71 in the United States, to receive this honor.

This recognition is awarded to health systems that consistently treat tPA-eligible stroke patients within 60 minutes from the time they arrive at the hospital. tPA is tissue plasminogen activator, a drug that can dissolve the blood clots which cause most strokes.

Neurologist Scott Duff says stroke research has proven that faster treatment means better patient outcomes. “Quick treatment allows the return of blood flow and saves the starving brain cells from dying,” he says.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 45 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every three minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.

Says Dr. Duff: “I am very proud of all the doctors, nurses and technicians that help us treat our patients quickly. But to get even better results, we need everyone to recognize a stroke FAST by knowing the warning signs. Is there Facial weakness, Arm weakness, or a Speech problem? If so, it’s Time to call 911 and get to the nearest stroke center.”

Foundation, CMN receive donations

2011-02-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

The CoxHealth Foundation (above) recently received a $2,500 donation to the Hannah’s Hope – Rosh Jenkins Memorial Fund in memory of Rosh Jenkins, who lost his battle with cancer in 2010.

CoxHealth Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals recently received more than $7,000 from Spirit Halloween Superstores (above). The funds will be used to support the CoxHealth Child Life department.

The money was raised by asking customers for donations at the register. Their goal next year is $10,000 and could very well be possible with the addition of at least one more store in the Springfield area.

Food for a Woman's Heart set for Feb. 24

2011-02-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

Sign up today for the "Food For A Woman’s Heart" event Feb. 24th at Touch Restaurant. Space is limited! The event is presented by Grove Spa and Touch Restaurant and the CoxHealth Foundation.

Grove Spa will have chair massage, mini facial and aromatherapy booths. The event will also feature a "silver bag" raffle that includes a free night's stay in a condo in Branson in every bag and other goodies. Also included in the festivities: a silent auction and fun education tips from the experts at Grove Spa and CoxHealth.

Go to coxhealthfoundation.com to sign up today.

Sew your heart out this Valentine’s season

2011-02-07T08:22:00.000-08:00

Are you handy with a needle and thread? If so, CoxHealth needs your help. The CoxHealth Volunteers are organizing a sewing day 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15, in the Fountain Plaza Room at Cox North, 1423 N. Jefferson.

Help is needed sewing heart pillows for patients to use after open-heart surgery, eye pillows, and security blankets for hospitalized children. All materials will be supplied, and no experience is needed. Volunteers are welcome to stop by anytime they are available between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

If you would like more information, please call 269-9668.

Nurse reports for blizzard duty via tractor

2011-02-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

When nurse Kamal Ibrahim woke up on Tuesday, he knew the weather would make it difficult to come in for his 2:30 p.m. shift in the rehab unit at Cox Walnut Lawn. As the snow fell in the late morning, he worked on digging out his van so he could drive in from his home on ten acres near Republic.

He was making his way down the driveway when his van got stuck. He called a couple of friends to help him get going again, but they were snowed in as well.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he says. He didn’t have a lot of options, but he did have access to one four-wheel-drive vehicle: his John Deere utility tractor. “I told my wife I was going to drive it. She didn’t want me to try it, but she could see I was determined to come in.”

Ibrahim packed a small bag of supplies, put it into the tractor’s front loader and took off. At roughly 7 mph, Ibrahim headed down U.S. 60 and onto James River Freeway.

The tractor has an open cab, so several layers of clothing were his only protection from icy temperatures and 40 mph winds. Blowing snow made for terrible visibility and Ibrahim found himself on the freeway with semis and other vehicles plowing through the blizzard.

“There were semis and trucks passing me and there was snow flying everywhere. I was a little bit anxious,” he says. “I was dressed very well, the only problem was my eyes. I was worried they might freeze; they were really burning.”

After a 15-mile drive that took more than two hours, Ibrahim made it to work. He arrived five minutes early. He stayed on at the end of his shift and he slept in one of the available rooms before catching a ride home with a co-worker late Wednesday morning.

