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Oh the Places (those trees) Will Go!

October 8th, 2012 By Emory Healthcare

As Emory Healthcare continues our expansion efforts to meet the needs of our patients, we are beginning to clear the land in front of Emory Clinic Building B on the Emory University campus to make way for a new hospital bed tower. During this process we began removing trees in this area on October 4. The site will be cleared by October 15. As a part of the “no net loss of Forest Canopy policy” we will reuse, recycle and replant the trees that we take down to ensure we are being as environmentally friendly as possible. Some of the ways we will reuse, recycle and salvage are:

The branches will be mulched for future use around the Emory campus.
The trees will be collected and removed from the site for recycling and salvage.
Some of the lumber will be used in the new hospital expansion project.
We will be replanting 128 trees across campus during the Fall 2012.

We are very excited about the expansion of Emory Healthcare and are confident that our patients and employees will benefit from our expanded facilities. As we expand please know that Emory Healthcare is committed to preserving the environment and maintaining our lush green community/campus. For more information on Emory’s replanting project during construction, visit www.emory.edu/trees. To keep updated on all the news regarding the expansion visit emoryhealthcare.org/expansion.

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Two Emory Hospitals Awarded for Quality Achievements by University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC)

September 14th, 2012 By John T. Fox, President & CEO, Emory Healthcare

Dear Friends in the Atlanta Community,

Emory Healthcare is proud to care for the residents of Atlanta and Georgia, and we want to thank you for trusting in us to deliver quality patient care. You can take comfort and pride in knowing that Emory Healthcare is the only health care system in Georgia to have hospitals ranked among the top 10 academic health systems in America for quality and accountability by the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC). As the authority on quality for academic medical centers, UHC included not just one, but TWO of Emory Healthcare’s hospitals in its top 10 list. No other health care system has ever had TWO hospitals in the national top 10 UHC list simultaneously.

A top ranking by UHC means more than just great care. Since UHC ranks only academic medical centers that typically treat more complex patients than most hospitals, making their top ten list of the 101 participants reflects the ultimate assessment of organizational performance in setting the standard in quality and safety. In 2006, Emory Healthcare established a goal to achieve the UHC top 10 ranking and took on the challenge of meeting the rigorous standards UHC sets for measuring attributes of quality, safety and patient service. We are proud to have achieved this goal for our two largest teaching hospitals – Emory University Hospital (combined with Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital) ranked #2 and Emory University Hospital Midtown ranked #6.

There is no secret sauce to this phenomenal achievement. It is the result of years of your intense work, scrutinizing and improving the quality and safety of care we provide and never accepting “good enough.” It is the result of teams across our entire organization that have firmly resolved to do better and better each day for our patients.

What does that mean for you? It means that:

Because of Emory’s patient- and family-centered care approach, when you walk into an Emory facility, you can count on receiving top quality patient care.
Every single patient who enters our hospital and clinic doors is treated like a VIP.
Success is measured in the number of lives we save.
As a patient, you will have less time in a hospital bed and more time at home with your family.

At Emory, we’re committed to continue restoring Atlantans back to health. I would like to personally thank our more than 16,000 dedicated professionals—physicians, nurses and staff who are obsessed with quality—working around the clock, always searching for better ways to save lives and help you get and stay well. What we do at Emory Healthcare helps create a healthier Atlanta and Georgia. We have more work to do on additional improvements, but want to share this key milestone with the communities we serve. Thank you.

Sincerely,
John Fox
President and CEO, Emory Healthcare

Learn More About Hospital Quality Measures & What They Mean:

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Emory Healthcare Earns a Spot on the 2012 InformationWeek 500 – A List of Top U.S. Technology Innovators!

September 13th, 2012 By Emory Healthcare

With its annual 500 listing, InformationWeek identifies and honors the nation’s most innovative users of information technology and also tracks the technology, strategies, investments and administrative practices of America’s best-known companies.

“The InformationWeek 500 has recognized the most innovative users of business technology for 24 years, and this year’s innovations are particularly impressive,” said InformationWeek Editor-In-Chief Rob Preston. “What the editors looked for are unconventional approaches – new technologies, new models, new ways of grabbing business opportunities and solving complex business problems with IT.”

Congratulations, Emory Healthcare, in particular, our Information Services team, on this recognition! Through advancements in technology, we are able to enhance patient care and improve our work environment.

Related Resources:

InformationWeek 500 Web Site

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Putting Our Community First: Tobacco-Free at EHC

August 31st, 2012 By Emory Healthcare

As the largest health care system in the state of Georgia, putting the health and wellness of our staff, patients and families first is our priority. It’s also important that we set an example not only for other health care providers, but for our Georgia communities. In an effort to help support both of those goals, earlier this year, we announced that Emory Healthcare and Emory University were becoming tobacco-free campuses in the fall.

Below is information detailing the rollout of our tobacco-free system, including information on areas that have already become tobacco-free.

Emory University – Tobacco-Free as of August 1, 2012

As of August 1, 2012, designated smoking areas around the Emory University campus have been removed and the campus is tobacco-free. That means that use of all tobacco products (cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, etc.) is prohibited on the Emory University campus – including parking areas.

