We Mustache you to watch this video!

Check out what a great time Providence Health & Services had at the 2012 EIF/Revlon Walk/Run for Women's Cancers.

Providence Saint Joseph Launches New Ambulance for Stroke and Cardiac Patients

San Fernando Valley Business Journal – June 21, 2012

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center is launching a first-of-its-kind critical care ambulance to transfer stroke and cardiac patients from community hospital emergency rooms to the hospital’s specialists.

“This is the first of its kind throughout the entire valley,” said Daniel Eisenberg, M.D., chief of cardiology at Providence Saint Joseph. “It allows patients to be transferred from urgent care centers or community hospitals that do not have the facilities to treat stroke and very critical heart conditions. We’re there within moments, any time of day or night and treatment begins on the way to our hospital.”

The critical care transport program is supported by a grant from the UniHealth Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic organization whose mission is to support and facilitate activities that improve health care in its communities. The grant helped cover the costs of training the program’s supervisor and the nurses that will ride in the transport.

The transport is being provided by Bowers Emergency Services, which contracts with Providence Health & Services, Southern California, for ambulance service. This is the second Bowers ambulance dedicated to a specialty at Providence. A pediatric ambulance serves Providence Tarzana Medical Center, transporting children and infants in kid-friendly style, and with room for a parent and physician to ride along.

The new service will have one nurse on board at all times to pick up stroke and heart patients. Having a nurse aboard raises the level of care to a patient in transit and allows for much broader access to equipment and medications during critical minutes, Providence officials said.

“People don’t realize that hospitals have different levels of expertise, and this program provides access to time sensitive interventions regardless of where patients are initially taken for treatment in our community,” Debbie Buffham, R.N., supervisor of the new Critical Care Transport Team said in a prepared statement.

Many community hospitals do not have the specialized services to best treat stroke and cardiac patients. Several have contracted with Providence Saint Joseph to transport and treat patients who arrive in their emergency departments.

The transport service will ensure that these patients arrive to Providence in a timely manner and that patients don’t lose precious minutes, and even hours, as hospital staff make phone calls to coordinate critical transports to medical centers.

Judy Temes

Link: http://www.sfvbj.com/news/2012/may/21/providence-saint-joseph-launches-new-ambulance-str/

TED Tuesday: Kim Gorgens - Protecting the Brain

Dr. Kim Gorgens highlights the reality of sustaining concussions and how they are not very hard to get. She explores their effects and preventive measures through humor about her neurotic tendencies and over protective mothering. Although she focuses mainly on children, it is simply because children have an even slower and more unknown rate of recovery and the likelihood of one sustaining subsequent concussions dramatically increases after the initial one.

We want to draw attention to the fact, as shown in the video, that a helmet and the simple layer of foam decreases impact for by 50%! While Dr. Gorgens jokes that her student is protecting the value of his education with a helmet, we argue that a $20 helmet is a great way to protect against medical fees that could be incurred if you were to sustain a brain injury! A helmet is a little cost for such an increase in protection and insurance. 

So while you are having wonderful a Memorial Day weekend full of sporting activities, remember the helmet! We are always ready for you in our award winning emergency rooms, but we rather you just stay safe!
Check out our Emergency Rooms and our resources.
Providence Holy Cross
Providence Saint Joseph
Providence Tarzana

Commencement Health

Photo Source

Graduation is a great time to celebrate all your children's well deserved accomplishments, but it is also a catalyst to a good amount of change. If they are graduating from High School, they may be moving away in a few short months. If they are graduating from College they may be moving home or on to a new location for their job. Whatever the case, it is an important time to make sure their health needs are not overlooked. Most in the 18-26 year-old range do not have medical needs on their minds. Now is a good time to offer your words of wisdom to further their education in life.

1. Make sure they understand the importance of insurance and help them understand the plan they are on or what coverage they should be looking for in a benefits package.
2. It's important for young persons to know what hospitals are in their area. To know where to go in an emergency and if their doctors are connected with the hospital. (Providence has a great tool to help to find a doctor by affiliation and insurance coverage)
3. This would also be a good time to make copies of their medical records for them if they are going to have to be set up with a new doctor in their new location.
4. Make sure they are up to date with vaccines and tests, especially if they are required by their new school or they are heading abroad.

