Community Health Network’s Car Safety Seat Program has been a part of Safe Kids Worldwide’s efforts to check child safety seats for proper installation through the Safe Kids Buckle Up program. Recently, the Safe Kids Buckle Up program celebrated the inspection of its one millionth car seat.

“Today’s milestone of a million child safety seats checked for proper installation is a prime example of the power of Safe Kids. Coalition coordinators, lead agencies, sponsors and literally thousands of volunteers coming together in pursuit of a common goal—to reduce the number of kids who are buckled up the wrong way or even worse, not at all,” says Mitch Stoller, president and CEO, Safe Kids Worldwide. “This celebration belongs to those of you in the field and the million children who have traveled more safely because of your efforts. Countless parents have slept more soundly knowing that they have learned the right way to secure their children in their car seats, booster seats and seat belts.”

“It has taken 11 years of hard work and unwavering dedication to get us to a million seats checked. To those of you who have spent your weekends crunched into the backseats of hundreds of vehicles, to those of you who have driven new car seats to the site of a crash so that a child would not be exposed to more risk by riding in a potentially damaged seat, to those of you who have made emergency installations at all hours of the day and night. This is your accomplishment and your legacy to the children of your community,” Stoller says.

Learn more about car seat safety >>
Register online for car seat safety inspections at Community Health Network >>

From PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 1 January 2007, pp. e124-e130 doi:10.1542/peds.2006-1222)

This study looked at the effectiveness of Lactobacillus Reuteri in the treatment of  Infant Colic (10⁸ live bacteria per day).  Infants receiving L reuteri showed a significant reduction in daily crying time by day 7, compared with infants treated with simethicone. On days 14, 21, and 28, crying times were significantly different between the 2 treatment groups. At the end of the study (day 28), the median crying time in the probiotic group was 51 minutes/day (range: 26–105 minutes/day), compared with 145 minutes/day (range: 70–191 minutes/day) in the simethicone group, with a difference of 94 minutes/day.  On day 28, 95% were responders in the probiotic group and 7% were responders in the simethicone group.

Are you using probiotics in infant colic?  Please relate your experience in the comments below.

From PEDIATRICS Vol. 120 No. 3 September 2007, pp. 649 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-1911)

The American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed the publication: Wilson W, Taubert KA, Gewitz M, et al. Prevention of infective endocarditis. Guidelines from the American Heart Association. A guideline from the American Heart Association Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis, and Kawasaki Disease Committee, Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, and the Council on Clinical Cardiology, Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia, and the Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Interdisciplinary Working Group. Circulation. 2007;

Infective endocarditis prophylaxis for dental procedures should be recommended only for patients with underlying cardiac conditions associated with the highest risk of adverse outcome from infective endocarditis.  Those are prosthetic cardiac valve, previous IE, unrepaired cyanotic congenital heart disease (CHD) including palliative shunts and conduits, completely repaired congenital heart defect with prosthetic material or device during the first 6 months after the procedure, repaired CHD with residual defects at the site or adjacent to the site of a prosthetic patch or prosthetic device which inhibit endothelialization, cardiac transplantation recipients who develop cardiac valvulopathy.  For patients with these underlying cardiac conditions, prophylaxis is recommended for all dental procedures that involve manipulation of gingival tissue or the periapical region of teeth or perforation of the oral mucosa.  Administration of antibiotics solely to prevent endocarditis is not recommended for patients who undergo a genitourinary or gastrointestinal tract procedure.

Refer to the publication below for more background and details:

http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.183095v1.pdf

You may comment on this topic below.

Community Health Network was a presenting sponsor for the inaugural Race Around the Reservoir Geist Half Marathon and 5K, which occurred on May 17.

Dan Hodgkins, vice president of health promotion and community benefit called the event “an incredible success.” In all 4,500 people participated in the event—the most ever for an inaugural race in the state of Indiana.

One of the largest successes was the involvement of children. Last year, Community along with The Lawrence Township Foundation started the Kids Up and Running program in the Lawrence schools. The goal was to combat sedentary lifestyles and get children and their families moving. More than 1,200 students raced in the half marathon and for more than half, it was their first organized race. “I think we had more success than anyone ever thought about,” Hodgkins says.

