Winter • 2013

Like hospitals everywhere, Regional West is filled with rooms and labs where employees work, but ordinary people only see when they are patients. The latest example is Regional West’s new patient Prep and Recovery area that was added to the Imaging Services Department.

Interventional Radiology is a subspecialty of imaging services in which radiologists perform minimally invasive procedures—such as angioplasties and catheter-delivered stents—using real-time images. Because Interventional Radiology patients are sedated for procedures, nurses need a location for

procedure preparation and a place to bring patients to recover afterward.

The new Prep and Recovery area, between Imaging Services and the Emergency Department, improves radiologist access to patients before and after interventional procedures, leading to better, more efficient patient care.

The Prep and Recovery area also offers greater privacy and efficiency for patients awaiting X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs. A corner is dedicated to serving Interventional Radiology outpatients, functioning like a small clinic. And although the space was designed to improve patient care in Imaging Services, it also improves care when the Emergency Department is filled to overflowing and needs additional space, as it sometime does during flu season.

“With careful planning, we were able to add clinical space that serves the needs of two completely different departments,” says Sharon McKinney, director of Imaging Services. “Most importantly, it allows us to provide better care to patients in both areas.”

Interventional Radiology Department staff, from left: Susan Deal, PA; Kari Gift, RN; Teresa Elliott, LPN; Ellen Otto, RN; Lenna Booth, RN; Interventional Radiologist Farid Thanawalla, MD; Kim Smith, RN; Nina Palomo, RN; Tish Merrills, scheduler; Sarah Houk, RT; Sharon McKinney, Director of Imaging Services. Back row: Interventional Radiologist David Porter, MD; Josh Lively, RT.

One Construction Project Benefits Two Hospital Departments

Lenna Booth, RN, at work in the new Prep and Recovery area.

“We have a large population of patients in the region with diabetes and high blood pressure, which puts them at greater risk for kidney disease, so we encourage annual check-ups,” says nephrologist David Kanar, MD. “Early intervention is helpful.”

Since 2011, Dr. Kanar has teamed up with Eric Wiebe, MD, at Regional West Physicians Clinic-Nephrology to care for patients with kidney disease. “I was very impressed with Dr. Wiebe when I met him, and I quickly discovered there was a definite need for additional nephrology care in the panhandle,” says Dr. Kanar.

Dr. Kanar and his wife, hospitalist Erika Gelgand, MD, moved to Scottsbluff from Denver. Here they found “a great medical center” and a quieter, more relaxed location to raise their 4-year-old twins. The family also includes two older children who attend college in Colorado.

According to Dr. Kanar, many people don’t realize they have kidney disease. “Chronic kidney disease is asymptomatic,” he says. Patients may have a generalized sense of not feeling well, blood in the urine, or swelling in the ankles or near the eyes, but he says they wouldn’t necessarily attribute those symptoms to kidney disease. Blood or urine tests are necessary to determine how well the kidneys are removing waste and excess fluid from the blood.

Blood tests such as serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) have long been used to diagnose and monitor kidney dysfunction. Regional West has introduced the use of eGFR, which is a more accurate estimate of kidney function. Dr. Kanar is skilled in evaluating kidney biopsies and so has begun referring patients to Regional West Medical Center for that intervention. Previously, patients had to travel elsewhere when a kidney biopsy was necessary.

“How’s my kidney function?” Scottsbluff’s first and

only board-certified

nephrologist has a

word of advice for

everyone over age

40—have an annual

physical and when you

do, ask your primary

care provider: “How’s

my kidney function?”

David Kanar, MD

Nephrologist

2 | HEALTHY TIMES |

320 East 42nd StreetScottsbluff, NE 69361308.630.2010 ▪ villageregionalwest.com

Award-Winning Assisted Living

The Village has been honored year after year—nationally and statewide—by the National Center for Assisted Living and Nebraska Assisted Living Association.

Call today for a personal tour!

Dr. Kanar has also introduced a new option for many dialysis patients called peritoneal dialysis. It involves filling the abdomen with fluid to eliminate waste. It can be done by patients at home, at work, or while traveling. By contrast, hemodialysis, the more common blood-filtering process, requires a visit to a dialysis clinic. Peritoneal dialysis not only promotes a better, more flexible lifestyle, but may also allow patients to use fewer

medications and eat a less restrictive diet than hemodialysis patients.

