CARING Summer 2010

COMMUNITY MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM | CARING 1SUMMER 2010

REAL   LIFE,   REAL   HEALTHI N   V E N T U R A   C O U N T Y

“When I came

back down

she was sitting

in a chair,

slumped over.

I noticed

she wasn’t

breathing.”

Shoaleh

was

clinically

dead for

close

to five

minutes.

2 CARING | COMMUNITY MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM

WWe are proud that Community Memorial Health System has always been a technological leader as it relates to our exceptional patient care, and in this issue’s cover story we share with you the latest technology in Therapeutic Hypother-mia – which is saving cardiac arrest lives within our distinguished Emergency Department at Com-munity Memorial Hospital.

This innovative way of cooling the body to help prevent brain cell damage was successful-ly used when Shoaleh Welch reached the CMH Emergency Department. She’s sharing her remark-able story in this issue of Caring and we’re high-lighting the extraordinary way our emergency physicians use their skill and expertise to imple-ment the therapy.

We know just how critical it is to have Emer-gency Departments equipped with state-of-the-art technology, and staffed by highly skilled medi-cal teams. While you can be assured that CMH and Ojai Valley Community Hospital will stay on the cutting-edge of care, we understand how quickly that care is delivered is important to our patients as well. That’s why we’ve implemented new pro-cedures that have dramatically improved the time a patient will be evaluated and seen by a physi-cian. As you’ll read, our goal is ‘door-to-doc’ in less than 30 minutes and our departments are routine-ly reaching that objective.

As part of the CMHS family, our Emergency Departments are incredibly efficient and share a close working relationship. Moreover, because of this collaborative partnership, emergent patients seen at OVCH can be transferred seamlessly down to our larger Ventura facility if the need arises. This type of care demonstrates best how our complete system of care benefits the many residents in the communities we serve.

In Ojai, there have been many exciting up-grades at OVCH in the last year, but in this issue we celebrate a milestone – our 50th anniversary. Former doctors, historians and even the first baby born share their stories. From its conception and celebrated grand opening, through the financially difficult years, and on to its affiliation with CMH, this local hospital has never lost its commitment to providing quality healthcare in the Ojai Valley.

Project work continues as we move towards building a new hospital in Ventura, and the mod-ernization of our Ojai hospital. The new Cancer Center is on track for completion by year’s end, clearing the way for us to begin site work prepa-ration for the new Community Memorial Hospital. And, in Ojai we are finishing the new Post Anes-thesia Care Unit, which will be followed with a re-paving of the hospital parking area. These are in-deed exciting times for all of us at CMHS.

While improvements continue to take place at both facilities, a groundbreaking clinical trial headed up by renowned physician Dr. Duke Bahn has begun at the Prostate Institute of Ameri-ca at CMH. This trial is focused on dendritic cell based cryo-immunotherapy as it relates to pros-tate cancer, and possibly any cancer that can be treated with cryotherapy. This world-class clinical trial could have far-reaching, life-saving results, and is being watched closely within the medical community.

In close, as always, we are grateful to provide each of you with superb medical care, and thank you for your support of our health system.

Wilde Thoughts

Gary K. Wilde President & CEO, Community Memorial Health System

Community Memorial Health System has always been a technological leader as it relates to our exceptional patient care.

Gary Wilde President & CEO

COMMUNITY MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM | CARING 3

contents

Michael EllingsonVice President of Marketing and Development

Mary McCormickEditor

Woody Woodburn, Dan Wolowicz, ZestNetWriters

Community Memorial HospitalOjai Valley Community Hospital

Centers For Family Health

A not-for-profi t organization.147 N. Brent St., Ventura, CA 93003

©2010 Community Memorial Health SystemFor permission to reprint any portion of this magazine please call 805/652-5492.

Martin A. Pops, M.D., ChairGregory H. Smith, Vice Chair

Erin A. Quinn, Ph.D., SecretaryJeffrey D. Paul, Treasurer

Samuel D. Small, D.O.Chief of Staff,

Community Memorial HospitalJohn Slaght, M.D.

Chief of Staff, Ojai Valley Community Hospital

Shelby BauerMarc A. Beaghler, M.D.

Ralph R. BennettMichael D. Bradbury

Philip C. DrescherTimothy J. Gallagher

John J. HammerWilliam L. Hart, M.D.

John V. Hill, M.D.Fritz R. HuntsingerHarry L. Maynard

F. Ted Muegenburg, Jr.John W. Russell

William Speitel, M.D.Gary L. Wolfe

Kay Woodburn

EMERITUS MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

Robert J. LagomarsinoLeonard OrtizJanice P. Willis

Community Memorial Health System 2010 Board of Trustees

Jann HendryPhotographers

ZestNetArt Direction/Design

MISSIONTo heal, comfort and promote health

for the communities we serve.

VISIONTo be the regional integrated

health system of choice for patients,

physicians and employees by

providing the latest treatments.

To be a valued community treasure.

VALUEIntegrity, service, excellence, caring

and transparency.

EMBRACING Innovation Saves the QUALITY of LIFETherapeutic Hypothermia in the ER . . . . . . . . . . 4

ER: Express Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

PROSTATE CANCER: Searching for the CURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

OJAI VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITALCelebrating 50 years of COMMITMENT TO SERVICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

COOL KIDSTherapeutic Hypothermia in the NICU . . . . . . . 20

Community Memorial Hospital Foundation NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Ojai Valley CommunityHospital Foundation NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

INNOVATIVE HeartAware and StrokeAware Programs SAVE LIVES . . . . . . . . . 26

AUTOMATION MARVELLaboratory Services at CMH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

CMHS CONSTRUCTION Project Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Keeping Students OUT OF BED and IN THE CLASSROOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE The Silent Killer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

COMMUNITY @ Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36


Therapeutic Hypothermia in the Emergency Department was critical.

Embracing

Qualityof

Qualityof

QualityLife

QualityLife

QualitytheQualitytheQualitySaves

Innovation


F ollowing a normal day at work as a pre-school site supervisor, Shoaleh Welch enjoyed dinner with her husband, Rick,

and then the Ventura couple relaxed on their couch in front of the television.

“We were watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ” Shoaleh recalls of that fateful evening when her life changed. In fact, her life ended; Shoaleh was clinically dead for close to fi ve minutes af-ter suffering sudden cardiac arrest. To be cer-tain, her real-life story is far more remarkable and inspiring than any fi ctional episode of a TV medical drama.

“Honestly, I thought I just had severe heartburn,” Shoaleh recalls, noting she has

long suffered from acid-refl ux for which she takes medication. That self-misdiagnosis is the last thing she remembers from that harrowing night as well as the next few days to follow.

When his wife’s symptoms worsened dramatically, spreading from her chest to her arms and jaw, Rick decided he needed to take Shoaleh to the Emergency Department at Community Memorial Hospital. Shoaleh, still convinced it was merely heartburn, reluctantly agreed to go if Rick would run upstairs and get her a change of clothes to wear.

“When I came back down she was sitting in a chair, slumped over,” Rick says, empha-sizing he had been upstairs for only a brief

moment. “I noticed she wasn’t breathing. I immediately called 911.”

Sudden cardiac arrest contributes to more than 300,000 deaths annually in the United States. Indeed, for good reason it is often re-ferred to as “sudden cardiac death.” Every second would count in order to give Shoaleh any chance at all to beat the odds of becoming another tragic statistic. Unfortunately, Rick did not know how to perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

“(The 911 Operator) coached me on the phone,” Rick says, gratefully. “I did CPR for about fi ve minutes until the paramedics from the fi re station got here. Then they shocked

her – defi brillated her three times – and got her heart kick-started.”

However, even when victims of sudden cardiac arrest are resuscitated they often face the following “good news/bad news” situation: The good news is that normal heart rhythm was restored after CPR and/or defi brillation, and they survive. The bad news, far too often, is that lack of oxygen-rich blood to the brain during the sudden cardiac arrest has caused brain cells to die that can result in an inability to speak, think, and carry out ordinary adult tasks. As a result, brain damage suffered in the after-math of a heart attack, more than damage to

Therapeutic Hypothermia in the Emergency Department was critical.

Shoaleh Welch

continued next page

QualityInnovation


the heart itself, can rob a heart attack survivor of a meaningful life.

Thanks to timely CPR by her husband with the aid of a 911 operator’s calm and ex-pert guidance, followed by successful defi bril-lation by quick-arriving paramedics, and then cutting-edge Therapeutic Hypothermia treat-ment in Community Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department, Shoaleh not only de-fi ed death – she defi ed the long odds with a full and complete recovery.

While CPR and defi brillation were both key in saving Shoaleh’s life, the Therapeutic Hy-pothermia was critical in saving her quality of life.

“With a sudden cardiac arrest, in the past the chances of seeing a patient walk away with a normal life were not good – some studies have shown it to be less than 10%,” explains CMH Emergency Department Director Dr. Chris Johnson, who was on hand in the ED when Shoaleh arrived through its entrance doors. “Now, with the Therapeutic Hypothermia pro-tocol, studies have shown that we can achieve a favorable neurologic outcome (able to live independently and work at least part-time) in up to 55% of these patients. The benefi ts are outstanding.”

So much so that Community Memorial Hospital invested more than $30,000 to pur-chase the reusable state-of-the-art cooling blanket to deliver rapid, maximum temperature control when administering Therapeutic Hypo-thermia. Additionally, the entire ED and Inten-sive Care Unit staff – from physicians to nurses to hospitalists – at CMH has undergone exten-sive training in using the technique, including a handful of lectures from visiting experts.

Prior to the arrival of this high-technolo-gy equipment made by Cincinnati Sub-Zero, Dr. Johnson improvised to employ expert Therapeutic Hypothermia on Shoaleh Welch. Dr. Johnson was not only familiar with the landmark research and protocol developed in 2002 for using the technique on cardiac arrest victims, he had experience using simi-lar cooling therapy in the ED to treat victims of heat stroke, high fever, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

“People generally think when you start the heart everything is okay,” Dr. Johnson explains. “In truth, the cellular damage continues on. Cooling the body inhibits a cascade of (nega-tive) activity.”

The benefi ts of cooling include slowing the body’s metabolism, which can save brain damage even for people who have died – their hearts completely stopped – before being defi -brillated back to life. Time is also of the essence: the faster the heart resumes beating, and the

“It’s exciting. We used to be able to save these people, but the majority would be severely disabled. To see a patient with cardiac arrest who was comatose make a full recovery is really fulfilling.”

Chris Johnson, M.D.


faster the deep cooling begins, the greater the chance that damage to brain cells will be pre-vented, or at least minimized.

In order to quickly cool Shoaleh Welch’s core temperature to a target of 89 or 90 de-grees, Dr. Johnson and the CMH ED staff ini-tially administered two liters of near-freezing saline through an IV. “That dropped her tem-perature three degrees very quickly,” Dr. John-son notes. Additionally, ice water was infused into her stomach and bladder, and ice packs were placed around her groin and armpits. Furthermore, industrial fans were used to blow mist and cold air over Shoaleh’s body to further cool her.

“We were able to get the core temperature down to the target of 89 degrees in less than an hour and kept her at that for 12 hours in the ED,” Dr. Johnson continues. Shoaleh was then moved to the ICU where her core tempera-ture was slowly warmed. A couple days later she underwent successful angioplasty with two stents implanted.

Nine months later, she had three more stents put in. “My recovery has been fantastic. I take medication and see a cardiologist every six months,” Shoaleh says. “I’m doing great.”