CoxHealth’s Engineering department is planning to haul Ibrahim’s tractor back to his home in the next few days. Ibrahim says he’s not sure he’d try the trip again — “maybe if it were above 40 degrees”— but on Tuesday he was mainly thinking about the needs of his patients.

“That’s what it’s all about, helping our patients,” he says. “Some nurses couldn’t come in because of the snow, but people still needed care. Our patients deserve good care, so I decided I needed to come in.”

A non-stop effort for grounds crew

2011-02-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the work of the exterior maintenance team, CoxHealth campuses have had something rarely seen in Springfield over the last few days: clear pavement.

The team has been working since the early morning hours Tuesday to clean surfaces around CoxHealth campuses. Supervisor Barry Harter says the job is now mostly complete.
“My goal is to get to go home sometime today,” he says. “This takes a lot of people and a lot of equipment, but it’s gone really well.”

The effort has required more than 50 pieces of machinery and more than 100 workers over the last few days. The exterior maintenance team is made up of seven CoxHealth employees, who are joined by workers and equipment from Vaught Construction.

The crew lost track of the dump-truck loads of snow that were removed somewhere after the first 100 loads. Harter says you can see the magnitude of the effort in the piles south of the main parking lot and west of the construction trailers near Ferrell-Duncan Clinic’s parking lot.

“We’ve been running 10 dump trucks non-stop since 10 a.m. Tuesday,” he says.
Engineering director Dieter Reichmann says keeping surfaces clean is a big part of maintaining safety. Thus far, there have been no reported slips or falls on the campuses.

“Every one of these guys has done a fantastic job making sure the campus exterior is as safe as possible for our patients and employees,” Reichmann says.

Heading outside? Take precautions in blizzard's wake

2011-02-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

After days of snow, wind and bitter cold, kids and adults alike are anxious to get outside. But there are still several safety factors you need to consider before you walk out the door.

Sledding is a fun winter activity, and one we don’t get many opportunities to enjoy in the Ozarks. But Jami Blackwell, Trauma Program manager at CoxHealth, says there are several things to consider to keep yourself and your kids safe on the Ozarks’ hills.

“One of the most important things is to be careful of where you choose to sled,” says Blackwell. She suggests avoiding hills that lead to streets, ponds, lakes and streams. “You’ll also want to choose a hill that’s free from obstacles like trees – collisions can lead to serious injuries. And remember that you can’t see what obstacles may be hidden beneath the snow,” she says.

Other tips include don’t sled alone, and don’t pull sleds behind four-wheelers, lawn mowers or any other motorized vehicle. “It’s very dangerous,” she says.

Blackwell says slips and falls among the elderly are also a big concern after a snowfall, and CoxHealth Emergency rooms and Urgent Care have been busy caring for these patients.

“I always remind the elderly to take extra precautions in the ice and snow. It’s very important they take a cell phone or some other type of communication device with them when they go outside, even if they’re just going to the mailbox. They need to be able to call for help if they need it,” she says. “And they need to watch for black ice.”

Finally, Blackwell says it’s important to bundle up. “The sun might be shining and it might look beautiful outside, but you still have to dress appropriately for the weather,” she says.

CoxHealth Network dedicates new location

2011-01-28T07:08:00.000-08:00

CoxHealth Network cut the ribbon on its new location yesterday during an open house that featured representatives from the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, local business leaders, members of the community and CoxHealth employees.

“We’re excited to be in this new space and we’re moving forward on an agenda of being more visible in the community,” Brett Kirkman, vice president in charge of CoxHealth Network, told the group. “We are the gateway for the commercial customers that use the CoxHealth system and we want to be as visible and accessible as possible.”

CoxHealth Network’s new offices are located at 3354 S. National Ave., on the northeast corner of Walnut Lawn and National.

Harlem Globetrotter visits Pediatrics

2011-01-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

Patients on the Pediatrics unit at Cox South were treated to a visit from Harlem Globetrotters player Aundre “Hot Shot” Branch on Tuesday morning.

Branch was in town promoting the Globetrotters upcoming event at JQH Arena on Feb. 3 and he spent a half-hour meeting with patients and their families.

