Hospitals & Health Care

FEATURED INSIDE: Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House Baptist Health Paducah Caldwell Medical Center Jackson Purchase Medical Center Livingston Hospitals and Healthcare Services Inc. Lourdes hospital Marshall County Hospital Murray-Calloway County Hospital Orthopaedic Institute of Western Kentucky Pain Management Center Ray & Kay Eckstein Hospice Care Center

SUNDAY, August 30, 2015 A special interest publication of

2E • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • The Paducah Sun

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LILLY BURBA | The Sun

Construction is underway for the Orthopaedic Institute’s new surgical center on E. Fifth Street in Metropolis, Ill. It will provide dedicated musculoskeletal surgical services in a convenient and affordable setting for the people of western Kentucky. The Urgent Care Clinic (left) at the Orthopaedic Institute in Paducah specializes in providing emergency care for orthopaedic injuries. It has been open for two years and saves its patients both time and money compared to a hospital emergency room.

Orthopaedic Institute’s services are growing BY LILLY BURBA [email protected]

The staff at Orthopaedic Institute of Western Kentucky in Paducah has but one mission, to provide care solely in orthopaedics, or the field of fixing abnormalities of the bones and muscles. However, within the institute, the doctors, nurses, and other providers each have their own subspecialty within orthopaedics which they believe allows for each to reach a high level of skill, and pass that excellence onto their patients. These subspecialties include total joint reconstruction; hand, shoulder and knee; back and neck; sports medicine/arthroscopy; foot and ankle, and general orthopaedics. The Paducah institute is part of a larger system that also has three

locations in southern Illinois. In addition, the services that are designed to benefit the western Kentucky region are spilling across state lines. Soon, the Orthopaedic Institute’s western Kentucky division will open a dedicated musculoskeletal surgery center in Metropolis, Illinois. Greg Thompson, CEO of the Orthopaedic Institute, is very excited for this new development, which he said will only improve upon the high level of care offered to patients in this area. “It is a welcome addition to the lines of service we already have in place in the western Kentucky region,” Thompson said. This center was built and designed to solely perform musculoskeletal surgeries. This focus,

J.T. Ruxer, D.O. Thompson believes, will help deliver a high quality of service similar to what is provided by the institute’s other locations. He hopes the addition of the surgical center will bring the facilities available in the Paducah area up to the level seen in more urban areas. Thompson also said the new surgical center in Metropolis will be a better value and more

convenient for patients in western Kentucky than what is currently available to them. Another more recent addition to the Orthopaedic Institute’s services that Thompson is proud of is its urgent care clinic located at their Paducah center, which he said opened two years ago and has been in constant use since its opening. The Orthopaedic Institute’s urgent care clinic provides specialized, emergency care for only orthopaedic problems. This allows the staff to provide targeted care for these issues when their patients need it the most. Thompson said that patients have been highly satisfied with this clinic, both in the care they’ve received and the quality of their experience.

“When patients go to the emergency room, they could be facing long waits and high costs,” Thompson said. “With the Orthopaedic Institute’s clinic, we get them treated quicker, we save them money, and we offer them access to some of the most skilled orthopaedic experts in the area.” Along with issues like mobility, orthopaedic problems can cause people a great deal of pain. The Orthopaedic Institute recognizes the hardship this pain can pose for its patients, so it offers dedicated pain management services. Its Pain Management Center is located in close proximity to the main institute in Paducah. Thompson spotlighted the efforts of Dr. J.T. Ruxer, who specializes in pain management, in

making the Orthopaedic Institute a leader in this type of treatment. “He provides a new focus on how to deal with pain by bringing people of multiple professions in on the treatment,” Thompson said. “This has led to some astounding results for our patients in western Kentucky.” All of these changes, Thompson said, are in an effort for the Orthopaedic Institute to continue to be the region’s top source of high-quality orthopaedic care. The Orthopaedic Institute of Western Kentucky is located at 4787 Alben Barkley Drive in Paducah. It is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Urgent Care Clinic is open Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. To contact them, call 270-442-9461.

WHEN IT’S CANCER, WOMEN CHOOSE BAPTIST. BAPTIST HEALTH PADUCAH YOUR TRUSTED CANCER LEADER SINCE 1967

Mary Sherron Cancer Survivor

Breast cancer survivor Mary Sherron, a waitress and mother of four, understands why Baptist Health Paducah earned the Women’s Choice Award® as one of America’s Best Hospitals for Cancer Care. At 38, she’s made it through a double mastectomy and 16 rounds of chemotherapy without losing her million dollar smile. She also gained new relationships with caregivers who treated her like family. They were her nurses; now she calls them friends. Baptist Health Paducah is among an elite group of 331 hospitals who earned the 2015 Women’s Choice Award by meeting the highest cancer care accreditation standards of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. Baptist Health, the cancer hospital our region prefers 3 to 1. Cancer questions? Talk to one of our nurses 24/7 at 270.575.2918.

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Lourdes expanding emergency department New facilities to increase capabilities, efficiency BY DANIEL PAXTON [email protected]

Construction is underway at Lourdes hospital, as it works to more than double its emergency department’s floor plan and, in turn, increase its capabilities and efficiency. Ground was broken on the new construction July 14, with that work expected to be completed in September. After the construction has been completed, all emergency department activity will be transferred to the new facilities, while the existing facilities are renovated and updated in accordance with the new design. The entire project is expected to be complete in December, when the new construction and the newly renovated facilities merge into one emergency department of approximately 15,000 square feet. The original department had 7,000 square feet. “This expansion will greatly improve ease of access for our patients and will allow us to be more flexible with our treatment spaces,” Janet Simerly, Lourdes chief nursing officer, said. “We will be able to match our treatment spaces to the specific needs of our patients.” Ease of access was a central idea in the new design, and a reworking of the emergency department’s entrance will allow ambulance drop off, private vehicle drop off, and even helicopter drop off, all at the same time. Previously tight quarters allowed for the possibility of a traffic

Dr. Erin Brumley

Submitted photo illustrations

Construction is underway at Lourdes hospital’s new Emergency Department. The new construction and the existing department – once renovated – will merge to create one new emergency department, more than double the size of the current facility. The entire project is expected to be complete in December.

Dr. Jeremy Klope jam that could delay the treatment of patients. Dr. Jeremy Klope, ED director, said the construction would serve two important purposes: creating room to accommodate a higher number of patients and increasing efficiency of care on an individual level. “Patients and staff should all see immediately the difference this expansion makes,” Klope said. “We’ll be able to do things we couldn’t before, and the things we could, we will be able to do much more efficiently.” One area Klope noted where there would be a marked improvement is the treatment of patients who come to the ED to seek treatment for mental health issues.

This rendering (left) shows an exam room in Lourdes hospital’s new Emergency Department.

“We’ve really focused on caring for folks with psychiatric or mental health complaints. We’ve created a specific access point for those folks to get evaluated and cared for,” Klope said. “This is something that we didn’t have before. The focus of this area is getting psychiatric care started as soon as possible.” Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel at Lourdes were heavily involved in the approximately two-year planning and design process, Klope said, a fact that he believes was vital to creating the best environment pos-

sible for those doctors and nurses, as well as patients and their loved ones. Simerly saw efficiency as the primary benefit the emergency department expansion would provide. She noted the new arrangement would provide patients and their family more comfort, while simultaneously allowing the nursing staff to better keep track of all their patients’ needs. “We’ve really designed this to be patient friendly,” Simerly said. “I think our patients will be able to appreciate that.” Lourdes’ Emergency Department

already contains the most board-certified emergency medicine physicians in the area, Klope said, and with the expansion of the department arises a need for more personnel at every level. Paducah native Dr. Erin Brumley is one such addition to the expanding department. Brumley said the combination of coming home, as well as the excitement of Lordes’ new, updated facilities made working at Lourdes ED an easy decision. “For me, I think it was the familiarity, although the new department here is very attractive,”

Brumley said. “It also helps the patients to feel good about the care, to know that the facilities are state of the art.” Come December and the project’s completion, patients in the waiting room at Lourdes should quickly notice the improvements, Simerly said, as gains in efficiency should result in shorter wait times for patients. “Our goal is to minimize the time people spend in our lobby,” Simerly said. “We do a pretty good job of it already, but now there will be room to grow and still provide that same level of service.”