Shoaleh was an “ideal candidate” for Therapeutic Hypothermia success, Dr. Johnson points out. “She is young (47 at the time) and strong, with no prior history (of heart disease), which gives her a better chance.”

Shoaleh had a fortuitous string of other fac-tors working in her favor, as well. To give a vic-tim of sudden cardiac arrest the best chance at sustained neurological function afterward, the American Heart Association advocates early emergency recognition and therapy access, in-cluding cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), defi brillation, and immediate and ongoing car-diac care – including Therapeutic Hypothermia. By cooling core body temperature following a severe cardiac event, physicians, technicians and other medical personnel are best able to minimize or prevent long-term negative impact on a patient’s brain.

As noted, all of the above criteria came to pass for Shoaleh. Her husband was pres-ent when she collapsed at home so he was able to administer CPR right away. While her heart was not beating when paramedics ar-rived, they used a defi brillator and successfully got a rhythm back quickly. And even though Shoaleh never regained consciousness and was comatose when she arrived in the CMH Emergency Department, Dr. Johnson and the ER staff administered expert Therapeutic Hypothermia care.

continued on page 35

8 CARING | COMMUNITY MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM8 CARING | COMMUNITY MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM

Cheryl Cobb, Director of Emergency Servic-es at CMH, proudly. “We have made a lot of changes by taking the best practices from all over the country and adapting them to Ventura.

“We started working on this process back in November and we’ve seen tremendous im-provements in a relatively short time,” Cobb continues. “Our physicians and nurses have the same goal: to provide quality care as fast as pos-sible. We know your time is precious.”

For starters, the CMH Emergency Depart-ment has implemented “Immediate Bedding and Bedside Registration” in which patients are taken directly to a treatment area if space is available without fi rst stopping to provide all their registration information. Instead, this information is gathered at the bedside. Speed is further aided by electronic medical records and computerized charting.

A key component in making these possible dramatic improvements in speed of service was implementation of an intense four-day course in triage nursing.

“All of our ER nurses received specialty training to become designated ‘Experts,’” Cobb says, noting that this valuable education con-

visit to the Emergency Room is stressful enough without the added anxiety of an extended wait before seeing a nurse and physician.

While Community Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department has fared well in the past with enviable wait times, an intensifi ed focus and recent implementation of new pro-cesses have effectively made its “ER” stand for Express Results.

For example, the time from when a patient walks through the CMH Emergency Depart-ment doors and is evaluated by a triage nurse has decreased from an average of 19 min-utes in April 2009 to less than fi ve minutes in April 2010!

In turn, the average wait time from arrival to being placed in a treatment area has dropped threefold from 46 minutes to 15 minutes. And, perhaps most important of all, the average time to be examined by an ER physician has dra-matically improved from 74 minutes to around half an hour.

“We know you are here to see the doc-tor. Our goal is door-to-doc in under 30 min-utes, and we are routinely achieving that,” says

EXPRESSRESULTS

THEDOCTORWILL SEE YOU

FAST!


tient can actually begin before a bed opens.“The goal is to decrease artifi cial delays,”

Cobb says, explaining that waiting for a con-ventional treatment area during extremely busy times is something that can now often be over-come. Indeed, instead of being left in the wait-ing room area, the new policy of “immediate bedding” sometimes entails assessing a patient in a chair or hallway area rather than a bed if there is none currently available.

“For many conditions it’s not necessary for a patient to be lying down in a bed,” Cobb says. “We’ll keep you vertical in a chair if that’s the most convenient, most comfort-able, most effective way for you to be seen for your condition.”

Another measure im-plemented to hasten a pa-tient’s journey through the ER is that instead of asking each patient a long, com-prehensive list of questions, CMH’s triage nurses now use their expert judgment to ask the three or four key questions required to assess a patient’s condition. This allows the patient to re-ceive treatment as soon as possible rather than spend-ing time answering an in-tense array of questions.

“This is another area where the nurses’ specialty training in triage comes in,” says Cobb. “They are better trained to see that you get help quicker. They don’t have to spend time asking you everything. We are working to minimize artifi cial delays. Getting a patient to a treat-ment area sooner means faster treatment. We know your blood pressure goes down as soon as you have seen a physician because you are not so anxious anymore. Even if you need fur-ther treatment, you feel better because you are now being cared for.”

Importantly, although this is not new at Community Memorial Hospital, all the physicians that see patients in its ER are Board Certifi ed in Emergency Medicine. Addition-ally, most of these physicians and many of the ER staff are bilingual.

During peak hours, no less than three ex-pertly trained emergency physicians are on staff in the CMH Emergency Department to

handle patient surges. Furthermore, they have a network of superb specialists – from cardiol-ogy to orthopedics to neurology – on call 24/7 to come in if required to best serve the patient.

“Truly, the backup we have is pretty amaz-ing,” Cobb says. “Our ‘call panel’ is more exten-sive than most community hospitals have – even those in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.”

“CMH focuses our resources on the vast majority of patients from our community,” Cobb explained. “If you are a Trauma Center

and a multiple gunshot-wound victim comes in, that requires the immedi-ate attention of the doc-tors and a dozen nurses. Everything else stops and the rest of the ER patients may be facing long, un-comfortable waiting times before being cared for.”

Ojai Valley Commu-nity Hospital, which is part of the Community Memorial Health System family, is making simi-lar strides and now has a physician and nurse on-site 24/7 to treat patients in the ER. Also appreci-ated by patients is that ER nurses, EMTs and clerks have begun routinely vis-iting the waiting room to provide wait-time updates.

All the positive changes in Communi-ty Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department can also prove benefi cial for residents of the Ojai Valley thanks to a close

working relationship between the two hospi-tals. Indeed, if the OVCH Emergency Room doesn’t have the resources and high-technolo-gy equipment to treat a specifi c patient, he or she can be transferred quickly and seamlessly to CMH in Ventura where its ER staff will be alerted, ready and waiting to provide expert emergency care.

“Sure, there are times when there are surges and it will take a little longer, but on average our ER patients are being seen by a nurse in less than fi ve minutes and by a physi-cian in around 30 minutes,” Cheryl Cobb says. “We’ve set high goals and are consistently meeting them, and the result is we are serving our community better.”

And faster.

sists of two days of live training and lectures plus two more days of online learning. “It’s a challenging curriculum, but the end result is nurses who are highly skilled in triage.”

The nursing staff in Ojai Valley Commu-nity Hospital’s new Emergency Room, which opened last October, also underwent the same extensive triage training with similar positive results.

“Our patients are being seen in a much more timely manner,” says Stephanie Boynton, Critical Care and Inpatient Manager at OVCH.

This expertise, in turn, empowers the ER nurses to recognize a patient’s signifi cant prob-lems and then expedite care.

“We now have specifi c protocols that al-low nurses to begin certain tests while the pa-tient waits for the doctor,” Cobb explains. “This can save valuable time.”

For instance, if a triage nurse believes the patient may have suffered a broken ankle, he or she can order an X-ray. As a result, the diag-nostic image results can be ready when the ER physician arrives at bedside. This also proves benefi cial at times when a treatment area in the ER is not initially available; caring for the pa-

Patients can be transferred quickly and seamlessly from OVCH ED to the CMH ED.


THE PROSTATE INSTITUTE OF AMERICA’S GROUNDBREAKING CLINICAL TRIAL FOCUSED ON “DENDRITIC CELL BASED CRYO-IMMUNOTHERAPY” MAY OFFER A CURE FOR PROSTATE (AND POSSIBLY ANY) CANCER.

cal Building across the street from CMH in Ventura, is positioned at the forefront of this quest to harness the immune system’s ability to recognize and destroy malignant cancer cells in a similar manner to how our immune systems battle bacteria and viruses that have invaded the body.

In March, after more than two years of extensive planning and work to receive FDA approval, the renowned Prostate Institute of America, headed by Dr. Duke K. Bahn, began a groundbreaking clinical trial focusing on

For more than a hundred years, doctors and researchers have sought a method to

unleash the human body’s own immune system to effectively battle – and even cure – cancer.

This medical miracle could be on the cusp of becoming reality in the 21st Century. Indeed, tumor immunotherapy – often referred to as a “cancer vaccination” – has proved successful in animal experiments and more recently in treat-ing some selected patients.

The Prostate Institute of America, located in Community Memorial Hospital’s Medi-

the safety and effectiveness of “Dendritic Cell Based Cryo-Immunotherapy.” Specifi cally, this new treatment method combines the freezing (cryoablation) of a known cancer in the pros-tate, followed by the intra-tumoral injection of the patient’s own dendritic cells into the frozen area of the prostate.

This Phase I/II Trial is being undertaken in partnership with Bostwick Laboratories, Inc. in Virginia.

By using this combination of therapies, it is thought that a clinically signifi cant anti-cancer

PROSTATE CANCER:

Activate immuneresponse against

cancers

Migration tolymph nodes

Activate immuneresponse againstActivate immuneresponse againstActivate immuneActivate immuneresponse againstActivate immuneActivate immuneresponse against

Activated cells migrate into the blood streamand tissues where remaining cancers may reside

Dendritic cell injection

Dendritic cells captureand process antigens

from damagedcancer cells

Dendritic cells captureresponse against

Migration tolymph nodes

Cryoablation


dead and dying cells including tumor cells, whose cell surface markers, called antigens, differ from normal cells. Dendritic cells gobble up any such alien substances.”

Dendritic cells also trigger “killer T cells” in the lymph nodes to search for and destroy any other cells in the body bearing similar “foreign” antigens. Importantly, it is now pos-sible to culture dendritic cells from precursor cells removed from a patient’s own blood in a process called “leukapheresis” and then gener-

ate them by the millions in the laboratory. Past studies have shown dendritic cell

injection to be well tolerated with minimal side effects. Indeed, this is one major advantage seen with tumor immunotherapy compared to con-ventional chemotherapy and radiation that can be debilitating. “Therapeutic cancer vaccines are attractive, in part,” Dr. Bahn allows, “be-cause their minimal toxicity allows the patient to maintain a quality of life rarely possible with conventional cancer treatments.”

The Prostate Institute of America’s clinical trial treatment involves freezing the prostate, followed by an injection of millions of the pa-tient’s own dendritic cells into the glands. The process may allow dendritic cells to capture tumor antigens released by the “exploded” prostate cancer cells and build a system-wide immune assault upon remaining tumor cells that have spread from the original, primary prostate cancer.

Combining cryotherapy, rather than chemotherapy or radiation, with dendritic cell injection is especially promising because cryotherapy does not suppress or damage the immune system the way chemotherapy and radiation do. In fact, cryotherapy actually revs up the body’s immune response by initiating an acute infl ammatory response required for dendritic cell maturation and migration to the lymph nodes.

Additionally, notes Dr. Bahn, it has been well established that immunotherapy works

immune response might be elicited. “In theory,” Dr. Bahn explains, “injected dendritic cells will internalize antigens from tumor cells damaged by cryotherapy and facilitate the initiation of a tumor-specifi c immune response.”

The dendritic cell is a scarce white blood cell that is a key weapon in our immune system.

“Dendritic cells are the body’s scavengers,” Dr. Bahn continues. “They are constantly prowling our bodies in search of what’s not supposed to be there – bacteria, viruses, and

Duke K. Bahn, M.D.

