health care – Notes n Letters

Board approves controversial contract for inmate medical care

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors on Thursday approved a two-year, $4.7 million contract with Correct Care Solutions to provide medical and psychiatric services to inmates at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.

The Nashville-based company has been providing those services at the jail for more than a decade. However, several supervisors expressed frustration with the selection process, saying they had little choice but to stay with the current provider, even though two competing firms submitted proposals with lower price tags.

Supervisors also questioned whether the process of reviewing the proposals had been tainted because Correct Care Solutions has made campaign contributions to Sheriff Michael L. Chapman (R), who is responsible for overseeing the contract.

The Washington Post, June 25, 2017

Inova Loudoun pursues trauma center status

Inova Loudoun Hospital officials announced this month that they will alter procedures and enhance the emergency room at the Lansdowne campus in an attempt to attain designation from the Virginia Department of Health as a Level III trauma center.

If the effort is successful, it would be the first trauma center in Loudoun County.

Full story…

Washington Post, Sept. 25, 2016

Prom to benefit childhood cancer charities

There will be gowns and tuxedos, limousines and a catered dinner, chandeliers and a disc jockey. There will also be hats. Lots of hats.

But Freedom High School in South Riding will not be having a typical prom this year. The school has decided that all the money that would usually be spent to create an evening of luxury and entertainment for students will be used to fight childhood cancer.

Instead of a fancy hotel, Saturday’s prom will take place at the high school, where the cafeteria and gym will be transformed into a dining room and ballroom.

Help for people after first psychotic episode

Prince William and Loudoun counties are among eight localities in Virginia that have begun offering care to young adults who have recently experienced their first psychotic episode.

The programs — GetOnTrack in Prince William and LINC (Linking Individuals & Navigating Care) in Loudoun — aim to help clients recover by providing treatment and support services soon after their first psychotic break. The programs also help families cope with a life-changing experience that one mother described as “overwhelming.”

They’re no dummies!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Simulation lab at GWU’s School of Nursing

It was harrowing, student nurse Lisa Bowen said.

Her patient was undergoing a medical procedure on his kidney. Shortly after Bowen attached an IV to give him blood, he began showing signs of a severe allergic reaction.

“I can’t breathe,” he gasped. His arm felt itchy, he said, and his heart began racing. Bowen quickly detached the IV and called for a doctor.

Although allergic reactions can be life-threatening, Bowen never worried that her patient would die — because he was not alive. He was one of a growing number of high-tech, lifelike manikins that the George Washington University School of Nursing in Ashburn uses to train students.

Read more…

Washington Post, December 6, 2015

Bringing “magic” to medicine

When Anthony Felice meets with his patients, most of whom have cancer or blood disorders, he often uses a tool seldom found in medical textbooks or offices: a deck of cards.

A specialist in oncology and hematology, Felice is a skilled magician who has found a way to work his hobby into his medical practice. Since opening his office in Reston in 1995, he has discovered that entertaining his patients with card tricks is an effective way to relieve tension and take their minds off their medical problems.

Read more…

Washington Post, November 5, 2015

HealthWorks’ finances improve

HealthWorks for Northern Virginia, a Leesburg-based community health center, has returned to stable financial condition after a year of uncertainty, the organization’s top officials announced this month at a meeting of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors’ finance committee.

Washington Post, February 22, 2015

HealthWorks making progress

HealthWorks for Northern Virginia, the financially troubled nonprofit health service provider charged by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors with improving its productivity before it could receive additional county funding, is making progress toward its goals.

Washington Post, August 11, 2014

Doctors’ mission to Ghana

For one week at the end of May, Daphne Thomas and Edward Puccio, emergency physicians at Inova Loudoun Hospital, left one of the most affluent counties in the United States to care for thousands of people who had never seen a doctor before.

Washington Post, July 7, 2014

Hospice opens new facility

Since Capital Hospice began offering services to people with terminal illnesses in Loudoun County more than 35 years ago, it has focused on delivering end-of-life care and comfort to patients in their homes.

That will change next month, when the nonprofit company, now called Capital Caring, fully opens the Adler Center for Caring on the Van Metre Campus in southeastern Loudoun.

Washington Post, June 29, 2014