Batesville, Ark - White River Health System (WRHS) Foundation presented scholarships to Emily “Emmy” Perrin, Valerie Ragsdale, Amanda Scribner, and Mandy Tedeschi, to continue their education and professional development. Scholarships are awarded annually to licensed practical nurses (LPNs) seeking degrees as registered nurses (RNs).

 

Scholarship recipients are chosen based on WRHS behavioral standards: attitude, courtesy, prompt response, commitment to co-workers, communication, appearance, leadership, and honesty, as well as educational preparation. The goal of the Foundation’s Scholarship Program is to help relieve the financial burden on employees seeking career advancement and encourage educational advancement to those who choose to devote their careers to preserving and bettering the lives of others through nursing. The program also supports the efforts of the organization to achieve Magnet designation from the American Nurse Credentialing Center. 

 

The Bonnie J. Bernard LPN to RN Scholarship, presented to Mandy Tedeschi, was established by Dick and the late Bonnie Bernard in 1996. This scholarship was the first scholarship created by the WRHS Foundation and launched its education mission. Mrs. Bernard was first involved with White River Medical Center (WRMC) when she helped organize the hospital’s Auxiliary in 1975. After raising two sons, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and worked as an RN at WRMC from 1986 until her death in 2004. Throughout her career, Bonnie witnessed the difficulties of fellow nurses who were unable to advance their education due to lack of financial resources. For the past thirteen years, the Bonnie J. Bernard Scholarship has provided LPNs a chance to grow both professionally and personally.

 

Tedeschi has over five years experience as an LPN and plans to attend Ozarka College in Melbourne. Her goal is to one day work as a RN in the WRMC Intensive Care Unit.

 

Emily “Emmy” Perrin was one of three recipients of this year’s WRHS Foundation LPN to RN Scholarship, funded by the generosity of donors to the WRHS Foundation. Emmy began her career at WRMC in 2008 as a patient care tech. In 2009, as a student in the practical nursing program at UACCB, Perrin received the Outstanding Clinical Performance Award. She plans to continue her education at UACCB and then pursue a BSN degree, become certified in critical care nursing and complete her education by earning an advanced degree and becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA).

 

Valerie Ragsdell also received the WRHS Foundation LPN to RN Scholarship. WRMC welcomed Valerie as an employee in August of 2009, and she too plans to attend UACCB. Once she completes an Associates of Applied Science in Nursing (AASN) degree, she plans to continue her education by working toward a BSN, and then a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN).

 

 Amanda Scribner received a WRHS Foundation LPN to RN Scholarship as well. She joined the staff of WRMC in October of 2008 and plans to attend UACCB. After she completes the ASSN degree, Amanda plans to further her education and obtain a BSN and then a MSN, as well as continue her work at WRMC.

 

BAPTIST HEALTH Rehabilitation Institute (BHRI) is proud to announce that Press Ganey Associates has named it a 2009 Summit Award Winner. This is the fourth year in a row that BHRI’s Outpatient Services has received this award. Press Ganey currently partners with more than 7,000 healthcare facilities - inluding nearly 40 percent of U.S. hospitals - to measure and improve the quality of their care.

 

The Summit Award recognizes top performing facilities that sustain the highest level of customer satisfaction for three or more consecutive years. BHRI’s outpatient and satellite therapy centers under the Outpatient Services Department have maintained a 95 percentile or higher on their patient satisfaction surveys for the past consecutive nine years. “This award shows our patients that we provide the best service available,” said Greg Crain, vice president of Patient Services of BHRI and BAPTIST HEALTH Medical Center-Little Rock. “And it sets BHRI apart from everyone else in our field locally and nationally.” BHRI is Arkansas’ largest acute rehabilitation hospital with 120 beds. Since 1974, BHRI has touched the lives of thousands of patients through our acute rehabilitation

 

LITTLE ROCK, AR.   FORTUNE has announced that Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) has been ranked No. 85 on the 13th annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. The full list and related stories appear in the Feb. 8 issue of FORTUNE, available on newsstands on Monday, Jan. 25, and now at www.FORTUNE.com/bestcompanies.