“WE ARE NOT JUST SEEKING ANOTHER TREATMENT OPTION AND CURE FOR PROSTATE CANCER,” DR. BAHN SHARES, “BUT A WIDESPREAD CURE FOR ANY CANCER YOU CAN DO CRYOTHERAPY ON.”

continued next page

CLINICAL TRIAL: DENDRITIC CELL BASED CRYO-IMMUNOTHERAPY


best with smaller tumor volumes – and cryo-therapy assault results in a swift reduction of the cancerous mass.

This one-year clinical trial actually builds upon work done in 2004 when Dr. Bahn and the Prostate Institute of America partnered with Seattle-based Haakon Ragde Foundation, headed by Dr. Haakon Ragde, to study the use of dendritic cell based cryo-immunotherapy on 13 patients at Asian Hospital and Medical Cen-ter in Manila, the Philippines. The results were

nationwide. Still, fi nding 26 subjects who meet the strict criteria promises to be a challenge in itself. Of the two full pages of inclusion and exclusion criteria for patients, three major ones are: metastatic prostate cancer must be limited to three sites in the bones or lymph nodes; hormonal therapy must have been tried and failed; and the patient cannot have previously had chemotherapy. The extensive screening process also includes CT scans, blood tests and

encouraging with a strong immune response; however, sustainable responses were seen in only 50 percent of the patients.

To combat this diminishing reaction, the 26 subjects in the Prostate Institute of America’s clinical trial will also receive an oral low-dose chemotherapy regimen to selectively reduce the number of “regulatory T cells,” which have been implicated in dampening or halting im-mune responses fostered by the killer T cells.

Patients for the trial are being recruited

He received a terrifying diagnosis: Advanced prostate cancer.

“I was told I had a 50-50 chance of making it ten years – as long as I did everything possible and utilized the best means of controlling the disease,” Stub-stad, now 68, shares, noting he has no family history of the disease.

Stubstad appeared to get an early jump on beating the odds as hormonal therapy initially proved effective. How-ever, when the fi rst 15-month series of treatments concluded, his PSA mark-

er soon soared again. Three more sub-sequent hormonal regimes proved less and less effective, which is typical as the body develops a resistance to the vari-ous hormonal drugs employed.

By the end of 2009 further hor-monal therapy was no longer a viable treatment option. Stubstad was pre-pared for this news: in fact, the civil en-gineer had been preparing for it for a few years by meticulously researching and following the latest advances in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.

The Internet, and his acquaintance with several Southern California medical ex-perts, allowed him access to the latest news about ongoing and planned trial studies around the world; yet he ulti-mately found his greatest hope close to home at the Prostate Institute of Ameri-ca (PIA) at Community Memorial Hospi-tal in Ventura.

“Lo and behold, along comes Dr. Bahn with this trial,” Stubstad says, re-ferring to the PIA’s Medical Director Dr. Duke Bahn and his groundbreaking tu-

mor immunotherapy combining cryosur-gery (that kills cancer cells in the prostate gland by freezing them) with the injec-tion of millions of dendritic cells (to fi ght cancer that has spread – in Stubstad’s case to three sites in his abdomen area).

“This is the one trial I saw as the most promising on a scientifi c basis,” Stubstad explains. “I also liked that Dr. Bahn is running it because he’s very high-ly regarded worldwide. After I learned about it, I put my head and heart into it, and essentially I tried to stay alive long enough to take part. Lo and behold I made it!”

Indeed, Stubstad is the fi rst patient in the clinical study. After extensive med-ical screening, testing and preparation, including a 3 ½-hour session having his dendritic cells harvested, he underwent the immunotherapy this past April 22.

“I honestly wasn’t at all nervous beforehand,” Stubstad says. “I knew I had made the right decision.” A decision his wife of 34 years, Zitta, fully supported.

When Stubstad awoke in the re-covery room with Zitta at his bedside, Dr. Bahn told them the two-hour procedure had gone “very well.” After spending the night in CMH for observation, Stubstad was discharged the following morning. He is being monitored closely as the trial progresses.

Stubstad is optimistic. “I’m not ex-pecting to be cured, but I’m hopeful for remission and for a few more years of en-joyable life,” the husband, father of sev-en and grandfather of thirteen, says. “In fact, I hope for many more years.”

SEVEN YEARS AGO, LONGTIME OAK VIEW RESIDENT RICHARD STUBSTAD’S WORLD WAS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN...

continued on page 35

Richard Stubstad, Dr. Duke Bahn, Zitta Stubstad


Proceeds to fund an Ultra Sound Unit for CMH’s ICU-CCU Department.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010FOUR O’ CLOCK

147 North Brent Street, Ventura, CAOn the Site of the new Community Memorial Hospital.

Enjoy a beautiful afternoon under the tent, dancing to red-hot swing music of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

Fine Wine and Gourmet Cuisine from around the world.

Please visit our website at www.bbvdcmhf.org.

If you should have questions contact the Foundation at [email protected] or call 805/667-2881.

$200 Cash Prize for 10K Men and Women’s Overall Winners!

TIME:7:15 a.m. Registration8:00 a.m. 10K Run/Walk9:00 a.m. 5K Run/Walk9:15 a.m. Walk/Wheelchair9:15 a.m. Kids Relay

FEES:17 and Under $15 ($20 after 9/30)18 and Up $30($35 after 9/30)Wheelchair Participants and Kids Relay Free.

PHANTOM RUNNER:For a donation of $20.00 or more, sleep in and get a T-shirt!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2010NORDHOFF HIGH SCHOOL, OJAI

5K & 10K EventsFree Kids Relay

For more information or to register, visit www.octoberclassic.org or call (805) 640-2317

WE HAVE MANY SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE!Proceeds to Benefi t Ojai Valley Community Hospital

The October Classic is an Ojai Valley Community Hospital Foundation Event.



Download a copy of the June 16, 1960 Ojai Valley News article at www.cmhshealth.org/OVCH50

David Mason had plans for his 70th birthday on July 14. The longtime Ojai Valley resident – widely known as the city’s ad hoc historian – planned to take a bou-

quet of fl owers to Josephine Frazier, a resident at Ojai Valley Community Hospital’s Continuing Care Center.

Although not his mother, Frazier had played a very im-portant role the day Mason was born in his family’s small one-story home on Fox Street.

“She was a neighbor, the sister of the midwife who de-livered me, and a friend of my mother,” Mason said. “She held my mother’s hand when I was born.”

It was 1939. Ojai’s lone doctor at the time was on va-cation, and Mason’s mother, Maxine, knew that she didn’t have time to make the slow drive into Ventura to deliver at the area’s only hospital.

“At the time, it was a stop-and-go-drive along a two-lane road,” Mason said of the rural highway that stretched between the valley and the seaside town of Ventura.

So, the midwife delivered Mason while Frazier stood by his mother’s side. Because his mother had died a little over a year earlier, Mason thought it appropriate to bring Frazier fl owers on his most recent birthday last summer. She was, after all, someone who’d been there when he took his fi rst breath and let out his fi rst cry.

“She and my mom had rooms right across the hall from each other at the continuing care facility. I’d visit her when I saw mom. I’d go there to see her after my mom died,” said the lifelong Ojai resident.

But Mason would not get a chance to deliver his fl owers. “(Frazier) died a few days before my birthday,” Mason

said, his voice catching in his throat as the emotion of the memory welled within him. Frazier, like Mason’s mother, Maxine, was in her 90s when she passed away at the Con-tinuing Care Center, where Mason said they both received exceptional care.

OF COMMITMENTTO SERVICE

CELEBRATING

continued next page

Mason’s story, like many of Ojai Valley’s longtime residents, illustrates not only why the opening of the Ojai Valley Community Hospi-tal was so critical to the community—its resi-dents were in need of more immediate medical care – but also how it has brought comfort and care to thousands of patients since its fi rst day fi fty years ago.

So take a moment to step back in time to catch a small glimpse of the hospital’s history, how it nearly came to the brink of closure, and how a dedicated group of men and women have worked for a half century to keep it going.

Opening DayIt was June 16, 1960 and the Ojai Valley

News trumpeted the impending grand open-ing of the new hospital by replacing its mast-head with a front page banner headline that read: “Congratulations! To the New Ojai Valley Community Hospital.”

Although the hospital had offi cially begun taking patients a month earlier – May 9, 1960 – it was clear that the newspaper’s headline looked to capture the small town’s pride and excite-ment in the opening of the 44-bed facility.

The paper’s front page was top to bottom with stories and photographs about the open-ing of the 33,000-square-foot hospital that was equipped “with all of the latest devices avail-able” and touted as having “all of the facilities to be found in institutions many times its size.”

Also printed was the schedule of opening day festivities – slated to begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 18, 1960. The events included a

dedication by Dr. Frederick Gruneck, the hos-pital’s founder, as well as an address by popular television personality Art Linkletter.

Later stories would tell how the open house, which ran well into the evening, drew 3,000 visitors and how the switchboard opera-tors spent much of the evening answering calls from residents wanting to know more about the new hospital.

The New HospitalThe hometown newspaper described that

walking into the foyer of the new hospital “is like walking into a modern hotel” and that “the reception desk has a warm, personal air far removed from the cold, auspicious hospitals of yesteryear.”

According to the reports, patients could expect “large, cheerful rooms” that included a telephone and a TV in every room “to help while away the hours.”

The maternity ward, nicknamed the “Heir-port,” had already welcomed its newest arriv-als – Caren Benoit, the fi rst to be born at the hospital, and Clinton Edward, the fi rst boy and second baby delivered at the hospital.

It didn’t take long before the hospital’s two surgical suites saw use.

Jessica Fischling, 5, was the fi rst to undergo surgery May 13, 1960. The blonde-haired little girl from Meiners Oaks walked out of the hos-pital a day after her successful tonsillectomy.

Attention was given to the new hospital’s state-of-the-art technology, much of which would be taken for granted today. Such ameni-ties included a “hot pack” system that “ensures hot food to each patient at bedside.” News re-ports also noted that the hospital’s telephone system featured “an intercommunication sys-tem which keeps each hospital department in instant touch with the others.”

The hospital’s second fl oor was home not only to the record and board rooms, but also to a bedroom suite complete with bath and show-er to accommodate visiting doctors.

It was, to say the least, a wonderful addi-tion to the Ojai Valley.

“I remember it being here under construc-tion,” Mason said. “We just thought it was un-

believable. We just thought that it was the epitome of modern.”

Most prophetic in the lo-cal newspaper, however, proved to be a caption below an artist’s rendering of the hospital’s front entryway that read: “With the

years through these portals will pass many peo-ple...some with grave anxiety, others coming with quickened hearts and smiles of happiness. A hospital is many things to a community....”

Indeed, the new hospital was to become many things to the Ojai Valley. Not only would it provide more immediate medical care to

1960s1960s1960s

According to the reports, patients could expect “large, cheerful rooms” that included a telephone and a TV in every room to help while away the hours.

1970s1970s1970s16 CARING | COMMUNITY MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM

those living in the rural community – driving into Ventura for its hospital had been common-place for more than a half century – but it would usher in a boon of doctors, nurses and hospital staff to the area.

To be sure, 26 doctors began work at the hospital that has since become the city’s third largest employer.

“With the advent of the hospital came all the doctors,” recalled Mason. “Prior to the hos-pital being built, we had very few doctors. The most we had were two. Doctors from all over the world came here and settled here.”

Mason, along with many longtime resi-dents, agreed that the hospital played a major role in the Ojai Valley’s 20th-century evolution from a rustic countryside town to a thriving city that retains much of its pastoral charm.

The Hospital’s FoundersThe need for a hospital wasn’t lost on the

men and women living in the Ojai Valley in the years leading up to World War II. Newspa-per reports told how during the 1940s and 50s plans to bring a hospital to the quiet valley met little success.