“I’m headed down to do a surgery right after this,” he joked with staff as he made the rounds on the seventh floor. He took time to show off some of the famous basketball-spinning moves he’s honed in his eight seasons with the Globetrotters.

Branch is a Houston, Texas, native who had a standout career at Baylor University before joining the Globetrotters. In his time with the team, he’s worked with the “C.H.E.E.R. For Character” program, which promotes character development among elementary school students. He says staying involved with kids is a big part of giving back.

“It’s just another way of the Globetrotters showing that we care, outside of playing the game of basketball,” he says. “It’s a way for us to interact with our fans and reach out in the community. We call this the Smile Patrol, just getting out and trying to get the kids to smile.”

Cardinals players visit Pediatrics

2011-01-24T14:58:00.001-08:00

Current and former St. Louis Cardinals players made a stop in Pediatrics during the Cardinals Caravan visit to Springfield in January. Former third baseman Ken Reitz joined pitchers Shelby Miller and Jaime Garcia (from left, below) in touring the unit and talking with patients. They also took the time to sign memorabilia for young fans.

Wellness journey paying off for Cox staffers

2011-01-03T10:40:00.000-08:00

Angela Bradford of Environmental Services keeps a photo of herself from last fall (left, top) on her iPhone as inspiration for her wellness journey. So far, she’s lost 75 pounds. In the past year she’s worked out regularly with her friend and co-worker Danica Childress (below) who has lost 85 pounds to date.

On her iPhone, Angela Bradford keeps a reminder of how far she’s come. It’s a photo from September 2009, before she joined the Wellness Program at CoxHealth and began working out.

Angela’s husband, Blake, a National Guard reservist, was deploying for a year-long tour in Afghanistan and Angela saw an opportunity to develop new habits and focus on her health. Over the last year, she’s headed to the Meyer Center for a workout after her days’ work in Environmental Services.

She worked with her wellness coach and with a trainer and now, 75 pounds later, she’s singing the praises of the Wellness Program.

“It’s helped me keep my head in the game; if you want to lose it, you’ve got to stay with it,” she says.

The first time Blake came home on leave, Angela says he greeted her with one word at the airport: “Wow.”

“That felt great,” she says with a laugh.

Angela has done a lot of walking and weightlifting and she’s made dietary changes, such as cutting out soda and fried foods.

She also hasn’t been doing it alone: Danica Childress, a friend and co-worker in EVS, has joined her in working out and eating right. To date, she’s lost 85 pounds.
“At first she lost weight faster than me, then I started losing more,” Danica says. “It’s motivation to have someone doing it with you.”

Between the two of them, Danica and Angela have been involved in a lengthy list of CoxHealth and community wellness activities, everything from poker walks and “Biggest Loser” competitions to the Tour de Cox bike ride.

When asked what changed about her diet, Danica responds: “everything.”

“It’s a total lifestyle change,” she says.

This fall, Danica is signing up for the Wellness Program for the first time, while Angela is making plans for her cash award for participating.

“It’s great to have something like this in a business where you work and it’s awesome that you earn money by getting healthier – I love that part,” Angela says. “When my money gets here this time around, I’m buying new clothes – I need ’em!”

Cox North staffers take grassroots fitness approach

2011-01-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

During a Thursday lunch hour at the CoxHealth Fitness Center at Cox North, Shana Krol (center, in white, above) and a team of exercise enthusiasts gather for a short, intense workout led by trainer Tony Stokes.

This day’s group workout is just the latest step in a mini-wellness revolution that Shana started in Patient Financial Services last year. During the 2009 Christmas season, she and several co-workers decided they didn’t want any part of the over-eating that can go along with the holidays.
“We just decided we’re not going to do this any more.”

Instead, she and her co-workers started their own weight-loss group. The team weighed in weekly and shared tips and support through a regular e-mail newsletter.
“This gives us accountability, you don’t want to be the one caught at the vending machine,” Shana says with a laugh. The idea quickly spread through the office and into other departments such as Accounting and the business office. Participants at Cox South also got in on the group, joining Shana’s e-mail list and weighing in on Tuesdays.