Emory Healthcare – Tobacco-Free as of September 1, 2012

Emory Johns Creek Hospital, Saint Joseph’s Hospital and the Emory University Orthopaedics and Spine Hospital, all of which are part of the Emory Healthcare system, have been operating as tobacco-free campuses for some time now. Other facilities inside of the Emory Healthcare system that currently allow for the use of tobacco on campus will have their designated smoking areas removed on September 1, 2012. Staff, students, faculty, physicians, patients and visitors are not permitted to use any tobacco product anywhere on Emory Healthcare property, including doctors’ office and parking areas, as of September 1, 2012.

Signage is posted across both Emory University and Emory Healthcare campuses, and we need everyone’s support to be a success! We know this is a big change for those who use tobacco products. Thanks in advance to our community members for being champions of this important step in creating a safe environment.

If you have any questions or feedback on our tobacco-free initiative, please leave them in the comments section below.

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Emory Expansion Update: Dermatology, ENT & Sinus/Nasal/Allergy Departments Moving!

July 16th, 2012 By Morgan Griffith

To provide a better ambulatory care experience and align demand with available capacity, many of The Emory Clinic (TEC) practices are relocating to redesigned clinical space and/or new locations. The new spaces will be more inviting for patients and more accommodating to the needs of our physicians as well.

Below are updates related to the moves of our Dermatology, ENT/Otolaryngology, and Sinus/Nasal/Allergy departments. For more information on our expansion and departmental moves, visit: http://emoryhealthcare.org/expansion.

Dermatology

The Emory Clinic Department of Dermatology will be moving from The Emory Clinic Building A to 1525 Clifton Road and will begin seeing patients at their new location beginning on August, 13, 2012.

New Dermatology Address as of August, 13, 2012:

1525 Clifton Road, NE
3rd Floor
Atlanta, GA 30322

If you have an appointment with any of the dermatology providers listed here, please call 404-778-3333 prior to your next appointment to confirm the location for your appointment.

ENT/Otolaryngology

ENT is moving from Emory’s Clifton Road campus, Clinic Building A to the 9th floor of the Midtown Medical Office Tower (MOT) and will begin seeing patients in their new office on August 20, 2012.

New ENT Address as of August 20, 2012:

The Emory Clinic Midtown
Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
Medical Office Tower (MOT)
9th Floor
550 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

See the full list of physicians and mid-level providers who will see patients at the new ENT location. To confirm the location of your next ENT appointment, call: 404-778-3381.

Sinus, Nasal and Allergy Center

The Emory Clinic’s Sinus, Nasal and Allergy Center, will be moving from its current, temporary location on the 11th floor of Emory University Hospital Midtown Medical Office Tower (MOT), to the 9th floor of the same building, where they will join the rest of the physicians from the Department of Otolaryngology. The Sinus, Nasal and Allergy Center will begin seeing patients in their new 9th floor location on August 6, 2012.

New Sinus/Nasal/Allergy Address as of August 6, 2012:

The Emory Clinic Midtown
Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
Medical Office Tower (MOT)
9th Floor
550 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

See the full list of physicians and mid-level providers who will see patients at the new Sinus/Nasal/Allergy location. For more information please call Sinus, Nasal and Allergy Center at 404-778-3381.

For more information on our expansion and departmental moves, visit: http://emoryhealthcare.org/expansion.

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Atlanta’s Top Doctors are at Emory

June 29th, 2012 By Emory Healthcare

In last year’s annual rankings of Atlanta’s Top Doctors, over 1/3 of all the doctors honored in Atlanta Magazine’s list were Emory physicians. In 2012, we’re very excited to announce that nearly half of the 315 physicians recognized as Atlanta’s best doctors practice at one of our Emory facilities.

We honor, celebrate and thank all of our physicians—and the care teams that support them—for putting the care in health care and making truly patient- and family-centered care their priority each and every day. Congratulations to you all!

You can also check out the full list of the Emory Healthcare doctors—including our physicians practicing at Emory University Hospital, Emory University Hospital Midtown, Emory Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital, Saint Joseph’s Hospital, Emory Johns Creek Hospital, and our other facility and clinic locations across Atlanta—honored as Atlanta’s Top Docs on our website, by visiting: http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/topdocs

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Expanding Access to Top-Notch Health Care in Georgia Communities

May 10th, 2012 By Emory Healthcare

Every day inside and outside of Emory facility walls our staff and care team members make it their priority to live our mission to serve humanity by improving health. That mission is carried out in obvious ways through the direct partnership between our patients and care team, but also in less obvious ways, by improving our community’s access to top quality patient-centered health care.

In late 2011, we improved access to everyday health care services by partnering with the CVS MinuteClinic to provide health care at 31 locations across the metro Atlanta area without an appointment. As we brought in the New Year, we welcomed the newest member of the Emory Healthcare family, Saint Joseph’s Hospital. Partnering with Saint Joseph’s means two of Atlanta’s leading health care organizations are now working in collaboration to bring an unparalleled level of health care and access to our Atlanta and Georgia communities.