As is often the case with large-scale devel-opment deals, the details in the “who and how” to fi nance the hospital became a stumbling block for nearly two decades.

Proposals to build the hospital with tax dollars met opposition by residents, and al-though a special hospital district was formed, very little progress was made.

City offi cials also considered using a com-

bination of federal, state and local money to build the facility, but it was quickly recognized that the valley’s small population made the chances of receiving government money very unlikely.

In the later 1950s, a local group ap-proached Dr. Frederick Gruneck to help fi -nance the hospital.

The German-born doctor came to Califor-nia in the early 1950s with plans to retire. He’d spent the past 28 years practicing medicine in Chicago and had moved to enjoy warmer weather.

“I was suffering from asthma, decided to retire, and move to California,” Gruneck said in

a 1957 article published by the California Medi-cal Association. “After a short time, I couldn’t stand the lazy life of a retired doctor and went back to work.”

And work he did. Gruneck not only be-came the hospital administrator – and sur-geon – but he helped found the Northridge Hospital Medical Center in 1955 with a small group of doctors, including Dr. Albert Zdenek.

Zdenek, Gruneck and Dr. Robert Collins approached the Ojai City Council around 1959 with a proposal to build a privately funded hos-pital in the valley.

Dr. Zdenek’s wife, Marilee Zdenek, said he wanted to build the hospital in Ojai because residents didn’t have a medical facility that was close enough.

She said her husband built the hospital in Ojai not simply as a business venture, but as a way to provide better care for its residents.

“Nothing Al did was just about business,” said Marilee Zdenek, who now lives in Mon-tecito. “He was very dedicated to the hospital, and medicine was his passion. He was a very compassionate man.”

Bill Burr, a member of the Ojai City Coun-cil when Gruneck proposed the hospital, said there was a “fair amount of controversy” in

regards to whether the hospi-tal should be a public or private entity.

Burr said that although he doesn’t exactly recall all the de-tails about the ensuing debate, he said the City Council approved

Gruneck’s proposal and construction was set to begin.

“I was in favor of it moving forward as a private entity,” Burr said. “I felt that we were extremely fortunate to have a medical facility in Ojai.”

By late August 1959, construction crews with Studio City-based contractor Jondol Con-struction Company began work on the new hospital.

In a little less than nine months, it was ready for its fi rst patient on May 9.

1980s1980s1980s

1990s1990s1990s

“Nothing Al did was just about business. He was very dedicated to the hospital, and medicine was his passion. He was a very compassionate man.”

continued next page



A Hospital’s EvolutionAs time passed, Ojai Valley residents came

to rely on the small community hospital that had since added its Continuing Care Center, a 66-bed skilled nursing facility that provides inpatient programs and therapy treatments for both short- and long-term placement.

It had become, as was the intent of its founders, a place where locals could fi nd

quality medical care close to home. Yet, the hospital industry was in the midst of an evolution. Both harsh economic realities, as well as changes in healthcare and insurance practices, meant small community hospitals were unable to weather the fi nancial storms alone. Many were bought by larger corpora-tions and the Ojai Valley Community Hospital was no exception.

Alan Rains, the chairman of the hospi-tal’s board of direc-tors from 1985 to 2003, said the sub-sequent decades saw the small hospital change hands mul-tiple times.

To be sure, between 1981 and 1995, the hospital was sold three times. One of the buyers was Affi liated Medical Enterprises, ac-cording to the Los Angeles Times. The hospital was eventually bought by Province Healthcare, Inc., a Tennessee-based fi rm and the facility’s fourth owner since 1987, according to the Times.

Rains said many of these large out-of-state corporations were notorious for keeping an eye solely on the bottom line.

“Their whole desire was to make money and send it out of state,” Rains said. “They had no interest in improving the hospital or keeping it up to date.”

Rains said that despite the hospital’s lack-luster attention from its parent companies, the nurses, doctors and staff continued to dedicate

Caren Benoit was the fi rst baby born at the Ojai hospital – May

10, 1960 – and her connection with the hospital continues 50 years later, as she works for its parent company,

Community Memorial Health System, in the accounting department.

“It’s my only claim to fame,” says Benoit with a laugh when asked about her historic arrival into the world.

Raised in Casitas Springs, Benoit moved to Colorado when she was 16, returning to her hometown roots in Ventura County in her early 20s.

On her 25th birthday, the hospital threw Benoit a tented-outdoor party, complete with an ice sculpture, cham-pagne and a dozen roses.

It was, Benoit says, an evening she’ll never forget.

She eventually settled in Fillmore, where she has lived for the past 20 years. Benoit lives with her 10-year-old son, Michael, who was also born at OVCH. She explained she wanted to deliver her son at Ojai Valley Com-munity Hospital because of her history with the hospital.

“That’s why I went there to have my son,” she says.

Benoit says, however, the deci-sion to deliver Michael at OVCH quick-ly turned from a nostalgic visit into a life-threatening situation.

Soon after she arrived at the hos-pital and was put on monitoring equip-ment, Benoit’s obstetrician, Dr. Lois

Barnes, realized Michael’s heartbeat was irregular and weak.

An emergency cesarean proce-dure was needed to save the new-born’s life. Within minutes, Benoit was in surgery and Dr. Barnes delivered Michael.

Benoit credits the quick-thinking obstetrician with saving her son’s life.

“I think my son would have died if it wasn’t for his doctor,” Benoit says.

Having worked for Community Memorial Health System for a year, Benoit says it’s the people in her small offi ce who make the job enjoyable.

“I enjoy the people I work with,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a nicer environment or group of people to work with.”

Has she ever been recognized as OVCH’s fi rst baby?

“Yes, once,” Benoit says. “I was at the hospital and someone recog-nized my name and asked if I was the fi rst one born there. It did make me feel special because it’s unique and not everyone can claim that.”

Caren Benoit’s ties to Ojai Valley Community Hospital started at a very young age – at birth, actually.

2000s2000s


themselves to providing the best possible medi-cal care to their patients.

“The quality of the care did not suffer,” Rains said. “The part that was suffering was our inability to keep up with the latest technology. That’s not to say the staff was not up to speed on training and the latest in healthcare tech-niques, it was just the facilities.”

Jim Halverson, a family physician who has been affi liated with the hospital since 1987, said the staff ’s morale continued to drop as money woes led to talks of a closure.

“I think generally there was frustration be-cause we had no local control,” said Halverson, who also held the post of chief of staff for two years. “There was always some fear that the hospital could be closed if we did not produce enough income. You were always aware that there was going to be pressure on the organiza-tion to meet the bottom line.”

It was the late 1990s and Province Health-care was looking to sell the Ojai hospital.

Rains said the board of directors had be-come fed up with out-of-state owners and opt-ed instead to buy the hospital themselves.

There was a small problem. The asking price of the hospital was about $8 million, said Rains, and the hospital foundation had about $38,000 in the bank.

“We questioned our sanity,” Rains said with a laugh, “but it was just the right thing to do.”

Rains recalled something Halverson said to him during one of the Board meetings. “He said, ‘I want someone to go to sleep thinking on how to make this work and wake up in the morning to continue to think and work on this.’ As he said that, he was looking directly at me,” Rains said. “‘Ok,’ I said. ‘I hear you.’”

Rains said that in order to buy the hospital, the hospital board was allowed to take control of the hospital’s foundation board, which was the nonprofi t fundraising entity of Ojai Valley Community Hospital.

Rains and the board sat down with the Tennessee fi rm and sharpened their pencils. In the end, the board—as the nonprofi t founda-tion – bought the hospital in 2000 for about $2.5 million. The board also inherited $1.5 million in unpaid accounts receivable as part of the deal.

The purchase was lauded by the staff and board as a coup for the community. It brought the hospital back under local control and be-

cause it was now a nonprofi t entity, the hos-pital could accept donations that would help upgrade the sagging facility.

“It was welcomed as something that was very positive on behalf of the medical staff,” Halverson said.

The hospital and its staff were not quite out of the woods. Financial pressures contin-ued to weigh heavily on the foundation and by 2005, the hospital faced the real possibility of either closing or being sold to another large corporation.

It was then, however, that Community Memorial Hospi-tal President and CEO Gary Wilde approached the Ojai hos-pital’s board and talked of a pos-sible merger.

“It was a stroke of genius,” Rains said.Both sides quickly agreed and Community

Memorial Health System was created.By 2008, CMHS had spent $6 million to

upgrade the Ojai facility. New pipes and repairs to a leaking roof were at the top of the list.

According to newspaper reports, the merger helped save about $2 million a year in administrative costs and more cost-effective supply purchases.

Improvements to the hospital have con-tinued through the work of the Ojai Valley Community Hospital Foundation, Foundation Guild, and CMHS. In addition to the many upgrades to equipment and facilities funded by these groups, a brand new 6-bed Emergency Department opened in 2009, and a new Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) will open later this year.

And that is good news for not only the val-ley’s residents, but also the doctors who con-tinue to serve the community.

“For nearly 20 years I have worked at Ojai Valley Community Hospital, and I never could say for certain that there would be a hospital in Ojai for my entire career,” said Dr. Jim Halverson. “With the merger I can say for certain that the Ojai Valley Hospital will be here for my entire career and for the careers of many future physicians.”

With the opening of its new, modern Emergency Department, and plans in place for the new Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) to open in 2010, our hospital prepares to enter its second half-century.

“With the merger I can now say for certain that the Ojai Valley Community Hospital will be here for my entire career. ”


Cool KidsCool KidsTHERAPEUTIC HYPOTHERMIAIS GIVING THE SMALLEST PATIENTS A CHANCE AT A NORMAL LIFE

Infants in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are not only the smallest patients in a hospi-

tal, they often have some of the largest health problems.

Despite major advances in monitoring technology and deeper knowledge of fetal and neonatal pathologies, perinatal asphyxia – or, more technically, hypoxic-ischemic encepha-lopathy (HIE) – remains a serious condition that causes signifi cant mortality and long-term morbidity. Also often referred to as “birth depression,” HIE is basically caused by a lack of oxygen-rich blood fl ow to the brain in

the immediate time period preceding birth. The condition brings with it a high risk of death while survivors have a high risk of disability and cognitive impairment.

Indeed, birth depression remains an impor-tant complication affecting newborns world-wide – including 1 to 4 per 1,000 births in devel-oped countries, a rate that has gone unchanged over the past two decades.

For the past three years, studies and clini-cal trials have been underway focusing on the use of Therapeutic Hypothermia – cooling a patient’s body core temperature in order to


slow metabolism and hence prevent, or mini-mize, neurological damage – on infants suf-fering from perinatal asphyxia. In the past 12 months major studies have indeed suggested Therapeutic Hypothermia offers major benefi ts and it is now becoming the standard of care.

For example, the “Australian Cooling Trial for HIE” focusing on simple clinical eligibility criteria, the need to initiate cooling soon after birth, and a simple cooling method accom-plished passively with cold gel packs, showed a signifi cant reduction in overall mortality from 37 percent in a control group to 24 percent in the cooled group.

Community Memorial Hospital’s highly acclaimed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is on the forefront of caring for infants suffer-ing from birth depression, having recently invested $15,000 in a state-of-the-art Cincin-nati Sub-Zero Blanketrol III System to provide expert Therapeutic Hypothermia care. Rather than cooling a patient with a full-body “blan-ket” as the similar high-tech CSZ equipment in CMH’s Emergency Department does, the NICU’s version features a disposable mattress that the infant lies directly on. This mattress is laced with tiny tubes through which chilled water fl ows; a computerized unit a little smaller than a kitchen dishwasher constantly monitors the patient and automatically adjusts the water temperature precisely as needed to maintain the desired goal core body temperature.

