Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital now has eight of the eleven specialty-trained pediatric emergency medicine physicians in the Richmond Area making the Pediatric Emergency Department the first in the region to be staffed around the clock by these physicians.

“Many patients are not aware of the importance of board certification, particularly within a specialty or subspecialty, when they are choosing a physician or hospital for their health care,” said Leigh T. Sewell, vice president of service line strategy and performance management, Bon Secours Virginia. “Physicians and nurses who are board certified have passed written, and in some cases oral exams, and they are required to keep pace with the latest advances in their specialties while also demonstrating to the medical board that they meet best practices for patient safety, communications and ethics.”

In addition to rigorous standards, board-certified emergency physicians receive an additional two to three years of training, focused specifically on pediatric emergency medicine.  Bon Secours hopes to have 100% of the Physicians who work in St. Mary’s Pediatric Emergency Department to become board-certified.

We are thrilled to have reached this goal because this advanced level of training and certification allows for a significant difference in the quality of medical care we can provide to children and their families when they arrive in our emergency department.” -William Lennarz, M.D., chief medical officer of pediatric services, Bon Secours Virginia.

As part of a $12 million campus renovation and expansion, Bon Secours expanded a completely child centered pediatric emergency department at St. Mary’s Hospital in 2013. Now Bon Secours treats more than 20,000 children each year and continues to invest in the Pediatric Emergency Department at St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s Hospital was the only emergency department in Virginia to be selected as one of 17 hospitals to be a recipient of the 2014 Lantern Award from the Emergency Nurses Association.  The Emergency Nurses Association is a national organization which recognizes exceptional practice and innovative performance in emergency care.

In addition to having a separate pediatric emergency department, St. Mary’s for Kids offers pediatric specialists and subspecialists in cardiology, cleft and craniofacial, critical care and critical care transport, dentistry, endocrinology and diabetes, gastroenterology, hematology-oncology, hospice and palliative care, hospitalists, infectious disease, neonatal-perinatal medicine, neurology, orthopaedics, pediatric development, plastic surgery, pulmonary diseases, rheumatology and urology.

Bon Secours is a sponsor of Richmondmom

The stomach flu is upon us!
January is peak Norovirus season and the schools seem to have been hit pretty hard.

So what happens? Everyone says “wash your hands” and squirt a dollop of Purell on their hands or use a sanitizing hand wipe and move right along. Kids start using more hand sanitizer at school and you might clip a handy (pun intended) little personal sanitizer bottle on your kid’s backpack.

Bad news about those little bottles though.

Hand sanitizers can be helpful against a lot of illnesses, but as it turns out they aren’t really effective against norovirus.

I repeat, and this time, I’ll quote the CDC:

Many studies have found that sanitizers with an alcohol concentration between 60–95% are more effective at killing germs than those with a lower alcohol concentration or non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers.  Non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers may 1) not work equally well for all classes of germs (for example, Gram-positive vs. Gram-negative bacteria, Cryptosporidium, norovirus); 2) cause germs to develop resistance to the sanitizing agent; 3) merely reduce the growth of germs rather than kill them outright, or 4) be more likely to irritate skin than alcohol-based hand sanitizers

The New York Times quoted a study that found that workers were six times more likely to catch norovirus when using sanitizing gels than those who used soap and water.

Encourage your kids to take the time (the amount of time it takes to sing happy birthday twice) to wash their hands with soap or water rather than reaching for the sanitizer, especially if they know someone who has been sick.

If someone does become sick in your house, and you want to prevent it from spreading, you can disinfect with a solution of 5–25 tablespoons of household bleach [5.25%] per gallon of water. Wash all dirty laundry immediately for as long as your washer will allow (and go back to the soap and water after you touch it).

It’s gross out there, and if you’re trying to beat the dreaded bug this year, remember: soap, not sanitizer.

Hand Sanitizer is used under Creative Commons License 2.0

Central Virginia Eosinophilic Support Group, a network of patients and families, along with medical
professionals, caregivers, and local leaders for the 2014 EOS (Eosinophil) Connection Summary Site Virginia will be at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s Brook Road Campus, Saturday, November 8 at 9 AM for a regional conference about Eosinophilic disorders.

Eosinophilic disorders include: Eosinophilic Esophagitis, Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis (EGE), Eosinophilic Gastritis (EG), Eosinophilic Colitis (EC), Hypereosinophilic Syndrome (HES) and Hypereosinophilic Syndrome (HES).

These chronic illnesses cause inflammation of and damage to the vital organs, such as the heart, lungs, kidney, and gastrointestinal tract. Recent statistics show that 1 in every 2,000 nationwide are stricken with eosinophilic esophagitis and 1 in every 3,500 are affected by eosinophilic colitis and eosinophilic gastroenteritis and face challenges of lower quality of life with chronic illnesses. There is no cure.

EOS Connection Summary Site Virginia
November 8, 2014, 9a.m. – 4p.m.
Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU – Brook Road Campus
2924 Brook Road, Richmond, VA 23220

Along with APFED, the Central Virginia Eosinophilic Support Group strives to educate, create awareness,
promote advocacy, and fund research. The efforts are part of  nationwide initiative to educate about the challenges for those with eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders.