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On Rounds Urologist Finds Second Calling Through Foster Parenting In his medical practice with Urology Centers of Alabama, urologist Dr. Mark DeGuenther uses high-tech tools that weren’t available just a generation ago. But in his off-time, he’s gotten an unusual amount of experience with an ageold skill: parenting ... page 3
Trinity on the Move
Trinity Plans Orchestrated Patient Relocation to Grandview Medical Center in October By Ann B. DeBellis
On the second Saturday in October, U.S. 280 in Birmingham will be buzzing with activity, but it will have nothing to do with football traffic. Trinity Medical Center will be relocating approximately 150 patients, its staff and hospital operations to the new Grandview Medical Center on 280 with the help of local ambulance companies, state and local law enforcement. They hope to complete the move in 10 hours or less. Trinity Chief Operating Officer Drew Mason says the move will start at approximately 6:00 a.m. and will be done in phases based on patient type and acuity. “We will start with our neonates, followed by mother/baby, critical care, psychiatric and finally general acute medical/surgical patients,” he says. “We will be continuously assessing activity at both locations and will have multiple routes with 30 to 40 ambulances. We will not take emergency (CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)
Taking on the Number One Killer of Teens
Trinity staff and local emergency personnel discuss move to Grandview.
New Cardiac Monitoring Device Can Reduce Health Care Costs By Ann B. DeBellis
The girl’s face was strangely beautiful, covered with a shimmering powder that glistened like diamond dust beneath the lights of I-59. The pulverized glass might have been makeup for a prom, but this girl would never go shopping for a prom dress ... page 5
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn CardioMEMS inside plastic block with wire ropes holding it in place.
Congestive heart failure is a common and expensive medical problem that accounts for one million hospitalizations and almost three million office and emergency room visits each year. A new remote monitoring device is showing promise for reducing symptoms and costs while extending the lives of the seven million patients in the United States who suffer from congestive heart failure. Recent clinical trials have shown that information provided by the CardioMEMS device can reduce hospital readmissions by about 37 percent. Cardiologists at Cardiovascular Associates (CVA) in Birmingham implanted one of the first devices in Alabama following the May 2014 approval of the device by the FDA. They have been using the monitoring system for heart failure patients since early 2015. “Congestive heart failure is a difficult problem that affects a patient’s lifestyle and also the country’s economy as a utilization of health care,” says Barry Rayburn, MD of CVA. “Regardless of what kind of disease caused the heart failure, when one of these patients is (CONTINUED ON PAGE 8)
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