Peritoneal dialysis isn’t an option for everyone with kidney failure, but it is especially nice for those who live active lives and for rural patients who live far from dialysis clinics.

“People can live 20 years on dialysis,” says Dr. Kanar. “They never die from kidney disease. Instead, they undergo

dialysis or a transplant, that’s why the peritoneal option is a good one.”

About Dr. Kanar Medical Degree: Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School

Residency: Internal Medicine—Loyola University Medical Center

Fellowship: Nephrology—Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Members of the Volunteers and Friends of Regional West are always eager to assist where they are needed around the hospital—whether it’s lending a helping hand or providing much need equipment or services.

So when they noticed that regular wheelchairs didn’t fit in the Emergency Department triage rooms, they went shopping for a new wheelchair that would fit. The organization purchased a new Staxi® and several board members joined together to deliver it to the ED.

“Volunteers and Friends are very happy to be able to provide this new wheelchair to the Emergency Department. This is the purpose of Volunteers and Friends: to help Regional West when and where we can,” said Volunteers and Friends of Regional West President Kay Gabel.

Volunteers and Friends of Regional

West Donate Wheelchair

320 East 42nd StreetScottsbluff, NE 69361308.630.2010 ▪ villageregionalwest.com

Award-Winning Assisted Living

The Village has been honored year after year—nationally and statewide—by the National Center for Assisted Living and Nebraska Assisted Living Association.

Call today for a personal tour!

320 East 42nd StreetScottsbluff, NE 69361308.630.2010 ▪ villageregionalwest.com

Award-Winning Assisted Living

The Village has been honored year after year—nationally and statewide—by the National Center for Assisted Living and Nebraska Assisted Living Association.

Call today for a personal tour!320 East 42nd StreetScottsbluff, NE 69361308.630.2010 ▪ villageregionalwest.com

Award-Winning Assisted Living

The Village has been honored year after year—nationally and statewide—by the National Center for Assisted Living and Nebraska Assisted Living Association.

Call today for a personal tour!

320 East 42nd Street, Scottsbluff308.630.2010

| HEALTHY TIMES | 3

The Future of Health Care

at Regional West“A Venetian Carnival” Raises $28,000

for Regional West Foundation Regional West Foundation’s third annual gala, “A Venetian Carnival,” held October 11 at the Gering Civic Center, was a rousing success; raising over $28,000 for the Foundation’s 2013 Campaign for Continuing Excellence.

More than 300 people participated in an evening of “Venetian” fun, feasting, and dancing, in support of the Foundation and to pay tribute to guests of honor, retired physician William Packard, MD, and his wife Shari.

“It was a wonderful event…very special for us and very humbling,” said Shari Packard.

Dr. Packard, a board-certified internal medicine physician, assumed primary responsibility for treating cancer patients after joining Scottsbluff Internal Medicine Group in 1977. He was instrumental in development of the Medical Center’s cancer program as well as its original emergency department.

Regional West Foundation Executive Director Shelley Knutson said she and her board of directors were delighted with the wonderful community response to the formal affair.

“The gala is our major annual fundraising event and it’s made possible by our corporate sponsors and a team of dedicated volunteers who plan the entire evening. We are very grateful to Valley Bank and Trust Company, 21st Century Equipment, LLC, and Ideal Linen who returned as major gala sponsors, and we were excited to welcome Baker & Associates/Studio 120 Architecture this year as a major sponsor,” she said. “I’d also like to thank our volunteer gala chairmen Andrea Margheim and Christy Walsh, for their wonderful ideas, hard work, and dedication to the Foundation.”

Funds raised at the 2013 gala were earmarked for the Foundation’s $4.2 million Campaign for Continuing Excellence. The key project of the campaign is the construction of an education center at Regional West. The planned state-of-the-art facility will allow Regional West to provide on-site continuing education classes for employees and medical staff.

In addition, the campaign will fund the purchase and installation of a large-bore CT simulator at the Cancer Treatment Center; the purchase and installation of new cardiac catheterization equipment in the Heart Center; and support the Medical Center’s renewal project.