Bariatric program improves lives through education, surgery BY LAUREN P. DUNCAN [email protected]

For Brookport, Illinois, resident Liberty Fasolo, the bariatric surgery she underwent at Baptist Health Paducah this spring was just one step on her journey to improved health. The other steps involved lifestyle changes to help get her weight down and keep it off and, over the past 11 months, she has lost about 133 pounds. “I can do stuff I wasn’t able to do before. I can get out and keep up with my child more than before. And that’s the main reason I did it anyway. I want to keep up with him and I want to be around longer. It wasn’t healthy being the size I was before,” she said. Fasolo, 32, who is the production manager of the kitchen at Baptist Health Paducah, became one of the bariatric program’s first patients in October, and on May 8, she had surgery. The bariatric program started in September when surgeon Dr. Paige Nealy Quintero began working at Baptist Health Paducah. Quintero said the need for such a program in Paducah was critical as Kentucky is located in the “obesity belt” of the

BEFORE

Submitted photos

Liberty Fasolo, 32, of Brookport, Illinois, was photographed in October, about six months before she had bariatric surgery at Baptist Health Paducah.

United States. Kentucky has one of the highest rates of obesity among

AFTER

Liberty Fasolo is photographed in August, about three months after she had bariatric surgery. Since Fasolo began in Baptist Health Paducah’s bariatric program last October, she’s lost more than 130 pounds.

states, with more than 30 percent of Kentucky adults considered to be

obese. Through the program, Quintero is helping pa-

tients lose weight, and in turn improve their overall health, but she won’t take the credit. Rather, Quintero says, it’s the patients such as Fasolo who make the positive impact on themselves. The new program isn’t about operating on patients and wishing them well on their future weight loss. Instead, the program incorporates a holistic approach of educating prospective surgery candidates and helping them to develop better lifestyle habits before ever going to an operating room. “We didn’t have a bariatric program in town, so we knew we were going to be starting from scratch, but we wanted to start a comprehensive program where we had a lot of education for the patients from the beginning,” Quintero said. Because most insurance providers require a six month waiting period for bariatric surgery candidates, Quintero didn’t start operating on patients until this spring. That six-month waiting period is critical to a patient’s success in the long run, Quintero said. After patients attend information sessions on the program to see if bariatric surgery is

right for them, they meet with dietitians and sometimes cardiologists and other specialists to prepare for surgery. Quintero said patients learn about diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes before surgery. For example, one of the major changes many patients must make is to eat more protein. Many people don’t consume enough protein, which leads to hunger, Quintero said. While some patients struggle with the changes, Quintero said Fasolo “was a rock star.” Fasolo said she’s dealt with weight issues since she was a child. She had wanted to have bariatric surgery before the program began at Baptist Health, but the nearest location that accepted her insurance was in Louisville. Fasolo weighed 380 pounds when she started the program in October. She lost 89 pounds before surgery, which far surpassed the 45 pounds Quintero required she lose before the procedure. Fasolo said she became a “faithful exerciser” to lose the weight, but that wasn’t the only change she made. “I quit smoking, I quit my sodas. I took to Please see BARIATRIC | 4E

4E • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • The Paducah Sun

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Record-keeping innovations underway at local hospitals BY LAUREL BLACK [email protected]

Local hospitals are on their way to implementing a full electronic health records system designed to improve patient care and safety. Spokespeople from Lourdes hospital and Baptist Health Paducah say the new computers and software will decrease errors in prescribing and testing, and give patients and physicians better access to health information. “I think it’ll be the most wonderful thing for our community,” said Wendy Blakely, director of clinical informatics at Baptist Health Paducah. Both the Mercy health care system and the Baptist Health system will use software from a vendor called Epic. Having everyone on the same system allows for more streamlined care for patients transferring between hospitals across Kentucky, Blakely said. Baptist Health Paducah has used electronic health records in some capacity for many years, but its new system — which will go live Sept. 17, 2016 — represents an improvement, according to Blakely.

The electronic chart is able to track subtle changes in patients’ conditions, and will give physicians alerts and warnings based on that information. It also informs physicians about best practices and keeps tabs on possible drug allergies and interactions, she said. Lourdes also has had electronic records for some time; its employed physicians have used the system, known as CarePATH, since 2011. The system, which required updating the WiFi network and installing new computers at every bedside, will go live on the main campus of Lourdes this December. “It’s going to be so much better for the patient, because it’s going to decrease medication errors, allow their results to be seen in a more timely fashion, (and) give providers access to their records anywhere where there’s Internet,” said Mary New, manager of nursing informatics at Lourdes. Representatives at both hospitals are lauding the improved safety that comes with electronic record keeping in general. They say the e-records clear up issues such as legibility

Submitted photo/Lourdes hospital

Wendy Blakely

Mary New

and redundancy in testing and prescribing, while improving the communication between patients and providers. Advocates for electronic records also believe the

Lourdes credentialed trainers Rex Beckham, Gisele Burnett, Emily Martin and Christina Williams learn CarePATH, a new computer system that does away with paper charts and gives doctors and patients access to health information anywhere in the hospital. The new system will go live on the main campus of Lourdes on Dec. 6; Baptist Health Paducah will also have a fully electronic records system in 2016.

technology will allow patients to take ownership of their health by allowing them immediate access of up-to-theminute data through patient portals. “Everyone’s very excited.

We know we all have to work very hard to get where we need to be with health care IT, but once we make the change and everyone acclimates, it will be a change for the better,” New said.

BARIATRIC have surgery. Since May, Quintero has completed about 20 procedures.

CONTINUED FROM 3E

heart what (Quintero) said. I really wanted it,” Fasolo said. Although Fasolo exceeded the program’s guidelines for surgery, not every person interested in bariatric surgery is prepared. Those who don’t make the commitment before surgery to make lifestyle changes may have to take extra time beyond the six-month waiting period. “I don’t take this lightly, I take it very seriously,” Quintero said. “I want everyone to have good outcomes. I think the best predictor of post-operative success is pre-operative compliance.”

The procedure There are both surgical and non-surgical options through the bariatric program. The surgical options include the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and the minimally invasive gastric bypass, known as the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Quintero explained that weight loss surgery is now done laparoscopically through small holes, which is a change from the way gastric bypass surgeries were done in the past. She said the surgery takes two hours or less and the patient can usually get out of the hospital within a few days. The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass that Fasolo underwent begins with inserting small ports into the patient’s abdomen and stapling the stomach. Fasolo said she was pleased with how her procedure went. “The surgery went great,” she said. “I had a little rough time afterward, but I am not good with pain by any means.” One of the things Fasolo said she liked most

Life after surgery

Dr. Paige Nealy Quintero

After patients attend information sessions on the program to see if bariatric surgery is right for them, they meet with dietitians and sometimes cardiologists and other specialists to prepare for surgery. about the program was the one-on-one time she’s spent with Quintero, both before and after surgery. That’s not something that was always a part of bariatric treatment. Quintero said there used to be a phrase in the field: “Sleeve ’em and leave ’em.” “We don’t do a gastric bypass, send the patient into the world and say, ‘Have a good life,’” Quintero said. “We’re going to see you periodically after surgery and we need to see you every year, just to check in.” Quintero pointed out that she hopes to keep seeing her patients as frequently as possible, although the program is growing. The program recently had 60 interested patients at a seminar, although not all of those will go on to

Surgeons can predict the amount of weight that patients will lose after bariatric surgery. Those who opt for a sleeve will lose about 70 percent of their excess body weight within a year and a half of surgery, and those who have a bypass will lose about 80 percent, Quintero said. Excess body weight is a person’s actual weight minus their ideal body weight, which can vary. For example, Quintero said, a 240 pound woman who hopes to reach 140 pounds has an excess weight of 100 pounds. She’ll lose about 70 pounds with a sleeve and 80 pounds after a bypass. “That’s our goal for every patient. I think most patients who’ve had the surgery ... can reach that goal,” she said. After surgery, the reduction in appetite typically allows for the patients to consume only 600-700 calories a day, Quintero said. That’s why developing a habit of taking in enough protein before surgery is key to postoperative success. Because Fasolo works around food all day, returning to work after surgery was her biggest concern, she said. However, it hasn’t bothered her because her appetite has decreased. “This helps you because honestly now if you try to eat anything bad you’re going to pay for it. You get sick to your stomach. You get nauseous. You don’t eat grease. It holds you accountable,” Fasolo said. There’s still a stigma around the procedure, Quintero said, as people have labeled it “the easy way out.” She asked

Fasolo if she thought it was easy, and Fasolo was quick to reply: “No.” “It’s not the easy way out,” Quintero said. “I think it’s a very brave

choice to take charge of your health and live a better life and be a healthier you. It takes a lot of bravery from the patient. I think it’s inappropriate for some

people to sit in judgment and say well, no, you don’t need to have that surgery. You’d better just lose it on your own. That’s not the right thing for everyone.”

