InterLink Archive
Sharing information on the issues and services that impact your practice and the areas across MeritCare, this issue of InterLink highlights the Top 100 Heart Hospital Award, HDR brachytherapy, maternal fetal medicine, nitrous oxide, HIV testing, and much more. Of course, we welcome new colleagues as well as the Thief River Falls Southeast Clinic.
Athletes, working people, retirees — people of all ages suffer from rotator cuff injuries, resulting in limited movement, significant pain and decreased quality of life. Matthew Friederichs, M.D., board-certified orthopaedic surgeon with fellowship training in arthroscopic/sports medicine, addresses these injuries arthroscopically.
U.S. News & World Report ranked MeritCare Hospital number 35 in the elite list of the nation's top 50 in urology – one of several specialties evaluated in the annual "America's Best Hospitals" issue published July 25, 2007. Dr. Theodore Sawchuck discusses this award.
MeritCare's addition of a third magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner enables patients to get timely access, whether the need is emergent, semi-urgent or by appointment. Dr. Richard Marsden talks about managing the increasing volume of patients by expanding the outpatient schedule.
MeritCare recently added a second in-house, state-of-the-art positron emission tomography (PET) scanner to accommodate the growing demand for advanced technology in cardiology and oncology. Dr. Donald Stallman discusses the benefits of PET for diagnostic purposes.
For patients troubled by foot and ankle problems, specific expertise is now available. Michael Simpson, M.D., board-certified orthopaedic surgeon who is fellowship-trained in foot and ankle surgery, joined MeritCare Orthopaedics in Fargo. He offers several unique services to the region, including advanced techniques, the latest knowledge and a keen interest in helping people of all ages achieve better function in their lower extremities.
Noninvasive diagnostic capabilities took a major step forward with the arrival of a new 64-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner — the most advanced CT technology available today. Dr. Richard Marsden and Dr. Wallace Radke discuss the benefits to the new 64-slice CT scanner that is now in operation at MeritCare.
Dr. Adit Mahale, nephrologist, discusses the new pretransplant care available to eligible kidney transplant patients who have a positive cross match with their donors. MeritCare has had success in a desensitization protocol for people with mild to moderate levels of antibodies.
Dr. Stephen Nelson, M.D., neonatologist and medical director of the NICU, discusses the advanced level of care offered in the newly renovated and expanded NICU. The new space requires the appropriate balance of experts, technology and teamwork. Ideally located next to MeritCare Family Birth Center, the new 33-bed NICU offers a healing environment for newborns, including low light, low sound and space for family.
Now available at MeritCare, capsule endoscopy offers a new, noninvasive technique for examining the lining of the small intestine — a portion of the bowel that cannot be reached by traditional upper endoscopy or colonoscopy. Trained in administering capsule endoscopy, Michael Bader, MD, MeritCare gastroenterologist, and his team have been using the technology both in the hospital and outpatient setting since April 2005.
Opening at the end of August, the new MeritCare Heart Center brings together, in one convenient setting, the many components needed by the region's heart patients and their families — cardiovascular experts, diagnostic capabilities, treatments, preventive measures and extensive patient/family education. Dr. Wallace Radtke, Executive Physician Partner and Carla Hansen, RN, Executive Partner, talk about heartfelt hospitality in a healing environment.
MeritCare's Children's Hospital Phase I renovation is complete. A "Dream Comes True" in the Children's Hospital where space in redesigned units with a fantasy village theme is added as a special place for children in this region. Ron Miller, MD, medical director of the Children's Hospital describes the significant difference in how care is delivered in the completed Pediatric and Pediatric Intensive Care Units.
What patients are appropriate for palliative care? How involved do physicians need to be in their patient's care? Dr. Preston Steen, MD, medical oncologist at MeritCare Roger Maris Cancer Center and medical director of the Palliative Care Unit offers insight into what the Palliative Care Unit is and why it fits the needs of patients in this region.
Where do you refer a patient whom you suspect has sleep apnea? How do you know if the facility is providing high quality sleep medicine? Sleep medicine specialist Samy Karaz, MD, medical director of MeritCare Sleep Disorders Center, the only center in the region accredited by the Academy of Sleep Medicine, offers insight into appropriate sleep studies.
MeritCare's Parkinson's Clinic in Fargo offers comprehensive, up-to-date care for Parkinson's disease as well as Parkinson's-like-conditions. Whether the need is for medication, therapy, surgery or a combination of approaches, MeritCare Parkinson's Clinic offers the wide spectrum of care currently available.
When you think of spine surgery for your patients, you likely think of large incisions, considerable post-operative pain and lengthy healing. It can be a tough road to recovery. In appropriate cases, MeritCare's neurosurgery team now offers minimal access spinal technology (MAST).
An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) typically occurs in people older than 60 and becomes dangerous when it enlarges to the point of rupturing, causing sudden death in 80 percent of the cases. "The goal of all AAA surgeries is to prevent rupture, but the endovascular approach offers a dramatically different way of doing it," says MeritCare interventional radiologist Dr. Corey Teigen.
MeritCare is one of only a handful of healthcare institutions to broadcast live surgery on the Internet to a world-wide public audience in what's called a webcast. MeritCare was the first hospital in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota to broadcast a live surgical webcast and the first in the nation to host a live webcast of a robotically-assisted heart surgery!