Exceptional Experiences at Community Health Network

Our town hall meeting was a great success – with 100 people in person and over 125 viewers online at one point!

Thanks to everyone for your help!

The care of a patient who has experienced the loss of a pregnancy, newborn or infant does not end when the patient goes home from the doctor’s office, emergency department or hospital. That is when Community’s support programs, known as Open Arms both at Community Hospital Anderson and at Community’s Indianapolis hospitals, offer services to help parents through the grieving process. Each December, memorial services are held in Anderson and Indianapolis to bring together families who have experienced a loss.

“We have families who have come for several years in a row,” says Joni Cutshaw, R.N., bereavement coordinator for Open Arms. “This is often the one time of the year that parents say their baby’s name.”

The memorial service at Community Hospital Anderson was held at the hospital on Thursday, December 18. Dick True, chaplain, led the service. A mother who experienced a loss at 38 weeks shared what has helped her get through the holidays. Another mom who lost her baby at 37 weeks sang. Attendees were invited to share their experience with the group, and gathered at the end of the service for refreshments and fellowship. “It’s very uplifting to the families,” says Ruthie Smith, LPN, maternal child support services coordinator. “It’s something that we do in the community that is very special to these families, and they appreciate that we remember them.”

The Indianapolis memorial service took place on December 4 at Ellenberger United Church of Christ, near Community Hospital East, and followed a similar format. Approximately 25 families gathered for a sermon offering words of encouragement and a candle-lighting ceremony to remember each loss. This year a 13-year-old, whose mother has experienced three losses, played the harp, and Lorraine Garner, OB tech at Community Hospital North, played the organ. At the end of the service, families gathered for refreshments and fellowship. Parents were presented with a memory book and angel ornament, compliments of the Community Health Network Foundation. “This is an opportunity for parents to remember their baby at the beginning of the season, and it helps them to then enjoy their holiday,” says Cutshaw.

Community’s pregnancy, infant and newborn loss support services are available to all parents, regardless of whether they are patients at Community. Likewise, programs at other area hospitals welcome parents who may have experienced a loss at Community. For more information on these memorial services and other programs throughout the year, please visit https://www.ecommunity.com/openarms/.

Community Health Network, The Indiana Heart Hospital and cardiovascular physician practices are uniting services, creating a new structure to deliver an integrated model for heart and vascular care in central Indiana.  Beginning January 1st, these integrated services will be called Community Heart and Vascular to reflect the comprehensive cardiovascular services offered, including hospital, ambulatory and physician sites of care.

“We strongly believe that integrating hospital and physician care more closely will benefit patients,” says Tom Malasto, current CEO of The Indiana Heart Hospital and CEO of Community Heart and Vascular. “These new integrated relationships set the highest standards for heart and vascular care and will allow us to meet a growing demand for cardiovascular services in the area.”

The integrated model will unite cardiology, vascular and cardiothoracic physician practices with The Indiana Heart Hospital, part of Community Health Network, to form one cohesive entity.

Community Heart and Vascular will consist of the existing specialty heart hospital (The Indiana Heart Hospital); cardiovascular services at four acute care Community Hospitals (Community Hospitals East, North, South and Anderson); and 31 physicians (cardiologists, vascular and cardiothoracic surgeons) from five physicians groups, totaling over 600 combined employees.  The physician groups include:  Cardiothoracic Surgeons of Indiana; Indiana Heart Associates; Jetty Heart Clinic; Vascular Physicians of Indiana; Russell Dilley, M.D.; and Dennis Jacob, M.D.

“Community Heart and Vascular is unique in that all aspects of the program are co-managed with physicians,” says Ramu Yeleti, M.D., president of Community Heart and Vascular.  “Patients will benefit from having access to a full continuum of integrated cardiovascular services.”

Advantages of integration include the development of innovative clinical care programming; the ability to better harmonize and leverage related clinical services, such as primary care, emergency departments and intensive care services; the expansion of clinical research and teaching opportunities; a paradigm shift to the longitudinal care of the patient; alignment of economic and operating efficiencies; and the ability to effectively apply physicians’ time and talents to program development, leadership and management at full program levels.

“Combining forces will have a very positive impact in the care of heart and vascular patients across the network,” says Bill Corley, president and CEO of Community Health Network.  “This affiliation with the specialists we have worked with for several years will integrate the top-quality care and services of The Indiana Heart Hospital and physician practices with the other services of Community Health Network.  This is the most desired and cost-effective way to deliver the best care for our patients.”

All physician practices will continue to care for patients at the same office locations.  The Indiana Heart Hospital will continue to provide care at its current locations, and on the campuses of Community Hospital East, North and South in Indianapolis.

Opened as the nation’s first all-digital heart hospital, the programs and services of The Indiana Heart Hospital have been nationally recognized for clinical quality measures.  Recently, Thomson Reuters Healthcare rated the hospital as one of the nation’s top 100 cardiovascular hospitals for the third consecutive year.  The integration of cardiovascular services will reinforce the exceptional quality of programs network-wide.

The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) is alerting health care providers about oseltamivir resistance of the currently circulating influenza A (H1N1) virus.

