Change in Pediatric Services; Electric Vehicle and Defibrillator Research; Anniversaries

Atrium Medical Center

This year, Atrium Medical Center is celebrating two anniversaries. The hospital celebrated its 100th anniversary on March 5. On March 5, 1917, Middletown Hospital opened with 28 beds and seven staff members. December 9 marked another significant anniversary, as Atrium Medical Center celebrated 10 years since the current 328-bed hospital was built on its campus in the City of Middletown’s Renaissance District.

Atrium Medical Center, now a Level III Trauma Center serving greater Butler and Warren counties, anchors a medical campus bringing together other health care partners such as Dayton Children’s Hospital, Atrium Family YMCA, Cincinnati Eye Institute, Greentree Health Science Academy, and Otterbein Middletown. Atrium has also expanded over the past decade, opening Atrium Health Center Trenton in 2014 on the campus of Edgewood City Schools in Butler County and opening Atrium Health Center Mason in 2015 on Mason-Montgomery Road in Warren County. Atrium has also added new services in the time since the new hospital opened in 2007, including open heart surgery, robotic surgery, natural birth services, and a Senior Emergency Center.

With the expansion of federally qualified health centers, Atrium Medical Center has decided it will no longer offer pediatric services at its Maternal Child Health Center in Middletown as of December 29, 2017. Because of the discontinuation of this service, Children’s Medical Center, Inc., will no longer provide pediatric services to Maternal Child Health Center, and will not schedule appointments after December 29. Talena Ullery, nurse practitioner at Maternal Child Health Center, will be transitioning her practice to Centerpoint Health and will be accepting patients at Centerpoint Health’s locations in Middletown and Franklin.

All patients who visited Maternal Child Health Center in 2016 and 2017 will be receiving in the mail a letter of notification, a listing of local providers accepting new pediatric primary care patients, and a release of medical records form.

If you have questions about this transition as it relates to your patients, please call Maternal Child Health Center at (513) 974-5235 to speak to a staff member. Maternal Child Health Center is not closing and will continue to provide prenatal care and Ob/Gyn health care services.

Good Samaritan Hospital (closed in 2018)

Good Samaritan Hospital physician Abdul Wase, MD and former cardiology fellow Thein Aung, MD, were invited to make a poster presentation of their research at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2017 in Anaheim, California. They researched whether sitting in or standing close to the charging port of a Tesla electric vehicle while charging at 220 Volts would trigger a shock or interfere with implantable defibrillator performance. The findings suggest that electric vehicles might be safe to use for individuals with cardiac defibrillators.

Dr. Wase and the team examined the potential effect of electromagnetic interference from an electric vehicle on 26 men and eight women from Good Samaritan Hospital, average age 69, with implanted cardiac defibrillators of various types. Adjusting the defibrillators to both their least and most sensitive settings, the devices did not sense the electromagnetic signal from the electric vehicle battery when patients sat in the driver’s seat, passenger seat, back seat, or at the charging post (where the electromagnetic interference is at its highest).

Dr. Wase is the section chief of cardiac electrophysiology at Dayton Heart and Vascular Hospital at Good Samaritan and a clinical professor of medicine at Wright State University’s Boonshoft School of Medicine.

The American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2017 is a global exchange of the latest advances in cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians.

Miami Valley Hospital

November 3 was a special day for CareFlight Air and Mobile Services. In 1997, the first Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) “rolled” out and began its legacy of transporting patients. Since that time, the MICU has logged millions of miles throughout the state of Ohio and occasionally of surrounding states. To date, the MICU has logged 23,020 transports, or an average of 300 MICU transports each month, and the fleet has grown to six MICU vehicles. In 20 years, the staff has grown from 14 to 80 clinical crew members, including both MICU paramedics and MICU/flight nurses that staff the vehicles.

The staff of the Neuro-Science Department hosted the statewide Coverdell Stroke Meeting on November 2. The goal of the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program is to develop high-quality stroke systems of care to save lives and prevent premature disability and death. Stroke systems of care improve care and support for patients throughout their health care journey —from the first symptoms of stroke, emergency medical services (EMS) transport, and hospital care to follow-up with outpatient providers. This is the first time this event has been hosted in our region.

Upper Valley Medical Center

UVMC again received a score of “A” on the recent report card issued by the Leapfrog Group, a hospital industry safety watchdog. The group twice a year rates hospitals based on their performance in preventing infections, medical errors, on-site accidents, and methods for keeping patients safe and properly informed. It determines scores using letter grades based on 30 hospital safety criteria. UVMC earned an “A” rating in both spring and fall in 2016 and 2017.

The UVMC Sleep Center has received accreditation from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) as the result of a stringent review conducted by the Academy earlier this year. The AASM is the largest professional membership society for physicians, scientists, and other health care providers dedicated to sleep medicine.

The UVMC Foundation’s annual Bill and Ruth McGraw Cancer Awareness Symposium was hosted October 19 at the Crystal Room in Troy. Nearly 200 attendees turned out for the program featuring keynote speaker Samantha Harris, a two-time Emmy-nominated TV host, author, and breast cancer survivor.

Ruth Jenkins, past president/member of the executive committee of the UVMC Foundation Board, was honored as a Woman of Excellence by the YWCA of Piqua/Miami County at the organization’s annual luncheon October 19. This YWCA program recognizes outstanding local women who have demonstrated a high level of achievement and made a significant contribution and impact in their community.

Back to the December 2017 issue of Premier Pulse