“Babies lose heat very quickly, naturally,” explains Dr. John van Houten, NICU Medi-cal Director at CMH. “Infants with ‘diffi cult deliveries’ are unable to generate heat as well as unstressed infants and lose body heat even

faster. With the mattress we can cool an infant to the goal temperature in as quick as 15 to 20 minutes.”

This speed is vital because trials have shown that the sooner the body is cooled to the target core temperature – 92.3 degrees – the more effective the treatment and the better the expected outcome.

Initiating Therapeutic Hypothermia with-in six hours of birth is just one of a number of stringent criteria for use of this therapy. The infant must also be 36 weeks or less gestation age, and meet biochemical and neurological criteria. Postnatal blood gas tests determine the biochemical levels while a neurological exam includes looking at the level of consciousness, primitive refl exes, and the autonomic system (pupils, heart rate and respiration).

“This multiple criteria lets us know if we have fairly signifi cant birth depression that might benefi t from the therapy,” Dr. van Houten explains.

As soon as an infant is identifi ed as meet-ing the needed criteria, all external heat sources are turned off or turned down. If required, re-suscitation and support – which may include in-

tubation, mechani-cal ventilation and pharmacolog ica l support – is provided by the highly trained NICU physicians and nurses. Then, as soon as is practically possible, cooling of the body’s core tem-perature can begin.

While the tar-get temperature can be reached quickly, it is still a highly sophisticated proce-dure. For example, because CO2 solu-bility changes with temperatures, blood

gases need to be constantly adjusted as the core temperature drops. Ionized calcium, magne-sium, and potassium levels, to name but three, also must be closely monitored.

Bradycardia, where the heart rate falls be-low 100 beats per minute, can also be expected when the core temperature falls below 93 de-grees due to cardiac depression.

And yet this is all routine care in the NICU. “In reality, other than cooling the infant, there isn’t much change in how we care for them,” Dr. van Houten explains. “Our NICU staff only had to understand the rationale behind Thera-peutic Hypothermia and undergo special train-ing in how to operate the cooling blanket for our program to get started. All the other nec-essary critical care skills were already present.”

While cooling is paramount, Dr. van Houten notes that hand and feet warmers – mit-tens and booties – are used on infants receiving Therapeutic Hypothermia. “There’s two rea-sons,” he explains. “First, the babies are so cold to touch it is disconcerting to parents. Also, just holding a baby’s hand can raise the body tem-perature – this way parents can then hold their baby’s hand with no warming effects.”

NICU patients receiving Therapeutic Hy-pothermia remain cooled for a full 72 hours be-fore being slowly re-warmed over a period of two to three hours.

Even with its busy 16-bed NICU at Com-munity Memorial Hospital, Dr. van Houten ex-pects only about three to six babies annually will be candidates for Therapeutic Hypother-mia – though this number might rise slightly if other area hospitals send infants who meet the criteria for this specialized care.

“While we won’t use Therapeutic Hypo-thermia therapy on a lot of babies, it will have a tremendous effect when we do,” Dr. van Houten says. “It will make all the difference in the world to those two or three or six babies each year, providing signifi cant neurological improvement. Instead of saving their life but being handicapped, we save their quality of life. That’s really exciting.”

Whole Body Cooling

“It will make all the difference in the world, providing signifi cant neurological improvement. Instead of saving lives, but causing handicaps, we can save quality of life. That’s really exciting.”

Shelby Bauer would be the fi rst to agree that “Many hands make light work.”

As president of the Com-munity Memorial Hospital Auxil-iary, the longtime Ventura resident spends much of her week ensuring the 408-member volunteer group continues its long-standing com-mitment to providing support to the hospital staff.

“Working in the auxiliary is a real pleasure,” said Bauer, a great-grandmother who became a volunteer in 1992. “It’s not only working with the volunteers, but

all the staff of the hospital. Every-one is just wonderful to the vol-unteers. They make us feel very wanted and needed at the hospi-tal, and that’s what makes it such a real pleasure.”

Since 1962, the volunteers have welcomed guests to CMH, helped discharge patients, de-livered gifts, stocked supplies, cuddled newborns and continued to lend a helping hand to the doc-tors, nurses and employees in ev-ery department of the hospital.

The volunteers totaled an as-tounding 38,000 service hours last

year alone.More than just the time

commitment given by the volun-teers, the auxiliary provides an-nual fi nancial support to CMH. Through the hospital’s gift shop, sales of souvenir birth certifi cates and baby photos as well as other fundraising events, the auxiliary raised and donated $110,000 to CMH in 2009.

The volunteers presented hospital COO Adam Thunell with the check during the auxiliary’s annual awards luncheon earlier this year.

HELPING CMH IN ITS

CONTINUOUS EFFORT TO

OFFER THE BEST HEALTHCARE

POSSIBLE BY CONSISTENTLY

INVESTING IN THE NEWEST

TECHNOLOGY, EDUCATION

AND TRAINING.

Helping Hands

Bauer said the money, in ad-dition to the $145,000 donated the year before, will go towards the construction of a new Community Memorial Hospital. The new six–story hospital is part of a $320-mil-lion capital campaign Community Memorial Health System recently launched. The master plan in-cludes replacing the 50-year-old facility in Ventura with a state-of-the-art hospital and modernizing Ojai Valley Community Hospital.

To help CMHS reach its fundraising goal and turn its for-ward-looking plan into a reality, the auxiliary has committed to an ongoing annual gift specifi cally earmarked for the new hospital.

Bauer said the auxiliary be-lieves that by dedicating its dona-tions over the next fi ve years, it will be able to offer a signifi cant contribution to the cost of build-ing a new hospital.

“Hopefully in the next fi ve years, our hospital will be built, and we can see the benefi ts of our efforts, and we will know that we’ve taken part in the building of a hospital,” Bauer said.

She said many of the volun-teers have also been patients at CMH and understand the impor-tance of helping the nonprofi t hos-pital build a new facility in Ventura and how its construction will re-quire groups such as the auxiliary to fundraise in the coming years. “This is a hospital that’ll be used not just by us, but for generations to come.”

The auxiliary as a whole, she said, understands that it may take a number of years before the hos-pital is built, but all agreed its com-pletion would be worth the wait.

“The volunteers have had no qualms about making this donation. We are very willing to do this in order to help see the building of our new hospital come to fruition.”

Bauer invites those interested in joining the CMH Auxiliary to call (805) 652-5043, or pick up an application form at the recep-tion desk at CMH, located at 147 N. Brent St. in Ventura.


Maria Cavallo ScholarshipsFive College-Bound Jr. Volunteers Awarded

Bryson Edgar, a Ventura High graduate with a 4.17 grade-point average, will attend the University of California at Berkeley with the goal of becoming a hospital administra-tor. He began volunteering at CMH in September of 2007 and has worked over 650 hours as a front desk reception-ist/fl yer, back desk receptionist and as Junior Volunteers

co-chair. Edgar was chosen to attend the Benefactors’ Ball in 2009 because of his outstanding leadership and number of hours worked at the hospital. He shadowed Dr. James Woodburn during surgeries in August of 2008.

BRYSON EDGAR

Gabriel Fregoso graduated from Foothill Technology High, earning a 4.26 GPA. He will major in molecular environ-mental biology with the goal of becoming a physician. Fregoso is interested in doing pharmaceutical research in the healthcare industry. He has volunteered at CMH since April of 2008, serving over 225 hours as a front

receptionist/fl yer. Fregoso also was selected to attend the Benefactors’ Ball in 2009 because of his hours of service to the hospital.

GABRIEL FREGOSO

Mia Abboud, graduate of Foothill Technology High with a 3.6 GPA, will attend Northern Arizona University and major in biology. She wants to become a pediatrician. Abboud has volunteered at CMH for just a little over a year and worked more than 125 hours in both Maternity Services and the pharmacy. In addition, Abboud has volunteered for

the past three years with City Corps, Caregivers and Soldiers Angels, giving about 55 hours with those nonprofi t organizations.

MIA ABBOUD

Ashley McCracken, is a graduate of Foothill Technology High with a 3.22 GPA, will attend Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, OK with a double major of athletic training and pre-med. She would like to attend medical school in order to serve in the sports medicine fi eld. McCracken has volunteered at CMH since June of 2009

serving for 266.5+ hours as Front Desk Receptionist/Flyer, and as a Back Desk Receptionist. In addition, McCracken has volunteered at the Humane Society, and Soldiers Angels, putting in 26 hours for those organizations.

ASHLEY MCCRACKEN

Community Memorial Hos-pital’s Auxiliary awarded fi ve members of the hos-

pital’s Junior Volunteers program who plan to pursue careers in healthcare with scholarships total-ing $5,000 from its Maria Cavallo Scholarship Fund.The scholarships are distributed to the learning institution the Junior Award winner attends in the fall. When the recipient provides a stu-dent identifi cation number and ed-ucation choices the funds are sent from the Maria Cavallo Scholar-ship Fund. The recipients – Bryson Edgar ($2,000), Daniel Moorehead ($1,000), Gabriel Fregoso ($1,000), Ashley McCracken and Mia Ab-boud ($500) – all graduated in June from local high schools and will be attending college in the fall. The Maria Cavallo Fund provides scholarships annually to graduating high school seniors who have served at least 100 hours in the auxiliary, have maintained a 3.0 GPA or better, and who will be attending an accredited college

or university and taking courses in the healthcare fi eld. Recipi-ents must be planning to pursue a healthcare career as a physician, nurse, physical therapist, pharma-cist, etc. Maria Cavallo’s family established the fund in memory of the 15,000 hours she gave as a CMH Auxiliary member. At the end of the presenta-tion of the awards, Dan Rusthoi nephew of Maria, congratulated the recipients and their parents. He wanted to personalize Ma-ria and make her specialness un-derstood. When her husband passed, she was devastated. What brought her back to her family was her 15 years of dedication to Community Memorial Hospital Auxiliary voluntary service. The Maria Cavallo Scholarship Fund was created from her savings. Af-ter her death her nephew decided to donate her savings in her mem-ory and created the Fund. As Dan closed his remarks, he wished the winners “Godspeed as you go on to college.”


Daniel Moorhead graduated from Foothill Technology High with a 3.89 GPA and will major in molecular biology at UC Santa Cruz. He wants to become a pharmacist. Moorhead began volunteering at CMH in April of 2007, and since that time he has worked over 280 hours in the hospital’s pharmacy. Daniel also has tutored at the Boys and Girls

Club, having put in 40 hours there. He has been a member of the Boy Scouts of America for fi ve years, reaching the Eagle Scout rank.

DANIEL MOORHEAD

TO HELP THE OJAI VALLEY

COMMUNITY HOSPITAL

ACHIEVE ITS OBJECTIVES BY

BROADENING FINANCIAL

SUPPORT AND HEIGHTENING

AWARENESS OF THE BENEFITS

THE HOSPITAL BRINGS TO

THE COMMUNITY.

Sometimes, on the road to re-covery, the best medicine is

simply a few moments in the warm Southern California sunshine.

