Former Iowa City VA administrator celebrating 100th birthday and 75th anniversary; Wife turns 100 tomorrow September 21, 2008
Posted by John in Biography, Family, Health Care.Tags: Elizabeth Spendlove, Iowa City (Iowa), J. Gordon Spendlove, Veterans Administration hospitals, Veterans Affairs Medical Center
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From Denver Post:
On Sunday, [Dr. J. Gordon Spendlove and his wife, Elizabeth] will celebrate their 100th birthdays — he was born Oct. 10, 1908, and she on Sept. 22, 1908 — and their 75th wedding anniversary. They tied the knot Sept. 22, 1933.
“No, no, I never thought we’d live to be 100,” J. Gordon Spendlove said Wednesday, confiding, “It’s not all that bad.” …
They moved from town to town during Spendlove’s 31-year career as a physician and Veterans Affairs hospital administrator. He was director of the Iowa City, Iowa, VA hospital in the 1960s and retired from the Fort Wayne, Ind., facility in 1976. …
More about Dr. Spendlove from December 30, 1969 Cedar Rapids Gazette:
While in Iowa City, Dr. Spendlove has been active in the Chamber of Commerce, City-University Planning committee and was in the founding group of the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program [HACAP]. …
CEO’s column: ‘New Orleans area hospitals hope Iowa health system doesn’t suffer same fate’ July 19, 2008
Posted by John in Health Care.Tags: Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Flooding, floods, Floods of 2008, Hospitals, Hurricane Katrina, St. Luke's Hospital (Cedar Rapids), Ted Townsend
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From News-Medical.net:
I recently spoke with Ted Townsend, the CEO of St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, about what their hospital could expect to face after this catastrophe. It was a sobering experience for me to advise a colleague that his institution may face a long term financial crisis similar to the one that the Federal government has not dealt with in the almost three years since Hurricane Katrina decimated the healthcare delivery system in our region. …
University of Iowa CDD computer security breach; SSNs, dates of birth accessed June 3, 2008
Posted by John in Education, Health Care, Medicine.Tags: computer networks, security breaches, Social Security number, University of Iowa, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
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From the University of Iowa:
The University of Iowa is alerting current and past staff members of the Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD) at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics that a computer application containing Social Security numbers and date of birth information was improperly accessed from outside the UI network.
As a precaution, the university wants potentially affected staff members to know about the breach so they can make an informed decision on whether to take steps to protect themselves against the risk of identity theft.
The breach occurred prior to March 2008 when Social Security numbers were removed from the compromised application as part of a campus-wide effort to reduce the use of Social Security numbers on computer systems. …
Additional information is available from this UI Q&A page.
St. Luke’s lawsuit over alleged moisture damage March 22, 2008
Posted by John in Business, Crime/Courts, Health Care, Medicine.Tags: Boulder Associates, Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Jelinek Olmstead Construction, lawsuits, St. Luke's Hospital
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Recently moved to federal court system. From U.S. Courts – Northern District of Iowa:
After completion of construction of the Surgery Center [Ambulatory Surgical Center], the ceiling of the Parking Area was damaged by moisture and began to crumble and fall to the Parking Area.
Investigation revealed that moisture had accumulated above the ceiling of the Parking Area, damaging the ceiling.
St. Luke’s contacted Boulder Associates in late 2005 to inform Boulder Associates of the moisture and resulting damage. To fix the immediate damage and to prevent future damage to the ceiling of the Parking Area, St. Luke’s was required to replace the insulation and install tiles made of waterproof material installed by Jelinek Olmstead Construction, Inc. at a total cost of $179,698.00…
Report: Iowa has critical psychiatric bed shortage March 19, 2008
Posted by John in Health Care, Medicine.Tags: Mental Health, Psychiatric Hospitals
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From PR Newswire: “A new report released today by the Treatment Advocacy Center reveals that for every 20 public psychiatric beds available in the US in 1955, only 1 such bed existed in 2005.”
Since the 1960s there has been a mass exodus of patients from public psychiatric hospitals. Data are available on the number of patients in such hospitals in 1955 and in 2004–2005. The data show that:
- In 2005 there were 17 public psychiatric beds available per 100,000 population compared to 340 per 100,000 in 1955. Thus, 95 percent of the beds available in 1955 were no longer available in 2005.
- The states with the fewest beds were Nevada (5.1 per 100,000), Arizona (5.9), Arkansas (6.7), Iowa (8.1), Vermont (8.9), and Michigan (9.9). The states with the most beds were South Dakota (40.3) and Mississippi (49.7). …
- Critical bed storage (less than 12 beds per 100,000 population)
Nevada
5.1
Ohio
10.6
Arizona
5.9
South Carolina
10.6
Arkansas
6.7
Oklahoma
11.0
Iowa
8.1
Idaho
11.3
Vermont
8.9
Alaska
11.3
Michigan
9.9
Iowa hospitals best for quick emergency turnaround; St. Luke’s even faster March 10, 2008
Posted by John in Health Care, Medicine.Tags: Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Hospitals, Iowa City (Iowa), St. Luke's Hospital, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
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From Nurse.com:
Iowa hospitals were the quickest in the country to provide emergency medical attention. The average emergency visit was 2 hours, 18 minutes compared to the national average of 3:42.
Nebraska rated second fastest in the nation at 2:26, followed by South Dakota (2:28), Vermont (2:32), and Wisconsin (2:34). The longest visits were in Arizona (4:57), Maryland (4:07), Utah (4:04), New York (3:58), and Florida (3:57). …
St. Luke’s Hospital, a 560-bed community hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, saw 51,632 patients in its ED last year and beat the state record by logging an average visit time of 2:10. …
The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, a 750-bed academic medical center in Iowa City…has seen ED length of stay drop from 2:52 to 2:33. …
Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis saw 77,847 patients last year and averaged a 6-hour, 30-minute length of stay.
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