Our growing family, caring for yours

Mercy Medical Associates is pleased to welcome Shawn Flynn, MD to Mercy Cardiology Associates. Affiliated with Lourdes Hospital, Dr. Flynn joins partners Dr. David Hogancamp, Dr. Mark Lineberry, Dr. David Talley and Dr. William Wassynger on our growing cardiology team. • Structural Heart Fellowship: Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI • Interventional Cardiology and Cardiology Fellowships: University of Arkansas • Internal Medicine Residency: University of Arkansas • Doctorate, Master’s and Undergraduate: University of Louisville

This is what we were meant to do. Now accepting new patients at the Heart and Valve Clinic in Paducah. Call 270-442-0103 for more information. Learn more at eLourdes.com/heart.

4363PADADV (8/15)

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Changes come to Lourdes mental health unit BY LILLY BURBA [email protected]

Behavioral medicine is constantly evolving, so units that focus on it must also continually make changes. In the past year, the Behavioral Health Institute at Lourdes hospital in Paducah has undergone major changes to its facilities and its programming. “This is all in an effort to provide the best care we can for our patients,” said Dr. John Strachan, director of Behavioral Health Program Excellence at Lourdes. The changes were announced in mid-August of last year. The project had an estimated price tag of $5 million and was completed in the spring. In the past, the Behavioral Health Insti-

tute had been on the hospital’s second floor, but all operations of the institute’s inpatient unit are now on the sixth floor. This allowed for the addition of 7,000 square feet to the unit’s space. The increased space is, in part, to accommodate the addition of a senior/geriatric unit, which will treat patients ages 55 and up, to the Behavioral Health Institute to accompany the already-established adult unit, which treats patients ages 18-54. The unit now has a 34-bed capacity: 19 dedicated adult beds, 10 dedicated senior beds, and five beds between the two that can be used by either unit as needed. Along with the changes to the unit’s space, the programming

Dr. Laurie Ballew

Dr. John Strachan

they offer has changed as well. “We have a whole host of both new and improved services,” said Dr. Laurie Ballew, medical director of the Behavioral Health Institute at Lourdes hospital. That list includes more social work availability, more therapeutic services such as expressive therapy and recreational therapy,

and instruction on life skills. A day spent in the inpatient unit includes attending seven to nine group activities, Strachan said, and these groups focus on these various services and skills.

Submitted photos

Along with adding more space and redesigning their programming, the Lourdes Behavioral Health Institute recently updated the look of their inpatient unit. Staff hope that it has a more therapeutic feel that will help patients on their way toward healing. Below, the addition of 7000 square feet to the Lourdes Behavioral Health Institute allowed for the opening of a geriatric unit, which will treat patients 55 and older. The unit now has a 34-bed capacity, 10 of which are dedicated senior beds.

“When patients come in, it’s not just to take medication,” Ballew said. “What we’re trying to do here, it’s more of a total model of mental health care, rather than just medication.” Strachan believes having the structure of the groups helps patients once they leave the unit to get their lives structured. “It’s not just the content of the group, it’s the process,” Strachan said. “Can they sit in the group and listen, can they connect, can they set boundaries?” Their work at redesigning the groups has paid off. Strachan said

that previously, patients were hesitant to attend the groups, but now the staff are observing patients lining up for the groups before they are asked and acting eager to participate. Debbie Willoughby, Behavioral Health Institute market director of nursing services, said patient satisfaction scores also have been on the rise since the changes. Strachan added that the unit does a test of how effective its treatment has been for patients, and that recent data shows it is producPlease see MENTAL | 11E

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New Pain Management Center’s construction may finish by year’s end BY MALLORY PANUSKA [email protected]

Paducah’s Ambulatory Surgery Center is undergoing big changes with the addition of three new operating rooms, which is made possible by the construction of a new building to house the primary offices for the Pain Management Center. Construction began June 8 on the 30,000 square-foot, two-story building at the corner of Lakeview Drive and Plantation Drive in Lone Oak. According to officials, the facility will house three additional operating rooms associated with the pain management center. Currently, the Ambulatory Surgery and Pain Management centers both operate inside a building at 2831 Lone Oak Road, according to Ray Lane, director of public relations and marketing. Lane said the construction of the new building is a very big deal for the Pain Management Center and for the local health care industry as a whole. Paducah-based A&K Construction is building the new facility, and the architect is JRA Architects out of Lexington. When construction is complete, which is expected by the end of the year, the current building will be dedicated solely to the Ambulatory Surgery Center and its

new specialties, including services outside of ophthalmology and pain management, according to Dr. Laxmaiah Manchikanti, medical director of the Ambulatory Surgery Center and Pain Management Center. Manchikanti said in a news release that pain management services will also be expanded to include multiple other developments in the field and additional staff will be hired to accommodate the need for pain management services. Manchikanti is the founder, chairman of the board and CEO of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, which represents interventional pain physicians across the nation. He has been credited with numerous achievements, including passage of the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER) Act along with many other achievements which maintain patient access for necessary services. According to Lane, interventional pain management is an evolving specialty. The physicians at the Pain Management Center are fellowship trained or board certified and have extensive experience. They also have national and international expertise with more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and publication of 10 books.

Submitted photos

A new Pain Management Center is under construction on the corner of Lakeview Drive and Plantation Drive in Lone Oak. Construction began in June and is slated to finish by the end of the year on the 30,000 square-foot, twostory building. Paducah’s Ambulatory Surgery Center on Lone Oak Road will welcome three new operating rooms when the Pain Management Center moves to a new location under construction across the street.

Dr. Laxmaiah Manchikanti, medical director of the Ambulatory Surgery Center and Pain Management Center on Lone Oak Road in Paducah, is shown performing an interventional pain procedure inside the Ambulatory Surgery Center. The center is set to undergo some renovations to include additional operating rooms when the Pain Management Center moves to a new location under construction across the street.

INTRODUCING THE AREA’S FIRST

STEREOTACTIC RADIOSURGERY FOR BRAIN TUMORS. WHEN IT COMES TO CANCER, WE’RE LEADING THE WAY TO BETTER CARE. Being the first in the area to offer targeted stereotactic radiosurgery to treat brain tumors means a lot to us. And it means more to you. It means advanced cancer care is right here in Paducah. Noninvasive for less damage to healthy tissue and faster recoveries, this new equipment represents a major leap forward in cancer treatment. Our commitment? To deliver the kind of leading cancer care our patients deserve. Baptist Health. The cancer hospital our region prefers 3 to 1.