“I think other people saw me and said, ‘If a big girl can do it, I can do it, too,’” Shana says.

While many participants work on their own and weigh in each week, Shana and a core group work out daily during the lunch hour. They began by walking at the Drury University campus in good weather and climbing the stairs at the Medical Tower when the weather was bad. They soon moved to the fitness center, where more co-workers saw what they were doing and got involved.

The group does 14-week cycles of workouts and weigh-ins; whoever loses the most weight each cycle receives a gift basket, with
t-shirts and donated fitness-related items. They’re now in the midst of their third cycle, with 52 people participating.

“That group really shows what the motivation from one person can do,” says Tony, who leads one or two workouts each week at the Fitness Center. “She sends out a regular e-mail and keeps people weighing in each week. She’s motivated people to really change their lives.”

Those life changes are obvious when Shana rattles off the weight-loss successes of her co-workers: 41 pounds here, 23 pounds there. In total, the group lost 599 pounds in the first round, and more than 400 in the second.

Nathan Mattany was the biggest loser in the last cycle, shedding 50 pounds since he began working out in April.

“Shana just kept pestering me to join,” Nathan says. “I was 27 years old and 300 pounds, this has saved my life.” He joined the group soon after the birth of his daughter. “Heart disease runs in my family; I’ve gotta be here for her. Now, I’m down to the weight I was at when I was 15 years old.”

Billing specialist Darlene Kent says the group has helped her turn her health around. She had her left knee replaced and she was on track to have the right one done as well. Now, 40 pounds lighter, she’s been able to keep her right knee and get off of her diabetes medication.

“This has been life-changing for me,” she says.

Many participants say the group has been key in getting everyone in the gym and providing them the support to keep going.

“We have people at all different levels,” says Christie Donnelly of Patient Financial Services. “When we started this, the thought of me and a gym was out there, but when I started losing weight it got a lot easier.

“We all have times where we lose weight and where we gain weight, but we always support each other and get back on track. What will make you successful is to not stop.”

Organ donor honored on parade float

2010-12-29T15:50:00.001-08:00

An organ donor from Springfield will be among those honored on the Donate Life "Seize the Day" float in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day.

Christopher "Blake" White, 20, was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident on New Year's Day 2008. White was an organ donor and his decision to donate saved the lives of five other people.

In mid-December, Blake's family and several former co-workers from Nakato Japanese Steakhouse gathered in Cafeteria A at Cox South to decorate a "floragraph" in his honor. The floragraph is a portrait created with floral materials. White's portrait will be among those displayed on the float in Saturday's parade.

Although the majority of the floragraph decorating took place in Pasadena, Calif., families unable to attend the decorating event there were given the opportunity to decorate the floragraph at their own hometown events.

In addition, through Mid-America Transplant Services' sponsorship, Blake's family will be seated in the grandstand seats during the parade.

"Our family is very excited to participate in the parade this year," says Blake's mom, Nancy Trapp. "We're thankful for Mid-America Transplant Services' support, both during and after the organ donation process and in helping us participate in the Donate Life float in California."

Drive collects $5,000 worth of toys for hospitalized children

2010-12-29T07:30:00.000-08:00

Children receiving care throughout CoxHealth will reap the benefits of a Children’s Miracle Network toy drive that gathered more than $5,000 worth of toys this Christmas.

Members of the community and CoxHealth staffers from throughout the system donated thousands of new toys, everything from coloring books and action figures to DVDs and video games.

“The community as well as our hospital departments were so generous,” says Heather Zoromski, executive director of Children's Miracle Network. “These toys will be spread throughout our hospital departments that treat pediatric patients. We have received thousands of really nice, brand new toys that will be used for encouragement, prizes and healing all year round.”

