Sacred Heart marks 200th heart transplant
Sacred Heart Medical Center surgeons recently completed the hospital’s 200th heart transplant, a milestone in the program’s 17-year-history.
Dr. Tim Icenogle said the procedure went well and that the patient recovered in the intensive-care unit at the hospital. According to peer-reviewed medical statistics, Sacred Heart’s heart transplant survival rate exceeds the national average, Icenogle said. The one-year survival rate is 94 percent, compared to 88 percent nationwide. The five-year survival rate is 86 percent compared to 73 percent nationwide, and the local 10-year rate is 72 percent, compared to 53 percent nationwide, Icenogle indicated.
Health expert offers analysis of HIV
A Spokane Regional Health District expert on HIV infection and AIDS will discuss the local impact of the illness at a lecture next Tuesday at Whitworth College.
Christopher Zilar, a health program specialist with the agency, will present a lecture titled “The Faces of HIV/AIDS in Spokane.” His presentation will include information about people affected by AIDS, how the disease is apparent in Spokane, and changes in the demographics of local HIV and AIDS cases.
His talk is sponsored by the Whitworth Medic Team and the Acting on AIDS club. The lecture will begin at 8 p.m. in Weyerhauser Hall’s Robinson Teaching Theatre at Whitworth.
A coffee reception will precede the talk at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call (509) 777-4449.
Group Health mandates tobacco-free sites
Group Health Cooperative, a regional health insurance provider, will require that all of its campuses in Washington and North Idaho be smoke-free starting in January, according to company representatives.
The move affects nearly 700 to more than 900 employees at 25 medical centers and two hospitals in the region. Employees will be offered tobacco cessation programs to help stop smoking cigarettes or using other forms of tobacco, including chew, cigars or pipes. Employees who continue to use tobacco must leave the campus to do so, but they won’t lose their jobs for failing to quit, said Katie McCarthy, a Group Health spokeswoman.
In mid-October, staff members with medical coverage were offered free nicotine replacement therapy, which uses patches and gum, as well as enrollment in the Free and Clear Quit for Life program.
Nineteen of the agency’s 56 properties already banned smoking, including the South Regal medical center in Spokane.