An eye-opening milestone and Blanchfield centers pregnant patients. This is the Regional Health Report. Welcome to the Regional Health Report
for June. I'm Ann Krebs. Our first stop is Fort Eustis, Virginia. Meet Dr. Michael
Hamilton. He's the Ophthalmologist at McDonald
Army Health Center. Recently he performed his 2,000th eye surgery which
is a pretty big milestone for a military eye doc. For Dr. Hamilton, it's not the
number of surgeries that's big it's what the surgeries mean for the
patient's. So there's nothing quite like taking people from blurry vision one day
to great vision the next day. So I think it just kind of comes with a field.
I think it's a great field for patient satisfaction.
Hamilton's skill and bedside manner are a big part of patient satisfaction. "He has
an awesome reputation that quite a few people told me about their experience
with him so that made me kind of comfortable." The eye clinic treats
service members, their families, and retirees.
We've all had a choice once you
pay off your debt to the military to get out or to stay and I chose to stay in
just because of that the the patients were able to take care of. Hamilton also
treated Soldiers while deployed. During his 180 day tour he performed 188
surgeries. I think after serving in Iraq for for a few months to definitely
change my view of that and it is an honor I think to serve those that are
protecting our country and their loved ones. "It was either get it done
I'll keep seeing the way I was seeing, so I chose to get the surgery done and I'm
glad I did everything is so clear and so bright now.
Families at Fort Campbell,
Kentucky are taking part in Blanchfield Army Community Hospitals Centering
Pregnancy Program. Centering is an alternative prenatal care method. Fred
Holly shares the story. Centering is basically group prenatal care. It's an
entire group you still get the one-on-one with the health care provider
but then once that is over then we all center up in a group together and
there's different topics that we go over at every session
and it's an opportunity for not only moms to meet new people who are do
around the same time they are but they get to ask all kinds of questions and
learn about their pregnancy together.
"I got involved in the centering program I
learned about it through my first appointment here at Women's Health they
were handing out flyers and it's like oh this sounds cool I can learn things from
other moms and just like a one-on-one with the doctor I can get multiple
points of views from other women that are going through the same thing than I am. "With centering it's a program that's offered to anybody that comes to Blanchfield that's pregnant. you know we tend to geared towards those first-time moms
that haven't been through this before but anybody can come even if they've had
you know two, three, four babies we've had you know those people in our groups as
well and and really those sometimes they're it's awesome to have those women
in there because they can share their experiences.
Every group is so different
and then you know the first couple sessions they tend to be quiet and then
by the end of it everybody's friends it's really it's really awesome." "They
walk you through this whole process and you get to see other people progress in
the pregnancy as well and then towards the end they actually have a baby shower
for you and I mean they're just very supportive the instructor is very
supportive very helpful." "When it comes time for everybody gives birth I think
it'll be a great bonding experience when we all come back with our babies and see
each other." "It's just a really a really good way for moms to get to know each
other have a support system and then learn about their pregnancies together."
The Centering Pregnancy method has reduced emergency room visits and has
led to a decrease in premature births.
Patients feel more confident and feel
ready for labor and delivery. In other news around the region, Ireland Army
Health Clinics, Peter Mott, recently earned the Excellence in Occupational
Health Nursing award. Mott was presented the award during the American
Association of Occupational Health Nurses conference in Reno, Nevada. To win
the award he earned the highest score in the nation on the certified occupational
health nurse specialist exam. Ozella Lee Gates, Library Technician at Dwight D
Eisenhower Army Medical Center is the 2017 Federal Library Technician of the
year as selected by the Library of Congress.
She shows exemplary commitment to providing services to a multitude of
medical center customers.
Her name will remain on the permanent display at the
Library of Congress. And finally we want to say good luck to our Soldiers at the
Warrior Games. That's the Regional Health Report. Join
us next month for another show highlighting health care across the
region. In the meantime, don't forget to check us out on Facebook, Twitter,
Flipboard, Pinterest and YouTube. We're also on iTunes. Thanks for joining
us..