The donated toys will be used in the CoxHealth Pediatric unit, CoxHealth Pediatric Urgent Care, Child and Adolescent Psych unit, Pediatric Outpatient Therapies area, Infusion Center and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Helping patients navigate breast cancer

2010-12-22T10:21:00.000-08:00

Christine Hamilton (left), who was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, underwent treatment at Hulston Cancer Center and had regular meetings with Laura Bowles, CoxHealth’s breast care navigator. Bowles helped guide her through the process, offering information and support. “I knew I could call Laura and ask questions, and that she would have the answer,” Hamilton says.

The patients spoke, the time was right, and now breast cancer patients at CoxHealth have a new ally in their fight against the disease with the Breast Cancer Navigator program, which began at Hulston Cancer Center this summer.

There has been a movement in cancer care during the last decade to establish navigators for different patient populations. According to June Johnson, administrative director of Hulston Cancer Center, CoxHealth first tried this approach by developing the lung cancer patient coordinator position a few years ago.

“The doctors loved it and the patients loved it, and we knew we had a good thing,” she says. The coordinator, or navigator, is responsible for steering lung cancer patients through the process, from testing and diagnosis through doctor and surgeon visits, treatment and beyond.

The idea to expand that coordinator program to other patient populations came from the first Hulston Cancer Center Survivors Advisory Council. This group of patients gathered to talk about their cancer treatment and to rank what they felt was most important to their care.

“There were things on that list that we knew were important. The best technology; the best doctors; caring, knowledgeable staff – those are givens,” says Johnson. “But the lung cancer patients were amazed to find out that other patients didn’t have a navigator, and we discovered that was by far the most important thing to all our patients – to have someone to guide you, to show you the way, to explain things.”

Johnson says they learned that physicians felt patient navigators were extremely important as well. “We had a situation where all of our patients were telling us ‘This is what we want, this is what we need.’ And we had our caregivers saying ‘This is it. This is the thing,’” she says. “But everything we learned from those groups wouldn’t have made a difference in getting this program off the ground if we hadn’t had the moon, stars and planets align and had the perfect person available at just the right time.”

Hulston Cancer Center is in the process of seeking a Center of Excellence designation through the American College of Surgeons for the breast cancer program. A key part of achieving that designation is having a breast cancer-specific navigator program in place.

“We have the largest mammography facility in the state, and we’ve been a center of excellence in the mind of the community and the medical community forever,” Johnson says. But the lack of a navigator program was seen as a missing piece in Hulston’s services.

Says Johnson: “I’ve seen women come out of the elevator in a daze – they didn’t know they were going to be diagnosed with cancer. Between their diagnosis and their appointment with a surgeon, there’s a gap where it may feel like there’s no one to turn to.”

Because of an organizational change at the CoxHealth Center for Advanced Pain Management this past summer, Laura Bowles, a long-time CoxHealth employee who served as full-time director for that program, experienced a change in her job description. She still oversees the pain center, but on a part-time basis. When the change occurred, Johnson, who is her supervisor, saw an opportunity to meet a patient need. She officially transitioned Bowles into the breast care navigator role after getting the position approved by the position review committee.

“The most important thing we needed was someone with the right personality. Someone who could be a servant to our patients. We needed someone with system-savvy, who knew who to call to get the answers that were needed. Those two things are what made Laura the perfect person for this position,” says Johnson.

For her part, Bowles says she feels like she’s really filling a need not just for Cox and Hulston, but most importantly for the patients. “This is the best job I’ve ever had,” she says. “It is so rewarding.”

Bowles’ goal is to contact every patient diagnosed with breast cancer at Hulston – it is one of the cancer center’s top diagnoses, with more than 300 cases found each year.

“When they are diagnosed, the Breast Care Clinic gives the patient my card. I try to give them 24 hours to absorb the news before I make my phone call. Then I introduce myself and say ‘I understand you’re getting ready to fight a battle. We’re going to do it together,’” she says.

Bowles now spends her days making those introductory calls and sending personalized notes to each patient she speaks with – but most importantly, she serves as a resource and a friend for those patients who need her – patients such as Christine Hamilton.

Hamilton was diagnosed with stage 1 cancer earlier this year, and says the help and support she received from Bowles was invaluable. “She attended some appointments with me, and offered a lot of ideas and suggestions that were incredibly helpful,” Hamilton says.

