Bert Fish Medical Center Now Using New LINQ Recorder Heart Monitor
Bert Fish Medical Center today announced that it is now using the Medtronic Reveal LINQ Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) System, the smallest implantable cardiac monitoring device available to monitor patient heartbeats. The small, wireless monitor provides long-term remote monitoring to help physicians diagnose and monitor irregular heartbeats.
The Reveal LINQ ICM is approximately one-third the size of a AAA battery, making it more than 80 percent smaller than other ICMs. While significantly smaller, the device is part of a powerful system that allows physicians to continuously and wirelessly monitor a patient’s heart for up to three years, with 20 percent more data memory than its larger predecessor, Reveal® XT.
In addition to its continuous and wireless monitoring capabilities, the system provides remote monitoring through the Carelink® Network. Through the Carelink Network, physicians can request notifications to alert them if their patients have had cardiac events. The Reveal LINQ ICM is indicated for patients who experience symptoms such as dizziness, palpitation, syncope (fainting) and chest pain that may suggest a cardiac arrhythmia, and for patients at increased risk for cardiac arrhythmias.
Placed just beneath the skin through a small incision of less than 1 cm in the upper left side of the chest, the Reveal LINQ ICM is often nearly invisible to the naked eye once inserted. The device is placed using a minimally invasive insertion procedure, which simplifies the experience for both physicians and their patients. The Reveal LINQ ICM is MR-Conditional, allowing patients to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) if needed.
The Reveal LINQ system also includes the new MyCareLink ™ Patient Monitor, a simplified remote monitoring system with global cellular technology that transmits patients’ cardiac device diagnostic data to their clinicians from nearly any location in the world.
Hospitals Enhance Patient Experience Through Pre-Procedure Assessment Centers
Central Florida Health Alliance aims to enhance the patient experience and the clinical outcomes as well as the efficiency and productivity of its operating rooms through the use of Pre-Procedure Assessment Centers.
Conveniently located in the Urgent Care Center on the campus of Leesburg Regional Medical Center and soon to be in the East Campus Building of The Villages Regional Hospital, the Pre-Procedure Assessment Centers perform any testing or evaluation required prior to a patient’s surgery.
All patients scheduled for surgery receive a pre-procedure appointment either via a telephone screening or a live visit says Steve Roth, Administrative Director of Ambulatory Operations at CFHA. The Pre-Procedure Assessment Centers aim is to make the patient experience less stressful by ensuring each patient is fully informed and in optimum health before anesthesia and surgery.
RNs at the Pre-Procedure Assessment Centers review each patient’s medical history and current medications, gathers and reviews recent test results, orders additional testing if needed per the anesthesia protocol and ensures that the patient and caregivers know what to expect on the day of surgery and post operatively.
CFHA has announced that Rita Spires, RN has accepted the new position of RN Supervisor for its Pre-Procedure Assessment Center for Leesburg Regional Medical Center and The Villages Regional Hospital. The new RN Supervisor role will ensure patient and physician satisfaction through the implementation of efficient and safe practices with the Centers. The purpose of this department is ultimately for the benefit of the patient. It is the supervisor’s role to see that goals are met though collaborative efforts with Patient Registration, Anesthesia, Surgery, Scheduling, Lab and Radiology.
Florida Healthcare Law Firm Welcomes Karina P. Gonzalez
The Florida Healthcare Law Firm, one of South Florida’s leading providers of healthcare legal services for physicians and healthcare businesses, is pleased to announce the recent addition of seasoned attorney, Karina P. Gonzalez, Esq.
Gonzalez has concentrated her 20 year practice in healthcare litigation and transactions. She has practiced in managed healthcare law defending managed care organizations and businesses in claims involving reimbursement disputes with participating and nonparticipating providers, contracting disputes, negligent credentialing, direct negligence for utilization management decisions, fraudulent billing, member disputes over medical benefits, balance billing, Medicare reimbursement, Medicaid reimbursement and healthcare fraud.
Attorney Gonzalez has defended physicians and hospitals in medical malpractice, psychiatric malpractice and defended nursing homes and assisted living facilities in nursing home negligence.
Karina graduated from the University of Cincinnati, College of law in 1993. She has an AV preeminent rating from Martindale Hubbell and is a member of the Florida Bar Health Law Section; a member of the Civil Rules of Procedure Committee; and a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, Health Law Section.
LRMC Honored for Reducing Early Elective Deliveries
On September 5, Leesburg Regional Medical Center was honored by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) District XII (Florida) and the March of Dimes for reducing the number of early elective inductions and cesarean deliveries.
The criteria to qualify for this distinction include achieving a rate of 5 percent or lower for elective deliveries before 39 completed weeks of pregnancy and implementing policies to prevent such deliveries.
In an average week in Florida, 549 babies are born preterm and 29 die before their first birthday, many times as a result of their early births. Early elective deliveries can cause lifelong health challenges for the baby, including breathing difficulty, cerebral palsy and learning disabilities. Even babies born just a few weeks early have higher rates of hospitalization and illness than full-term infants. The March of Dimes commends this momentous achievement.
IPC The Hospitalist Company Expands Florida Presence with ECHIS Acquisition
IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc. (Nasdaq:IPCM), a leading national hospital medicine and post-acute physician group practice company, announced today that it has expanded its presence in Florida with the acquisition of East Coast Hospitalist Inpatient Specialists (ECHIS).
ECHIS has been dedicated to providing exemplary acute inpatient healthcare, while effectively communicating with primary care physicians, consultants and hospitals said R. Jeffrey Taylor, president and COO of IPC.
ECHIS owners Drs. Hasib Ibne-Rasa, Asif Mirza, Faisal Ahmad, and Syed Hassan will continue practicing under IPC. Dr. Ibne-Rasa, who will serve as the team's physician group leader, said that with the clinical tools, technology, and expertise offered by IPC, the performance of the group will be greatly enhanced.
The patient encounters for the practice are estimated at approximately 47,000 on a combined annualized basis.
New Family Practice Clinic Opens In New Smyrna Beach
Bert Fish Medical Center welcomes Raman Ashta, M.D., to the medical staff. Dr. Ashta has opened her new practice, Coronado Health Partners – Primary Care, in New Smyrna Beach. Dr. Ashta is Board Certified in Family Medicine.
Dr. Ashta has been in private practice since 2009 and is experienced in a full spectrum of family medicine including adult medicine, pediatrics, office gynecology and psychosocial medicine.
Coronado Health Partners is a multi-specialty physician practice affiliated with Bert Fish Medical Center.
Findeiss Family Foundation Donates $250,000 to EMLRC
The Emergency Medicine Learning & Resource Center is pleased to announce that the Findeiss Family Foundation has pledged an additional $150,000 gift to the EMLRC bringing its total contribution to $250,000. The gifts were made at the behest of Dr. Clifford Findeiss.
The gifts were made to support the EMLRC’s $2 million fundraising campaign for its new headquarters in Orlando, and for additional technology to support emergency medicine provider education and high-fidelity human patient simulators. Over the past year, EMLRC provided simulation education to more than 3,000 emergency medicine professionals.
The facility will also serve as state headquarters of the Florida College of Emergency Physicians (FCEP), the Florida Emergency Medicine Foundation, the Florida Association of EMS Medical Directors, and International Trauma Life Support of Florida. EMLRC will continue to collaborate with Florida universities, EMS agencies, and hospitals to conduct programs at the new facility as well as through its mobile platform to deliver education directly to the customer.
In the 1970s, Findeiss was, among others, a leader in the development of the specialty of emergency medicine.