Shari and William Packard, MD

4 | HEALTHY TIMES |

THE VILLAGE

The Village has been honored year after year—nationally

and statewide—by the National Center for Assisted Living

and Nebraska Assisted Living Association.

The Future of Health Care

at Regional West

I recently announced Regional West’s new strategic plan, and our goal of eliminating $20 million in expenses by

2015. It’s an ambitious plan, but it is essential in order to maintain our tradition as a regional referral center.

Our short-term objectives include consolidating Regional West Medical Center and Regional West Physicians Clinic

into a single corporation and selecting and implementing a new information technology system, among others. We

have already moved to a single, high-deductible health insurance plan for our employees.

We are now making every effort to streamline our organization; carefully considering all options for reducing

expenses while maintaining the quality of care we take pride in delivering to our patients.

Recently, we signed a letter of intent to develop a network with eight other independent Nebraska hospitals in an

effort to share expenses and improve clinical processes. The hospitals include Bryan Health, Lincoln; Columbus

Community Hospital, Columbus; Faith Regional Health Services, Norfolk; Fremont Area Medical Center, Fremont;

Great Plains Regional Medical Center, North Platte; Mary Lanning Healthcare, Hastings; Nebraska Medical Center,

Omaha; and Methodist Health System, Omaha.

This cooperative effort will create a clinically integrated network of independently-owned health care systems.

It will not change the control or ownership of Regional West Health Services. It will allow us to share expenses

in areas where we can share. It is likely that Regional West Medical Center will participate with these hospitals

to develop treatment protocols to determine how to provide patient care more efficiently and cost effectively.

The network will help us do many things that we cannot do by ourselves to get ready for health care reform, for

example, the development of data analytics. All health systems must develop this capability, but it is almost too

resource intensive for a smaller independent hospital to achieve. Working together within the network, we will not

only be able to develop and implement data analytics, but we will also do it much more cost effectively.

The value in developing a clinically integrated network is that it offers us the best path to rapid improvement in

clinical processes that all hospitals need to achieve. There is no reason to think this will change referral patterns

much, if at all. I hope that our patients and the community will see the benefits through the delivery of care that is

safer, of higher quality, and more efficient for them, their families, and friends.

Todd S. Sorensen, MD, MS

President and CEO

| HEALTHY TIMES | 5

Giving More Than $61 Million Back To The Community

Regional West strives to fill voids in health care, promote wellness, and offer services that will help build healthier communities. We provide care to all people, regardless of their ability to pay. We offer services that often cost more than they generate in income, such as neonatal intensive care. We do it because we’re committed to caring—24 hours a day, seven days a week. In 2012, Regional West Medical Center invested $61,750,678 in people and programs to improve the quality of life and health in western Nebraska. Among our investments:

$810,730 Subsidized Health Services Emergency and trauma care

Women’s and children’s services

$344,640 Community Benefits Services

Community health education and outreach

Community-based clinical services

Health care support services

$16,629,581 Donations Cash contributions to local organizations

In-kind contributions of supplies, equipment, meals, employee time, and more

$1,417,694 Health Professions Education Clinical training for medical residents, student

nurses, and other health professionals

$5,650,234 Charity Care Free or discounted health services provided to

persons who cannot afford to pay

$35,451,985 Unpaid Costs of Public Programs Cost of public health care programs including

Medicare and Medicaid that exceed government reimbursement

$1,309,088 Community Building Activities Workforce development

6 | HEALTHY TIMES |

St. Mary Plaza Remodeling CompletedThe former St. Mary Hospital is now a newly renovated business center for vital but non-clinical health care services and its name is officially “St. Mary Plaza.”

The plaza has been under construction for several years. Regional West is now in the final stages of relocating several departments from the main Medical Center campus to St. Mary Plaza. The resulting vacant space at the main campus will be used for clinical and patient care services.

The building was constructed between 1947 and 1949 by the Catholic Sisters of St. Francis, who moved to Scottsbluff from Denver in 1945. The Sisters first purchased Scottsbluff’s 35-bed Fairacres Hospital (located at 24th and Avenue F) and renamed it St. Mary Hospital. Within a year, they had outgrown the small hospital so plans were made to build a new facility.

