OMCNews The Right Care, Right Here December 5 www.ozarksmedicalcenter.com Issue 1:2 OMC medical professionals to switch to color-coded uniforms Change to increase patient satisfaction, safety Patients at Ozarks Medical Center will likely meet an array of people during their stay and with the bustle of activity it can become challenging to tell who is a nurse, physical therapist, nursing assistant, technician, housekeeping or other staff member. Now, OMC is planning to take the guess work out of recognizing the role and expertise of clinical caregivers by implementing a color-coded uniform policy that will go into effect in February 2009. The idea to switch to new uniforms began with the OMC Nursing Council and nurse preceptors in an effort to enhance professionalism and patient satisfaction. Professionalism in nursing means different things to different people, OB Manager Joanna Patillo said. For some, it is a nurse's appearance. Under the new uniform policy, OB nurses will wear a raspberry color; all other nurses will wear some combination of navy and white; and certified nursing assistants (CNAs), unit secretaries and monitor technicians will wear teal blue and khaki. Other departments also will have designated colors. Chief Operating Officer Jeannie Looper said the new uniforms would help put patients at ease. Our new policy promotes professionalism while helping patients and visitors distinguish caregivers, she said. The average hospital patient could see dozens of medical personnel a day during his or her hospital stay. With the new uniforms, patients will be more satisfied with their overall care knowing the role of those coming into their hospital rooms. Our patients are our top priority and we want them to feel safe and secure during their visit. From left, registered nurses Catherine Pearson, Laurie Schmidt and Brooke Fair display the new OMC uniforms. As part of the new uniform system, all registered nurses will wear a combination of navy and white. Looper said a lot of time and thought went into the uniform selection process over the past several months. Programs, such as payroll deduct, were put into place to help the staff with initial cost. Carol Eck, Licensed Professional Counselor OMC Behavioral Healthcare Clinic OMC MEDICAL MOMENT Avoiding stress during this holiday season The holidays are upon us once again. the emotional issues and the physical demands. We prepare for gift giving and meal Many things can cause stress during the holiday making, but do we take the time to season let's take a look at some of the common prepare emotionally? stressors and what we can do about them. Holidays are a source of joy, but can also be a source of stress. We can wear ourselves out with See Holidays page 4
Ozarks Medical Center 2 All Star, patient satisfaction departments honored at forums FOOTBALL IMAGING SERVICES All Star Department FORUMS OB ALL INPATIENT NURSING AMBULATORY SURGERY - NURSING AMBULATORY SURGERY REGISTRATION
Ozarks Medical Center 3 OMC names new Director of Marketing and Planning Ozarks Medical Center has marketing, strategic planning Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., named Gay Watson-Pieralisi the and public relations at OMC and a Master of Business Administration new Director of Marketing and and will provide direction from Delta State University in Cleveland, Planning for the health care and leadership to promote the Miss. organization. She assumes her growth of health care She is a member of the American duties in December. services. College of Healthcare Executives, the Watson-Pieralisi brings with Watson-Pieralisi comes to Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market her more than seven years OMC from Delta Regional Development of the American Hospital experience as a hospital director Medical Center, a 358-bed Association, the Association for Healthcare and more than 15 years of sales care facility in Greenville, Philanthropy and the Delta Mu Delta and marketing experience. Miss., where she had been National Business Honor Society. Gay comes to OMC with a I look forward to joining the team at Director of Marketing and Ozarks Medical Center, and my family is great deal of knowledge in Managed Care since 2005. In excited about our move and making our health care marketing, which that position, she was home in West Plains, Watson-Pieralisi will be a great benefit to the responsible for market research, media said. organization said OMC President and advertising, special events and community Watson-Pieralisia, a mother of two boys CEO David Zechman. She is looking relations. Previously she had been ages nine and 12, has been an active member forward to making her home in this area Director of Outreach for Delta Regional of her community. She founded and served and to being an active part of the and Director of Marketing and Public as chairman of the Healthcare Development community. Relations at the Kings Daughters Hospital Committee of the Greenville