Archive for 'Star Tribune'
Allina using new tool to let patients call the shots at end of their lives
[Star Tribune, Mar. 10, 2010] Doug State entered hospice care two years ago knowing exactly how he wanted to die: at home in Cambridge, Minn., with his wife, Carol, and his dog, Teddy.
He got his wish a year ago at age 83, when his failing heart finally stopped just as he was sitting down to [...]
Posted: March 10th, 2010, 9:56 am under Allina Home & Community Services, Star Tribune.
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Jackie Crosby : His heart was failing. That was 24 years ago.
[Star Tribune, Feb. 26, 2010] “I’m celebrating a birthday today for my friend Genard Lane. Actually, we’re toasting his heart, which has reached the ripe old age of 45. And what a heart it is.”
The story began in 1986, when Genard was 47 and his own diseased heart was failing. Things looked so bleak that [...]
Posted: February 26th, 2010, 8:41 am under Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Star Tribune, heart health.
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Blockage breakthrough
[Star Tribune, Feb. 22, 2010] Last summer, Steven Erickson was in such sad shape he could barely make it out to his vegetable garden without huffing and puffing. To combat frequent chest pain, he was popping about 100 nitroglycerin pills every three days or so.
The conundrum facing Erickson’s doctor and many others — finding a [...]
Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 10:15 am under Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis Heart Institute, Star Tribune, heart health.
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Goodbye, stress
[Minneapolis, Feb. 22, 2010] Everyday choices such as what you eat and whether you exercise directly influence your physiology, brain chemistry and mood, making stress seem insurmountable to some and manageable to others.
Adequate downtime, along with simple choices about food, sleep and exercise directly influence your physiology, brain chemistry, mood and ability to cope with [...]
Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 10:03 am under Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Institute for Health and Healing, Mental Health, Star Tribune, integrative medicine.
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Health care reform
[Star Tribune, Jan. 29, 2010] If a final health bill passes—and that’s a big if—it’s likely to include a payment formula that would reward efficient, high-quality providers. Leading a coalition of hospitals from the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Mayo Clinic proposed a radical new payment formula, called a “value index.” Instead of paying the same [...]
Posted: January 29th, 2010, 8:02 am under Allina System, Star Tribune, _, health care reform/finance, newspapers.
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Shedding light on SAD
[Start Tribune, Jan. 24, 2010] Most Minnesotans can probably relate to the winter morning thought, “I don’t want to get up; I just want to stay snuggled in my warm, cozy bed!” But for people with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), getting out of bed — and all the routines and responsibilities that follow — can [...]
Posted: January 24th, 2010, 12:00 pm under Allina Medical Clinic, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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OnStage: The Healing Sister
[Star Tribune, Jan. 22, 2010] The testimony of children treated by Sister Kenny has inspired a new play, “Sister Kenny,” at the History Theatre. It tells the story of the pioneering physical therapist who established a clinic in Minneapolis, now called the Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute that is part of Allina Hospitals [...]
Posted: January 22nd, 2010, 12:24 pm under Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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Minnesotans ready to help, but timing is crucial
[Star Tribune, Jan. 15, 2010] Patty Nelson’s phone started ringing at 7 a.m. Thursday. It hasn’t stopped since.
On the second day of her effort to get medical supplies to Haiti from her kitchen table in Aitkin, Minn., she kept getting more offers of help for the tens of thousands of victims of the catastrophic earthquake.
Cassandra [...]
Posted: January 15th, 2010, 9:06 am under Mercy Hospital, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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Starting over again
[Star Tribune, Jan. 13, 2010] The economy has funneled thousands of Minnesotans into new jobs or even completely different careers. One of them is Mike Kriegwho was laid off from his job as a Northwest Airlines mechanic in August 2005.
“I had 26 years there. That was all taken away in just one day,” he said. [...]
Posted: January 15th, 2010, 1:20 am under Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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9-year-old St. Michael girl saves a life
[Star Tribune, Jan. 12, 2010] Mom was lying unconscious in the closet, stiff and suffering a seizure. The baby was asleep in his crib, and two more little kids were playing upstairs. Nine-year-old Sydney Gifford, of St. Michael, made a split decision: Call 911. Read the full article at startribune.com.
Posted: January 12th, 2010, 6:38 pm under Allina Medical Transportation, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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Good Samaritans were ‘chain of survival’ for driver
[Star Tribune, Jan. 4, 2010] Bystanders in White Bear Lake pulled a heart attack victim from a crash, then did CPR until help arrived.
When a 77-year-old White Bear Lake man’s heart stopped beating Saturday night, it couldn’t have happened at a worse place and time: He was behind the wheel of a car that went [...]
Posted: January 4th, 2010, 7:43 am under Star Tribune, United Hospital, _, newspapers.
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Flu season not over, but lessons emerging
[Star Tribune, Jan. 3, 2010] The pandemic of 2009 wasn’t as bad as health officials feared, but it hit the young harder and may be only in a lull.
On Kris Ehresmann’s 2009 calendar, April 23 is marked with two events: “Get haircut. Pandemic begins.”
That was the day Ehresmann, head of Minnesota’s state vaccine program, learned [...]
Posted: January 3rd, 2010, 7:53 pm under H1N1/Swine Flu, Star Tribune, United Hospital, newspapers.
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Wii helps the cause in bidding war for patients
[Star Tribune, Jan. 1, 2010] In the game of economics, health care systems deploy increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies. One is even giving away Nintendo Wii gaming consoles. It’s one more sign of rising competition among clinics and hospitals to recruit new patients and retain old ones in a saturated Twin Cities market.
