One of Western PA’s own is being recognized in the Home Instead Senior Care Salute to Senior Service contest to recognize Pennsylvania’s best senior volunteer and will receive a $500 donation to the charity of his choice.

Darnell “Jeff” Pope, 73, of Plum Borough won an online vote conducted in April to determine the top Senior Hero in the Keystone State. Jeff was nominated by Nina Segelson of the Plum Senior Community Center, thanks to his efforts leading stroke support groups in Plum and Monroeville, serving on the Center’s Advisory Board, and doing volunteer work for other groups such as American Legion Post 980 in Plum and Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum. In recognition of Jeff’s commitment to service, Home Instead, Inc. will donate $500 to the Plum Senior Center in Jeff’s name. Jeff is now one of 51 finalists (50 state winners & District of Columbia) for the national Senior Hero award. Chosen by a panel of geriatric care experts, the national winner will receive a $5,000 prize to donate to their charity of choice. To see Jeff’s nomination entry, click here: http://www.salutetoseniorservice.com/volunteer-contest/entries/darnelljeff-p/

The local Home Instead Senior Care office in Oakmont and the Plum Senior Center are joining together for a recognition event & presentation of the donation check to Jeff onWednesday, June 12, at 10:30 a.m. at the Plum Senior Center, 499 Center-New Texas Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15239.

Recently diagnosed heart failure patients in Trumbull County are benefiting from a Humility of Mary Health Partners pilot program designed to help them avoid readmission to the hospital.

Provided by a $27,000 grant from the HMHP Foundation, as many as 39 recently diagnosed heart failure patients who meet specified health and financial-need criteria can participate in a four-month  exercise rehabilitation program cooperatively administered by the Congestive Heart Failure Clinic and Cardiac Rehabilitation program at St. Joseph Health Center. The exercise rehabilitation program helps heart failure patients improve their stamina for physical activity and endurance while they learn to manage their disease.
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At Monongahela Valley Hospital, Dr. John Pacella learns about the newest tubes for performing radial catheterization from Stacey Anderson, a cardiovascular specialist from Cordis Corporation.

It’s been said that the best way to have a good life is to have a good heart. While this phrase can be interpreted to mean the emotional heart, when people suffer from physical heart problems, they can experience chest pain; palpitations commonly known as racing of the heart; shortness of breath; a chronic cough; and excessive sweating — all symptoms that can place limitations on their activities and ultimately reduce their quality of life. Through the use of cardiac catheterization, physicians can learn about the heart and blood vessels to diagnose and treat a host of cardiac problems and diseases.

Millions of cardiac catheterization procedures have been performed since the technique was introduced in the mid-20^th century. Since that time, the femoral artery in the groin has been the primary entry point for a thin tube that uses the circulatory system to clear blockages, deliver medication and position stents. Approximately 10 percent of the medical centers in the United States, including Monongahela Valley Hospital, have expanded their cardiac catheterization procedures to include the radial artery, located in the wrist, as an entry point to the circulatory system.
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The Hard Head Patrol, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC’s community-based program aimed at educating children of all ages on the importance of wearing helmets while riding anything on wheels, returns this month and will hit the streets to keep kids safe.

Running through August, trained Children’s employees and medical staff will monitor communities in western Pennsylvania to raise awareness of helmet safety and identify kids who aren’t wearing helmets or who aren’t wearing them properly while riding on anything with wheels, including bicycles, scooters and skateboards.

Any child spotted without a helmet will be given a coupon for a free helmet and fitting that can be redeemed at various community locations. The Hard Head Patrol will reward kids wearing helmets with Cookie Cards from Giant Eagle. If the helmet is worn incorrectly, staff will make adjustments.
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Two Monongahela Valley Hospital employees, Tricia Golden, RN, and Michael Milinovich, graduated from Leadership Washington County’s (LWC) class of 2012-2013.

Leadership Washington County is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of community leaders in Washington County. Since its inception in 1998, LWC has graduated 165 leaders.

Mrs. Golden, of Waltersburg, is an Intensive Care Unit nurse manager and has worked at MVH since 2011. She graduated from Mercy School of Nursing and is working on a degree at Waynesburg University. Mr. Milinovich, of Belle Vernon, has worked as the hospital’s pension and benefits coordinator since 2010 and served on the hospital’s volunteer On-Call Chaplain program since 2006. He co-created the program.

Monongahela Valley Hospital has supported Leadership Washington County from its inception by sponsoring leadership training sessions on health and human resources.

LWC is a cooperative effort between the Washington County Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Washington County.

Dr. Barry Bittman Community Presentation from St. Lukes Wood River Found. on Vimeo.

The latest issue of Western Pennsylvania Healthcare News is now online! Be sure to check it out and forward it onto your friends and colleagues who work in the healthcare industry. Download it now.

If you have any bylined articles or news to share with our readers in the next issue, please email hdkart@aol.com.

For those businesses interested in advertising in our next issue, there’s still time. Here are our latest rates.

These are the focus areas for Issue 6 (June 30 print date): 

• Excellence in Patient Care
• Healthcare IT Solutions
• Rehabilitation
• Staffing & Recruitment
• Safety & Security
• Special Needs Services

If you’d like to submit a bylined article, download our submission guidelines. If you’d like to run an ad to reach our 40,000+ readers, email Kristen Kart at kristenkart@wphospitalnews.com.

