Lake Health | Press Releases

The Lake Health Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that Bruce M. Kephart has been elected Chair. The other officers elected were Vice Chair Thomas P. Jubeck, Treasurer Michael E. Mayher and Secretary Timothy P. Doyle, MD.

They also welcomed new Board member Frank Myers, DO, a Lake Health orthopedic surgeon for 20 years and secretary/treasurer of the Lake Health medical staff. Dr. Myers earned his medical degree from Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his residency at Brentwood Hospital. He was voted Physician of the Year at East Medical Center in 1999.

Other members of the Lake Health Board of Trustees include John F. Platz; Susan McGuinness, RN; Lillie Mae Wilson; I. James Hackenberg, Esq; Paul C. Sirko; and Robert G. Schiebli.

The Ohio Athletic Trainers' Association recently named Lake Health Certified Athletic Trainer Debra Walko as Ohio Athletic Trainer of the Year. Ms. Walko is one of two athletic trainers to receive this year's award in the clinical/professional division. Award recipients are nominated by their peers and then chosen by the Ohio Athletic Trainers' Association, the governing body for all athletic trainers in the state of Ohio.

Ms. Walko was recognized for her vital contributions to the Lake Health Athletic Training Bureau of Worker's Compensation (BWC) Therapy Clinic at the Tyler Blvd. Urgent Care Center in Mentor. The Athletic Training BWC Therapy Clinic is unique in the state of Ohio and shows innovation in the utilization of athletic trainers in workers' compensation rehabilitation. Ms. Walko and fellow Lake Health athletic trainers apply the principles of sports medicine to the evaluation and treatment of injured workers to help these "industrial" athletes return to work as quickly as possible.

Ms. Walko received her bachelor of science degree in Education from the University of Akron and has been a certified athletic trainer for 19 years. Prior to joining Lake Health in 2007 as Kirtland High School's athletic trainer, she was head athletic trainer for Hawken Upper School in Gates Mills, OH. Ms. Walko is a member of the National Athletic Trainers' Association, the Ohio Athletic Trainers' Association and the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers' Association.

Ms. Walko will be honored at the Ohio Athletic Trainers' Association annual meeting in May in Akron, OH.

Concord Township, OH, April 18, 2012 - Lake Health has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Heart Failure Gold Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. The recognition signifies that Lake Health has reached an aggressive goal of treating heart failure patients with 85 percent compliance for at least 24 months to core standard levels of care as outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.

Get With The Guidelines is a quality improvement initiative that provides hospital staff with tools that follow proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures in caring for heart failure patients to prevent future hospitalizations.

Under Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure, heart failure patients are started on aggressive risk reduction therapies such as cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics and anticoagulants while in the hospital. They also receive alcohol/drug use and thyroid management counseling as well as referrals for cardiac rehabilitation before being discharged. 

"The full implementation of national heart failure guideline recommended care is a critical step in preventing recurrent hospitalizations and prolonging the lives of heart failure patients,"  said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. "The goal of the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines program is to help hospitals like Lake Health implement appropriate evidence-based care and protocols that will reduce disability and the number of deaths in these patients. Published scientific studies are providing us with more and more evidence that Get With The Guidelines works.  Patients are getting the right care they need when they need it.  That's resulting in improved survival."
 
"Lake Health is dedicated to making our care for heart failure patients among the best in the country and implementing the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure program will help us accomplish this goal by making it easier for our health care professionals to improve the long-term outcome for these patients," said Cynthia Moore-Hardy, president and CEO of Lake Health.

Read more: Lake Health Receives American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines Gold Quality Achievement Award

CONCORD TOWNSHIP, Ohio, April 10, 2012 - It's hard to imagine that a tiny blister from an ill-fitting shoe could lead to having your foot amputated. But for patients with diabetes, this is one of the stark realities of the disease. Each year in the U.S., diabetes results in the amputation of more than 65,000 toes, feet and lower legs-the majority of which are lost because of non-healing foot ulcers.
 
The Wound Care Center at Lake Health specializes in healing foot ulcers and preserving limbs that would otherwise be amputated. As one of the only facilities of its kind in Northeast Ohio, the Wound Care Center is staffed by experts across a range of disciplines-wound care specialists, infectious disease specialists, endocrinologists, podiatrists, vascular surgeons and plastic surgeons-who work side-by-side to ensure that patients receive prompt and aggressive treatment using state-of-the-art diagnostic tools and the most advanced surgical interventions and wound care technology.
 
"Diabetes is an extremely complicated and extensive disease. So preventing amputation requires a holistic approach; you have to treat the whole body not just the ulcer," explained Lake Health wound care physician Jerome Privitera, DPM. "Our uniquely integrated and highly effective approach streamlines delivery of care and yields outstanding outcomes."
 
According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly 15 percent of patients with diabetes will develop a foot ulcer. Poorly regulated blood sugar can cause poor circulation, which makes the skin more susceptible to ulcers and slows the healing process. What's more, patients with diabetes often lose sensation in their feet-called neuropathy-so they don't even realize they have a wound until it becomes severely infected.
 
Last year this scenario became a frightening reality for Mentor resident Joel Witkowski. After tearing his Achilles tendon while swimming, Witkowski's right foot was put in a cast-the typical treatment for that type of injury. His first few weeks of recovery went well and then things quickly went downhill.

Read more: Lake Health Wound Care Specialists Team Up To Prevent Lower-Limb Amputations Among Patients With Diabetes