Baptist Health Medical Group Neurosurgery (from left): Theodore E.C. Davies, MD Thomas J. Gruber, MD Graham C. Hall, MD

PA D U CA H

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Baptist Health offering new cancer treatment BY KAT RUSSELL [email protected]

In an effort to better serve its cancer patients, Baptist Health Paducah has invested $4 million in the latest radiation and brain mapping equipment to add to its already nationally accredited cancer care program. The equipment allows doctors to utilize stereotactic radio surgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy techniques to target cancerous tumors in the brain, breast, spine, liver, lung and other areas of the body. The term stereotactic refers to the use of imaging markers that guide a beam of radiation to the precise spot needing treatment, sparing the rest of the body any unneeded trauma or exposure to radiation. “We’re the only hospital offering stereotactic radio surgery in western Kentucky outside of Louisville and Lexington,” said neurosurgeon Dr. Thomas Gruber. “This is a pretty unique piece of technology that is really going to change the way we’re able to deliver radiation therapy to cancer patients in the region.” From a neurosurgery standpoint, Gruber said, stereotactic radio surgery can spare the patient exposure to excess radiation and the long-term side effects that follow. “More times than not the first treatment for a brain tumor is going to be a surgical treatment but then if the diagnosis is cancer — and there’s a lot of brain tumors that are not cancer — all those patients are

going to need radiation therapy afterwards,” he said. “What we have to do is something called whole-brain radiation, and whole-brain radiation is exactly what it sounds like. They give a tremendous dose of radiation to the entire brain to try to destroy cancer cells that are there so that you don’t get new brain tumors. That, in the short term, is a very good solution and it does a very good job of killing the cancer in the brain.” The problem with whole-brain radiation, Gruber said, is that there are long-term “toxic” side effects for longtime cancer survivors that essentially result in dementia-like symptoms. With stereotactic radio surgery, however, the healthy parts of the brain are spared, Gruber said. “Stereotactic radio surgery allows us to deliver a very, very high dose of radiation to the exact spot where the cancer is,” he said. “So it spares the rest of your normal brain from a high dose of radiation and only exposes it to an exceedingly low dose of radiation. So, you avoid all of the long-term toxic side effects that can come from whole brain radiation.” This too can apply to other forms of cancer in other parts of the body, Gruber said. Another benefit of the stereotactic radio surgery, Gruber said, is that it dramatically reduces the course of treatment from weeks to days. “Whole brain ra-

Submitted photos

Baptist Health nurse practitioner Jonathan Gipson and neurosurgeon Graham C. Hall demonstrate how the stereotactic radio surgery equipment works. The machine, which was acquired by the hospital in July, allows doctors to precisely target cancer affected areas with high doses of radiation while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. Dr. Thomas Gruber (left) is a neurosurgeon at Baptist Health Paducah, where he specializes in emergency care for spine and brain injuries in addition to offering office consults and treatment for patients with neurosurgical conditions. diation treatments take four to six weeks, five days a week,” he said. “So if you have cancer and it spreads to your brain and you need whole-brain radiation, you’re going to go every day to Baptist Health, Monday through Friday, for four to six weeks to get a pre-

scribed dosage. Stereotactic radio surgery is usually a one-day treatment or it might be broken up over a couple of days, but that’s all. So, the convenience factor ... can’t be measured. It’s tremendously more convenient and it’s tremendously more cost efficient, too.”

Gruber said being able to offer patients — the first of whom are being treated this month — the stereotactic radio surgery is an exciting prospect both as a doctor and a caregiver. “It just makes us better at our jobs,” he said. “I mean, this is a better way to treat patients, it’s

better for the patients, we’re giving a better quality of care, and the tumor patients are going to have better long-term control over this with much less side effects.” Contact Kat Russell, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8653.

Jackson Purchase Medical Center boasting development, growth BY MALLORY PANUSKA [email protected]

The hospital also recently received an accreditation from the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

From opening a new behavioral health unit to welcoming a replacement magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, the Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield has been very busy over the last year. CEO Dave Anderson discussed some of the developments, which he said are keeping him very busy. Just before March, the hospital received approval for a certificate of need to launch a 12-bed behavioral health unit. Anderson explained that 12 of the facility’s 106 beds were carved out to make the unit, which he said is currently at capacity. “It’s serving the community very well,” he said. “We’ve had a great reception from the patients and the family members of the patients who have been up there.” The hospital also recently received an accreditation from the American Society of

Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Anderson said only about 400 units in the country have secured the accreditation, which the hospital received this spring. “It’s a big positive,” he said. In early June, the hospital replaced its MRI machine with a new and better one. Anderson said the machine is working great, producing beautiful images and creating shorter scan times. “It’s a really fantastic machine,” he said. “It’s giving us lots of capabilities to image things we couldn’t in the past.” Anderson said the hospital is also growing in almost every area, with the latest venture being plans to partner with Fulton County and open a clinic in Clinton. The sole provider of acute care in Graves County, JPMC draws patients from an eightcounty radius. The facility, located at 1099 Medical Center Circle in Mayfield, was built in 1993 and features a functional, modern design.

MALLORY PANUSKA | The Sun

The Jackson Purchase Medical Center, located at 1099 Medical Center Circle in Mayfield, went through some positive developments over the last year including the welcoming of a new MRI machine and a new behavorial health unit. Submitted photo

Officials say a replacement MRI machine (at left) at the Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield has improved imaging quality and scan times. Pictured above, the machine was installed in the hospital in early June.

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Regional hospitals add hospice facilities BY LAUREL BLACK [email protected]

Two regional hospitals have demonstrated their commitment to end-of-life care by adding residential hospice centers to their facilities. This spring saw the opening of the Ray & Kay Eckstein Hospice Care Center on the grounds of Lourdes hospital, while Murray-Calloway County Hospital continues construction on its Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House, slated to open in December. “It’s really fantastic that we’re both going to be in operation so that this area now has these resources, because it’s badly needed,” Kay Williams, director of Lourdes Hospice and Home Care, said. Williams said the Paducah hospital’s facility has been a dream since the hospice program began in 1983. Lourdes currently provides hospice and palliative care to patients in 13 Kentucky counties and three counties in Illinois. The Ray & Kay Eckstein Hospice Care Center, located on the main campus of Lourdes, opened to the public in April after years of development and fundraising. The $5 million, 10,000-squarefoot residential facility offers 10 beds for acute inpatient and respite care. The hospice care center also features a small chapel and a serenity garden, plus private

Submitted photo

The Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House stands on a 5-acre tract off State Route 94 West in Calloway County. When it opens in December, the facility will offer six beds, a family pavilion, a children’s playground, a memory garden, laundry facilities and other amenities that allow residents to feel more at home while receiving end-of-life care. outdoor patios for each room, and laundry facilities and kitchens in each suite. It’s intended to give patients in their final months, weeks or days of life a homelike setting where they can be surrounded by family. “(Families) are using the space the way we dreamed it could be used,” Williams said. “It seems to be creating a great environment for them to have the quality time that they need and not worry about the space restrictions (or) the visiting hours.” She added that stays at the care center last only a short while and that Medicare, Medicaid

and most private insurances pay for them, provided that patients meet the service requirements. Williams said concern with end-of-life care has grown in the region, and that physicians and nursing staff are beginning to take a more individualized approach to handling these matters. “We’re trying to reach out in different ways to make sure we meet people’s needs where they are at the right time. I think that’s where we’re going as a health care industry,” Williams said. “We’ve got to be judicious about making sure the plan of care

doesn’t just focus on what’s possible, but ... on the patient’s goals and the family’s goals.” Sherri Boyd, hospice director at Murray-Calloway County Hospital, said the community’s backing of the Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House — funded mostly by private donations — is proof that it will provide a necessary service in the area. “I know that Calloway County and Murray as a community seem to be much more focused (on hospice care), because this building would not be happening if not for the donations of this community. They be-

lieve in this hospital. It’s not one that generates a huge revenue, but it is a service that is needed,” she said. Murray’s hospice program has existed since 1978, according to Keith Travis, vice president of development at MCCH. Work on the $3.5 million residential hospice facility began seven years ago, and is expected to be completed in just a few months. When finished, the facility on Ky. 94 West will offer patients six beds, a family pavilion, a memory garden and a children’s playground. It also will feature a family kitchen and an onsite laundry service

for patients and their families. Both hospice care centers are seeking more support from their communities. Lourdes is hoping for more volunteers to do clerical work at the hospice house or visit patients in their homes or assisted care facilities. Interested volunteers can contact Volunteer Coordinator Susan Mason at 270-415-3640. Murray’s center also can use volunteers and continued donations, Boyd said. More information about how to get involved with Murray’s hospice program is available at 270-7621908.

