MU opens clinic building
University of Missouri Clinical Support and Educational Building
Mannquin at the Russel D and Mary B Clinical Simulation Center
A new $26.5 million medical building opened in May will house nearly 650 faculty members in the University of Missouri Clinical Support and Education Building. Inside the six-floor building, students and physicians from the MU School of Medicine can practice medicine on high-tech mannequins designed to offer real-time feedback similar to responses from a live patient. The mannequins breathe, have a pulse, have eyes that dilate and can react to drugs given to them by medical students. A $2.3 million gift from Russell and Mary Shelden to create the Russell D and Mary B Shelden Clinical Simulation Center helped bring the lifelike mannequins to the new medical building.
The Department of Health Management and Informatics, a department which had been located away from the medical campus for nearly 20 years, will be housed within the new medical building just west of the University’s medical school and hospital complex. The department is nationally ranked and home to the world’s first computerized laboratory system.
“This new building will provide much needed room for the medical school’s growing faculty and our expanding medical education programs,” said William Crist, dean of MU’s medical school.
Interior nurse station at BHC’s new Spine Center
New BHC Spine Center provides treatment and research opportunities
Inside the fifth floor of the Boone Hospital Center is a new specialized care facility devoted to spine-related problems. The Spine Center includes 20 private rooms, a satellite gym, a family activity/relaxation room, redesigned nurses station and a classroom for pre-surgery classes. With advanced medical technology, the new 14,784 square foot facility will focus on getting patients with spine problems back to their lives as soon as possible. The center works with several types of doctors and specialists to provide spine and back care for patients with surgical and non-surgical care dependent on the patient’s needs. Located within the hospital, The Spine Center will increase communication between surgeons and physical rehabilitation physicians to ensure that a patient’s progress is monitored. In addition to treating spinal disorders, the center devotes time for research into the causes and treatments of spinal injuries.
Boone Hospital Center’s new Women’s Wellness Center focuses on prevention
A Women’s Wellness Center, offering outpatient gynecologic and preventative care for women, has opened in the new Doctor’s Building of the Boone Hospital Center at 1705 E. Broadway. The center uses a “package approach” to women’s health, with the services of a gynecologist, a primary care physician, a women’s health nurse practitioner, a registered dietician and a psychologist. With an emphasis on preventative medicine and treatment, the Women’s Wellness Center offers health care, counseling and education in all areas of female health. The program is headed by Dr. Laura Grant and consists of a team of health specialists.
Sinclair Nursing School programs receive awards
The American Academy of Nursing, which annually selects research projects that improve the health care profession or demonstrate innovations in the field of nursing, selected two MU Sinclair School of Nursing projects this year. TigerPlace and Aging-In-Place received the AAN’s Edge Runner awards for their models of care. Americare Systems Inc. and the school of nursing built a state approved facility four years ago that allows older adults to remain in their apartments, as their health needs change. Research proved that as older adults transition from senior housing to nursing homes their health decreases at an accelerated rate.
MU Health Care switches to color-coded patient wristbands
University of Missouri Health Care says the change to color-coded wristbands for patients adds an extra level of caution for patients with specific health risks. The hospital recently joined 90 percent of hospitals in Missouri who now use colored wristbands to identify important patient information in a quick, visual way. Over 20 different colors can designate clinical conditions including a red wristband to represent an allergy warning, a yellow wristband with the words “fall risk”, a purple band to indicate do-not-attempt-resuscitation orders, a pink band with the words “limb alert,” to alert staff not to use a specific arm or leg for procedures and a blue band to recognize certain medical treatments patients may not want to undergo. Physicians and nurses from different hospitals can recognize and understand the alerts based on standardized colors.
MU medical school receives donation for cancer research
A $1.1 million donation to the University of Missouri supports research efforts into the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer patients. With the funds they donated, Michael and Sharon Bukstein created a chair in cancer research, which will be awarded to an MU medical faculty member who will expand cancer research.
“Our hope is that this endowed chair will increase MU researchers’ ability to garner research grants and, ultimately, make even more contributions to the ongoing efforts to prevent and detect cancer, and to improve treatment for patients with cancer,” Michael Bukstein said.
The Buksteins have been advocates in the fight against cancer since they entered the medical profession nearly 30 years ago. Michael Bukstein completed medical school from MU in 1970 and Sharon Bukstein has worked as a University Hospital nurse. Michael chairs Missouri’s Comprehensive Cancer Action Plan, which combines more than 40 agencies and health care professionals to cover issues related to the disease.
MU research shows impact of telehealth intervention
One telephone call a day, keeps the doctors away, according to research from the University of Missouri that found that patients who received a telehealth intervention or a phone call from care providers delayed their hospital readmission rates compared to those who did not. Bonnie Wakefield, professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, evaluated the effects of a telehealth home-based intervention in patients with heart failure. She randomly selected patients who then received follow-up telephone or videophone calls from their providers. The care may not change, but telehealth can change the communication between providers and patients, Wakefield said.
“With video and telephone technology, nurses have the ability to interact regularly with patients and provide a sense of security,” Wakefield said. “Patients discuss concerns on a frequent basis, and nurses give advice and detect problems that the patient might not notice.”