Suzanne Baker, a 22-year resident of the Ojai Valley and a longtime member of the Ojai Presbyterian Church, saw fi rst-hand the comfort and joy fresh air and a bit of sunlight can bring to a

healing body.Baker’s mother, Wilma Sto-

baugh, was a patient at Ojai Val-ley Community Hospital’s Con-tinuing Care Center, where the two would spend time outside on the center’s patio, enjoying Ojai’s Mediterranean climate and soak-ing in the golden sunshine.

Stobaugh, a 93-year-old Ar-

kansas native, had suffered a broken shoulder in January and was recuperating at the Continu-ing Care Center, a 66-bed skilled nursing facility that provides inpa-tient programs and therapy treat-ments for both short-term and long-term placement.

It was while visiting her mother at the Continuing Care

Center that Baker saw the need to spruce up the center’s patio. It was a project, she said, that was per-fect for the time and talent of her church group.

“I was aware of the need to enhance the patio because it need-ed a lot of work,” Baker said. “I thought, ‘This is a perfect match. There’s a great need here to help people and our church wants to be serving the community,’ and so we got together.”

She said she wanted the pa-tio’s renovation to be one of the four or fi ve community-wide vol-unteer projects her church un-dertakes each spring as part of its “March Mission Madness.”

Baker, also a longtime mem-ber of the Ojai Valley Commu-nity Hospital Foundation Guild, helped plan for the arrival of the two dozen church volun-teers who would spend the day in mid March cleaning, sanding and painting the patio.

Little did Baker know, though, that just two days before she and her fellow volunteers were set to begin work that her mother would pass away.

Despite the emotional toll her mother’s death had taken on her, Baker knew how much her mother looked forward to the pa-tio’s remodel. It was, she said, a way to help deal with her moth-er’s passing and give back to the Continuing Care Center where her mother had spent the last two months of her life.

“We had been out looking at the patio several different times together – she would be out there in her wheelchair – and she was

A Ray of Sunshine The Ojai Presbyterian Church

Renovates the Patio at the Continuing Care Center



Think of an emergency room and most often the mind’s eye

conjures up the harried scene of a prime time television show where fast-paced nurses and quick-think-ing doctors face an emergency that can turn at a moment’s notice.

And although the day-to-day work being done in most ERs doesn’t quite refl ect what’s hap-pening in television hospitals on Thursday nights, the true-life stress that family and friends of ER pa-tients face in a medical emergency is all too real.

Barbara Pops understands the emotional angst a visit to the ER can create, which is why the 16-year Ojai Valley resident wanted to create a convenient place at Ojai Valley Community Hospital where family and friends of patients could go for a quick escape from the stress of a medical emergency.

Using money donated by Ojai philanthropist Chilant Sprague—

excited about the project,” said Baker, who worked alongside the team of volunteers to spruce up the patio with a fresh coat of paint and some elbow grease. New awnings and patio furniture were then paid for by the hospital’s foundation guild.

Baker admitted working on the patio so soon after her moth-er’s death created “a lot of emo-tions,” but she said it was very sat-isfying to help with the project.

“I was very happy that we as a church group could be there be-cause I had gotten to know some of the patients at the center and knew how much they enjoyed the patio,” Baker said.

Having had a chance to re-fl ect back on the days and weeks following her mother’s death, Baker said it’s satisfying to know that others at the Continuing Care Center will have a chance to enjoy the fresh air in a pretty setting.

“We’ve been doing March Mission Madness for four years, and it’s such a wonderful outreach to the community, and I think the community appreciates it,” Baker said. “We get so much satisfaction from helping with these projects.”

Baker lives in Ojai with her husband of 39 years, Berkley. The couple has one grown son who lives in Texas.

Why does she remain so per-sonally involved with the Ojai hospital?

“The hospital serves the com-munity so well, and it’s such an important part of our community and the need is so great especially in the continuing care,” Baker said. “I think it’s a nice way to bring comfort to those in the Continu-ing Care Center.”

It’s often said that volunteers bring a ray of sunshine to the work that they do, and it would seem that Suzanne Baker and the volun-teers at Ojai Presbyterian Church did just that.

They’ve certainly helped brighten Ojai Valley Commu-nity Hospital’s Continuing Care Center.

whose generous endowment largely contributed to the hospital’s new Emergency Department—Pops recently brought to fruition a Healing Garden just a short walk outside the ER’s hustle and bustle.

“It was my dream to make it happen, but there were a lot of people who were in support of it,” said the co-founder of the OVCH Guild and former Chair of the hospital’s foundation. “We wanted to create a Healing Garden that would be available to the families with a loved one in the emergency room.”

Complete with a bubbling fountain, the garden features a variety of young plants that, once fully grown, will create a natural oasis for patients seeking a quiet place to refl ect, pray or simply enjoy Mother Nature.

“It has lovely plants that are in their infancy right now, but when they are fully grown, I believe they

will attract birds and butterfl ies—small things that do make people happy,” said Pops, noting that a hedge bordering the garden will eventually provide a natural screen to the garden’s visitors and offer additional peace and quiet.

The garden, in the planning stages for about six months, was completed earlier this year once work could begin after a particu-larly rainy season.

Benches, chairs and night lighting have also been added, said Pops.

“Since the garden has been completed, we have seen quite a few people out there,” said Pops, who lives in Ojai with her husband of 52 years, Martin. “We’ve already been hearing comments about how soothing it is. I think it will become a place where more people will go just to fi nd a little peace, if only for a little while--that’s why we brought it here.”


four days a week performing screenings – typically between 20 and 40 visits per week. Those people with high scores on a risk assessment test re-ceive one-on-one cardiac con-sultation with a nurse practitio-ner or RN.

To reach out further to the community, this past May 22, CMH hosted its fi rst annual “Cardiovascular Health Fair” featuring free screenings and expert speakers discussing an array of topics from cardiac surgery to stroke care in the ED to heart healthy diet. The response was wonderful with close to 300 attending.

Additionally, people can conveniently visit the HeartA-ware/StrokeAware websites at www.cmhshealth.org/hearta-ware and www.cmhshealth.org/strokeaware. In addition to comprehensive information on “heart and stroke health,” you can take a free online risk evaluation test.

“This seven-minute test may save your life,” Ricketts emphasizes.

The test is invaluable be-cause most people are unaware of their risk factors for heart disease. Indeed, according to the American Heart Organi-zation, 70 million Americans

with heart disease are completely unaware they have it. Additionally, heart attack or sud-den death is the fi rst symptom of heart disease for 48% of men and 63% of women.

Furthermore, many people are unaware the disease can largely be prevented, modifi ed and predicted. At the end of the online assess-ment, you receive personalized, strictly confi -dential information about your current cardio-vascular health status along with preventative action you can take to reduce your levels of risk to become more heart healthy.

Just as with personal screenings by the HeartAware/StrokeAware team, if your con-fi dential online evaluation shows you are at risk for cardiovascular disease, you will be con-tacted (with your permission) and encouraged to come in for a free one-on-one educational consultation. Ricketts personally meets with up to 30 patients a week in her CMH offi ce and the program will soon be expanding to include

Community Memorial Hospital is proudly addressing these two major health issues by of-fering an innovative program aimed at detect-ing heart disease in those who don’t know they have it, and educating people about stroke risk factors and symptoms. The latter is vital in or-der for a person to get immediate medical help after a stroke strikes.

Last year, for example, CMH had 287 ad-missions of stroke victims in the Emergency Room – but only three arrived within the gold-

en three-hour window when tPA enzyme treat-ment can be used to actually break up a clot. StrokeAware, which launched eight months ago at CMH, aims to improve this fi gure.

HeartAware, meanwhile, began in 2007 at CMH and has grown dramatically ever since. Program manager Andrea Ricketts, MSN, ACNP-BC, Cardiology Nurse Practitioner since 2000, is now joined full time by Josette Bull, RN and six bilingual RNs. The Heart-Aware/StrokeAware team travels from two to

C ardiovascular disease claims nearly one million Ameri-can lives annually, making it the leading cause of death in the United States. Stroke, meanwhile, is the third

leading cause of death in the U.S. claiming nearly 150,000 lives and is the leading cause of serious, long-term disability.

Innovative HeartAware and StrokeAware Programs Save Lives

Innovative HeartAware and StrokeAware Programs Save Lives

Anyone can have a stroke, regardless of age, sex or race and your chances for having a stroke increase if you have certain risk factors. Unlike most conditions, a stroke is controllable and preventable. The key is proper education and awareness of what to do to reduce your risks. Take the fi rst step to fi nd out if you are at risk.

The StrokeAware assessment takes just minutes and it will tell you if you are at risk for a stroke and how to get help. In less than the time it takes to read this, you could take the online evaluation, and save a life...Yours.

Approximately 750,000 strokes occur each year. 500,000 of those could be prevented.Don’t be a statistic.

minutescould save your life

Go to www.cmhshealth.org/strokeaware and click on StrokeAware Risk Evaluation.

Community Memorial Hospital • Ojai Valley Community Hospital • Centers for Family Health805/652-5011 • Visit www.cmhshealth.org • A not-for-profi t organization.


Community Memorial Health System’s nine Centers for Family Health.

“I am not a primary doctor,” Ricketts em-phasizes, noting that she and the HeartAware/StrokeAware team will help a patient fi nd a doctor or cardiologist, if they need one. “I’m here to educate the patient. We’re here to help them. Everything we do is confi dential.”

The HeartAware/StrokeAware program is multifaceted – and bilingual – offering a vari-ety of free wellness classes and activities. These include a walking program at Ventura’s Com-munity Park on Kimball Road three times a week, a smoking cessation program, nutrition class, and diabetes education class. In fact, in the fall, DiabetesAware and diabetic screenings will be added.

Another valuable, and highly popular, fac-et of the HeartAware/StrokeAware program is the monthly educational “Prevention Strate-gies” seminars held at CMH. Free to the public, these lectures feature a different expert guest speaker each month discussing various ways to improve one’s health as well as advances in healthcare.

“The goal is to give back to the public. For me, it’s very rewarding to be involved with HeartAware/StrokeAware,” Ricketts shares. “We’ve had people with risk factors so high we walked them straight to the ED or a cardiolo-gist. We’ve saved a lot of lives, I’m certain of that. People even come in later and thank us for helping them, for saving their life.”

For information on having the CMH HeartAware/StrokeAware team visit your business, organization or health fair for free, email Andrea Ricketts at: [email protected].


works out to nearly 10,000 results per day.The automated Lab features two main

tracks – one specifi cally for Hematology testing and one for Chemistry – with various shorter tracks branching off. A NASA-like “Command Central” workstation with fi ve computer moni-tors keeps track of the entire process.

In a non-automated Lab, each of those 10,000 vials is carried to every different site along the process – from centrifuge to microscope to storage, and everywhere in be-tween – by a person. This not only takes more time and more personnel, it offers more chance for human error.

However, with automation a misplaced specimen is a relic of the past. A unique bar code allows every vial to be constantly tracked by computer. If an abnormal result necessitates redoing a test by hand, or if a physician requests adding a new test up to nine days afterwards, it can quickly be located and performed.

“Imagine organizing the blades of grass in your backyard and being able to know where each specifi c blade is,” Homze explains. “That’s what we can now do. We have 10,000 blades

“Imagine organizing the blades of grass in your backyard and being able to know where each specifi c blade is”

Stepping into Laboratory Services on the fi rst fl oor of Community Memorial Hos-pital, a funny thought comes to mind:

the Beckman Coulter fully automated testing equipment seems like a high-tech version of a hobbyist’s train set with more than 60 feet of “track” shuttling specimen vials throughout the room.

Doug Homze, longtime Director of Labo-ratory Services at CMH, prefers to describe the state-of-the-art system by comparing it to a “Coca-Cola bottling plant.”