Remember, they are old enough now. Use this time to educate them as you help them take those steps to be on their own. If you don't take the time to teach them they will always rely on you.

On Parents at Graduation:

"Just ask your parents whose heads, I promise you, are exploding right now.  They think they took you home from the maternity ward last month.  They think you learned how to walk last week.  They don't understand how you could possibly be getting a degree in something today. They listened to "Cat's in the Cradle" the whole car ride here."

- Alan Sorkin @ Syracuse University's 158th Commencement

Mustache Pride

Here are some extra pictures sent in by AWESOME people who attended the EIF/Revlon Run/Walk for Women's Cancers and wore our FABULOUS #provStache. Keep on sending in your photos or tweet us on twitter @ProvidnceFound #provStache to get your pictures on the blog!

From Stephanie G.

From Ana K.

From Leandra S.

From Carolina R.

Hospital Week

 
   Although National Hospital Week was actually last week, here are Providence Health & Services of Southern California, we are celebrating this week with a full out carnival theme. Hospital Week is a time to celebrate and honor all employees and the team accomplishments of the hospital as well.
    It is an important time for the Foundation as well  because we can see our accomplishments from the previous year. In addition to providing care to those who can not afford it, the Foundation is responsible for raising funds for much needed equipment, facilities, and training programs for the whole of their respective hospitals. Hospital Week illustrates how interconnected everyone at the hospital is. The equipment and facilities the Foundation supplies allows our staff to be at their best, which increases the proficiency and quality of care of our hospitals as a whole. Then coming full circle, when we have such high standards and quality of care we are recognized with awards and can then attract the most skilled medical professionals. The Foundation's simple mission is to help wherever help is needed. On the basic level of providing care and all the way up to helping our staff be their best and have the best all with patients care at the core.

Check out our commitment to quality of care and our awards!
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center
Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center
Providence Tarzana Medical Center

TED Tuesday: Joshua Foer - Feats of memory anyone can do

Joshua Foer, science writer and "accidental" U.S. Memory Champion, illuminates how those of average intelligence and average genetics can train their brains to better remember and store information into memories of even with the most monotonous data.
Joshua's talk is intensely interesting in that these memory tricks are incredibly simple and have been in use for hundreds of years. He culminates with the most important take away of the idea that our memories are something we can actively groom and care for. He warns against allowing technology to take over for our memories because with technology we are allowing our brains to fall out of practice and essentially perpetuating our poor memory. This is reinforced by this Providence Health Article.

Doing "exercises" for your brain is just as important as exercising the body. That's because as you age, a percentage of your brain's neurons die. You can still create new dendrites, however. They are the connections between the neurons. They grow from neurons, like branches grow from a tree, when you do brain exercises or just think or see new things. The dendritic networks make a model to comprehend those things. So your goal is to make more dendrites. They are as vital to mental dexterity as phone lines are to phone networks.

Maintain your brain

These strategies will help you keep your brain balanced and healthy: (full article)

• Get enough sleep. The brain needs downtime. If you don't get enough rest, you just don't function as well, mentally or physically.
• Light up your life. Natural or full-spectrum light helps your brain function at its best, lifts fatigue and, for many people, eases depression. If you work under fluorescent lighting, take a walk outdoors during breaks or lunchtime. If you use a computer, look through a window and focus on a distant object every 20 to 30 minutes.
• Get moving. Regular exercise increases the flow of blood in the brain and contributes to other chemical changes that keep you more alert. Just 30 to 60 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise most days of the week is enough to get your brain and body back into alignment.
• Don’t smoke.
• Don’t drink alcohol or don’t drink more than a moderate amount.
• Control chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
• Get treatment for depression, if you have it.
• If you have a problem with hearing or vision, see your health care provider for help.
• Read or play board games or do other activities that require your brain to work and learn.
  
  

Check out these 5 Steps to a Better Memory.