MediSys Network News

Flushing Hospital Hosts Mommy 101 Classes

PEDIATRIC ASTHMA OUTREACH PROGRAM RECEIVES AWARD

Dr. Mayank Shukla, Director of Brookdale’s Pediatric Pulmonary Division and his colleague, Dr. Sudhir Vashist are committed to more than just treating asthma.  They also want to educate the community about asthma maintenance and prevention.  For this reason, they have established a program entitled “Breathe Right! One Child at a Time” that teaches children and their parents how to live with asthma, how to prevent an attack and how to deal with an attack when it presents itself.  To further carry this message, they have adapted the program to teach teachers the management of an asthmatic child, especially when they are participating in physical education class.  Over the past couple of months, they presented their workshop to teachers in six different schools in Region 8.

For this initiative, the New York City Department of Education - Division 8 has selected both doctors to receive an award for their role in promoting quality and adaptive physical education at their 3rd Annual Physical Education Showcase on May 18th. The Department of Education appreciates how Brookdale’s physicians have demonstrated commitment and dedication to the wellbeing of children as they are in the process of implementing their own citywide physical education initiatives.

Jamaica's Psychiatry Department goes to the Head of the Class

On Tuesday, April 10, 2007 the Psychiatry Department of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center proved itself to be at the forefront of scientific research. Psychiatry Residents and Fellows in Training Programs throughout Queens participated in the third annual "Best Scientific Paper Contest."

The "Best Scientific Paper by a Resident" contest was the brain child of MediSys’ own Dr. Seeth Vivek, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and past President of the Queens County Psychiatric Society of the Queens District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association.  In 2005, Dr. Vivek envisioned a contest that would celebrate the research of Psychiatry Residents and Fellows. 

Jamaica Hospital's Dr. Munibur Khan and Dr. Sachidanand Peteru were both winners in this year’s contest. Dr. Khan came in first place out of a field of 18 contestants for his research paper entitled “Insulin Resistance in Patients with Schizophrenia of Different Ethnic Backgrounds Treated with Antipsychotics”.  Dr. Peteru's poster about diabetic intervention studies also came in first place in the poster portion of the contest.  Both residents proudly represented the Department of Psychiatry and demonstrated that Jamaica Hospital is at the head of the class in research.

MENTORING THRU MEDICINE

Dr. Mary Baldauf, Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care at Brookdale is committed to not only treating traumatic injuries in children but to preventing these injuries from happening.  She is a strong advocate of violence prevention and her experiences in the PICU have bared her witness to the aftereffects of the violence children have become part of.  “We can do better than just taking care of children and healing their wounds. We have to be able to intervene before they are affected by violence.” stated Dr. Baldauf.

The first step was to learn about what was causing the outbreak of violence in the community.  After reaching out to her patients, their families and friends to get an answer to this question, she created a Violence Prevention Initiative and began mentoring some of her patients.  Her enthusiasm and positive results peeked the interest of several of Brookdale’s Pediatric Residents and other members of the department and they decided to take this initiative further.

They reached out to Big Brothers/ Big Sisters, the most proactive and scientifically studied mentoring program in the Country and a link was established with the local chapter. A site-based mentoring program was initiated at Brookdale with 14 Pediatricians mentoring local highschool students who have demonstrated an interest in the health care field. Each session will begin with a health-related educational topic, and the remainder of the session will be spent getting to know the students, while advising and mentoring them.  The students have been given their “Bigs” telephone numbers, pager numbers, e-mail addresses and home addresses availing themselves at any time, if needed.

The first mentoring session was held in Brookdale’s Kahn Auditorium classrooms on April 25th.  Sessions will be held bi-weekly in and will also be attended by the Big Brothers/Big Sisters staff as a resource for both the "Bigs" and "Littles" alike.  “We had a blast during the first meeting and we are looking forward to the future,” said Dr. Baldauf.

Spotlight on Care - Flushing Hospital's Infant Apnea Management Program

Premature babies have underdeveloped respiratory centers in their brain.  Therefore, preemies normally have bursts of big breaths followed by periods of shallow breathing or pauses called apnea.  Infant apnea is characterized by breathing pauses that last more than 15 to 20 seconds. Other symptoms include changes in skin color to a pale, purplish or blue and a slowing of the heart rate.

Flushing Hospital’s Infant Apnea Management program was the first program of its kind certified by New York City and still the only one of its kind in Queens.  The program is designed to monitor the breathing patterns of its patients by attaching an electronic device to them.  This device produces a report that is reviewed by hospital staff upon the infant’s next visit.  Tracking the infant’s breathing patterns is very important because infant apnea, which is defined as a sudden cessation of breathing, is a leading factor in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, (SIDS).

Infants who are born premature, have a family history of apnea, or were born while the mother was on drugs are more at risk and are therefore immediately screened for this condition.

For more information on Flushing Hospital’s Infant Apnea Management program, please call (718) 670-5638.