“Our automation even puts the caps on – and takes them off,” Homze points out.

Of course soda bottles do not begin their journey in a high-speed centrifuge or make stops at an array of computerized “Analyzers” that test for everything from cholesterol and triglycerides to potassium and protein levels to white and red blood cell counts. As remarkable as the variety of analysis performed at the fi ve Analyzers is the overall number of specimens tested.

“We have more than 3 million results a year now,” Homze proudly notes, a fi gure that


each day – plus 90,000 more in storage at any given time – and we can fi nd every single one of them at any instant.”

In 2001, CMH took the technological leap of becoming the very fi rst acute care hospital in the nation with a full-automation lab. “At the time only research labs and one or two major

Homze explains. “It looked like a good answer.”It has proved to be a great solution. In the

nine years since going automated, the CMH Lab has seen its workload nearly triple while the staff has remained at 57, including 19 Clini-cal Laboratory Scientists. The huge increase in testing volume comes from throughout the Community Memorial Health System as the CMH Lab also does specialized testing for Ojai Valley Community Hospital as well as the nine Centers for Family Health clinics.

By investing in automation, CMH also reduced the Lab’s operating expense over the fi rst six years by more than $7 million – but more than money was saved; so too was time.

“The consistency of speed with our automation is a real positive,” says Homze, a Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) who joined CMH in 1976 and has headed Laboratory Ser-vices since 1980. “We guarantee a turnaround time of one hour or less.”

In a continuous quest to maintain, and even improve, this speed and reliability, CMH upgrades the Lab software every three months while the automation hardware is upgraded or replaced every three years.

“This is the newest, greatest, most wonder-ful lab equipment there is,” Doug Homze says. “I’m proud that CMH is at the forefront with this remarkable technology.”

universities had this equipment,” Homze says. “The cost back then was prohibitive.”

However, because housing costs in Ven-tura County were also prohibitive, CMH found itself unable to fi ll fi ve position openings in its Lab in 1999-2000. “So we took a serious look at automation as a way to assist our people,”

This is the newest, greatest, most wonderful lab equipment there is.

“

”


M

On Schedule

Watch Us Grow!View the Live Cancer Center Construction Webcam atwww.cmhshealth.org/webcam

The month will also see crews installing interior drywall, as well as roofi ng and water-proofi ng the exterior. Work will then begin on installing the window frames and storefront glass. Additionally, site grading and paving will begin on the center’s parking lot.

Construction offi cials report that the project is moving along as scheduled, and the structure really began to take shape once the exterior framework began in June.

Architects: Rasmussen & Associates

Many key components to the infrastruc-ture of the new Cancer Center were completed during the months of May and June. Workers fi nished the fi nal phase of the structural steel framing of the two-story building. While that was occurring, visitors may have noticed a sharp contrast to the building: distinct wood framing in the northeast corner of the site.

That wood framing, construction offi cials explained, was the formation of the walls for the radiation vault. Once all the concrete was poured, the wood framing was removed. The radiation vaults – with some walls as thick as 8 feet – took nearly 600 yards of concrete and roughly 20 days to complete. In the beginning of June, an additional fi ve days were needed for workers to pour the ceiling and complete the vaults.

The corrugated metal roof decking was completed and the concrete fl oors between the fi rst and second levels were poured. Con-struction teams from a variety of trades then began work on the interior mechanical systems including plumbing, electrical, duct work, and the fi re sprinkler systems which will continue through July.

MARCH 16, 2010

MAY 15, 2010

APRIL 12, 2010

JUNE 29, 2010

updateupdateupdateprojectsNew Cancer Center


Modernization of Ojai Valley Community Hospital

On Schedule

A new 250kW generator was installed, tested, and is up and running. This state-of-the-art generator with automatic transfer switches replaces the three older models at the hospital.

Located at the back of the facility, the generator will handle all of the electrical needs for the hospital and the Continuing Care Center in the case of a power outage. Moreover, the high-tech machine’s life span reaches to 2055, and has additional capacity for growth.

This installation completes the fi rst phase of the OVCH remodel and work is now well underway on the second stage – converting the old emer-gency room into the PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit).

To help control construction costs and to get the unit ready for the general contractor, staff at the facility has done preliminary work including the demolition of various walls and fl ooring, and the removal of outdated electrical and plumbing systems. Once completed, the PACU will feature 600 square feet of space and will be a centrally located recovery unit adjacent to the hospital’s two operating rooms.

When the PACU is fi nished, work will begin outside of the hospital re-paving the entire facility. It was determined the paving should take place only when the PACU construction vehicles are off site. This will be done in stages and is projected to take until the end of the year to complete.

The Environmental Impact Review had been distributed for public and agency comments. We did receive some remarks to the 45-page document that have been received by the City of Ventura, and their staff is now addressing those comments.

We are also working closely with the City to reach the fi nal stages of the street improvements and property exchanges. We are still on track with these elements and expect that this phase will be fi nalized and approved by mid July.

While we are working with the City, we continue to move through the permit process with the California Offi ce of State Health Planning and De-velopment and anticipate receiving fi nal state approval by late fall. Although there is much going on “behind the scenes,” neighbors and visitors will soon see the demolition of several homes and buildings to the southwest of CMH. Demolition of those structures in the area known as the “triangle” – the parcel of land that encompasses Brent, Cabrillo and Glen Streets – will begin early August, and should be completed by the end of the month.

Additionally, site preparation will begin in the fall in the alleyway adjacent to the hospital’s loading dock. This fi rst phase will begin with relocating the utilities and will not result in any power interruptions for our neighbors.

As a reminder, during this time the hospital continues to offer hospital visitors valet parking – free of charge – in the four-story parking structure lo-cated near the CMH Emergency Department.

updateupdateupdateA New Community Memorial Hospital

Community Memorial Health System is undertaking two important projects that will expand and enhance healthcare services at both our Ventura and Ojai campuses. A new hospital will be built in Ventura, adjacent to the current facility, and the Ojai Valley Community Hospital will be modernized. These projects will meet a state seismic mandate, but more importantly, they are needed to update our facilities so healthcare professionals can continue to practice modern medicine in modern facilities that will benefi t the residents of the communities we serve. As part of the initial steps needed for the new hospital in Ventura, the construction of the new Cancer Center is now underway.

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C ommunity Memorial Health System recognizes that statewide budget cut-

backs have impacted California schools the past two years and forced many local districts to do more with less.

Community Memorial believes, however, that an investment in the well-being of Ventura County’s school children brings a return be-yond measure.

From kindergarten through high school, CMHS knows that school nurses and health technicians are the frontline in ensuring stu-dents stay out of bed and in class. To help schools keep students healthy, Community Memorial Health System recently partnered with Massachusetts-based Exergen Corp. to donate state-of-the-art thermometers to Ven-tura Unifi ed School District’s 27 campuses.

“We’re very, very grateful for the gift of the digital thermometers,” said Superintendent Trudy Arriaga. “They will be of tremendous use to the 27 schools in our district and to our health techs and nurses. More impor-tantly, we’re grateful for the partnership be-tween the school district and Community Memorial Hospital.”

By simply sliding the TemporalScanner Thermometer over the patient’s forehead, the device uses infrared technology to take a quick and accurate temperature reading. The Tempo-ralScanner reads the heat from the temporal ar-tery, which runs along the side of the forehead

and is connected to the heart through the ca-rotid artery. Because the temporal artery offers constant blood fl ow, it gives an extremely ac-curate reading of a person’s body temperature.

“With the H1N1 concern at the end of last year, many of the schools were checking stu-dents’ temperatures as they would come down to the offi ce, and we had heard some stories at different schools that they did not have ac-curate measuring thermometers,” said Adam Thunell, chief operating offi cer of Community Memorial Hospital.

Thunell said CMHS sought out Exergen to help bring its cutting-edge digital technology to Ventura schools.

It’s a partnership that has already begun to pay off.

Rikki Jimenez, a health Technician at Juanamaria Elementary School, said the new thermometers make it easier to take students’ temperatures.

“I am getting kids that are very con-gested and can’t hold the thermometers in their mouths because it’s diffi cult for them to breath,” Jimenez said. “It’s also easier to use the thermometers when taking the tempera-

ture of kindergarten-age students who are scared of getting poked with a regular ther-mometer and don’t like to keep a thermometer in their mouth.”

The health technician added that the new TemporalScanner Thermometer has saved the school money because it doesn’t require the expensive plastic sheaths that are used once for oral thermometers and then thrown away.

“I didn’t have to order supplies for the old thermometer and that saved the school district quite a bit of money,” Jimenez said. “It was a very generous donation.”

Thunell said CMHS plans to donate ther-mometers to additional schools throughout the county.

“We feel a strong tie as partners in main-taining the health of the community and this is a great example of where we can contribute a small equipment item that hopefully will make the life of the school nurses that much easier and help with the accuracy of taking students’ temperatures,” Thunell said. “We’re just grateful for that partnership.”

Community Memorial Health System donates state-of-the-art digital thermometers to the Ventura Unifi ed School District’s 27 campuses.

“We feel a strong tie as partners in maintaining the health of the community.”


SAVE THE DATE

20102010Saturday, November 13 • 6:00 P.M. TO 1 1:00 P.M.

O j a i V a l l e y I n n & S p a

20102010Nightingale Ballpresented by the the ojai valley community hospital foundation

Presented by the Ojai Valley Community Hospital Foundation Guild benefi ting Ojai Valley Community Hospital. For information on tickets or sponsorship call (805) 640-2317.


TThe American Heart Association recom-mends routine periodic screening for high blood pressure since the condition does not have any symptoms and is often known as the “silent killer.” In fact, many people have high blood pressure for years without knowing that it may be causing damage to your arteries, heart and other organs. The AHA reports that many people assume that high blood pressure is related to high levels of stress, tension and nervousness, but the truth is relaxed, easy-going people can still have it.

The only way for people to know if they are hypertensive is to have their blood pressure checked. High blood pressure can develop over time, and there are many treatment options

available to manage the disease. Prompt treat-ment can reduce the risk of stroke, heart attack, kidney failure, angina and congestive heart failure. Andrea Ricketts, MSN, ACNP-BC, CMH’s HeartAware/StrokeAware Program Manager states “with regular tracking of your blood pressure, along with knowledge of po-tential consequences and participation in pro-grams such as StrokeAware can help motivate individuals to better care for their arteries and live a heart healthy lifestyle.”

The screenings are provided free of charge through Community Memorial Hospital’s HeartAware and StrokeAware programs. For more information, call (805) 667-2818 or visit www.cmhshealth.org.

Community Memorial Hospital is offering free blood pressure screenings in its main lobby every Monday, from noon to 2:00 p.m., beginning in July through it’s HeartAware and StrokeAware programs.

No appointment is necessary, walk-ins are welcomed.

FREE BLOOD PRESSURE SCREENING

FREE

The Silent Killer

TheTheSilent

High Blood

Pressure


Therapeutic HypothermiaEmbracing Innovation

biopsy before a patient is offi cially enrolled in the clinical trial.

Four weeks before trial treatment at the Prostate Institute of America, participating subjects will be seen at HemaCare Corporation in Van Nuys for the preparation of the dendritic cell component, a four-hour procedure called leukapheresis. Millions of these cells are then reproduced, packed in liquid nitrogen and shipped back to Ventura where they will be warmed in a water bath and rushed to Dr. Bahn

in the CMH Operating Room to be injected into the just-thawed gland after the two cycles of cryotherapy.