Area Chamber We welcome her to OMC. in Greenville, Miss. of Commerce and served as a member and As Director of Marketing and Watson-Pieralisi has bachelors past president of the Community Planning, Watson-Pieralisi will supervise degrees in English and Spanish from Counseling Center Board of Trustees. OMC adds 8 new rooms to NeuroPsych Unit Eight new private rooms are now open The additional rooms are located in what was in Ozarks Medical Center NeuroPsych once the extended care unit, which closed in Unit, giving the unit a total of 22 inpatient 2007. This is adjacent to the existing rooms Neuropsych Unit. The expansion provides much-needed The expansion will produce a number of space for the health care organization's benefits for the NeuroPsych Unit and OMC department with the highest occupancy patients. According to Robson, in 2007, 181 rate, said Marcia Robson, OMC chief emergency department psychiatry patients nursing officer. were transferred to other facilities because of This expansion will allow OMC to a lack of beds. The expansion will keep area keep more patients near their homes and patients here and accommodate transfers allow patients from other overpopulated from other over-crowded centers in Missouri. neuropsychiatry departments to be Conversion of the extended care unit transferred here, she said. rooms to serve as a NeuroPsych Unit The OMC NeuroPsych Unit treats those expansion is the most cost effective way to 18 years and older who are in need of bring the space back into acute care use, psychiatric care. This includes those with Robson said. bipolar disorder, severe depression, The new unit will be able to schizophrenia, psychosis and substance accommodate more patients, meaning more use disorders. The unit provides a safe patients will be able to receive treatment environment with professional supportive closer to home and closer to their families, staff to address the physical, emotional and who are an essential part of the recovery spiritual needs of the patients, Robson said. process. Praise for OMC Everyone took very good care of me as much as they could. I felt very at ease with all of the staff I came in contact with! - Emergency Department Dr. Applegate is a exceptionally talented and caring physician. - Neurosciences Center OMC provided me with excellent care courtesy and respect. I would (and have) recommended OMC to everyone needing medical care! - Obstetrics I was very pleased. I felt very comfortable and secure with my well being. Our town is fortunate to have these facilities. - Heartcare Services My family and I were very impressed with the care. -Surgical Services
Ozarks Medical Center 4 OMC Rehabilitation Services Speech pathologist receives voice treatment certification Program useful in treating patients with Parkinson disease, other neurological disorders Speech Pathologist Jaylene Quarti, four weeks, she said this was a great w i t h O z a r k s M e d i c a l C e n t e r burden for patients. Rehabilitation Services, recently received OMC Rehabilitation Services saw a certification in Lee Silverman Voice need for this successful program in this Treatment (LSVT), which works to treat area, she said. This is a tremendous voice and speech disorders in individuals program and I am thrilled to provide it to with Parkinson disease and other our patients here locally. neurological disorders. Quarti earned her masters degree in The program, called LSVT LOUD, is speech pathology from Central Missouri an intensive therapy that focuses on State University in Warrensburg, now the improving vocal loudness and enabling University of Central Missouri. She has patients to maintain and improve their oral been a speech pathologist at OMC communication. During the treatment, patients regain their strong voices. Rehabilitation Services for more than patients attend 16 individual therapy According to the LSVT Foundation, three years. sessions over a four-week period. LSVT has been studied in depth over the She currently provides speech services According to the LSVT Foundation, past 20 years and its effectiveness has been through OMC at Bakersfield School, for the program specializes in treating those scientifically documented. Currently, the home health patients, and on an outpatient with Parkinson disease, but it also has therapy is being successfully delivered by basis at the Shaw Medical Building in been successfully applied to individuals more than 4,000 certified LSVT clinicians West Plains. with stroke, multiple sclerosis, ataxic in 41 states. Quarti and her husband Chris, a high dysarthria, aging voice, vocal fold According to the LSVT Foundation, school teacher and coach, live in West paralysis and children with cerebral palsy Quarti is the first speech pathologist to be Plains. They have two children, Jake, 11, and Down syndrome LSVT certified in the immediate area. and Taylor, 9. I am happy to bring this service to the Quarti said patients previously had to For more information about