 

This marks the third year that ACH has ranked among the nation’s best employers by FORTUNE. ACH is the only Arkansas-headquartered company that made the 2010 list. A driving factor for the companies on this year’s list is that they excel at creating jobs and hiring.

 

FORTUNE Deputy Managing Editor Hank Gilman said that the most important considerations for this year’s list were hiring and the ways in which companies are helping their employees weather the recession. All 100 companies on the list are currently hiring, many of them aggressively, leading to more than 96,000 open job positions expected in the next year.

 

To pick the 100 Best Companies, FORTUNE partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America. Two-thirds of a company’s score is based on the results of the Institute’s Trust Index survey, which is sent to a random sample of employees from each company.

 

The survey asks questions related to their attitudes about the management’s credibility, job satisfaction and camaraderie. The other third of the scoring is based on the company’s responses to the Institute’s Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring, communication and diversity.

 

Any company that is at least seven years old with more than 1,000 U.S. employees is eligible for consideration for FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For. The deadline for applying for next year’s list is April 2, 2010. For an online nomination form, go to www.greatplacetowork.com.

 

A monitoring system for hand-washing compliance that uses Radio Frequency ID technology has been introduced to hospitals nationwide by Jersey City-based HandGiene Corp.

 

With healthcare facilities spending up to $29 billion annually dealing with hospital acquired infections (HAIs), the RFID system gives administrators the ability to track, improve and meet a hand-washing compliance rate of up to 100 percent.

 

The system works with a proprietary formulation of soap for restrooms and patient rooms or hand sanitizers for hallways. The fluid takes 15 seconds of friction to dissipate, ensuring non-contaminated hands. Each user is issued a name tag or wrist band that can be read by the RFID-enabled system upon entering and leaving an area as well as being at the dispensing unit. Every instance is logged into a database that can be read in real time.

 

When installed, the system assures increased accountability and compliance with established infection protocols in specific areas or throughout the facility.

 

In 2007, there were nearly 1.25 million incidents of HAIs that resulted in more than 120,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

 

The system integrates with existing legacy software for fast installment and ease-of-use. The web-based software also allows administrators to monitor specific employees, teams, departments and shifts in entire facilities or multiple locations.

 

Medical researchers with EDP Biotech Corporation (EDP) have captured national attention with their revolutionary new technology for a simple blood test to detect early-stage colon cancer.

 

Following the success of its pre-clinical trials for the ColoMarker™ assay, EDP has filed a patent on the biomarker, CA11-19, and all aspects of its use. Via an inexpensive blood test, ColoMarker™ will detect colon cancer in its earliest, most curable stages.

 

In pre-clinical trials, ColoMarker™ successfully detected the early stages (I, II, and III) of colon cancer. In tests of 2,370 blood samples, ColoMarker™ showed an accuracy rate of >99% for detecting colon cancer in these early stages. EDP Biotech is now moving forward expeditiously to get ColoMarker™ through the Food and Drug Administration clearance process.

 

LITTLE ROCK – The Witness Project, a program of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to increase awareness of breast cancer, has been awarded a $20,000 one-year grant from the Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund. It’s the ninth year the program has received Avon Foundation funding.

 

The Witness Project, sponsored by the UAMS College of Public Health and founded by the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, educates African-American and medically underserved women and refers them to low-cost or free mammograms and clinical breast exams in their communities. Mobile mammography units provide screenings for women living in counties with limited access to certified mammography facilities. The program also assists women with transportation and other unmet needs. Educational programs are presented at churches, civic centers, job sites and during community activities.

 

In the past five years, The Witness Project has educated and assisted more than 12,000 women in 23 Arkansas counties. Since January 2009 alone, the program has reached more than 1,100 women with information about the importance of early detection of breast cancer and has referred almost 275 women for clinical breast exams and mammograms. Of the 275 women referred, 210 women received clinical breast exams and mammograms.

