TODAY news - October 2, 2003

Thursday, October 2, 2003 TODAY

Loma Linda University Medical Center news

LLUMC receives Consumer Choice Award

Loma Linda University Medical Center was named a Consumer Choice Award winner by the residents of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. This is the fourth year in a row LLUMC has been awarded this honor.

Loma Linda University Medical Center has been named a Consumer Choice Award winner by the residents of Riverside and San Bernardino counties located in inland Southern California. The award was presented to Loma Linda University Medical Center president and chief executive officer B. Lyn Behrens, MBBS, on September 12.

Loma Linda University Medical Center as among 175 hospitals and medical centers around the nation chosen as Consumer Choice Award winners.

Each year, the National Research Corporation (NRC) honors hospitals and medical centers which consumers rate as having the best quality and image, based on a nationally syndicated National Research Corporation Healthcare Market Guide study of more than 140,000 households throughout the nation. This is the eighth year that the National Research Corporation, a leader in health-care performance measurement, has named top hospitals in markets throughout the United States. This is the fourth year in a row Loma Linda University Medical Center has been awarded this honor.

“ We are pleased with the confidence that the residents of the Inland Empire have placed in our health-care professionals at Loma Linda University Medical Center and its affiliated entities to provide top-quality medical care,” says Dr. Behrens.

The winners of the award are determined by consumer perceptions on multiple quality and image ratings collected by the National Research Corporation.

“ Consumers play an increasing role in their selection of health-care facilities and services,” says Michael Hays, National Research Corporation president and chief executive officer. “As information is made publicly available to consumers, we expect this trend to increase. With the industry’s shift to a consumer-driven model, we are pleased to recognize Loma Linda University Medical Center as a leader in providing health-care to residents in the Inland Empire area.”

The 2003 Healthcare Market Guide is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive study of its kind. No other study used to rate hospitals and medical centers contains more consumer responses than the NRC study.

The NRC Healthcare Market Guide is a nationally syndicated study conducted annually to compile consumer assessments of their health plans, personal physicians, and local health-care facilities.

In 2003, 140,000 households around the nation responded to the questionnaire and represented more than 400,000 individuals.

Six other Southern California hospitals were listed among the 175 hospitals throughout the nation to receive the award. These hospitals were located in Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego, and Ventura. Florida Hospital, located in Orlando, was the only other Seventh-day Adventist hospital in the nation to receive the Consumer Choice Award.

Loma Linda University Medical Center is probably best known around the nation for its infant heart transplant program and for the Proton Treatment Center.

The infant heart transplant program was begun at the Medical Center in 1984 by Leonard L. Bailey, MD, chair and professor of surgery at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Since 1984, more than 400 children have received new hearts—nearly 250 of these have been infants under six months of age. The oldest living child, Baby Moses, received his new heart in late 1985.

The Proton Treatment Center was the world’s first hospital-based center for the use of proton therapy in the world. Since its inception in October, 1990, nearly 7,000 patients have received treatment at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Nearly half of these patients are men with carcinoma of the prostate, the most common cancer in men and one that has a high success rate if discovered early.

“ Proton radiation therapy is a highly precise means of delivering ionizing energy to tumors and other diseases,” says James M. Slater, MD, founding director of the Proton Treatment Center. “Its unique physical characteristics enable radiation oncologists to deliver effective doses to tumors and other diseased sites while avoiding nearby normal tissues to a greater extent and with greater precision than is possible with conventional x-ray therapy.”

Clinical researchers continue to add to the anatomic sites that are being evaluated for treatments, either by protons alone or in combination with conventional radiotherapy or other modalities.

Currently, more than 140 patients a day are being treated at the Proton Treatment Center. . It is expected that the number of patients treated will reach 200 daily in the next few years.

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Care Connection van provides free ride to Loma Linda University Medical Center

Sun City residents benefit from a four-day-a-week bus ride, known as the Care Connection, to Loma Linda University Medical Center. A group of volunteers provide morning trips from Sun City at 8:00 a.m. from the LLUMC clinic at Sherman Way to the main campus at Anderson Street in Loma Linda and the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center. The bus, which can hold nine passengers, returns each day at 12:30 p.m.

The Care Connection has offered free rides from Sun City to LLUMC for the past 18 years. For more information on how to become a volunteer, or to get a ride, please call Harold Allday at (909) 679-3833 or Denise Winter at (909) 558-8022.

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3rd year orthopaedic surgery resident wins national award

James Boyd, MD, a third year orthopaedic surgery resident at LLUMC, received the Jeanette Wilkins Award for the best scientific paper presentation in August.

James Boyd, MD, third year orthopaedic surgery resident at Loma Linda University Medical Center, received some well earned recognition this past August. After presenting his scientific paper “Comparison of Soft Tissue Disruption Caused by High and Low Pressure Wound Lavage Systems” at the 2003 Musculoskeletal Infection Society in Aspen, Colorado, Dr. Boyd learned the convention panel awarded him the Jeanette Wilkins Award for his presentation.

Attending physician Danny Wongworawat, MD, helped guide Dr. Boyd to the topic of soft tissue disruption from high pressure irrigation systems used in orthopaedic surgery to disinfect and clean open fractures. Dr. Boyd discovered most of the existing literature dealt with how high pressure irrigation, or wound lavage systems, affect bone, not the soft tissue surrounding it.

“ The soft tissue is the most important factor in healing—so the less damage you can do to it the better,” says Dr. Boyd.

His research found that the high pressure lavage system does significantly more damage to soft tissue than low pressure alternatives. The high pressure system, which looks much like a high pressure water nozzle, sprays a saline solution containing antibiotics to help disinfect and cleanse wounds from open fractures. The gun shoots the solution with a force of 40 to 50 pounds per square inch (psi). The control group in Dr. Boyd’s study used a gravity flow irrigation system where the patient was placed seven feet high and had tubes draining the antibiotic solution away from the wound at a tenth of the pressure.

The Jeanette Wilkins Award is one of the Musculoskeletal Infection Society’s most prestigious honors bestowed each year at the annual open science meeting. Jeanette Wilkins was a pediatrician specializing in infectious disease. While a faculty member of the University of Southern California Medical School in Los Angeles, she performed pioneering research alongside the school’s orthopaedic department which has revolutionized the treatment of bone and joint infections.

This was Dr. Boyd’s first presentation at a national gathering of leaders in his field. He said he was a little nervous, but was pleased to find that some of the comments about the presentation applauded its coherency.

“ We tried to focus on making it as easy to understand as possible,” says Dr. Boyd.

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Thursday, October 2, 2003 TODAY