INOVATION An Inside Report Specially Prepared for Inova Donors
INSIDE
THIS ISSUE:
Inova Loudoun Rising: Taking Healthcare to New Heights
Inova Loudoun Rising: Taking Healthcare to New Heights
We Built This Together
A Message from the President
For more than a century, Inova Loudoun Hospital has been proudly caring for communities and families in and around Loudoun County.
All Five Inova Hospitals Earn Highest CMS 5-Star Rating Safe@Inova Program Teen Brothers Survive COVID Thanks to ECMO Meet Dr. Erik Osborn, Head of ECMO Faces From The Frontline: Real Heroes Work at Inova Meet Steven Nathan, MD, FCCP and COVID Eradicator COVID-19’s Financial Impact on the Health Industry Profiles in Philanthropy Planned Giving
Your generous philanthropic commitment as an Inova supporter helps ensure that Inova has the resources to perform innovative research, develop new treatments, invest in state-of theart technology and ensure that every member of our community has access to high-quality, personalized care. This report details some of the ways our partnership is working to create and deliver worldclass healthcare to patients and become one of the leading health systems in the nation.
Fast forward 100 years and — while much has changed since those far-off days when this was a rural farming area — the hospital is positioned to meet the ever-changing needs of a rapidly growing community while laying the groundwork for serving future generations. In April 2020, thanks in part to generous donors to the Loudoun Rising Campaign, we unveiled a brand new, state-of-the-art patient tower. The North Tower features a new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). A milestone day for Inova Loudoun and DPR Construction team — Doubling the size of the Kimberly Shumaker (DPR) handed off the Patient Tower key to Loudoun President Deborah Addo. former NICU, the unit offers family-friendly amenities, including private rooms that enable parents to stay overnight with their medically fragile newborns. Plans are underway for Inova Schar Cancer Institute to expand to the Inova Loudoun campus. Disease site experts, symptom management (like massages and acupuncture), Life with Cancer support groups, and more will be available to cancer patients and their families — all in one place. To learn more about Loudoun Rising Campaign and how you can get involved, please visit www.inova.org/locations/inova-loudoun-hospital/future.
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Loudoun Tower Highlights Building on Excellence
A Message from the President and CEO Dear Inova partner, When I was a first-year medical student, I shadowed a medical oncologist. Every day, we visited a patient who had been diagnosed with a form of bladder cancer that usually did not progress. But in this case, it did.
The seven-story patient tower features: ⊲ All private patient rooms with technology upgrades and dining enhancements ⊲ New Progressive Care, Oncology Intermediate Care and Postsurgical units ⊲ A new Labor and Delivery Unit with three C-section ORs and a new Postpartum Care Unit ⊲ A new, expanded Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with enhanced capabilities ⊲ New Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center ⊲ Hospital and outpatient labs ⊲ A new main entrance, lobby, gift shop and café
That man was my grandfather. For me, that was the start of my dedication to individualized medicine and the understanding that each patient is unique. At Inova, our mission is clear and our commitment is strong: to provide world-class healthcare — every time, every touch — to each person in every community we have the privilege to serve. In this newsletter, you will read about a few of the many ways Inova is working to do just that. You will learn about our Safe@Inova program, meet the doctor who is leading our COVID-19 Eradication Squad, read about national recognition for Inova’s exceptional care, and hear the gripping story of teen brothers whose lives were saved from COVID using ECMO. You’ll also learn how Inova Loudoun Hospital is leading the way for future generations with the opening of the new patient tower, as well as Inova’s planned expansion of Inova Schar Cancer Institute to Loudoun County. Our achievements are your achievements, and your gifts of support ensure that every action we take puts patients and families first. Thank you for your generous gifts to Inova. Sincerely,
J. Stephen Jones, MD, FACS President and CEO
All Five Inova Hospitals Earn Highest Ratings Inova is the premier destination in the DC area
Here’s some exciting news: all five of Inova Health System’s hospitals have earned 5 out of 5 stars in the most recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Five-Star Quality Rating System report. As the top health agency of the federal government, CMS created the Five-Star Quality Rating System to represent an evidence-based evaluation that reflects a hospital’s standard of care. The rating system is based on quality measurements that have real meaning for patient health and well-being, including safety, timeliness and effectiveness of care. Inova is the only large health system in the country where every hospital is rated 5 stars by CMS. To put this in perspective, fewer than 8% of hospitals surveyed received the 5-Star rating. And all five hospitals also earned a Leapfrog Hospital Safety grade of A — the highest possible ranking in the D.C. metro area and nationwide. “A relentless focus on our patients and putting their needs at the center of every aspect of our work at Inova has earned this exclusive CMS recognition. I am incredibly proud of our team members and their commitment to safety, clinical excellence and delivery of an exceptional experience every time, every touch.” said J. Stephen Jones, MD, Inova President and Chief Executive Officer. Based on the CMS Five-Star rating, Inova is the premier destination in the Washington, DC region for the highest quality care and exceptional patient experience.