 

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the United States and the leading single cause of death overall in women between the ages of 40 and 55. In 2009, approximately 40,170 women are expected to die from breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Only lung cancer accounts for more cancer deaths in women.

 

Nationwide, there is a new diagnosis every three minutes and a death from breast cancer every 14 minutes. While advances have been made in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure, early detection still affords the best opportunity for successful treatment. Programs such as The Witness Project help ensure that all women have access to early detection information and options, even economically disadvantaged and medically underserved women.

 

“We are truly honored that the Avon Foundation still continues to support the mission of the Witness Project, said Cynthia Maxwell, director of the UAMS Witness Project. “We will continue to provide education and outreach to African-American women and the medically underserved populations in Arkansas about the importance of early detection.”

 

Dr. H. Lynn Wiggins, a partner in Jonesboro Surgical Associates, is the first area physician to receive training to perform a new incisionless surgery to treat patients with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

 

On the medical staff at St. Bernards Medical Center, Wiggins received specialized training at Denver in December in the new Transoral Incisionless Fundoplication (TIF) procedure now available at St. Bernards.

 

The TIF procedure utilizes an innovative EsophyX device made by EndoGastric Solutions to repair the antireflux barrier in a procedure performed through the mouth. EsophyX TIF reduces hiatal hernia and creates a valve between the stomach and esophagus, restoring the natural, physiological anatomy to prevent gastroesophageal reflux. It represents a less invasive reconstructive surgical treatment of GERD performed in an incisionless manner.

 

Because the procedure is incisionless, patients benefit from less pain, reduced recovery time and no visible scar.

 

Wiggins has been on the medical staff at St. Bernards since 1984. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport. After completing an internship and residency at North Carolina Baptist Hospital Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, he moved to Jonesboro to open his medical practice.

 

A board certified surgeon, he holds fellow status in the American College of Surgeons.

 

CONWAY — Conway Regional Health System has announced that two new community leaders have joined the board of directors.

 

Barbara Williams, PhD, is currently the chairperson of the UCA Department of Nursing. Rev. Everette Cornell Maltbia is pastor and founder of True Holiness Saints Center.

 

Dr. Williams has long-term experience with Conway Regional since the late 70s through her students and faculty. She worked at Baptist Medical Center as a staff nurse prior to joining UCA in 1978.

 

Dr. Williams calls her service on the board a “challenging opportunity.” She predicts sweeping changes in the health care system in years due to the national reform initiatives that are underway in the US Congress.

 

In addition to his church activities with True Holiness Saints Center, Rev. Maltbia serves as chaplain for the Arkansas House of Representatives, 87th General Assembly.

 

Rev. Maltbia has a litany of community service experience including with the University of Central Arkansas, Conway Corporation, United Way and the Conway Police Department. He has achieved numerous awards for his community service work including the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Martin Luther King Commission in 2002 and the President’s Award from UCA in 2007.Last year he received the Dan Nabholz Award for leadership from the Faulkner County Leadership Institute.

 

Rev. Maltbia served for several years on Conway Regional’s Community Advisory Board. He has spent many hours at the hospital with parishioners and family members and “has observed how the staff’s attitude and professionalism has made a difference in the healing process.”

 

LITTLE ROCK – Gwen Childs, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine, has been elected president of the American Association of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Neurobiology Chairpersons.

 

Childs began her term in 2009 for the organization that represents academic leaders in the disciplines of anatomy, cell biology and neurobiology at medical schools across the country. She recently presided over the organization’s winter conference where she organized a program on techniques to promote chair and faculty development across both academic and research.

 

Childs has served as chair of the UAMS Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences since 2000. From 2006-2009, she has been given a Red Sash award by the graduating medical class as one of the faculty members who most influenced them during their time at UAMS. In 2009, she received the Outstanding Woman Faculty Award from UAMS for her achievements in scholarship and mentoring.

 

Her research interests include neuroendocrinology, anterior pituitary cytochemistry and cytophysiology. She is primary investigator on two National Institutes of Health-funded projects worth nearly $2 million and serving as a mentor on another NIH-funded grant.