Providers are strongly encouraged to submit specimens to the ISDH Laboratory for surveillance testing and should contact Katie Masterson at kmasterson@isdh.in.gov or 317-921-5843. The influenza specimen submission form is available on the ISDH web site located at http://www.in.gov/icpr/webfile/formsdiv/35212.pdf. Facilities are invited to participate in influenza sentinel surveillance and should contact Shawn Richards at srichard@isdh.in.gov or 317-233-7125.

CDC published an Influenza Update in the MMWR on Friday, December 12, 2008 describing these preliminary data. The entire document is located at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/. Highlights of the document include:

• Oseltamivir-resistant influenza A (H1N1) viruses have been detected for the 2008-09 season. Preliminary CDC data show that that 24 of the 25 influenza A (H1N1) viruses tested in two states (not including Indiana) were resistant to oseltamivir. All H1N1 viruses were sensitive to zanamivir.
• The influenza A (H1N1) viruses found to be oseltamivir-resistant are antigenically similar to the components included in the 2008-09 vaccine.
• All five influenza A (H3N2) and nine influenza B viruses tested were sensitive to oseltamivir and zanamivir.
• Twenty-five influenza A (H1N1) and five influenza A (H3N2) viruses were tested for adamantane resistance.  All influenza A (H1N1) viruses were sensitive to adamantanes, and all influenza A (H3N2) viruses tested were resistant to adamantanes. The adamantanes are not effective against influenza B viruses.
• CDC has antigenically characterized 30 influenza viruses collected by U.S. laboratories during the 2008-09 season, including 20 influenza A (H1N1), three influenza A (H3N2), and seven influenza B viruses. Twenty-seven of the 30 viruses were antigenically related to the components included in the 2008-09 influenza vaccine (A/Brisbane/59/2007-like (H1N1), A/Brisbane/10/2007-like (H3N2), and B/Florida/04/2006-like). The other three influenza B viruses belong to the  B/Victoria/02/87 lineage.
• No influenza-associated pediatric hospitalizations have yet been reported.
• Clinicians should remain alert for changes in recommendations that might occur as the 2008-09 influenza season progresses.

Recommendations regarding the use of antiviral medications might be revised if surveillance data indicate a substantial and widespread increase in the prevalence of oseltamivir-resistant influenza viruses in the United States.

Alternatives for antiviral treatment in the setting of widely circulating oseltamivir-resistant viruses have been suggested. These treatment options, which might include preferential use of zanamivir or therapy with a combination of antivirals for certain patients, have been outlined in the ACIP 2008 influenza recommendations.  Currently, the neuraminidase inhibitors oseltamivir and zanamivir remain the recommended medications for treatment and chemoprophylaxis of influenza.

Vaccination remains the cornerstone of influenza prevention efforts. Influenza vaccination can prevent influenza infections from strains that are sensitive or resistant to antiviral medications.

CDC continues to conduct surveillance to provide up-to-date recommendations regarding prevention and treatment of influenza. Influenza surveillance reports for the United States are posted online weekly during October-May and are available at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivity.htm.  Additional information regarding influenza viruses, influenza surveillance, influenza vaccine, and avian influenza is available at http://www.cdc.gov/flu.

More than 250 mothers who deliver at Community East, North and South each year leave the hospital without essential supplies for their newborns. It may take a couple of weeks after the baby is born for mothers to access WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) services. Thanks to a collaboration between Community case management, Community Home Health Services, the Community Health Network Foundation and the Hutson School, these mothers will go home with a diaper bag full of supplies they will need for their newborn.

Community Home Health Services coordinated the effort as their holiday philanthropy project. Case management recommended supplies moms would need once leaving the hospital, such as diapers, blankets and sleepers. The Community Health Network Foundation purchased diaper bags, to be filled with items donated by CHHS staff. First and second graders at the Hutson School, a day school at 38th and Arlington for children with language learning differences, partnered with CHHS to collect donations from students, families and staff and held fundraisers to fill diaper bags. Additionally, two local Wal Marts and a corporate donor furnished gift cards to be applied toward supplies.

A total of 300 bags were presented to Community’s case management team on Friday, December 5.

Alex Pope, 9, president of Spreading Sunshine, was honored November 26 with the Community Hospital North Hero Award for his efforts to create an exceptional patient and family experience for young children who visit the emergency department.

Pope created the organization Spreading Sunshine two years ago, after he had to visit to the emergency room because of an asthma attack. With the help of his church and parents, he has donated bags full of coloring books, games, tattoos, pencils, crayons, stickers, puzzles, books and small toys so that children in the Community North emergency room can stay occupied.

“If you are waiting outside for your family member to get better, like my sister had to wait for me when I had my bad asthma attack, it can be very boring and long,” Pope says. “When I was there, I was scared and stuck in a bed with nothing to do but watch ‘Hee-Haw.’ It was not fun and there was nothing to get my mind off of my asthma attack and that it was so hard for me to breathe. I thought I was going to stop breathing and might even die. I decided that it would be good to bring stuff in for kids so they can get their minds off of their injury or sickness, or even their family member’s injury or sickness.”

Pope was surprised with this Hero Award after touring pediatrics, the emergency room and Bamboo Café with his parents and younger sister. As part of his recognition, Pope received a Hero Award pin, courtside tickets to a Pacers’ game and a portfolio and coffee mug for his budding business. He and his sister also received thank you bags full of toys and prizes from Jasmine gift shop, Fig Leaf, Wellspring Pharmacy and several units at Community North.