Because the health care needs of our communities are constantly growing, we’ve taken another step to broaden access to the unparalleled level of care provided to the Emory Healthcare community. We have established an agreement to enter into negotiations for Emory to manage Southern Regional Health System that will integrate the Riverdale, Georgia health care network into our own.

These talks come at quite a momentous time for the Emory Healthcare community. While we work to improve access to top-notch health care in Georgia through a partnership with Southern Regional, we also move towards a relationship that will establish the facility as a hospital partner in Emory’s Clinically Integrated Network serving the Southern Crescent area.

The partnership between Southern Regional Health System and Emory Healthcare is an intuitive one, according to Southern Regional’s CEO, Jim Crissey, due to Emory Healthcare’s commitment to high quality care, its strong local presence, proven financial strength and solid reputation in the community.
“Our board is confident that Emory’s mission aligns closely with our own and our shared values will help us to form a successful partnership,” said CEO Crissey. “Most importantly, a partnership with Emory Healthcare will preserve access to high quality care for the communities we serve,” he said.

We will be sure to keep you updated as discussions with Southern Regional progress here on our blog. If you have comments or feedback on this blog, please leave them for us and our readers in the comments below!

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Emory is Expanding!

April 30th, 2012 By Emory Healthcare

You may be surprised to see some new construction at The Emory Clinic (TEC). Construction began on Friday, April 27, 2012, to improve patient access to Buildings A, B and the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University (Building C) in anticipation of construction of the planned Emory University Hospital bed tower. The project, which will mostly affect the valet area next to Buildings A and Winship, will add lanes to make valet parking easier and faster and improve self-parking by creating an elevated, “conditioned” (heated and cooled) bridge from the main Hospital/Clinic parking deck to TEC Buildings A and B, as well as leading to the hospital. Pedestrians will no longer have to compete with cars that are trying to enter the valet area in front of Building A.

If you are a patient and have a clinic appointment in TEC Buildings A or B, please give yourself a few extra minutes to get to your appointment as pedestrian traffic will be slightly rerouted during the construction period. Please continue to park in the main Hospital/Clinic parking deck. If you have a hard time walking, we encourage you to take advantage of the valet parking options still open and available next to Building A.

If you are visiting Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, please consider using the Uppergate valet parking area to avoid the traffic.

Visit www.emoryhealthcare.org/expansion for the latest exciting news on the expansion of Emory Healthcare.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause but know you will be thrilled when the project is completed.

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Second Graders Help Name Emory Johns Creek Hospital Robot!

April 17th, 2012 By Emory Healthcare

Emory Johns Creek Hospital has a new da Vinci® robot, and the second grade students at State Bridge Elementary School have helped us name it! At the beginning of April, the second graders were invited to participate in our “Name the Robot” contest. They colored in pictures of the robot and suggested fun names for it. They also learned how the hospital uses this revolutionary robotic technology for surgery. Johns Creek High School’s Robotics Seminar students chose the winning name for us from among the entries.

The “Name the Robot” contest winner will get a behind-the scenes tour of one of Emory Johns Creek Hospital’s operating rooms, and everyone in the winner’s class will receive acoupon from Chick-fil-A. A prize is also being awarded forthe most artistic coloring. The kids did a great job, and their colorful entries will be display in the hospital’s cafeteria from April 23 to May 8. We cannot wait to announce the winner Tuesday, May 8, at our “Name the Robot” Open House! We will celebrate with juice and cookies and a robot demonstration, and you are invited to join us. We hope to see you there!

RSVP to our Facebook event!

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Exercise May Enhance Sexual Function in Men

March 9th, 2012 By Emory Healthcare

Men under the age of 40 now have one more reason to hit the gym. According to a recent Emory University study, increased physical activity is associated with better sexual function in men under 40.

The study, published online in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, assessed the association between physical activity and erectile function in young, healthy men ages 18 to 40. Previous studies have suggested that erectile dysfunction in men under 40 is correlated with increased cardiovascular risks.

“The men in our study who exercised more seemed to experience a protective benefit against erectile dysfunction,” says Wayland Hsiao, MD, co-author of the study and assistant professor of urology, Emory University School of Medicine. “We hope that early screening for ED may be a gateway issue to help motivate young men to live healthily on a consistent basis so that they can possibly avoid health issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. We see this as just the beginning.”

For the study, a group of men ages 18 to 40 kept a record of their exercise and sexual function. Researchers found improved erectile function in men under 40 with increased exercise, as well as higher rates of sexual dysfunction in sedentary men under 40. The study also noted that men can start experiencing issues with erectile dysfunction as early as their 30s.

“Several studies have evaluated the relationship between exercise and erectile function in older or obese men,” says study co-author Chad W.M. Ritenour, MD, director of the Emory’s Men’s Health Center and associate professor of urology, Emory University School of Medicine. “Our goal with this particular study was to determine if there is a connection between increased exercise and better erectile function in younger men.”

Drs. Ritenour and Hsiao recommend that men follow the recommendations of the CDC and get at least two and a half hours of physical activity a week, ideally spread throughout the week. Also, men should eat a diet that includes variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as limit foods and drinks high in calories, sugar, salt, fat and alcohol.