Health Care Quarterly Notes: Nov. 21, 2011

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Stroke centers honored

Sunrise Hospital and MountainView Hospital, two of the Sunrise Health Hospitals’ certified stroke centers, have been recognized for high performance by the American Heart and American Stroke Associations.

Both hospitals have been named to the Association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll for improving stroke care. In addition, Sunrise Hospital and the Nevada Neurosciences Institute have received the 2011 American Stroke Association’s GWTG Stroke Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award, the third consecutive year they have been so recognized.

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Specialists join Ruvo Center

The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health has expanded its clinical and research capabilities with the addition of specialists Gabriel Leger and Sarah Banks, recognized experts in Alzheimer’s disease and the related subspecialty of Frontotemporal dementia (Pick’s disease), a form of dementia that causes extreme changes in behavior. Leger previously was an assistant professor and director of the Neurology Residency program at the University of Montreal. Banks is a clinical psychologist specializing in neuropsychology. She has worked with patients with movement disorders and focused on neurodegenerative disease.

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Vogelzang recognized

The Community Clinical Oncology Program has presented Dr. Nicholas Vogelzang and the research staff at Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada with a Gold Certificate of Excellence for outstanding achievement in clinical trial patient enrollments.

CCOP advances clinical trials nationwide, and recognizes physicians who contribute to furthering cancer research through groundbreaking clinical trials. Vogelzang and his team are one of only 16 nationwide to earn this certificate, which acknowledges high patient enrollment in National Cancer Institute Treatment and Cancer Control Trials between June 2010 and May 2011.

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Finnegan named CEO at Valley

Jay Finnegan is the new CEO and managing director for Valley Hospital Medical Center. Finnegan has more than 30 years’ experience as a hospital executive, serving most recently as CEO of Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center near Orlando, Fla. He is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

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Physicians form Quality Care IPA

More than 300 independent, private-practice physicians in the Las Vegas Valley have formed a new alliance. The group of medical care providers, Quality Care IPA, features primary care and specialty physicians whose initial service offering will be specifically for recipients of Medicare.

The organization says it will offer live customer support and a health care services network that features laboratory locations throughout the Las Vegas Valley, access to specialty care and affiliations with all Las Vegas area hospitals.

The group will offer services in Las Vegas beginning Jan. 1. Medicare recipients can switch to a Quality Care IPA doctor by contacting their health plans.

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BCBS awards grant

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has made a $25,000 corporate foundation grant to the March of Dimes to expand CenteringPregnancy, the nonprofit’s group prenatal care program.

CenteringPregnancy is a program of group prenatal care delivery that has successfully reduced C-sections, preterm births and low-birthweight babies. Rather than individual appointments, women who are at similar points of their pregnancies are brought together in small groups.

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HHS announces grant project

The federal government is offering up to $1 billion in grants as part of a project to reward progressive thinking in health care.

In the Health Care Innovation Challenge, launched by the Department of Health and Human Services, the government will award grants in March to applicants who implement ideas to deliver better health, improved care and lower costs to people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Preference will be given to initatives aimed at quickly hiring, training and deploying health care workers.

“When I visit communities across the country, I continually see innovative solutions at the very ground level — a large health system working with community partners to decrease the risk of diabetes with nutrition programs or a church group that sends volunteers to help home-bound seniors so they can live at home,” said Dr. Donald M. Berbick, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a news release. “By putting more programs like this in place and more ‘boots on the ground,’ these types of programs can truly transform our health care system.”

Awards for individual innovations will range from $1 million to $30 million over the next three years. Among those eligible to apply are health care providers, payers, local government organizations, community based organizations and public-private partnerships.

For more information, including a fact sheet, visit www.innovation.cms.gov.

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Physicians donate surgeries

Five Las Vegas surgeons volunteered their services Nov. 15 to provide free surgeries to 10 uninsured Nevadans.

The patients were the first to receive surgeries at no charge from Helping Hands Surgical Care, a nonprofit organization formed in October by Dr. Kevin Petersen.

The organization received more than 150 applications from Nevadans who have not met qualification requirements for government assistance and did not have the means to pay for operations. A medical advisory board screened the applicants to select those who would receive assistance.

Participating physicians were Petersen, Dr. Ronette Cyka, Dr. Yevgeniy Khavkin, Dr. Albert Khavkin and Dr. Michael Verni. The group’s specialties include gynecology, urology and obstetrics.

Staff members from the Medical District Surgery Center also volunteered their services.

Supporters of the organization include the Medical District Surgery Center, which donated the use of three operating rooms for the day of surgeries. Summerlin Hospital Medical Center donated an operating room and a hospital stay for a patient who needed a hysterectomy, while Capriotti’s sandwich shop and the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf provided food and beverages for volunteers.

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Sunrise adds care option

Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center has begun offering a new treatment option for patients suffering from brain aneurysms.

The Pipeline Embolization Device, recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, allows physicians to treat the most complex and dangerous aneurysms using minimally invasive techniques. Sunrise is the only facility in Nevada to offer treatment through the device.

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