Baby Mark — nearly 1 year old — is studying his outstretched hand. The hand moves ever so slightly, more from gravity than intention, and Mark keeps gazing at this strange new object. It’s the first time Mark has contemplated his hand with such concentration, so I am watching, too. Absorbed in the sight, suspended in time, wondering what this discovery might mean about my little boy’s brain.

Read more of Tina Calabro’s article on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website.

Mary Chester Wasko, MD, MSc, has been selected to represent Pennsylvania’s rheumatologists on a panel discussion concerning the impact of rheumatoid arthritis in the work place.

Dr. Wasko, Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS), was invited to share her expertise on rheumatoid arthritis treatment and symptom management at the Women’s Health in the Work Place Roundtable discussion on Monday, June 3 at the state capitol in Harrisburg.

The roundtable, hosted by Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, Chair, Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The Women’s Health in the Workplace Roundtable is part of the national Women’s Rheumatoid Arthritis Project 2013 (WRAP2013). This WRAP 2013 roundtable discussion will establish a dialogue between advocacy groups and legislators focusing on the critical issue of women’s health in the work place. WRAP2013 is an RA awareness project sponsored by the Business & Professional Women’s Foundation and Women Impacting Public Policy.

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 To raise awareness of the Alzheimer’s Disease, Longwood at Oakmont, a Presbyterian SeniorCare Continuing Care Retirement Community in Plum, recently hosted Dr. Len Lecci, Director of Clinical Services at MARS Memory Health Network, for a seminar entitled, “Understanding Alzheimer’s.” During the educational seminar, approximately 100 greater Pittsburgh area seniors and caregivers were enlightened about the most common type of memory diseases and ways to detect early warning signs.

“According to the Alzheimer’s Association, since 2000, deaths from Alzheimer’s has risen 68 percent, while deaths from many other major diseases, such as heart disease, breast cancer, stroke and HIV, have all decreased,” states Lindsay Coulter, Senior Sales Coordinator at Longwood at Oakmont. “The first step in changing the future of Alzheimer’s disease is creating awareness. As a community dedicated to the health of the greater Pittsburgh area seniors, we deemed it a priority to educate our community about this life changing disease.”
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There is a growing need for agents that stabilize blood vessels in serious clinical conditions such as diabetic eye disease and cancer where vascular leak and pathologic angiogenesis drive disease progression.

Rocco Rotello, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Cedarville University, has entered into an agreement with Aerpio Therapeutics, a new clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, to work on a novel biological approach to stabilize blood vessels.

“It’s gratifying to have the opportunity to contribute to developing a novel therapeutic with potential to treat important diseases,” Rotello said.
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Senator Ted Erickson’s (R-26) Senate Bill 5, Community-Based Health Care Clinics, was signed into law by Governor Corbett on May 21, 2013. Now Act 10 of 2013, this law provides for the establishment of the Community-Based Health Care Program within the Department of Health, paving the way for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) – certified registered nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, clinical nurse specialists and certified registered nurse anesthetists – to receive grant funding to provide greater access to health care services.

The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, representing more than 211,000 registered nurses in Pennsylvania, supported Senate Bill 5 and the inclusion of APRNs within the legislation. APRNs open, manage and maintain clinics across the Commonwealth. In today’s changing health care environment, APRNs deliver high-quality and cost-effective primary care, and reduce overall health care costs by expanding and improving access to the underserved and uninsured.

“PSNA is proud to be a leading voice for increased patient access to nurse-managed care,” states PSNA Chief Executive Officer Betsy M. Snook, MEd, BSN, RN. “Senator Erickson has been a champion of this vital legislation and we thank him as he stands with nurses during these transformative times. We also applaud Governor Corbett for making this bill a legislative priority.”

The Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA) is the non-profit voice for nurses in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Representing more than 211,000 nurses, the Association works to be essential in advancing, promoting and supporting the profession of nursing to improve health for all in the Commonwealth. PSNA is a constituent member of the American Nurses Association (www.panurses.org).

Patients who have chronic cough with no known cause may be more likely to suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD, West Penn Allegheny Health System physicians reported in a study published today.

The article, “Antireflux Surgery in Patients with Chronic Cough and Abnormal Proximal Exposure as Measured by Hypopharyngeal Multichannel Intraluminal Impedance” appears in JAMA Surgery.

“These findings could be of great importance to individuals who live with a nagging cough without a known cause,” said Blair A. Jobe, MD, principal investigator of the study and Director of the Institute for the Treatment of Esophageal and Thoracic Disease at West Penn Allegheny Health System.
“Undergoing screening and, if applicable, treatment for GERD can not only improve patients’ quality of life by curbing chronic cough, it can also help prevent serious conditions such as Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer.”

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Today, first responders of Canonsburg General Hospital Ambulance Service will become some of the best-equipped in the nation to save a pet’s life. That’s because Invisible Fence of Western Pennsylvania is donating a pet oxygen mask kit to the ambulance service.

This donation is just a small part of Invisible Fence® Brand’s Project Breathe™, which was established with the goal of equipping every fire station in America and Canada with pet oxygen masks. These masks allow firefighters to give oxygen to pets who are suffering from smoke inhalation when they are rescued from fires. The masks often save pets’ lives.

Invisible Fence® Brand has donated a total of more than 10,000 pet oxygen masks to fire stations all over the U.S. and Canada throughout the life of the program. A reported 90+ pets have been saved by the donated masks so far, including a cat saved on January 1 in Tecumseh, Ontario.

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