While Hamilton has a great support system of friends and family, she says she was thankful to have Laura as a resource.

“I knew I could call Laura and ask questions, and that she would have the answer, or know who to call to get it,” she says.

“There are some patients who say ‘no problem, I’ve got this,’” Bowles says. “And there are others who call me morning, noon and night. I can offer an educated opinion without being too emotionally attached, and I can be wherever they need me to be.” Bowles has gone to physician appointments and chemo and radiation treatments with her patients. Some patients have no support system to speak of, and they need a lot of love, care and support. As breast cancer navigator, Bowles is there to provide it.

Says Johnson: “Navigators are our people who carry a big satin pillow around, and our patients can just hop on and ride with them when they need to. They need that care and understanding. Yes, patients need to be accountable and make decisions about their care. Tomorrow, when they aren’t throwing up and shaving their heads, they can be big girls and make these decisions again. But today, they just need that big, pink, satin pillow. And now Laura’s work provides just that kind of support.”

CoxHealth and Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute join forces

2010-12-15T14:10:00.000-08:00

CoxHealth and Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute, LLC (SNSI) have agreed to an exclusive partnership promising to expand access and services for patients throughout the region. This agreement will become effective Jan. 1, 2011.

SNSI is the largest private practice neurosurgery group in Missouri and has gained regional and national prominence for excellence in clinical care and outcomes research. The 12 subspecialty physicians at SNSI specialize in the treatment of brain, spinal and peripheral nerve disorders.

CoxHealth will purchase the clinic and assets of SNSI including their imaging center. The physicians will provide services to the clinic and the hospital. The 80 individuals employed by SNSI will become employees of CoxHealth.

“With this partnership, we expect to align physician and hospital incentives to improve access, expand services, reduce costs and create a seamless experience for patients. We will look back on this day and remember it as the day we began something very special for neurosciences in our region,” says Robert H. Bezanson, president and CEO of CoxHealth.

Dr. Mark Crabtree, neurosurgeon and managing partner of SNSI adds: “CoxHealth and SNSI have been working on tighter clinical and financial integration since October 2003, and we believe that this partnership will better prepare us to meet the future needs of the patients and communities that we serve.”

SNSI joins CoxHealth’s integrated health care delivery system through its professional services agreement (PSA) along with partner Ferrell-Duncan Clinic, Inc, and the CoxHealth employed physicians of Regional Services. CoxHealth and its physician partners plan to create a comprehensive neuroscience institute that will become an integral part of the Cox South campus with a goal of rivaling the best centers in the nation.

As a top 100 health care system, CoxHealth is committed to delivering on the proven benefits of integrated health care delivery. The joining forces of SNSI and CoxHealth further this effort to improve care for patients.

Lorenzo 'Zo' Williams mural dedicated; golf weekend set for July

2010-11-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

Lorenzo "Zo" Williams, of MU football and NFL fame, recently visited Cox South for the dedication of a mural in his honor on the pediatric floor. The mural, which features Williams on the golf course along with his daughters and a few teammates, recognizes Williams for his charitable efforts via the annual "Lorenzo Williams & Friends Charity Weekend." The event benefits Children's Miracle Network.

As the mural was unveiled, Williams admired the detail in the painting - "I look kinda skinny, which is awesome" - before reminding the crowd that he prefers to keep the focus on the kids.

"I don't like to take credit for things that you're just supposed to do," he says. "You're supposed to help people out, that's what God put us here for."

Williams was a three-year defensive starter for the Missouri Tigers from 2003-2007. Following his college career, he spent time in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens and the Carolina Panthers.

In July 2010, Williams led the inaugural "Lorenzo Williams Celebrity Pro-Am" golf tournament at the Millwood Golf & Racquet Club - an event that raised almost $25,000 for CMN. The tournament featured several MU football alumni, including Jeremy Maclin (Philadelphia Eagles), Sean Weatherspoon (Atlanta Falcons), Danario Alexander (St. Louis Rams) and Martin Rucker (Dallas Cowboys).