The new, modern 115-bed St. Mary Hospital opened on September 12, 1949 at 36th Street and Avenue D. For more than 25 years, the Sisters of St. Francis ministered to the sick and suffering and helped to deliver and care for hundreds of babies born there. The terra cotta entrance facing the Scotts Bluff National Monument features both religious and medical symbols that reflect the Sisters’ dedication to the practice of spiritual and physical works of mercy.

The hospital thrived during the 1950s and 60s; providing coronary, maternity, pediatric, and neonatal intensive care, as well as 24-hour emergency services. Physical therapy was added for polio patients during the 1950s polio epidemic. In 1952, a psychiatric unit was opened in cooperation with the University of Nebraska College of Medicine.

The Franciscan Sisters managed all hospital functions until 1958, when a lay advisory board was organized. In 1969, the governing board added laymen and in 1972 a lay administrator was hired, but the financial difficulties it faced were impossible to reverse. On November 30, 1977, St. Mary Hospital was purchased by West Nebraska General Hospital for $1.5 million. Since then, the building has provided space for medical care, physician offices, and hospital departments.

St. Mary Plaza Office DirectoryGround Floor Central Billing Cheyenne Meeting RoomCommunity Health Marketing & Public Relations Project Management School of Radiologic Technology

First Floor Inn TouchLibrary Lifeline Morrill Meeting Room Scheduling Services

Second Floor Banner Meeting Room Finance Home Care Information Systems Kimball Meeting RoomPatient Financial Services Prairie Haven Hospice

| HEALTHY TIMES | 7

4021 Avenue B | Scottsbluff, NE 69361 | rwhs.org

Find us on Facebook/RegionalWest!

Emma’s Closet is a salon dedicated to helping women who experience hair loss. The little shop located at Regional West’s Cancer Treatment Center offers new and gently used wigs, scarves, hats, and turbans to help women look good and feel better. It’s special because it’s run on a free or donation only basis. Contributions are donated to the Festival of Hope.

Hair loss is one of the most distressing things a woman may experience. According to one study, cancer patients ranked hair loss as the second most severe side effect from chemotherapy. As sociologist Rose Weitz, author of Rapunzel’s Daughters: What Women’s Hair Tells Us about Women’s Lives explains: “We use our hair to project our identity and others see our hair as a reflection of our identity.” But cancer treatment isn’t the only cause of hair loss in women. Lupus, alopecia, medications, thyroid disorder, and other

conditions may cause hair loss. Emma’s Closet helps women of all income levels cope with their hair loss.

Emma’s Closet was established through a generous donation from a retired store owner who wished to remain anonymous. Approximately 40 to 50 wigs in different colors, styles, and lengths are displayed at any one time, with more awaiting their turn at styling. Volunteer cosmetologists wash, dry, and style each donated wig before putting it on display.

Any woman experiencing hair loss for medical reasons can shop at Emma’s Closet; there are no income limitations and referrals are not required.

Emma’s Closet is open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call the Cancer Treatment Center at 308.630.1348.

Emma’s Closet A Salon for Hair Loss

Healthy Times is published as a community service for friends and patrons of:

Regional West Medical Center 4021 Avenue B Scottsbluff, NE 69361

308.635.3711 | rwhs.org

Information published in Healthy Times is not intended as personal medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding specific or personal health concerns or questions. Comments, questions? Email kriegjo@rwmc.net.

Todd S. Sorensen, MD, MS, President & CEO Julie Franklin, Director of Marketing & Public Relations Joanne Krieg, Writer/EditorKaitlynn Sova, Graphic Designer

Cancer Program Accredited by American

College of SurgeonsThe American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer has accredited the Regional West Medical Center cancer program. Accreditation is the Hallmark of Excellence and is awarded to cancer care programs that have made a commitment to providing high quality, comprehensive, multidisciplinary patient-centered care as demonstrated through compliance with the Commission on Cancer Accreditation Standards. Regional West’s cancer program is a three-time winner of the Commission’s “Outstanding Achievement Award.”