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Assembling Be There Bears (Photo courtesy Bon Secours)
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Members of the ICU team at Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital (Photo courtesy Bon Secours)
An act of compassion has earned national recognition for the ICU team at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital. The professionals were honored earlier in December with Special Recognition for Heroism During the Pandemic for their work in providing patients who were on ventilators with plush toys that contained recordings of messages from their loved ones. The patients, who were sedated and intubated, were in isolation and were unable to respond, but they could hear, and find comfort in, the messages from their loved ones. Nurses placed bears in patients’ arms, and ICU personnel would activate the devices when they would tend to a patient. It was dubbed the Be There Bears initiative.
“These nurses took time on their days off to connect loved ones with their families,” says Jody Bishop, the chief nurse officer for St. Mary’s. “We are very proud of this team and all of our associates who have been so committed to caring for our community during these unprecedented times,” Bishop says in a release.
Safety First
Hospital patient safety grades are out for the fall from the Leapfrog Group.
The assessments resulted in A’s for 5 HCA facilities around Richmond: Chippenham Hospital, Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, Johnston-Willis Hospital, Parham Doctors’ Hospital and Retreat Doctors’ Hospital. Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital also earned an A.
Bon Secours facilities earning B’s include St. Francis Medical Center in Midlothian and Southside Medical Center in Petersburg. HCA’s John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell also earned a B.
Bon Secours Memorial Regional Hospital in Mechanicsville earned a C, as did VCU Health Medical Center.
Facilities are assessed on criteria including bed sores, falls, medication errors, infections, and other quality of care and safety issues. In Virginia in the current assessment 36 facilities earned A’s, 17 received B’s, 13 were assessed with C’s, and 2 received D’s.
Virtual Science
Metro Richmond middle and high school students can show off their scientific bona fides and earn cash awards in an online science fair.
The virtual event opened Dec. 10, courtesy of Medarva Healthcare, which sponsored a health fair earlier in the year that also was online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The science fair is open to students in grades 6 through 12, divided into a middle school competition for students in grades 6-8 and a high school competition for grades 9-12. There is no charge to enter. Entries will be accepted April 1 through May 15. Top students will be notified by June 1, according to a release.
Participants are asked to take select a topic, then prepare and present a video on their project, an experimental design diagram and a summary. Given pandemic guidelines, the students are encouraged to use items on hand for their projects. First prize comes with a $1,500 award, runners-up earn $1,000 each, and third place comes with a $500 award.
A team of judges will evaluate entries. Winners in the inaugural event were Mills E. Godwin High School’s Ankita Adhvaryu, and George H. Moody Middle School student Camellia Sharma. “These students are the future of modern science, and it is imperative that we take the time to invest in their education,” says Cheryl Jarvis, chair of the Medarva Foundation.
A screen capture from UVA's COVID-19 Medical Resource Demand Dashboard
Assessing the Pandemic
COVID-19 cases continue a disturbing trend upward, and a new tool from the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute can help visualize trends. The COVID-19 Medical Resource Demand Dashboard shows national data and can be used to delve into regional projections. Looking at its projections for the Richmond area, the occupied hospital beds are at about 90% currently, with about 452 hospital admissions weekly. The midpoint projects for mid-January at the current rate point to almost 1,200 weekly hospital admissions and 109% occupied beds.
Looking at Virginia Department of Health statistics, there are nearly 4,600 deaths from COVID-19 in Virginia to date, with two weeks left in the year. The state projects 4,181 Virginians will die in 2020 from car wrecks, gun deaths and drug overdoses combined.
