LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Sutter West Bay Hospitals and Sutter West Bay Medical Foundation have named a new chairman of the board and new members.
Sutter Health West Bay Region includes California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, Novato Community Hospital, Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation and Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport.
Frederick L. Johnson, M.D. joins as a new board member from the Lake County area. Dr. Johnson is the Director of Anesthesia Services and Chief of Staff at Sutter Lakeside Hospital. He also serves as president of Lake County Anesthesia PC.
Upon completion of his bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, MD., Johnson worked for six years in multiple hospital settings prior to matriculating into the State University of New York Health Sciences Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. where he earned his medical degree. His medical internship and first year of anesthesia residency were performed at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.
When his wife, Dr. Helen V. Johnson, also an anesthesiologist, was recruited to a faculty position at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, he transferred to Vanderbilt where he completed the final two years of residency training.
His interest in pediatric anesthesiology prompted him to accept a pediatric anesthesia fellowship at the University of Michigan’s Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1996, he and his wife were recruited to Sutter Lakeside Hospital. His family resides in Kelseyville.
Dr. Diane Pege, Director of Medical Affairs at Sutter Lakeside Hospital states, “Dr. Johnson will be a valuable addition to the West Bay Region Board. He has a thorough understanding of the challenges that we face as a small community hospital and he’ll be able to represent us well at a regional level. I’m beyond pleased by his appointment.”
Anthony G. Wagner of San Francisco was named chairman of the board. Also joining the board as new members are Susan H. Day, M.D., Emil Roy Eisenhardt, and Katherine Hsiao, M.D.
To learn more about Sutter Lakeside, please visit www.sutterlakeside.org/ .
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Adventist Health and Blue Shield announced a new telehealth initiative to help individuals and families in rural northern California communities to access specialty care in their area.
Many patients in these regions currently drive long distances to seek specialty care due to a lack of local specialists.
With this program, Blue Shield members can be diagnosed and treated by specialists from across the state through interactive video technology available at a local Adventist telehealth site.
The telehealth collaboration will reduce travel time and expense for patients while increasing their access to high-quality care.
The program is targeted to Blue Shield individual and family plan customers, including those who purchased coverage through Covered California.
Available specialties include cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology (diabetes), pulmonology, rheumatology (arthritis), orthopedics, infectious disease, nephrology, gastroenterology, general surgery and spine surgery.
The specialists are Adventist Health physicians and are contracted in the Blue Shield network. A patient can be referred by their local primary physician or can self-refer, make an appointment through a centralized care coordination call center, and go to their local Adventist Health telehealth location for their office visit.
Participating Adventist Health telehealth sites are located in the following cities in Paradise, Clearlake, Ukiah, Willits, Fort Bragg, St. Helena, Napa, Sonora and Dinuba.
The member’s cost for a telehealth visit is the same as their plan’s co-pay/co-insurance amount for specialist visits with an in-network provider.
“Adventist Health’s telehealth program will help ensure that patients get the care they need by providing access to specialists who are currently unavailable in many rural markets,” said Steven Herber, MD, interim ceo, St. Helena Hospital Region. “This program makes getting specialty care more convenient. Because telemedicine enables patients to get evaluated and treated sooner, it should enhance the patient experience and improve their health outcomes.”
Each telehealth site is equipped with specialized interactive video technology which allows the patient to see, hear and interact with their specialist.
A clinical coordinator in the office assists the patient and utilizes diagnostic equipment including an electronic stethoscope, vital signs monitor, and high definition camera to send accurate data, images and audio to the specialist during the visit.
The visits are private and confidential, with the patient’s information encrypted and transmitted through a highly secure connection on the Adventist Health secure data network.
Blue Shield individual and family plan members interested in scheduling a telehealth visit should call 1-866-832-8218.
Visit www.blueshieldca.com/telehealth for more information.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Sutter Care at Home is beginning a caregiver support group in the Lakeport area.
The group will have its first meeting at 1 p.m. Monday, March 10, at the Lakeport Senior Center, 527 Konocti Ave.
The support group will meet on a monthly basis.
A new study suggests that Alzheimer's disease may contribute to close to as many deaths in the United States as heart disease or cancer.
The research is published in the March 5 print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Currently, Alzheimer's disease falls sixth on the list of leading causes of death in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whereas heart disease and cancer are numbers one and two, respectively. These numbers are based on what is reported on death certificates.
“Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are under-reported on death certificates and medical records,” said study author Bryan D. James, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “Death certificates often list the immediate cause of death, such as pneumonia, rather than listing dementia as an underlying cause.” James added that attempting to identify a single cause of death does not always capture the reality of the process of dying for most elderly people, as multiple health issues often contribute.
“The estimates generated by our analysis suggest that deaths from Alzheimer's disease far exceed the numbers reported by the CDC and those listed on death certificates,” said James.
For the study, 2,566 people ages 65 and older received annual testing for dementia. The average age of the participants was 78.
The research found that after an average of eight years, 1,090 participants died. A total of 559 participants without dementia at the start of the study developed Alzheimer's disease.
The average time from diagnosis to death was about four years. After death, Alzheimer's disease was confirmed through autopsy for about 90 percent of those who were clinically diagnosed.
The death rate was more than four times higher after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's in people age 75 to 84 and nearly three times higher in people age 85 and older. More than one-third of all deaths in those age groups were attributable to Alzheimer's disease.
James said this translates into an estimated 503,400 deaths from Alzheimer's in the U.S. population over age 75 in 2010, which is five to six times higher than the 83,494 number reported by the CDC based on death certificates.
“Determining the true effects of dementia in this country is important for raising public awareness and identifying research priorities regarding this epidemic,” said James.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Illinois Department of Public Health. The authors thank the participants in the Religious Orders Study and the Rush Memory and Aging Project.
To learn more about Alzheimer's disease, please visit http://www.aan.com/patients .