St. Luke’s University Health Network

School of Nursing state ranks 5th in state

St. Luke’s School of Nursing ranks fifth out of 76 programs in Pennsylvania and first of all the nursing programs in the Lehigh Valley, according to www.RegisteredNursing.com.

The rankings are based on results from the National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse board exam.

Established in 1884, St. Luke’s School of Nursing was the fourth nursing school in the United States. It remains the oldest, continuously operating school of nursing in the country.

Supplemental donor breast milk program offered

St. Luke’s University Health Network has partnered with Three Rivers Mothers’ Milk Bank, Pittsburgh, to provide donor breast milk to late pre-term and term babies who need supplemental feeding after birth.

The bridge program will be used in both Allentown and Bethlehem nurseries for babies who need extra help with feeding in the first few hours and days after birth until the mothers are able to sufficiently breast feed.

Three Rivers Mothers’ Milk Bank uses screened donors and pasturized milk for purchase and shipping to health care facilities across the country.

“For Your SweetHeart” partnership announced

St. Luke’s University Health Network has partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company to deliver resources from For Your SweetHeart: Where diabetes and heart disease meet, to raise awareness of the critical connection between type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

A survey found that 52 percent of adults with type 2 diabetes do not understand they are at an increased risk for heart disease and related life-threatening events, like heart attack, stroke or even death, due to the complications associated with diabetes.

Ten leading patient and professional advocacy organizations and a steering committee of eight leading medical experts (cardiologists, endocrinologists and primary care physicians) have also joined the For Your SweetHeart movement.

New C-Diff treatment offered

St. Luke’s Bethlehem and Monroe Campuses now offer a highly effective, innovative procedure to treat individuals with clostridium difficile infection, a serious infection that causes symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon.

The traditional C-Diff treatment utilizes several courses of antibiotics and probiotics, which might or might not alleviate symptoms. SLUHN’s Bethlehem campus fecal microbiota transplants are performed by gastroenterologist Berhanu Geme, M.D., and colorectal surgeons Dr. Camille Eyvazzadeh and Dr. Daniel Eyvazzadeh.

With FMT, a patient receives stool containing beneficial intestinal microbiota from a carefully screened, healthy donor. The stool arrives in a frozen state and is then liquefied and transplanted into the patient with a syringe during colonoscopy. After the stool is placed in the patient’s gastrointestinal tract, the transplanted fecal matter delivers microbiota necessary for the gut to function properly. The inexpensive treatment has more than a 90 percent cure rate, most within a three to five day window.

Good Shepherd

Adams new Good Shepherd physician

Elizabeth E. Adams, DO, FAAP, has joined Good Shepherd Physician Group as the primary pediatric hospitalist at the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital Pediatric Unit, Bethlehem. She specializes in pediatric cardiology and adult congenital cardiology. She worked previously at Children’s Health Center of Nevada in Las Vegas.

Originally from New Tripoli, she interned at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville; earned a medical degree from the New England College of Osteopathic Medicine; and is currently enrolled in a master’s degree program in Clinical Research at Penn State University. she completed a pediatric cardiology fellowship and pediatric residency at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Hershey.

She is a member of the American College of Cardiology, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Osteopathic Association and Adult Congenital Heart Association.

Lehigh Valley Health Network

Facilities receive ‘A’ grade from Leapfrog

Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg and Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono each received an ‘A’ grade on the Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group for spring 2018. The ratings, released April 24, reflect how well hospitals protect patients from accidents, errors, injuries and infections. The Safety Score is designed to give the public information that is useful for choosing a hospital for care.

The HSG uses 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to approximately 2,500 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is peer reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.

For more information, visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.

FoH Awards winners

The 2018 Lehigh Valley Health Network Friends of Nursing awards program, held May 3 at the ArtsQuest Center at Steel Stacks, several local nurses were honored as professionals in patient care.

The recipients and their LVHN positions are Colleen Bolks, Registered Nurse, Emergency Department - Cedar Crest, Edward and Anne Davis Award for Excellence as a Nurse Preceptor; Dana Zindell of Bethlehem, Perioperative Float Pool, Edward and Anne Davis Award for Excellence in Perioperative Nursing; Lisa Forstburg, R.N., Open Heart Unit–Cedar Crest, The Fleming Nursing Caring Award; April Gheller, R.N., Infusion Center, Health Center at Bangor, Advanced Practice Clinician Award; Louise Hunter, R.N., Hospice, The Dr. Fred Fister Award for Excellence in Hospice Nursing and Jennifer Mulligan, R.N., Intensive Care Unit – Muhlenberg, Award for Excellence in Critical Care Nursing.

Among other awardees: Dr. Richard Kolesky of Bethlehem, Allentown Anesthesia Associates, Professional Excellence Council physician; April Meyers of Hellertown, Cedar Crest– 6Kasych, Medical Staff Administrative Partner Award; Nicole Grossmann – Infusion Center, Muhlenberg; The Cancer Institute Leadership Council Excellence in Cancer Care Award; Marsha Kvacky – Cardiovascular Recovery Holding Area, Muhlenberg, Excellence in Cardiovascular Nursing; Jaclyn Goffredo – Float Pool, Muhlenberg, Joseph and Judith Kaminski Award for Excellence as a Float Nurse; and Jennifer Mulligan – ICU, Muhlenberg, Award for Excellence in Critical Care Nursing.

The Friends of Nursing awards program kicks off National Nurses Week 2018 at LVHN. For more than 30 years, Lehigh Valley Health Network has recognized outstanding professional nursing practice through the Friends of Nursing awards program.

LVH–Cedar Crest Named a Becker “Great Hospital”

Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest is listed among Becker’s Healthcare “100 Great Hospitals in America” for 2018. The facility was recognized nationally for excellence in clinical care, patient outcomes, and staff and physician satisfaction.

LVH has advanced accreditation and certification in several specialties. Becker’s says the list also includes industry innovators that have sparked trends in healthcare technology, hospital management and patient satisfaction.

LVH–Cedar Crest is one of six hospitals in Pennsylvania and the only one in the Lehigh Valley and northeast Pennsylvania region recognized by Becker’s.