Clinic makes health care accessible to school community BY GENEVIEVE POSTLETHWAIT gpostlethwait@paducahsun. com

Last year and for many years before, if high school students or teachers in McCracken County needed to see a doctor, they had to leave school, go sit in a waiting room, or possibly wait days for an appointment and then go somewhere else if they needed to fill a prescription. For students who couldn’t yet drive that meant parents had to miss time at work to make all this happen. Every time a sickness creeped in, valuable hours of school and work were missed. But things just got a whole lot simpler. In partnership with Four Rivers Behavioral Health, Baptist Health Paducah now offers a medical and mental health clinic inside McCracken County High School that is open to students, staff and parents every school day. It serves Baptist’s goal of improving access to care in the community, and it serves the school’s goal of keeping kids and teachers in class. In short, it’s a win for all involved. “For the school community it will reduce absences with the students,” said Teresa Morgan, the MCHS clinic’s nurse practitioner. “They can get things taken care of right here during the day instead of having to leave and sit in some waiting room. That’s the goal of the school clinic, and of

GENEVIEVE POSTLETHWAIT/The Sun

From this school year forward, when students and staff at McCracken County High School fall ill they can get prompt medical attention from Baptist Health’s Teresa Morgan without ever leaving the school building. In partnership with Four Rivers Behavioral Health, Baptist Health Paducah has installed a full-time nurse practitioner and a behavioral health counselor within the high school to provide the school community with preventive and acute healthcare. Words of health wisdom (shown above) are written on the walls of the nurse’s office at McCracken County High School, words the school’s new Baptist Health clinic hopes to live by as well.

course keeping everybody healthier with preventive care.” If students or teachers come down with a contagious illness like the flu or strep, Morgan can catch it early and make sure they get home before spreading the illness to anyone else. Morgan can even send necessary prescriptions to her patient’s pharmacy of choice, further simplifying the process. Morgan can also offer all of the routine vaccinations and physicals required at different stages for staff and students, like sports physicals or new employee physicals. Since the clinic has its

own entrance, allowing patients to come in without necessarily going through the school building, parents are also welcome to take advantage of the clinic’s services. This school year Baptist and Four Rivers also established clinics in the Heath area, as well as a clinic at Paducah Tilghman, though Tilghman’s clinic is open only to staff and students due to its location on the school’s second floor. The clinic is in the process of constructing a sound-proof room within the clinic for Four Rivers’ confidential counseling services, a critical part of what

the clinic has to offer. “When students come in here, they’ll have privacy,” Morgan said. “No one will know if they’re coming in to see me or the counselor. You lose that stigma of walking into a counselor’s office. Nobody will know.” The clinic’s services are meant to supplement, not replace those offered by students’ and staff’s primary care providers, Morgan stressed. Any and every time Morgan sees patients, she will contact their primary care provider if they have one so that the visit can be included in their medical records. “The hospital’s reason for doing this

is to improve access to care,” said Dona Rains, Baptist Health community outreach coordinator. “We discover every three years when we do our community health needs assessment, that’s always an issue. We’re always looking for ways we can get into the community to make it easier for people to get the routine, primary health care that they need.” At the high school, Baptist is able to reach a community of about 2,200 students and staff, plus parents and siblings who wish to take advantage of the clinic’s services, which thrills the hospital. That’s a community larger than

some small towns. In planning for the new clinics, Baptist was determined to have a Baptist Health nurse practitioner and a Four Rivers counselor available to students each and every school day — that was a sticking point. “We just thought it was really important to have somebody on the campus every day,” Rains said. “It’s just nice to know you can count on it.” “Because you can’t plan an illness, can you?” Morgan said. Contact Genevieve Postlethwait, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270575-8651.

Hospitals & Health Care

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The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • 9E

Baptist Health’s EP lab keeping patients local BY JOSHUA ROBERTS [email protected]

Baptist Health Paducah has long been known as the region’s top hospital for cardiac care, according to Hospital President William A. Brown, and there are milestones in its history to support the contention. In the past 30 years, the hospital has conducted the region’s first open-heart surgery, and established the first heart center and chest pain center. Baptist recorded another achievement in January when it opened the area’s first fullservice electrophysiology lab inside the heart center. The EP lab diagnoses and treats irregular heartbeat — known as arrhythmia — and problems with the heart’s electrical system. The EP lab complements the heart center, hospital officials said, by having four catheterization labs, a hybrid operating room, and state-of-the-art noninvasive cardiac testing with equipment such as the latest nuclear camera, cardiac MRI and vascular technologies. One of the new lab’s primary benefits is providing better treatment options for patients while also being more convenient, hospital officials said. “It’s been great. We’ve been able to keep patients more in our community rather than always sending them to different areas,” said Elisha Richardson, a cardiovascular nurse

Dr. Muhammad Akram

William Brown

Elisha Richardson

Submitted photo

Baptist Health Paducah launched the area’s first full-service electrophysiology lab inside its heart center in January. The lab diagnoses and treats irregular heartbeat, known as arrhythmia, and problems with the heart’s electrical system. The new EP lab is another achievement for the hospital, which has built a tradition in the last 30 years for cardiac care treatment options. Hospital officials said the new EP lab has been a benefit for patients, keeping more of them local for treatment rather losing patients to Nashville, St. Louis and Louisville. manager. “It’s been a huge patient satisfier for them and their families being able to stay local.” Before the lab opened,

she said, “people would choose to go to Nashville, St. Louis, Louisville. (Now) they’ve been able to have office

visits here locally and now they’re even able to have EP procedures locally.” EP disorders are com-

mon, affecting about 2.7 million Americans per year, according to Baptist. Symptoms are typically dizziness, palpitations or fainting, and left untreated arrhythmia can lead to sudden cardiac death. Richardson, who has been in cardiac care for 20 years and oversees about 30 employees, said people can live with an irregular heartbeat for years without issues. “But then symptoms will gradually start appearing,” she said. “With some irregularities, you have risk of stroke and other high-risk conditions. To be followed by an EP physician so that you can stay on top of the management of the issue is a big benefit.” “If you were a new patient and you came in with those symptoms – dizziness, palpitations or fainting – into our ER here at Baptist, you would be referred to the cardiologists that are here and they would do a full cardiac work up to rule out different possibilities and then put you in that specialty area.” Dr. Muhammad Akram, one of three EP lab specialists, said an EP cardiologist is “like the electrician — we fix the wiring system of the heart.” Akram said a normal heart contracts and relaxes to a normal beat, but an irregular beat develops when upper chambers quiver instead of beat as blood moves through ventricles. People with this condition have an increased chance of

The EP lab diagnoses and treats irregular heartbeat — known as arrhythmia — and problems with the heart’s electrical system. EP disorders are common, affecting about 2.7 million Americans per year, according to Baptist. stroke, heart failure and blood clots. Baptist Health now has abilities equal to institutions it previously lost patients to concerning cardiac care, he said. “We have the same ability here to perform mapping and ablation procedures to treat arrhythmia,” Akram said. Brown said Baptist Health is pleased to provide the “latest treatments close to home for these common, but serious heart problems.” Richardson said the EP lab was on the hospital’s “radar for many years,” and represents a significant investment. “We’re real appreciative Baptist Health took a chance on it, and we hope to grow the business and keep being a successful place within the heart center,” she said.

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10E • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • The Paducah Sun

Hospitals & Health Care

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Submitted photos

A large crane  is used to guide Marshall County Hospital’s new MRI machine into the facility’s new MRI center. The center was a joint venture of Marshall County Hospital and Lourdes hospital of Paducah.   Construction workers (top, left) guide the new MRI machine into its home in Draffenville at the Marshall County Hospital MRI center, which opened on March 16.   This MRI machine is now in use at Marshall County Hospital’s new MRI center in Draffenville. Hospital CEO David Fuqua said the machine is capable of capturing images of orthopedic patients’ joint replacements and surgical implants, which was not possible with older MRI technology. 

New MRI center brings technology, convenience to patients BY KAT RUSSELL [email protected]

Paducah’s Lourdes hospital and Marshall County Hospital teamed earlier this year to build a new state-of-the-art MRI center on the Marshall hospital campus in Draffenville. The center opened March 16. The center serves doctors from both the Marshall hospital as well as Lourdes’ physicians that are based in the area. “We have a fairly large primary care site

in Marshall County in Draffenville … and we have close to a dozen primary providers at that site,” said Kelly Nicholls, chief network integration officer at Lourdes hospital. Nicholls said the joint venture came about when both hospitals were looking into purchasing MRI equipment, and instead of each facility purchasing a machine, it made more sense to pool their resources and

Kelly Nicholls invest in a higher and more advanced level of technology.

