Volunteers Provide Extraordinary Service

Catholic Health Services (CHS) is blessed with almost 3,000 dedicated and talented volunteers throughout Nassau and Suffolk. The annual observance of National Volunteer Week allows CHS to pay tribute to these extraordinary individuals, who collectively donate thousands of hours of service each year to the system. Their efforts help to sustain our work and benefit those we serve all year round.

CHS volunteers come from all walks of life—students, retirees, homemakers and professionals—and provide a multitude of services, including comforting patients, organizing fund raisers, staffing gift shops or assisting with administrative projects. Whether they are junior volunteers or seasoned veterans, they share a profound commitment to helping others.

Contributing their time and skills, volunteers enhance the patient experience and support the delivery of health services in our communities. Their enthusiasm and hard work are valued and appreciated by our organization.

If you or anyone you know would like to learn more about volunteering at a CHS facility near you, please call 1 (855) CHS-4500.

High Reliability in Patient Care

In industries such as aviation and nuclear energy, even small flaws or errors can result in disasters. The “high reliability” approach was developed to avert these occurrences. A growing number of hospitals and health care systems are also using high reliability concepts to help ensure safety, quality and efficiency. Creating a culture and processes that radically reduce system failures and effectively respond when failures do occur is the goal of every high reliability organization (HRO).

“Patients rely on hospitals and caregivers to offer consistently high-quality care,” explained CHS’s Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Patrick M. O’Shaughnessy, DO. “Under the leadership of The Joint Commission, health care providers across the nation are applying the methodologies of HROs.”

At the core of HROs are five key concepts, which are believed to be essential for any improvement initiative to succeed:

Sensitivity to operations: Preserving constant awareness by leaders and staff of the state of the systems and processes that affect patient care is key to identifying potential risks and preventing them.

Reluctance to simplify: Simple processes are good, but simplistic explanations for why things work or fail are risky.

Preoccupation with failure: Near-misses are viewed as evidence of systems that should be improved.

Deference to expertise: Leaders and supervisors must be willing to listen and respond to the insights of staff who know how specific processes really work in order to have a culture in which high reliability is possible.

Resilience: Leaders and staff need to be trained and prepared to know how to respond when system failures do occur.

“These concepts are taught to all our staff, and in health care we specifically focus on maintaining a culture of safety,” said Dr. O’Shaughnessy.

Visit www.chsli.org or call 1-855-CHS-4500 for information about services in Nassau and Suffolk.

Eating Your Way to Heart Health

Good nutrition is essential to wellness. This is especially true when it comes to fighting cardiovascular disease. Along with other choices we make in our daily routine, diet is key to maintaining heart health.

The core message of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–2020  [http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/] remains consistent with previous editions issued since the effort was launched in 1980. However, note that the ban on cholesterol has been lifted! In general, it is recommended that we eat more fruits and vegetables, choose lean meats and low-fat dairy foods, and limit trans fat.

To optimize your heart health, it’s helpful to eat more whole plant foods and include lean and plant-based proteins, while decreasing refined foods, especially those that contain added sugar and sodium. Also, at least half of all grains in your diet should be whole grains, with a shift toward higher fiber foods.

Eating your way to heart health is only part of the solution to protect your heart. It’s also important to practice weight management, exercise regularly and live a healthy lifestyle. Other suggestions: manage stress, do not smoke, have a positive attitude and do not drink excessive alcohol.

Recommended:
Olive oil, 4 tbsp/dayNuts, 1oz/day
Vegetables, 2 or more servings/day
Fruits, 3 or more servings/day
Legumes, 3 servings/week
Fish, 3 servings/week
Chicken or turkey instead of red meat
Wine, 1 small glass/day (optional)

Consume less:
Red and processed meat
Butter, margarine and cream
Soda
Grain-based desserts and pastries

Here’s a great heart-healthy variation on a classic dish, pasta primavera. For more healthy living recipes, go to http://www.chsli.org/recipes-healthy-living.

Be Good to Your Heart

With the annual observance of St. Valentine’s Day having just been celebrated on the 14th of this month, it’s appropriate that February is also American Heart Month. This is a good time to start leading a heart-healthy lifestyle. According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA), 80% of heart disease and stroke events are preventable.