Patients are expected to spend one night in CMH under the care of urologist Dr. Paul Silverman, before being released. However, should there be any adverse events the stay will be extended.

Patients in the study will return to the Prostate Institute of America for a check-up two weeks after being discharged, and then

be seen by Dr. Bahn every four weeks for the next year. One key milestone comes at 22 weeks when subjects will undergo new CT scans of the abdomen and pelvis to measure whether any shrinking of the metastasis has occurred. A new prostate biopsy will also be taken at this time.

Dendritic Cell Based Cryo-immunother-apy not only nourishes hope in effectively treating – and even curing – prostate cancer, the technique holds promise of being applicable to most solid tumor cancers.

“We are not just seeking another treatment option and cure for prostate cancer,” Dr. Bahn shares, “but a widespread cure for any cancer you can do cryotherapy on.”

“I’m very grateful and blessed,” Shoaleh says today. “So many things went exactly as they needed to. I wouldn’t have had a chance if I had been at home alone. Instead, my husband was home to take care of me and call 911, and they were able to tell him how to do CPR. The paramedics got here so fast and were able to shock my heart back to life. And then the ED staff at the Hospital was able to do this new (Therapeutic Hypothermia) procedure – a lot of hospitals can’t do it – I feel blessed the ED here could. If any of those things hadn’t happened, I might not have survived – or else I might not be able to walk or talk, depending on how much brain damage there was. Instead, I have my old life back.”

While the American Heart Association has endorsed Therapeutic Hypothermia post cardiac arrest, to date not all hospitals and emergency medical service providers have insti-tuted protocols for its use yet. Community Mem-

orial Hospital is proud to be on the leading edge in providing this expert standard of care.

“It’s exciting,” says Dr. Chris Johnson. “We used to be able to save these people, but the majority would be severely disabled. To see a patient with cardiac arrest who was comatose make a full recovery is really fulfi lling.”

Rick Welch confi des that his wife’s full recovery seemed like an unanswerable prayer that horrifying January night. “I was told there was a 95 percent chance she was brain-dead,” he recalls. “They told me I should call her fam-ily – they live in Oklahoma. I did and they all came out. I didn’t think she’d make it at all. And if she did survive, that her brain function would not be good at all.”

That fear grew stronger when Shoaleh initially regained consciousness after being sedated for two days. “She wasn’t all there at that point,” Rick says. “She kept asking where her dad was and why he wasn’t here – she had

forgotten he had passed away two years earlier.”Slowly, however, the fog cleared and

Shoaleh’s prognosis grew brighter by the day, from long odds against to 50/50 and then 70 percent in favor. “When she knew what day it was I started to feel good,” Rick says.

Remarkably, Shoaleh returned to work a mere six weeks after collapsing from sudden cardiac arrest.

“I went through depression, which is normal after a heart attack, and I needed to get out of the house and back to living my life,” Shoaleh says. “Everybody at work would see me and their reaction would take me back – they were amazed to see me up and talking and walking. I know I was blessed. I’m very grate-ful to the Community Memorial Hospital staff and everything they did for me. I have strong faith. I believe God was with me – and a lot of good people were with me, too, from the para-medics to the doctors and nurses.”

Shoaleh Welch pauses a moment, refl ect-ing on her medical journey, and then adds hap-pily, “They gave me my life back. It all really seems like something that happened to some-body else in a movie.” Or, perhaps, in an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

continued from page 7

PROSTATE CANCERcontinued from page 12

Physician Referral Service}

Call: (805) 652-5600 or visit: www.cmhshealth.org and click “Find a Physician.”Call: (805) 652-5600 or visit: www.cmhshealth.org and click “Find a Physician.”

Need a Doctor?Selecting the right physician

is a diffi cult decision and Community Memorial Health

System is here to help.


Every month, Community Memorial Health System offers a variety of support and informational meetings. Please verify meeting date and location with the contact person listed. Sometimes meetings may be cancelled or rescheduled. You may also view this listing at www.cmhshealth.org.

Meetings & Support Groups at CMH147 N. Brent St., Ventura

Bariatric Support GroupGeneral: 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., 4th Thurs.Lap Band: 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., 1st Tues.Contact: Nancy Barber (805) 676-9100,[email protected]

Bariatric Surgery Seminar6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Selected MondaysContact: Nancy Barber (805) 676-9100,[email protected]

Better BreathersAmerican Lung Association3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., 2nd Wed.Contact: Juanita Trine, RRT-NPS (805) 652-5346, [email protected]

Blood Pressure Screenings12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. MondaysContact: HeartAware (805) 667-2818,[email protected]

Caregivers Support Group3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., 2nd Fri.Contact: Carolyn Kopp (805) 492-0601,[email protected]

Diabetes ClassesNutritional management classes.Classes vary, please call for dates & times.Contact: Heather Gilliam, Registered Dietitian (805) 652-5066

Diabetes UpdateDiabetes technology update for patients who take insulin. Class meets at CMHS Training Center, 2809 E. Main St., Suite B, Ventura3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., 4th Tue. Contact: Theresa Grumet (818) 497-8910, [email protected]

Heart-Healthy Nutrition Classes (for HeartAware patients)Class meets at CMHS Training Center, 2809 E. Main St., Suite B, Ventura5:15 p.m. - 6:15 p.m., 3rd Wed.Facilitator: Heather Gilliam, RDContact: (805) 667-2818, [email protected]

ICD & Bi-Ventricular Device Support GroupPresented by Dr. Ishu Rao, Cardiac Electrophysiologist on staff at CMH.5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., Call for class datesContact: Andrea Ricketts, MSN, ACNP (805) 667-2818, [email protected]

Joint Replacement Education ClassA FREE class with guest speakers for patients and their family/caregivers planning to have hip or knee replacement.2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., 2nd Tues.(805) 652-5063

Maternity Orientation English classes: 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m., TuesdaysSpanish classes: 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., 4th MondaysCMH, 2nd Floor Maternity ClassroomContact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC (805) 658-BABY (2229)

Meditation Classes for Stress Reduction5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., 2nd MondayInstructor: Diana Casellanos, CST, LMTContact: HeartAware (805) 667-2818, [email protected]

Mended HeartsFacilitated by the American Heart Association.6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., 1st Tues.Contact: Dick Hiser, President (805) 646-4636

Prevention Strategies for Heart DiseaseTopics vary each month.6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., 3rd Thurs.Contact: Andrea Ricketts, MSN, ACNP (805) 667-2818 [email protected]

Pulmonary Rehabilitation Classes6 weeks, twice a week - Tues. & Thurs.10:00 a.m. OR 1:30 p.m.Contact: Juanita Trine, RT-NPS (805) 652-5346

Restless Leg SyndromeSupport group & relevant seminar topics.1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., Quarterly on 3rd Sunday.Contact: Dave Hennerman (805) 766-2035, [email protected]

Stop Smoking Class5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., Select ThursdaysContact: Sandra Tovar (805) 652-3376,[email protected]

Stroke ScreeningsFree weekly mini Stroke ScreeningLocated at Early Detection Center168 N. Brent, St., Third Floor11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Friday’sContact: Andrea Ricketts, MSN, ACNP(805) 667-2818, [email protected]

Walking Fitness ProgramThis is a FREE class. Tuesdays & Thursdays: 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. or 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. (Nov. - Mar.), 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. (Apr. - Oct.), Tuesdays. 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m., Thursdays.Kimball Park, VenturaContact: Andrea Ricketts, MSN, ACNP (805) 667-2818,[email protected]

Weight Management ClassesClasses vary, please call.Contact: Heather Gilliam, Registered Dietitian,(805) 652-5066

Meetings & Support Groups at OVCH1306 Maricopa Hwy., Ojai

Stop Smoking Class & Support GroupsCall for dates & times.Contact: Erika Mendez, (805) 640-2203

Meetings Support Groups at Cancer Resource Center184 N. Brent St., Ventura

Breast Cancer Support Group Facilitated by The Wellness Community1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., ThursdaysFacilitator: Maryana Palmer, MFT(805) 379-4777 or (805) 652-5459,[email protected]

Cancer Support GroupFacilitated by The Wellness Community6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., WednesdaysFacilitated by: Ruth Lever, Ph.D. Contact: Kathleen Horton, (805) 652-5459,[email protected]

Spanish Speaking Cancer Support Group6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., 3rd MondaysFacilitator: Mario Cepeda, MFTContact: (805) 379-4777 or (805) 652-5459,[email protected]

Guided Meditation and Energy Balancing12 p.m. - 1:15 p.m., 1st MondaysFacilitators: Roger Ford and Kim VincentContact: Kathleen Horton or Patty Robles (805) 652-5459, [email protected]

Head and Neck Cancer Support Group6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., 4th ThursdaysFacilitator: Ronald Brand, Ph.D.Contact: (805) 652-5459, [email protected]

Kid’s CircleFor children who have a loved one with cancer.4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., 2nd & 4th MondaysFacilitator: Ruth Lever, Ph.D. Contact: (805) 652-5459 [email protected]

Look Good, Feel BetterFor women undergoing cancer treatment.Facilitated by The American Cancer Society6:00 p.m., Monday, 12/7/09Contact: (805) 983-7792, ext. 21 or (805) 652-5459

Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support GroupFacilitated by The American Cancer Society6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., 2nd ThursdaysFacilitator: Helmut HoenigsbergContact: 805/983-7792, ext. 21 or 805/652-5459,[email protected]

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction8 Week Course. 100% commitment to attendance required. The course also includes a Saturday retreat “Day of Meditation.”6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Call for class dates.Facilitator: Catherine Baum, The Wellness CommunityContact: Kathleen Horton (805) 652-5459,[email protected]

Reiki for Cancer PatientsBy appointment only.Facilitators: Several TherapistsContact: Kathleen Horton or Patty Robles (805) 652-5459, [email protected]

Yoga for Cancer Patients4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., TuesdaysMeets at CMHS Early Detection Center168 N. Brent St., 3rd floor, Ventura Facilitator: Tami Robinson Contact: (805) 652-5459, [email protected]

Meetings at New Parent Resource Center2809 E. Main St., Ventura

Baby and Me (Birth - 8 Months)10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., ThursdaysContact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC(805) 658-BABY (2229)

Babysitting 10112:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., SaturdaysContact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC (805) 658-BABY (2229)

Breastfeeding Support Group10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Wednesdays(805) 667-2838

Childbirth Refresher Course 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., 1st Thursday of even months: 8/5/10, 10/7/10, 12/2/10Contact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC(805) 658-BABY (2229)

Evening Prepared Childbirth 6 week class: 1 night a week6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., Tuesdays or 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., Wednesdays Contact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC (805) 658-BABY (2229)

Infant Pediatric CPR 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m., SaturdaysContact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC(805) 658-BABY (2229)

Natural Childbirth4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., 6 week class: 1 night a week on Sundays Contact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC(805) 658-BABY (2229)

Prenatal Yoga 10:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m., FridaysContact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC(805) 658-BABY (2229)

Weekend Prepared Childbirth2 day class (Saturday & Sunday)9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Saturdays9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Sundays Contact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC(805) 658-BABY (2229)

Sibling Class 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., Sundays Contact: Sheila Dedrick, RN, CLC(805) 658-BABY (2229)

Community Memorial Hospital of San Buenaventura147 N. Brent St.Ventura, CA 93003

Non Profit OrgUS Postage

PAIDCommunity Memorial

Hospital of San Buenaventura

Documents

CARING Summer 2010