“Fairview and Allina go [...]
Posted: January 2nd, 2010, 10:37 am under Allina System, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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End of the year brings a crush of surgeries
[Star Tribune, Dec. 29, 2009] High-deductible health insurance and economic uncertainty have combined to create a crush of year-end elective surgeries at area hospitals including several of Allina’s.
At Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, overall surgery volumes have topped 100 a day for the past six weeks, up from the usual 80 a day. Some who [...]
Posted: December 29th, 2009, 11:18 am under Allina System, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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Mental health isn’t the issue – stigma is
[Star Tribune, Dec. 29, 2009] Many politicians have overcome admissions of addiction or depression, thanks to better understanding of the manageable diseases. Can Dayton, too?
There was a time when the public admission of mental illness could derail a candidate’s political career.
That could still happen to Mark Dayton, the Democratic candidate for governor who went public [...]
Posted: December 29th, 2009, 9:12 am under Allina System, Mental Health, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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Stimulus helps finance Fridley Medical Center
[Star Tribune, Dec. 27, 2009] A groundbreaking type of funding is giving a boost to the new Fridley Medical Center, where construction began this month. Under $17 million in new bonding authority it received through the federal stimulus package, Anoka County will in effect transfer some of its bonding, or borrowing, power [...]
Posted: December 27th, 2009, 1:45 pm under Star Tribune, Unity Hospital, Virginia Piper Cancer Institute, _, newspapers.
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All in a Day’s Work: Kathie Shemon, RNC, Care Navigator Nurse
[Star Tribune, Dec. 16, 2009] Kathie Shemon, RNC, is a Care Navigator Nurse with Allina Home & Community Services. She talks about her job and how she helps patients find the help they need in the Allina system in an interview on the StarTribune.com Jobs: Healthcare web site. Read the whole Q & A on [...]
Posted: December 17th, 2009, 10:39 am under Allina Home & Community Services, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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Swimmer maintains her pace with some help
[Star Tribune, Dec. 16, 2009] Gail Roper was fearful of making a scene. Poised on the lip of a pool after swimming laps seven years ago, the former Olympic swimmer “knew something was wrong. It was like I was having an out-of-body experience. But it was scary.”
She crawled out of the pool, rattled. A month [...]
Posted: December 16th, 2009, 2:57 pm under Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis Heart Institute, Star Tribune, _.
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Project could get center back in gear
[Star Tribune, Dec. 15, 2009] A developer has proposed a rental housing and retail project for the stalled Ramsey Town Center. Another upcoming Town Center project is a medical clinic to be built by Allina Hospitals and Clinics. Allina plans to break ground next spring on the 23,000-square-foot clinic, which will replace a smaller [...]
Posted: December 15th, 2009, 5:59 pm under Allina Medical Clinic, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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New hospital debuts in Maple Grove, patients wanted
[Star Tribune, Dec. 14, 2009] The metro’s first new hospital in a decade will likely need patients— and patience, in this economy. Maple Grove is ”in this for the long run, even if the first few years are rocky,” said a health care analyst.
Allina’s Mercy Hospital is just 10 miles away in Coon Rapids. “We [...]
Posted: December 14th, 2009, 8:18 pm under Allina System, Mercy Hospital, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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A display of gratitude for a lifesaving effort
[Star Tribune, Dec. 9, 2009] On the anniversary of the day she suffered a brain aneurysm, Sandie Birdsall met the police officer, paramedics and emergency medical technicians who rushed to her aid. The gathering was arranged by Allina Hospitals & Clinics, which now operates the Valley-Lakeville-Farmington (ALF) ambulance service. Read the full [...]
Posted: December 10th, 2009, 2:10 pm under Allina Medical Transportation, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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S.D. doctor back from the dead, thanks to ice packs
[Minneapolis Star Tribune, Dec. 3, 2009] Putting people who “drop dead” from heart attack on ice can spare them brain damage. This doctor is living proof.
Dr. Larry Ebbert likes to say that he just happened to be changing planes in Minneapolis when he dropped dead in June.
That is why he lived to tell the tale.
See [...]
Posted: December 4th, 2009, 7:12 am under Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Allina Medical Transportation, Minneapolis Heart Institute, Star Tribune.
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The global market has rebounded
[Star Tribuune, Nov. 30, 2009] The Global Market is part of the huge reclamation project at the once-dilapidated, crime-pocked Chicago-Lake intersection. The market, along with Midtown Global Exchange neighbors Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a Sheraton hotel and adjacent new housing, generates about $2 million annually in property taxes and attracts thousands of visits weekly. Read [...]
Posted: December 2nd, 2009, 9:30 am under Allina System, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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Is mammography a flawed technology?
[Star Tribune, Nov. 21, 2009] Mammograms are in the spotlight as the uproar continues over how often and at what age women should get them.
In the 1990s, Christine Norton would show up at the annual Twin Cities Women’s Expo for three days in a row to hand out instruction cards on breast self-exams. She was [...]
Posted: November 24th, 2009, 3:39 pm under Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Allina System, Star Tribune, Virginia Piper Cancer Institute, _, cancer, newspapers.
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Flying in the face of H1N1
[Star Tribune, Nov. 7, 2009] For months, travelers have been zooming through the skies, locked into a tight space with strangers, without benefit of an H1N1 vaccination. That situation probably won’t change before Thanksgiving, historically the busiest travel season of the year. The Minnesota Department of Health reports that the majority of doses of the [...]
Posted: November 8th, 2009, 3:09 pm under Abbott Northwestern Hospital, H1N1/Swine Flu, Star Tribune, _, newspapers.
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