The following are risk factors for heart disease and related conditions:

• Smoking
  
• High blood pressure
• High blood cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Physical inactivity

Here are some tips from the AHA:

• Learn the warning signs of heart attack, stroke and cardiac arrest. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/911-Warnings-Signs-of-a-Heart Attack_UCM_305346_SubHomePage.jsp

• Take the quiz to test your nutrition knowledge. https://media.heart.org/fc/quiz/index-3.html?xmlHash=d5caa76b92efaeff980beb2e7b9e9199

CHS offers a full range of cardiovascular services. To learn more, call 1-855-CHS-4500 for your free Services Guide booklet.

Feeling Blue This Winter?

Shorter days and less natural light make winter trying for many. Some are affected more than others experiencing seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD is a mood disorder associated with depression related to seasonal variations of light. It affects half a million people every winter between September and April, peaking in December, January and February. The “Winter Blues” a milder form of SAD, may affect even more people (mentalhealthamerica.net).

Signs of SAD:

• Change in behavior or feeling depressed when there is less light, during the winter months or in light-deficient locations
• Sluggishness or inability to function
• Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
• A reduced ability to handle stress
• Not finding pleasure in otherwise enjoyable events
• A change in appetite. Either increased or no appetite

 “People who have noticed these symptoms at least twice in their lives should go for a consultation,” commented Ronald Brenner, MD, chief of CHS’s behavioral health services and director of psychiatry at Mercy Medical Center. “Assistance can be fairly simple; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

SAD may be alleviated through:

• Exercise— not only beneficial in itself but also gets someone with SAD outdoors or into well-lit indoor environments
• A well-balanced diet to counter cravings for sweets or starches
• Stress management techniques, including mindfulness—in-the-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, sensations and immediate surroundings—and meditation
• Psychotherapy
• Antidepressants, including buproprion, may be prescribed before winter begins, for patients with severe depression 
• Travel to warm, sunny regions
• Light therapy“Patients respond to light therapy, either from natural outdoor light or using one of the many light boxes available in the marketplace,” explained Dr. Brenner. “White light is believed to be better than blue, and both fluorescent and LED-based light boxes have been found to be effective.”

Mercy’s outpatient clinic in Garden City offers psychotherapy and other expert services to address mood disturbances such as SAD, as well as treatment for a wide range of mental and behavioral health issues. For information on this and other resources or to find a doctor near you, visit www.chsli.org or call 1-855-CHS-4500.

Help Save Lives. Donate Today.

January is National Blood Donor Month, when we  recognize the contributions blood and platelet donors make to patients and to health care to help save lives.

The winter storms cause cancellations and the ability for people to make donations. National Donor Month is a reminder that the inclement weather can threaten hospital’s blood supplies and availability for patients. Winter Storm Jonas recently dumped 20+ inches of snow, making collections even more of a challenge.

Blood can be safely donated every 56 days. Platelets can be given every seven days and up to 24 times a year. Anyone between the ages of 17 and 75 who is in good health and weighs at least 110 pounds can donate blood. Healthy individuals 75 and older can donate blood, if they present written permission from their physician obtained within two weeks of their donation.

To find a blood drive or donation center near you, visit http://www.nybloodcenter.org/donate-blood/where-to-donate-today/

If you need a family practitioner, please visit www.chsli.org or call 1-855-CHS-4500.

Teaming Up to Keep Student Athletes Safe

Through our ThinkSmart!™ Concussion Management program, originally launched in 2010 at St. Charles Hospital, CHS is working to keep student athletes safe. Collaborating with more than 41 school districts across Long Island, ThinkSmart! offers baseline testing, community education, specialized treatments and rehabilitation for student athletes and other individuals at risk of or who have sustained concussion, a common but serious traumatic brain injury (TBI). ThinkSmart! was developed to help prevent concussion and safely return athletes to the field, when an injury has occurred.

“Concussion recovery is extremely variable, which is why we provide each patient with a personalized treatment and recovery plan,” said Dr. Jennifer Gray, co-director of the ThinkSmart! Concussion Program at St. Charles Hospital. “It is important to ensure complete recovery of our student athletes prior to return to sports to prevent potentially severe consequences, as well as to avoid long lasting cognitive and physical effects.”

To date, approximately 30,000 students have received neurocognitive baseline testing through this program. The ThinkSmart! team of clinicians from St. Charles and Good Samaritan includes emergency medicine physicians, neurologists, physical medicine/rehabilitation physicians, orthopedic physicians, neuropsychologists, nurses and physical therapists who work with student athletes and their families. Visit www.chsli.org and click through the “ThinkSmart! Concussion Management” link under “Services”/”Neuroscience” to learn more.

For a free copy of our Services Guide booklet, call 1-855-CHS-4500 or visit www.chsli.org.