Bought with orthopedic patients in mind, the MRI is ideal for treating patients who have undergone joint replacement surgery and possibly need what is called a revision procedure, or a replacement of the old implant, Nicholls said. It’s details the new machine can see that makes it ideal for such patients, said David Fuqua, Marshall County Hospital’s chief executive officer. “It’s pretty awesome,”

he said. “With the older machines, if you had a patient who has had screws put in or some type of replacement, you can’t MRI them because when you do and you look at the images, it looks like a big black blob. “With this machine, you can see that hardware … the technology is such that you can actually see the threads on that screw. It’s just remarkable.” “Marshall County

Hospital now houses the most advanced MRI technology equipment in the region,” Nicholls said. “And by our hospitals partnering together it allows us to really work together to say ‘it’s not so much about competition anymore in this industry, it’s about being able to partner together so that we can manage the lives and take care of the lives that we’ve Please see MRI | 13E

Hospitals & Health Care

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The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • 11E

Submitted photos

Caldwell Medical Center is located in Princeton. The Swing Bed program at Caldwell Medical Center is open to patients who are transferring between hospital stays and rehabilitation treatments. The program’s staff include (back row, from left), Ashleigh Dalton, registered nurse, case manager and Swing Bed coordinator; Michael Blythe, physical therapist assistant; Kayla Kukahiko, physical therapist; April Nichols, certified nursing assistant and restorative aide; (front row, from left) Gina Croft, occupational therapist; Penny Mahan, physical therapist assistant; and Linda Ortt, certified occupational therapist assistant. Not pictured is Mandy Phelps, certified nursing assistant and restorative aide.

The overall goal of the program is to provide patients whose hospital stays are complete, but who may need some more resources than what they have at home.

Swing Bed transitions patients from hospital to home BY LAUREN P. DUNCAN Bed coordinator. [email protected] “It’s a program that At Caldwell Medical helps people transition Center in Princeton, pa- from an acute hospitients who are ready to tal stay to back home. go home but may need Our goal for Swing Bed more time to recover (patients) is to get them have an option between home,” Dalton said. the hospital, home and Because many people a nursing home: the who’ve had short hospiSwing Bed program. tal stays might still need Swing Bed is a 24therapy following their hour skilled nursing release, the goal of the program that allows Swing Bed program is patients to remain on to provide those therapy the hospital campus services on-site. while they undergo reIt eliminates the need hab therapy, explained for travel for newly Ashleigh Dalton, Swing released patients who

may have to leave home once or twice a day for therapy appointments shortly after leaving the hospital. The program isn’t only for those who have been through treatment at Caldwell Medical Center. It’s open to anyone who wants to participate in the therapy treatment at the center, Dalton said. For example, the hospital sees many patients who have been in hospitals in Paducah and other cities but

want to go through therapy closer to home near Princeton. Patients will typically stay in the program from one to three weeks, Dalton said. Patients can receive skilled rehabilitation services at the center including physical and occupational rehab. The program requires that patients have been in the hospital for at least three days prior to taking part in Swing Bed. It’s open to those who

have daily needs, such as dressing changes or IV antibiotics. Other conditions that qualify for the program include post-surgical orthopedic conditions, wounds that are not healing well or need special care, a need for respiratory care treatments, tube feedings for colostomy or ileostomy care or those with needs for rehab therapies. The overall goal of the program is to provide patients whose hospital stays are complete, but

who may need some more resources than what they have at home. Dalton said they’ll also see patients who perhaps may be able to go home or stay with relatives, but want to remain independent. “A lot of people still have family support, it’s just that they want to be independent,” Dalton said. “It’s mainly that they don’t want to be that hindrance, they want to stay and get that therapy.”

where patients come for a shorter period of time and visit less frequently. When the structural and program changes were announced last year, Lourdes President and CEO Steven Grinnell said one of the goals of the changes was to reduce the prevalence of mental illness in the region Lourdes serves. Strachan said they discharge, on average, 100 to 120 patients each month from the inpatient unit, and Ballew provided some information on just how common mental illness is in the area. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six counties in western Kentucky rank in the top 15 in the state for completed suicides. Carlisle County is

the top-ranked county in the area at No. 4, followed by Hickman at No. 6, Marshall at No. 9, Ballard at No. 12, McCracken at No. 13, and Fulton at No. 15. Ballew couldn’t spotlight any particular reason why western Kentuckians have a high rate of suicide, both attempted and completed, and depression. However, she did say it was an issue with which

she and her team want to help. What sets the Lourdes Behavioral Health Institute apart from similar units, they believe, is the certifications that their staff either have or are working toward. One of their goals, Willoughby said, is for all of the behavioral health staff to be certified in their field. “All of our staff will have some kind of

national certification or credential, which moves our unit up to a high quality-based practice,” Strachan said. Overall, the behavioral health providers are happy with the state of behavioral health treatment at Lourdes. “We’re really pleased with where we are,” Strachan said, “and we have even more great things we hope to do in the future.”

MENTAL CONTINUED FROM 5E

ing some of the highest scores in the nation. Staff from other units will visit the behavioral health unit for consultations as patients need them. “Dietary, physical therapy, occupational therapy; whatever our patients’ needs are, we will bring someone in on their treatment to help them,” Willoughby said. Willoughby expects they’ll see an increase in their use of these services within the new senior unit, which opened Aug. 3. However, inpatient services are not the only component of the behavioral health offerings at Lourdes. It also has several levels of outpatient services.

“We have the whole range: inpatient, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient and regular outpatient,” Ballew said. The partial hospitalization program is a new program which allows patients to spend the night in their own homes, but come to the hospital during the day to continue to receive care. The intensive outpatient program is a step down from that; in this program, patients come for three hours, three days a week. Ballew said these programs are vital for patients who require more than a weekly visit, but don’t need the intensity of a full stay in the inpatient unit. To complete the spectrum, Lourdes also offers outpatient services

now offers a brand new MRI suite and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Marty Fulbright! Dr. Fulbright practices full-time with the Marshall County Medical Group in the Haltom Medical Office Building, adjacent to the hospital. Dr. Fulbright graduated from the Medical University of South Carolina and completed his residency training at the University of South Carolina Medical Center in Columbia. He came to us from Parkway Regional Hospital in Fulton, Kentucky. Appointments may be made by calling 270-527-2411. 615 Old Symsonia Road * Benton, Kentucky www.marshallcountyhospital.org

12E • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • The Paducah Sun

Hospitals & Health Care

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Lourdes opens structural heart, valve clinic BY DAVID ZOELLER [email protected]

Patients with heart valve problems will no longer have to travel several hours for specialized care and treatment, with the opening of Lourdes hospital’s new structural heart and valve clinic. The new clinic, located on the fourth floor of the Lourdes Medical Pavilion, will open Sept. 10. A grand opening will be held Sept. 30. Dr. Shawn Flynn, who specializes in cardiology, structural heart and internal medicine, and Dr. James O’Rourke, a cardiothoracic surgeon, will lead a team approach to treating patients with structural heart disease using a range of treatments and minimally invasive techniques. “Basically, the goal (of the clinic) is to focus specifically on patients that have heart and valve problems and their treatment,” Flynn said. Flynn graduated from the University of Louisville and the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He completed a structural heart disease fellowship at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, and a cardiology and interventional cardiology fellowship at the University of Arkansas. While some people are born with a heart valve that can become stuck, the majority of patients develop valve issues as they get older, Flynn said. Structural heart disease includes a number of conditions that interrupt the natural flow of blood through the heart’s valves and chambers, Flynn said. Two common issues are aortic stenosis, when the aortic valve becomes “stuck,” and mitral valve regurgitation, where the mitral valve allows blood to leak backwards into the heart. Advances in technology allow for less invasive surgical treatments, and

Dr. Shawn Flynn

Dr. James O’Rourke less recovery time in the hospital, Flynn said. “Surgery is still the gold standard for heart valve disorders,” Flynn said. The less invasive procedures will benefit patients deemed too high a risk for conventional open heart surgery. As an example, Flynn said an 80-year-old patient who may also have an underlying issue like lung disease, and be short of breath due to both conditions, can still benefit from treatment. “We can help them live longer from a valve standpoint,” Flynn said. The patient could still have some underlying problem, but “we can improve and maximize what they have.” Flynn will work in tandem with O’Rourke in the clinic. “Dr. O’Rourke has been spearheading moving in this direction,” Flynn said. “It’s a great credit to him that Lourdes is where it is today” with the opening of the clinic. “We’re going with a new paradigm shift in the treatment of heart valve disease at Lourdes,” O’Rourke said. Previously, patients would have to travel to St. Louis or

Submitted photos

Patient procedures stemming from the structural heart and valve clinic at Lourdes hospital will be performed in the new hybrid operating room. Dr. Shawn Flynn (right) and Shay Lynn Kirk, valve clinic coordinator, review equipment in Lourdes’ new structural heart and valve clinic.