All proceeds raised from the race will go to support the Up and Running program as well as other similar programs in the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township and Hamilton Southeastern School District.

“This is a great example of how our Community Health Network contributions “pay it forward” to the broader community,” Hodgkins says.

Community programs awarded for addressing childhood obesity
The U.S. Surgeon General, Steven K. Galson, M.D., has singled out two model programs in Indiana to be awarded for successfully addressing the issues of childhood obesity. A news conference was held Wednesday, May 28, at Douglass Park in order to present the awards to Lawrence Township Foundation’s “My Community Gets Healthy” program and Indianapolis Public Schools Howe Academy’s “Fit4life” program.

Both of these programs have been supported by Community Health Network. “I am very proud of the work my department staff has provided to make both of these programs a reality, especially Karen Shirey, Lutrell Lauderdale, Todd Williams and Marcia Plant Jackson and others,” Hodgkins says.

The Surgeon General asked some of the student runners from the Geist Half Marathon, including a student at MSD Lawrence, who came in 14th out of the entire field of 4,500 runners, to be present at the awards ceremony and press conference. He was able to compete in the race with the support of the school clinic staff including, Denise Schnell, family nurse practitioner at Brook Park.

Quality indicator data for Q4 2007 has been posted at eCommunity.com/quality.

The data reflect Community's high quality of patient care for indicators in three categories:

• Heart attack
• Congestive heart failure
• Pneumonia

Community's quality data are compared against national hospital averages and are provided for all network hospitals: Community Hospitals North, East, South and Anderson, and The Indiana Heart Hospital.

We also have added a new section for Outpatient Quality of Care. On this page you can review quality measures regarding care provided at physician offices and/or by Community physicians. Quality measures are compared across 2005 - 2007 for diabetic and heart failure patient care, pediatric immunizations, women's health, safety, patient satisfaction and improvement projects.

More information, including national averages for hospital quality data, can be found at http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov

Several employees at Community Women's Health brightened one patient’s day recently when they presented her with more than $350 in baby gifts they had purchased. Angie O., medical assistant, Monica R., sonographer, and Amanda S., biller, gave patient Vanessa bags of new baby clothes, blankets, bibs, bottles, diapers and other infant items along with hand-me-downs from their own children. The co-workers surprised their patient during one of her routine medical appointments.

“She was shocked,” Amanda says about this exceptional patient experience. “She’s not an emotional person, but she was really affected. It was great. And it was fun buying pink stuff because I have two boys.”

“I thought it was great,” says Vanessa. “It was a nice thing they did for me.”

The mini baby shower was Angie's idea. After talking with the young mother-to-be during another appointment, she discovered that Vanessa hadn’t yet had a baby shower and no one planned to throw her one. Angie enlisted her co-workers to help. “I told them that I was going to buy her some small gifts, but it turned into something bigger,” Angie says. “I just liked her and we wanted to help her.”

Jeanne N., site manager, was the first to share this story. “I am so touched by their generosity."

An interesting perspective on physician use of online medical content to inform medical decision-making in order to provide high quality patient care. 

"Every day, in hospitals and physicians' offices across America and increasingly around the world, medical practitioners are doing something revolutionary: They are turning to the Internet for information to enable them to make more informed decisions for their patients."

Watch streaming video webcast or read transcription at
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/548888

At www.eCommunity.com/health we offer a health information library that provides health information for the consumer. The library comes from a third-party provider and most content is reviewed and updated quarterly. Topics are grouped into adult and pediatric health, ranging from allergies to women's health and everything in between.

Questions: In the future will we need to provide physicians and caregivers within our hospitals with online health information to be used for medical decision-making? Will we do this in an effort to control the content and possible ramifications of finding and relaying inaccurate information to patients? How will newcomer health information Web sites geared toward a physician audience be screened or deemed reputable?

I just had our second report card meeting with Marty and Compendium, and I must admit that I am finding it hard to find the time to get in here and blog.