Baptist Opens Children’s Hospital; Includes ER, Eye Center
Baptist Memorial Health Care opened the Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital at its campus in East Memphis last month.
The facility includes a 17,000-square-foot emergency room, which features 10 bays for patient care, and a 2,000 square-foot diagnostics area. The emergency department is staffed 24/7 with pediatric emergency medicine physicians, pediatric hospitalists and an array of other pediatric specialists, including the Baptist system’s first pediatric general surgeon and a pediatric anesthesiologist.
The pediatric emergency room will provide care for a host of issues including broken bones; fever; sprains, strains and tears; dehydration; flu; respiratory illnesses; lacerations and more. Other pediatric services, including a 12-bed inpatient unit, outpatient pediatric surgery and the Pediatric Eye Center will eventually transition to the four-story pediatric hospital. Led by vitroretinal specialist Dr. Jorge Calzada, the Pediatric Eye Center is the only clinic in the Mid-South that offers the full continuum of eye care from diagnosis to treatment to surgery to follow-up.
Memphians Spence and Becky Wilson made a major gift to further the growth of the pediatric hospital adjacent to Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women.
Unity Solutions Now Teaming with Christ Community Health Services
Christ Community Health Services (CCHS) has begun partnering with Unity Solutions, a non-profit, faith and neighborhood-based legal services corporation, to assist patients in dealing with legal obstacles.
Unity Solutions assists in eliminating and avoiding roadblocks that could lead to larger personal issues. Many CCHS patients are unable to afford a paid attorney. Two of CCHS’ seven health centers will house an attorney one day a week to counsel about issues such as landlord-tenant disputes, child custody modifications, expunging criminal records, and driver’s license issues.
Dr. James Beaty Receives Methodist Living Award
Dr. James H. Beaty of the Campbell Clinic received the Methodist Living Award for Physician Inspiration in Faith and Health from the Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Foundation. He was cited for his commitment to outstanding work in the realms of faith, health and medicine and specifically his tireless efforts in the field of pediatric orthopaedics. The recognition ceremony was held at The Peabody. The foundation annually recognizes outstanding physicians and administrators who work in the Mid-South’s regional healthcare community.
Qsource Awarded Pfizer Grant To Conduct Study in Tennessee
Qsource has received a $700,000 grant from Pfizer’s Independent Grants for Learning & Change to study pneumococcal immunization in Tennessee. The study is designed “to understand the barriers to pneumococcal vaccination, how to better communicate its importance and identify motivating factors that influence behavioral change.”
Coordinators will conduct in-depth focus groups with patients and healthcare providers to better understand existing barriers and test interventions that can improve vaccination rates. The results are expected to help find ways to increase vaccinations among rural and ethnic minority patients, thereby decreasing health disparities in Tennessee.
Methodist Healthcare Announces Plans to Close Methodist Fayette Hospital
Methodist Healthcare announced a difficult decision the hospital system has had to make that involves closing its hospital in Somerville, Tennessee, Methodist Fayette Hospital. The tentative closing date for the hospital is Friday, March 27. Methodist officials have sent a letter to State HSDA and licensure officials to advise them of the hospital’s plans.
Gary Shorb, CEO for Methodist Healthcare said that over the last few years, inpatient volume has declined significantly, and the hospital has been averaging a daily inpatient census of approximately one patient, which is not sustainable.
Methodist Recruitment will work with Associates at Fayette to pursue other opportunities within the Methodist system and to support external job searches as needed.
Other Methodist Healthcare operations are not affected by this move, other than to prepare for small increases in volume from Fayette County residents seeking care at one of our other facilities.
During this transition, hospital officials are coordinating with ambulance services and other first responders to be sure there is a plan in place for quick access to care as needed.
Carson Joins Unity Hospice Care in Germantown
Ann Carson, RN, JD, has joined Unity Hospice Care (UHC) as Director of Professional Services. Carson will oversee training, staff development and support corporate compliance for the Unity Corporation at the UHC corporate office in Germantown.
UTHSC’s Miller Named To National Academy of Inventors
Duane Miller, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He will be inducted on March 20 during the organization’s fourth annual conference at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The honor is awarded to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development or the welfare of society. Those elected to the rank of NAI Fellow are named inventors on U.S. patents and are nominated by their peers.
Miller, who was nominated by the UT Research Foundation, has collaborated on a number of successful research efforts since he joined the UTHSC faculty in 1992. They have resulted in patents for SARMS (Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators) for treating some cancers; radiation mitigators now under development; and tubulin inhibitors or targeted therapies for resistant cancers. Dr. Miller estimates that he and his collaborators have roughly 400 patents or patents pending for synthetic medicinal structures to attack diseases.
Berkenstock to Serve as 2015 President of Memphis Medical Society
The1,939-member Memphis Medical Society has installed officers and two new members to its 2015 Board of Directors.
O. Lee Berkenstock, M.D. a family medicine physician at the Primary Care Specialists replaces outgoing president Gary W. Kimzey, M.D. Berkenstock is the Society’s 138th president.
Other newly elected officers are, Tommy J. Campbell, MD, president elect; Phillip R. Langsdon, MD vice president; Autry J. Parker, MD, secretary; and Thomas J. O’Donnell, MD, Treasurer. The new board members are, Frederick A. Fiedler, MD, and Sri I. Naidu, MD. The returning board members are Nancy A. Chase, MD; Danielle H. Hassel, MD; Jeffrey E. Kerlan, MD; Justin Monroe, MD; Basil M. Paulus, MD; Jon P. Ver Halen, MD; and Andrew T. Watson, MD.
Saint Francis Earns Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval
Saint Francis Hospital has earned Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission’s for Advanced Certification as a Primary Stroke Center by “demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards.” The Gold Seal of Approval is a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to providing safe and effective patient care.
Saint Francis underwent an unannounced on-site survey in October. During the review, a team of Joint Commission surveyors evaluated compliance with hospital standards related to several areas, including emergency management, environment of care, infection prevention and control, leadership, and medication management. Surveyors also conducted on-site observations and interviews.
UTHSC’s Rennolds Ostrom Receives $1.1 Million Grant for Asthma and COPD Research
Rennolds Ostrom, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has received a grant totaling $1,136,476 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a subsidiary of the National Institutes of Health. The award will be used to support a project titled, “Molecular Signal Transduction of cAMP Compartments,” and will be distributed over four years.
Currently, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are treated with drugs that relax airways. These drugs stimulate receptors by using the intracellular messenger, cAMP, which regulates contraction, metabolism, survival, growth, division and many other functions of all cells in the body. This messenger is utilized by a vast array of hormones, neurotransmitters and other signals to alter cell function. Research in Dr. Ostrom’s lab focuses on understanding how this chemical messenger can carry different information based on where in the cell the signal is generated. The research team has found that cAMP can be produced in different locations inside cells and that different hormones can stimulate cAMP signals in some of these locations but not others.