OMC area and to OMC, Quarti said. This is a drive to Springfield to receive the Rehabilitation Services, call 417-257- well-researched therapy that can help treatment. With four sessions per week for 5959. Holidays - Continued from page 1 We sometimes put more shoulds on what the true meaning of this holiday is for are celebrating their first holiday after the ourselves during this time of year. The you. Our wannabees are more about how loss of a loved, have special challenges. If commercials tell us this is a joyous time and we want others to see us and trying to live up you are alone, make a new tradition for we think I should have the best gathering to their expectations of us rather than being yourself. Do it just for you to help you feel of family ever; I should feel all warm and the genuine person than we are. special and loved. excited that the holidays are here. What if The best way to reduce stress is to Remember loved ones you have lost and you don't feel this way? Just because it is the prepare for the holidays. Know your budget it is okay to cry. Talk about the person and holiday season does not mean we magically and stick to it. Next, delegate responsibility special memories you have of them. get happy. Recognize if you are not as you don't have to do everything. Instead, Encourage children to share in settled this year. Admit to yourself that it is have everyone bring a dish for dinner. What remembering the person. Sometimes okay to be who you are and feel how you do. is the worst that would happen if it isn't children mistake silence for not caring. Admit to yourself the feelings, whether you done? Prepare yourself for the visitors, Celebrate who your loved one was. choose to share them with others or not. remembering those high expectations and The holidays are filled with Our wannabees can also cause us shoulds you may have. If your family expectations, shoulds, and ought tos. Be more stress. I want to be thin, I want to always argues at dinner, guess what, they gentle with yourself this year. Resolve to be have a better home, I want to give the best are likely going to do it again this year. Can your genuine self and celebrate who you gift they have ever been given. Why try to you control it? No, so just accept how it is are! Ozarks Medical Center Behavioral be something you are not? Seek joy in who and admit to yourself it is okay. Healthcare wishes you and yours a health and what you are. Get back to your basics of Those that are alone at the holidays, or holiday!
Ozarks Medical Center 5 162 take part in free PAD screening at OMC More than 160 people recently took part in a free screening at Ozarks Medical Center for peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a potentially life-threatening condition that affects one in 20 Americans over the age of 50. It was encouraging to see so many people take an active role in their health and come be screened for this very serious disease, said OMC Community Health Educator Darinda Jones. Jones said the Nov. 21 screening was such a success that the OMC Education Services Department plans to host another in February. We see a real need for this type of screening in the community and OMC is happy to provide this service at no cost to community members, she added. Of the 162 people who were screened, 29 patients exhibited What is PAD People have PAD when the arteries in their legs become narrowed or clogged with fatty deposits or plaque. People with PAD have a two to six times greater chance of death from a heart attack or stroke. PAD can cause severe pain when walking and can lead to amputation. PAD can greatly affect quality of life. Symptoms of PAD In the early stages, most people with PAD have no symptoms. The most common signs are: fatigue, cramping, tiredness or pain in your legs, thighs or buttocks; foot or toe pain at rest that often disturbs your sleep; skin wounds or ulcers on your feet or toes that are slow to heal. How do I find out if I have PAD? The PAD Screening is called an ABI (ankle brachial index). This simple test compares the blood pressure in your ankles with the blood pressure in the arms. be treated including preventative procedures at OMC. potential symptoms of PAD. Jones measures, medication and non- For more information about said the screening results for those surgical and surgical procedures. Dr. Heartcare Services, call 417-257- patients have already been sent to Joseph Forney, an invasive 5950. For more on screenings at their primary care physicians. There cardiologist with OMC's Heartcare OMC, contact OMC Education are several ways PAD can Services, performs peripheral Services at 417-257-5984. OMC Rehabilitation Services New massage technique offered for those with carpal tunnel syndrome Anew technique for helping from painful carpal Carpal tunnel syndrome can be those who suffer from tunnel syndrome caused when a person uses a muscle carpal tunnel syndrome is symptoms, Spivey over and over again. The muscle now