Nashville to receive the kind of treatment the clinic will provide. “Dr. Flynn is the first structural heart fellow trained in interventional cardiology in western Kentucky,” O’Rourke said. He agreed the collaboration will be a team approach. According to O’Rourke, many patients with heart valve issues have been undiagnosed or untreated because the symptoms can be more subtle. In the past, physicians who are not cardiologists may have relied on the ability to detect a heart murmur during a physical exam to diagnose the problem. The move toward

Tilghman students take close look at health care careers BY GENEVIEVE POSTLETHWAIT [email protected]

Paducah Tilghman students interested in health and medical careers now have an unprecedented chance to get a taste for hospital life, up close and personal, as early as their sophomore year. In partnership with Baptist Health Paducah, Tilghman offers a newand-improved version of the Paducah Area Technology Center’s Health Occupations class inside Baptist Health’s Heart Center. Every weekday at 12:30 p.m. the inaugural class of 16 students walks across Kentucky Avenue to Baptist Health’s Heart Center and into their classroom, outfitted just for them. Just on the other side of the classroom’s southwest wall, heart surgeries are taking place. The proximity to the medical action was a big selling point for students, and once they go

taking the Health Octhrough all the required cupations class got field training, prep and immunizations they’ll experience in nursing homes. Relocating the actually get to see it for class to the hospital themselves, outside the classroom and inside the allows students to gain experience in a much medical units throughout the hospital. broader range of medical careers, possibly some “I want to be a travel they never would have nurse, so I thought this considered. would be a good op“What’s neat is we portunity to shadow the doctors and nurses here have kids who are interested in, not just nursbecause you never know ing, but kids who want really what exactly you to go into surgical tech, want to go into until you maybe they want to be a actually experience it,” doctor, maybe they want said Nyla Blue, a senior to be some type of physiat Tilghman and one cian’s assistant,” Black of the first 16 students said. “Suddenly kids are to take the class. “I was thinking about the propretty amazed at how close we are to surgeries, gram differently, and a and that we’re actually in lot of that is the relationship that we’re building the Heart Center where with the hospital that’s there are real patients. causing that interest to Being so close to somegrow.” thing like that is really “We want to get them exciting.” in and show them what Assistant Superintendent Will Black said that they can do,” said Dona just moving the class Rains, Baptist Health community outreach to Baptist has created coordinator. “They’ll be an incredible interest among students. In previous years, students Please see STUDENTS | 13E

structural heart health “is capturing those patients that have up to now been undiagnosed,” O’Rourke said. “The treatment for heart valve issues has changed dramatically,”

he said. “The only answer used to be major, open heart surgery. That is no longer the case. The clinic will reach out to practitioners in our region, and help identify patients

with heart valve disease. Not everyone is going to need surgery, but they all need follow-up.” Contact David Zoeller, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8676.

Call Dr. Ted , e m l l a c u o y n e Wh You‘ll see me every time • Prevention • Assessment • Treatment • Rehabilitation • Education Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon, Strength & Conditioning Specialists Computer Assisted Total Knee Surgery & Minimally Invasive Surgery Western Baptist Hospital Doctor’s Office Building #3 Suite 602 2605 Kentucky Avenue • Paducah, KY 42003 270.442.2449

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The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • 13E

Murray-Calloway County Hospital takes hybrid approach Staff report

Murray-Calloway County Hospital is dedicated to providing top quality care to residents of Murray, Calloway County and throughout the region. The hospital recently upgraded its heart catheterization and vascular surgery capability all wrapped in one of the largest hybrid operating rooms in western Kentucky. In turn, vascular and heart catheterization technology came up-to-date, just as important, more room for physicians to work. “Our Hybrid OR is very spacious. This allows us to be able to fully utilize the sophisticated radiology equipment to its fullest potential,” said Jill Asher, director of Perioperative Services at Murray-Calloway County Hospital. “Having advanced imaging technology is beneficial.

It means less radiation emission for our patients and for our staff. It’s much safer.”

Precision performance “Our new hybrid operating room is used for all types of peripheral arterial procedures, as well as other procedures that need high resolution imaging,” said Dr. James Craig Dowdy, vascular surgeon. “This could include anything from the placement of pacemakers to the repair of aneurysms in the abdomen to a variety of other minimally invasive surgeries.” The key difference between procedures that are performed in a hybrid OR and those in a standard OR is the ability to conduct high-resolution imaging during the actual surgery. The hybrid OR

features a C-arm imaging system, an X-ray that provides images in real time. This allows surgeons to immediately view the desired area in great detail. “Higher-quality images mean shorter procedures,” said Dr. Nathaniel Dittoe, cardiologist. “Our patients are able to return to their daily lives and activities more quickly than with a traditional procedure.” Because procedures can be performed with greater precision, patients experience shorter hospital stays and faster recovery times. If more procedures are needed, they are typically performed on an outpatient basis. “Being able to convert from a diagnostic to an interventional procedure is advantageous for our patients,” Asher said. “It can prevent a second trip to the

Submitted photo by Melony Bray/Murray-Calloway County Hospital

A C-arm surgical imaging unit is visible in the foreground of the new hybrid operating room at Murray-Calloway County Hospital. operating room. Our surgeons can inject dye into the cardiac or vascular system, assess the problem, and fix it right then. All of this can be safely done in the hybrid OR.”

Quality care in the community “Our surgeons are very talented and we are happy to have this amazing equipment to facilitate their proce-

STUDENTS

dures,” Asher said. “We are thankful to be able to offer this state-of-theart, big city technology right here in our small town.” When patients are able to stay close to home for their medical care, the stress of travel and being away from their families is eliminated so they can focus on healing. “The hybrid OR setup really facilitates a team approach, which in turn

enables us to provide better and more thorough care,” Dr. Dowdy said. “In this difficult economic time for small, community hospitals, we want patients to know that the MurrayCalloway County Hospital staff, administration, and physicians are doing everything in our power to bring the highest quality facilities and care to our hometown patients.”

MRI

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exposed to everything, even the non-clinical careers like marketing and finance and all the other jobs in this community of 1,800 people here. We have a lot going on for them to see.” High schools throughout Kentucky offer health occupations classes, but this Tilghman-Baptist partnership is the first of its kind in the state. At the course’s end, students who pass a final exam can become certified nursing assistants. If they’re up for it, Baptist will put them to work, Dona said. “There are all kinds of advantages just by starting this now,” she said. “If they go straight from high school to college, they can be working here part time, going to school, and then we also have some wonderful incentives for students getting their nursing degrees.” Both Baptist and Paducah Public Schools are interested in strengthening students’ ties to the community in hopes they’ll stay, or if they do go away, that they’ll eventually come back. Building stronger relationships between students and the community — especially possible future employers — is one of PPS’s strategic goals moving forward. “It’s a three-way win: It’s a win for the kids, because they get a more personalized education. It’s a win for us and it’s a win for the hospital. And if you consider the community, it’s a four-way win,” Black said. “What students get to see just coming to the classroom is an experience that they can’t get anywhere else.” The program is starting out small with only 16 students during a two hour block every afternoon. Tilghman and Baptist hope to see the program grow, however, expanding to a full day of classes in order to offer the class’s unique opportunities to more students. Health Occupations

been blessed to see in our primary care sites.’” Additionally, Nicholls added, before the new center opened, Marshall County residents had to trek to Paducah or a further site to get the imaging services they needed. “The amount of time it takes to drive to and from can be greater than the amount of time it takes just to get an MRI,” Fuqua said. And that inconvenience, Nicholls said, could deter patients from following their physicians’ suggestions. “Part of the movement toward health reform really involved making care more convenient. The thing that we center our thoughts around is making sure that we deliver the right care at the right place at the right time.” By adding the new facility, Nicholls said, not only can patients get top-notch quality imaging services, but they can get it close to home and without