Williams originally became involved with CMN after the birth of his twin daughters.

"CMN has a special place in my heart. My daughters were born two months premature and they spent time here in the NICU at Cox South," he says. "I saw a chance to give back to CMN and we had a great time doing it."

The first year was so successful, Williams and his fellow players are planning to make the tournament a regular event. The 2011 "Lorenzo Williams Celebrity Pro-Am" will be held on Fri., July 8, with a benefit youth football camp slated for Sat., July 9.

"We love to come down to Springfield; it's like a family reunion for us getting together and talking about old times," Williams says. "And we get to help kids out with the football camp and with the golf tournament."

Golf tournament raises funds for ALS care

2010-11-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

Pictured above: Tyler Watskey, Chairman Julian ALS Foundation board; Rodney Arnold, Skaggs Foundation; Lisa Alexander, President, CoxHealth Foundation; and Chris Vinton, Julian ALS Foundation board member.

Patients with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in the Ozarks have another resource for their care thanks to this year's Julian Golf Tournament. Held in Branson at LedgeStone Country Club on September 20th, the event raised $45,000.

A check for $17,000 was presented to the CoxHealth Foundation, $10,000 to the Skaggs Community Health Center Foundation and $18,000 to the ALS TDI organization for research.

CoxHealth provided care to Jeff Julian, a PGA golfer who was diagnosed with ALS in the prime of his life. Julian's wife was from the Branson area and he came back to this region during the final months of his life.

Grateful for the outstanding care he received, his family chose to honor both hospitals with support for ALS patients annually from this tournament. CoxHealth has a room in the new ER dedicated to Julian and will continue to use funds for direct patient needs, communication devices and other needs related to ALS care.

CMN Christmas drive benefits CoxHealth's pediatric patients

2010-11-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

This Christmas, you can help the thousands of children that are treated at CoxHealth each year by donating to the Children’s Miracle Network Christmas Drive.

CMN is seeking donations of a variety of newly purchased items, including coloring books, playing cards, board games, action figures, personal care items, DVDs, video games, scrapbooking supplies and more. For a complete list of needed items, visit the Children’s Miracle Network “Current Fundraising Programs” page on www.coxhealth.com.

All donations will be used in the CoxHealth Pediatric unit, CoxHealth Pediatric Urgent Care, Child and Adolescent Psych unit, Pediatric Outpatient Therapies area, Infusion Center and the Neonatal Intensive Care unit. You can drop off your donations anytime during business hours at the CMN office inside the Medical South building, 3525 S. National, Ste. 203. Donations will be accepted until Friday, Dec. 17. For more information, call CMN at 269-6853.

Honor Flight heroes welcomed home

2010-11-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

The final Ozarks Honor Flight of 2010 arrived last night at Springfield-Branson National Airport. The nearly 80 veterans on board were greeted with fanfare by hundreds of community members, including officers from CoxHealth's Honor Guard.

Check out a few images from last night's event and watch for an upcoming Connection package with a few CoxHealth volunteers who were among the veterans on recent flights.

Thanks to everyone who participated and helped make it a great day honoring all of those who have sacrificed to serve our nation.

Collecting coats for kids in need

2010-11-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

Case Management staff with a few of the coats they’ve collected so far (from left): Sara Busby, Donna Morris, Libby Brill, Billie Gibbens and Jeannine Wilson.

Would you like to do a good deed to help kids in the Ozarks? Staff in Case Management at Cox South are currently collecting new coats for students in need at Springfield schools.

The team had originally planned the coat drive as a holiday service project, but when they heard schools had waiting lists for coats, they started right away.

"We just decided that there should not be a child waiting for a coat," says care coordinator Billie Gibbens. "Now we have not just our department but departments from all over the hospital bringing coats in."

In their first week, they collected 30 donated coats and they’re planning to continue the drive until the demand is met. Gibbens says that if the project is able to meet all of the need in Springfield, they’ll begin to work with schools around the region to distribute coats.

Anyone interested in donating new children’s coats, hats and gloves may contact Case Management at 269-6114.