available through Ozarks s a i d. O M C then tightens and restricts Medical Center Rehabilitation R e h a b i l i t a t i o n circulation. When this occurs, Services. Services is happy to muscle memory can be lost and the OMC Massage Therapist Gina be the first facility in muscles unable to go back to a full Spivey is offering the therapy, which the local area to offer resting length. Symptoms of carpal eases the symptoms of carpal tunnel this therapy to our tunnel syndrome include pain, syndrome and increases grip strength patients. We are tingling, burning and numbness of through massage. pleased to give the hand. Spivey said patients This is a great, non-surgical patients other options besides treatment option for patients suffering surgery. See Massage page 6
Ozarks Medical Center 6 Madalyn Hicks joins Gainesville Medical Clinic as family nurse practitioner GAINESVILLE Family Nurse I am excited about Practitioner Madalyn Hicks has joined my new role at the Ozarks Medical Center's Gainesville Gainesville Clinic, she Medical Clinic as a full-time medical said. The clinic staff is provider. She will see patients Monday an extraordinary team. I through Thursday at the clinic, which is am looking forward to located at 404 West Highway 160 in meeting the people of Gainesville. Gainesville and getting Madalyn Hicks is a long-time to know the patients and member of the OMC family and we are being able to follow up pleased to have her join the Gainesville and see them on an Medical Clinic, said OMC Vice ongoing basis. President of Clinical Support Services Hicks is board Edward Henegar, DO, who also is a certified as a family physician at the Gainesville clinic. She earning her degree she knew she wanted nurse practitioner by has more than 30 years of medical to return to OMC. the American Nurses Credentialing Center experience and will be a great asset to I'm so glad to be back at OMC, she and the American Academy of Nurse the clinic and community. said. There is such a great variety of Practitioners. She has been published in the Hicks first began working at OMC in patients and services here. Journal of Advanced Nursing and has a 1975 as a licensed practical nurse Hicks has a great number of ties to second article that will be published in the (LPN). OMC. Her mother was an OMC Journal of the American Academy of Nurse She became a registered nurse in employee and her sister, Kylene, has Practitioners in May 2009. 1979 and worked at OMC until 1990. worked at OMC as a registered nurse for She lives in West Plains with her For the next 15 years, she was employed more than 20 years. Kylene's daughter husband, Bruce. Her son, Ross, is now a as the school nurse for the West Plains R- Stacie also works at Urgent Care Clinic as junior at Missouri State University and her 7 School District while her son, Ross, an LPN and will be graduating in step-daughter Cassie, a graduate of the was a student. December as a registered nurse. Since University of Kansas, lives in Kansas City. After her son graduated, Hicks returned returning to OMC, Hicks has been seeing The Gainesville Medical Clinic is open to school and earned her Masters of patients at Ozark Works, the OMC from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Science degree to become a family nurse Emergency Department and the Urgent Friday. For more information, call 417-679- p r a c t i t i o n e r. S h e s a i d a f t e r Care Clinic, all in West Plains. 4613. Massage - Continued from page 5 suffering from carpal tunnel often have careers that involve repetitive motions, including typist, machine workers and dental hygienists. According to Spivey, the treatment is an intense massage that works not only the hand, but the shoulder, neck, arms and even head. Occupational Therapist Amy Mueller, who also works with carpal tunnel patients, said the massage, combined with simple tendon gliding exercises, have shown positive results for patients. They can be instructed in the tendon gliding exercises and scar massage to help elevate their own symptoms, she said. We also can provide ergonomic suggestions as to what may be adjusted in their work, home or leisure environments to elevate symptoms as well. Spivey said in the past few months the carpal tunnel massage therapy has been offered, patients have seen miraculous results. Every one has had great results and seem very pleased with the treatment, she said. We have had lots of good feedback. Spivey has been a massage therapist with Rehabilitation Services for the past four years. She holds a National Certification for Body Work Massage Therapy. For more information about Rehabilitation Services call 417-257-5959 or tollfree 888-242-9329. OMCNews is a produced and published by the Ozarks Medical Center Public Relations Department. For more information, call 417-257-6737 or e-mail Shandi.Brinkman@ozarksmedicalcenter.com Ozarks Medical Center 1100 Kentucky Avenue P.O. Box 1100 West Plains, Missouri www.ozarksmedicalcenter.com