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Birthing Center nuses pass Advanced Life Support exam
New providers joins Elsemore Dixfield Center family practice
Swift River Health Care now has three Rural Track Residents
New lab analyzer will allow faster diagnosis
RH Lab accredited by College of American Pathologists
Birthing Center nuses pass Advanced Life Support exam
Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO) is a program of the American Academy of Family Physicians. It is an educational program designed to assist health professionals in developing and maintaining the knowledge and skills needed to effectively manage the emergencies that arise in maternity care. The course is designed for providers – physicians and nurse midwives who deliver babies, but nurses are also welcome to attend.
All Rumford Hospital Birthing Center nurses recently passed the exam demonstrating their competence in this important life-saving knowledge base. The exam has two parts – a written examination and hands-on skills demonstrations in simulated delivery situations.
Birthing Center Nurse Manager Joette Carlton, RNC, believes that ALSO is a significant qualification when it comes to making mothers and families safer. “This is very prestigious – to have every nurse qualified,” she notes.
In addition to Carlton, Rumford Hospital’s Birthing Center nurses are Shandi Averill, RN, Michelle Gilbert, RNC, Nicole Nolette, RNC, Faye Souve, RN, and Lynn Stoodley, RN. Together they have 75 years of nursing experience. Gilbert, Nolette and Carlton are also certified by the National Accreditation Center as obstetrical nurses. Gilbert is a certified lactation consultant, as well.
11/25/2008
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New providers joins Elsemore Dixfield Center family practice
Karen Kutchera, a certified family nurse practitioner, has joined Elsemore Dixfield Center to provide health care services to people of all ages. A graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans with a bachelor of nursing degree, Kutchera earned her Master of Science in Nursing – Family Nurse Practitioner degree at Westminster College of Salt Lake City.
Kutchera has recently been serving in a locum tenens capacity with CA Dean Hospital/Northwoods Health Care in Greenville, ME. She has worked as a nurse practitioner in several clinics around the country, but she has enjoyed Maine so much that she decided to settle here.
Although she is accepting patients of all ages, Kutchera is particularly interested in preventive health care, women’s health and chronic disease management.
When she isn’t seeing patients, Kutchera enjoys hiking, kayaking, skiing, knitting and yoga.
11/25/2008
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Swift River Health Care now has three Rural Track Residents
Drs. Jennifer Dressel and Michael Gravatt II have joined Rumford Hospital and Swift River Health Care as the newest residents in Central Maine Medical Center Rural Track Residency Program. In the three-year Rural Track, residents spend their first year in Lewiston with their class, but during their second and third years they have the opportunity to learn what it is like to practice in a rural community instead of the large, urban hospitals they have become accustomed to.
Dr. Brian Dressel began his first year as a resident at Rumford Hospital in the summer of 2007. Dressel is now Chief Resident during this, his third year in the program.
Dr. Jennifer Dressel, who is married to Brian Dressel, is also a graduate of Boston University’s Medical School. She grew up in southern New Jersey suburbs and frequently vacationed in Maine as a child. She and her husband would like to practice in rural New England when they complete their residencies. The Dressels live in Livermore and have one young child and are expecting another. They enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, skiing and scuba diving.
Dr. Michael Gravatt came to medicine through being a Navy Hospital Corpsman for five years. He earned his MD degree from the Medical University of the Americas. He also holds a doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University. He was attracted to the CMMC Family Residency program because it was the only one he found with both a rural track and a wilderness medicine track. Gravatt says, when he finishes his residency, he would like to work in a rural area. In addition to outdoor activities such as hiking, kayaking and bow hunting, he enjoys contra dancing and reading poetry and philosophy.
All three residents are seeing and accepting new patients at Swift River Health Care. Call 369-0146 for more information.
11/25/2008
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New lab analyzer will allow faster diagnosis
On July 1, 2008, Rumford Hospital Laboratory began testing for cardiac injury and pregnancy on a new analyzer, the ECi by Ortho Diagnostics.
Testing on the ECi brings several patient care benefits to Rumford Hospital. Most notably, the test for troponin, a protein produced only in heart muscle, is far more sensitive on the ECi than on the previous analyzer. As a consequence of increased sensitivity, troponin measurements can be used to identify not only patients who are experiencing a myocardial infarction (an MI, or heart attack), but it can also now identify patients whose hearts are stressed by other illnesses and who may require close cardiac monitoring. Measuring troponin will remain one of the first-line tests for patients experiencing an MI, but with increased sensitivity it can now identify patients with other medical conditions who should be followed with extra care because they have experienced a low level of heart damage that would previously have been undetectable.
An additional benefit to testing on the ECi is that several tests can be run at the same time. Each analysis requires approximately 30 minutes. Until recently, the complete series of tests to identify a patient experiencing an MI required about an hour, as the tests had to be run sequentially. On the ECi, each new analysis can begin only two minutes after the previous test has started, and several analyses can be run at the same time. This will have a noticeable impact on the time it takes to diagnose a patient's heart condition, and patient testing will not be delayed if another patient also requires testing for a similar condition.
This new equipment reflects the commitment by the Laboratory at Rumford Hospital to improving patient care through better, safer and faster specimen testing.
11/25/2008
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RH Lab accredited by College of American Pathologists
Rumford Hospital’s Laboratory has again been awarded accreditation by the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), based on the results of a recent on-site inspection.
The CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program, begun in the early 1960s, is recognized by the federal government as being equal to or more stringent than the government’s own inspection program. During the accreditation process, inspectors examine laboratory records and quality control procedures for the preceding two years. CAP inspectors examine the entire staff’s qualifications, the laboratory equipment, facilities, safety program and record, as well as the overall management of the laboratory. This ensures the highest standard of care for patients.
“This accreditation is not a new accomplishment,” notes RH Lab Medical Director Michael Eng, MD. “The laboratory has met or exceeded CAP’s standards for more than two decades.” He adds that this is a tribute to the dedication and professionalism of the entire staff.
Eng noted that the entire Laboratory team is essential in maintaining the accreditation. “They regularly document the lab’s adherence to the CAP standards,” Eng notes. “And they ensure that the laboratory maintains ongoing programs of quality assurance and quality improvement.”
Last February the CAP honored the Rumford Hospital Laboratory with selection as a “referee lab” for cell identification in hematology testing. The Rumford Hospital Laboratory had a perfect record of cell identification in hematology for several years, one of the factors that led to the honor of being chosen a referee lab.
“Patients whose testing is performed at Rumford Hospital’s laboratory can certainly feel confident that their results are accurate and consistent,” says Eng.
04/07/2008
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