GENEVIEVE POSTLETHWAIT/The Sun

Paducah Area Technology Center instructor Kelly Watkins takes questions from the first group of students to take Paducah Tilghman’s new Health Occupations class taught within the Baptist Health Paducah Heart Center.

instructor Kelly Watkins is almost as excited for the new class as her students. Especially for the younger students, classes like this one give them a chance to determine early on if the medical field is something they really want to pursue. And for those who absolutely do want to move forward in preparing for medical careers, the class at Baptist will offer students incredible hands-on experience they just couldn’t get before, Kelly said. “They’re actually going to be able to go shadow physicians and see

surgeries or lab work or physical therapy or just anything they’re interested in,” Watkins said. “The visual aspect of it is what excites me. Because we can learn about it in a book, but until you actually see it, it doesn’t make that much of an impression.” Once students fulfill all the protocol and immunization requirements for Baptist Health, they’ll start wearing Tilghman blue scrubs to class, pinned with their very own hospital badges. They’re going to present the students with their name

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tags just like they would nurses in a pinning ceremony, Rains said. “It’s really a very important moment,” Watkins said with excitement. “I still have my very first name tag. It’s an honor, really, to get your first official badge.” Contact Genevieve Postlethwait, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270575-8651.

having to wait days or a week for an appointment. “It’s really about doing everything that we can do make health care easy for the patients and the families that we serve,” she said. “If it’s easy, then they’ll be more likely to comply with the treatment plan that their physician has laid out.” Fuqua said the key to the joint venture working stems from the two hospitals sharing similar beliefs about patient care. “I think the partnership itself has gone very, very well. We both have the belief that as health care continues it’s going to be these kinds of partnerships that’s going to win the day and not so much competing,” he said. “We’re hoping that as we get into this and see how it works and how it does that there’s the possibility that there’s other things that maybe these organizations can do together that will provide value to the community.” Contact Kat Russell, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8653. 

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Hospitals & Health Care

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The Paducah Sun • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • 15E

Caldwell Medical Center upgrades CT scanner BY DAVID ZOELLER [email protected]

Caldwell Medical Center has enhanced its radiology services with the addition of a new Philips Ingenuity 128-slice CT scanner. CT (computed tomography) scanners combine X-rays with advanced computer processing technology to create detailed images of internal organs and structures. The 128-slice scanner replaces the Princeton hospital’s Philips Brilliance CT 16-slice unit, increasing the technology eight-fold. According to CEO Charles Lovell, it is important for the hospital to continue to maintain and upgrade its equipment in its effort to serve Caldwell and Lyon counties and the surrounding area. “We are extremely excited with the installation of our new 128-slice CT scanner,”

Submitted photo

Caldwell Medical Center has enhanced its radiology services with the addition of a new Philips Ingenuity 128-slice CT scanner. Lovell said. “I feel pretty confident in saying that Caldwell Medical Center

is one of the very few hospitals of our size, especially in our area,

to have a scanner with the newest technology as the Philips Ingenuity has.” According to Sandy Stephens, radiology director, the new CT scanner allows technologists to significantly reduce the (radiation) dose, depending on the patient’s body type. “It allows us to meet the patient’s needs by maintaining quality imaging at a lower dose and at higher speed,” Stephens said. While the time necessary to perform certain protocols, such as obtaining a patient’s history, will not change, the scanning process will take less time, she said. “There is a built-in time frame for patient questioning and preparation, but the (patient’s) time on the table will be decreased,” Stephens said. A scan that previously would have taken 30

seconds, for instance, now takes about 10 seconds. The new CT scanner also has an injector interface, allowing the scanner and power injector to work together providing a “more consistent result from one technician to another, and from one patient to another,” Stephens said. “Our technologists are extremely excited about the new technology and what it affords our patients,” Stephens said. In addition to maintaining image quality, enhancing speed and lower dosages, the scanner will also allow the hospital to increase radiology services as the need arises, Stephens said. “As we grow, this new scanner will grow with us,” Stephens said. “We have the technology to do a lot more things than we’re doing right now.” CT scans are “pretty

much indispensable for physicians,” Stephens said, because they can diagnose so many abnormalities and diseases. According to Stephens, when the hospital was looking in to how best to comply with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association’s new standards for dose optimization and management in CT equipment, “it made more sense to get a new scanner versus update the old one.” On April 1, 2014, President Barack Obama signed into law the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014. Beginning in 2016, Medicare will pay less for certain diagnostic CT scans performed on CT equipment that does not meet the new standards. Contact David Zoeller, a Paducah Sun staff writer, at 270-575-8676.

Livingston Hospital sees growth, advancement Staff report

In the last year Livingston Hospitals and Healthcare Services Inc., a network of clinics and medical centers in Livingston County, has seen an increase in patients, upgrades in medical equipment, the opening of a new facility and the continued commitment to delivering the highest standard of patient care, said Mark Edwards, LHHS chief executive officer. In July 2014, the Livingston Hospital Foundation Inc. received IRS approval and was officially started. Crissy Carter, a native of Livingston County, was named executive director. Carter’s responsibilities include developing, implementing, and coordinating a complete philanthropy program, which will include annual giving opportunities, major gifts solicitation and a planned giving program that will continually benefit the hospital’s services and patients. Funds raised through the foundation will be used to enhance facilities, purchase new technology and equip-

ment, and provide assistance to patients in need. Livingston also welcomed a new surgeon to its staff in May 2014. Dr. Demetrius Patton, a board certified general surgeon, has been in practice for approximately 20 years. He earned his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed his residency in general surgery at North ShoreLong Island Jewish Health System. Additionally, LHHS acquired new ultrasound technology, laboratory analyzers and digital mammography equipment, Edwards said. “With these state-ofthe art technologies, the hospital can continue to deliver the highest quality care to our patients utilizing the most advanced technology available,” he said. On April 21, 2014, Livingston Hospital opened the LHHS Family Care Walk-In Clinic inside its emergency department. The clinic offers patients non-emergency or urgent care and no appointments are necessary. Clinic hours are

Submitted photo

Over the last year, Livingston Hospitals and Healthcare Services Inc., a network of clinics and medical centers in Livingston County, has seen an increase in patients. At one facility, the Grand Lakes Rural Health Clinic, the patient load tripled in 2014. 6 to 10 p.m. on weeknights, 1 to 10 p.m. on Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. “Livingston Hospital and Healthcare Services realized many accomplishments during 2014, even as the health care industry continues unprecedented transformation,” Edwards said. “The hospital has an exceptional board of directors, medical staff and hospital staff that care deeply about this hospital, the quality of care delivered to our patients and the communities we serve.” In addition to its medical services, the hospital has also had a significant economic

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impact in Livingston County, Edwards noted. Employing 178 employees, Livingston Hospital is one of the largest employers in the county. “For the local economy, the hospital is much more than a place to go for health services,” he said. “The hospital supports local services on many different levels, such as schools and businesses, and cares for those in the community who are unable to pay for needed care.” Edwards also noted the hospital plays an active role in the community outside its walls. “The hospital continues to maintain an active involvement in the com-

munity by participating in community events and promoting wellness in the communities we serve,” he said. “LHHS partnered with the Pennyrile Area Health Department and the University of Kentucky to develop a community health needs assessment plan which will address unmet health needs and to promote health and well-being through health screenings, health fairs, and taking active roles in our service area.” However, Livingston Hospital wasn’t the only LHHS facility that had a good year, Edwards said. Others saw an in-

crease in patients. At one, the Grand Lakes Rural Health Clinic, the patient load tripled in 2014. Edwards also noted that the Eddyville Family Medical Rural Health Clinic also saw growth last year as it further expanded its services in Lyon County and welcomed a new family nurse practitioner to its staff. Leah Tramble, practice administrator of both the Grand Lakes Eddyville clinics, noted that she is “very proud of the staff at both clinics for the care they provide to patients in a personal, compassionate and professional manner.”

16E • Sunday, August 30, 2015 • The Paducah Sun

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