This is the first installment of the MediSys Health Network's Spotlight on Care.  Future postings will feature other unique services offered within the network. 

New Team at Jamaica "Rapidly" Gaining Attention

Jamaica Hospital Medical Center is proud to announce the creation of a “Rapid Response Team” to bring critical care expertise to the patient’s bedside.

The team, also known as a medical emergency team is multidisciplinary and consists of a Respiratory Therapist, Intensive Care Nurse, Nursing Supervisor and a Third Year Medical Resident.  This team was developed in collaboration with the Institute for Health Initiatives and is designed to decrease the likelihood of patient mortality by providing proactive assessment of patients before their situation becomes critical. 

The Rapid Response team has been in existence since March and currently responds to calls on the Hospital’s 3 North and 3 South Units, but plans to expand its coverage to the entire institution after training on the remaining units is complete. Staffed trained to date have been instructed on when to contact the Rapid Response Team.  The team can be called if there is a sudden or gradual change in a patient’s critical values but the team can also be called based solely on “a feeling”

Several studies have indicated that patients often exhibit signs and symptoms of instability some time before cardiac arrest.  In fact, 70% of patients show evidence of respiratory deterioration within eight hours of arrest and 66% of patients show other abnormal signs within six hours of arrest.  By making available a system to provide assessment before a situation worsens, Jamaica Hospital is attempting to respond to a spark before it becomes a fire.

Trump Pavilion Celebrates Nursing Home Week

The Trump Pavilion for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center celebrated Nursing Home Week, May 14 to May 18, 2007.  Giselle King Porter, Director of Therapeutic Recreation scheduled special events throughout the week including a Wine and Cheese party for the residents on Tuesday, an Ice Cream Social on Wednesday,  and a visit from the 5th Grade Class of PS 108 on Thursday when they demonstrated Ballroom Dancing for close to 100 residents.

On Friday, the hospital food service department, led by Peter Mattheos and Kevin Vehlies, cooked brunch for the residents on each floor.  The smell of the fresh cooked omelets, bacon, sausage and baked goods filled every corner of the nursing home. 

In the photos, we see Kevin and Peter preparing omelets for Trump residents who were in Rehab on the first floor.

The 9^th annual MediSys golf outing was held on Monday April 30^th at the beautiful Old Westbury Country Club. This year’s golf honoree was Mr. Thomas Barr of Barr and Barr, Inc. Over 250 people enjoyed this fabulous event that helped to raise in excess of  $220,000 to benefit the Emergency Medicine Departments of Flushing Hospital and Jamaica Hospital.

The weather was perfect for golf, 65 degrees and sunny, without a cloud in the sky. After a full day of golf, the participants enjoyed a sumptuous cocktail hour and dinner. During dinner, prizes were awarded for best golfers and a raffle drawing was held for the many fantastic gifts that were donated by some of our sponsors.

This event was the most successful golf outing to date.

Dr Gonzalez Offers Expert Opinion of Va. Tech Massacre

On Thursday, April 19th Dr. Fermin Gonzalez, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Jamaica Hospital Medial Center and Flushing Hospital Medical Center was interviewed by Channel 41 - Univision, the most widely watched Hispanic television channel in theUnited States.

The interview was held shortly after the massacre at Virginia Tech University and focused on the psychological profile of the student who committed this crime, if his actions could have been prevented and how the act affects college students across the country.

Dr. Gonzalez has a great deal of media experience and is regularly called upon by Univision to provide expert analysis for the Spanish–speaking station.  The Public Affairs Department of our Network is currently searching for more physicians to offer their expertise in this fashion and will include them in our MediSys “Book of Experts.” This resource guide of MediSys clinicians will be distributed to the media for interview purposes.

For more information about being included in the Book of Experts, please call the Public Affairs Department at 718-206-6746.

JHMC’s Trauma Services Team Host Injury Prevention Day

Our parents always told us that the best medicine is an ounce of prevention. On Thursday May 10th, the Trauma Services Program at Jamaica Hospital invited all employees, family member and hospital visitors to participate in the Injury Prevention Information Day. Thanks to a grant from The American Trauma Society, this informational event provided useful material about injury prevention for all ages. 

On hand to lend their expertise were representatives from the New York City Department of Traffic, the Fire Department of New York and members of our Trauma team. Topic covered included the basics of car and child seat safety, fire safety and pool safety, to name a few. While the children were entertained by The American Trauma Society’s “Trauma Roo”, parents were engaged in hands-on workshops on how to properly install and secure car seats and boosters. All participants were also entered into a raffle and a few lucky winners walked away with car seats, booster seats, bike helmets and even a bike.

Thanks to the NYC Department of Traffic, the FDNY, Safe Kids and the JHMC Emergency Department, who donated the raffle prizes.

For more information about safety and injury prevention please contact Mary Ellen Zimmermann of Trauma Services at 718-206- 6971.