Safe@Inova
Keeping you safe and healthy
Safety will always be our #1 priority. It’s more than just a checklist, it’s part of our culture and the foundation for everything we do. Our comprehensive care program, Safe@Inova, details all our safety practices, the safety of our locations, our strict PPE requirements, and how we’re cleaning so you feel confident it’s safe to receive the care you need. Safe@Inova includes point of entry symptom and temperature evaluations, mask requirements and hand washing for all guests. To keep our team members and patients safe, we have rigorous cleaning protocols and are reinforcing the proper use, wearing and removal of PPE. Although much of the talk this year has gone to COVID-19, since March 1, 2020 we have served our Northern Virginia community by: Admitting over 49,000 patients to Inova hospitals
The Inova Ewing FACT department providing compassionate care to hundreds of survivors of abuse during the pandemic
Handling over 184,000 hospital emergency room cases
Delivering over 10,000 babies
Treating over 18,000 cancer patients
Discharging more than 3,600 COVID-19 patients while managing the care of thousands of other COVID-19 patients
Teen Brothers Survive COVID Thanks to ECMO The Gravesons tell their story
Matthew (16) and Timothy (15) Graveson are pretty typical teenage boys, and during the pandemic, they were getting a little stir crazy. Their parents, Sherry and George, were especially strict about keeping them safe — Matthew says he asked when they would be allowed to see their friends “like a thousand times a day.”
Sherry and George were trying to manage Matthew’s care at home and monitoring his oxygen levels constantly. Late one night, Sherry checked Mathew’s oxygen and found his levels were dropping. She called 911 and rode in the ambulance with Matthew to the Inova Fairfax ER. The Inova doctors said Matthew’s X-rays showed pneumonia in his lungs and recommended that he be admitted for urgent care right away. “That was the first time I felt afraid,” said Matthew. “I didn’t want to be alone.” Sherry watched helplessly as they took her son upstairs. She said, “I stood there, and thought ‘what was I going to do?’ It was heart wrenching.” After Matthew was admitted to the hospital, Timothy began to worry would he next. “I would blow my nose and be like: ‘Do I have it?’ And one day I couldn’t catch my breath, and I didn’t have to guess anymore.”
© The Washington Post
After he developed COVID-19, Timothy joined his brother at Inova Fairfax where the doctors tried to assist both boys with supplemental oxygen, but it wasn’t enough.
“We wore masks. We quarantined more than any family I know,” said Matthew. But COVID-19 found them anyway. It was George who got the virus first. He said, “We were taking aggressive measures to socially distance, but I must have picked it up somewhere. I developed a cough, and then I had chills. It wasn’t anything huge.” Soon after, Sherry tested positive for COVID-19, but had no symptoms at all. Then Matthew began complaining about a runny nose. The next day he had cold-like symptoms, and soon after that, a fever. His dad, George said, “This is a kid who’s the example of young and healthy. He’s on all the sports teams, and now we’re watching him struggle with the stairs… The decline was impossibly fast.”
They used other treatments such as high-flow oxygen, turning them over on their stomachs, different medications, and finally resorted to putting each on a ventilator. At one point the doctors called Sherry and George: they needed to rush Matthew to another part of the hospital, because there was only one intervention left that might save his life. They needed parental approval, but Sherry and George couldn’t see their son—they had to rely on what they were being told by the trusted medical staff. Sherry said, “It was just too much, and then a week or so later we went through it all over again with Timothy.” Dr. Erik Osborn treated both Matthew and Timothy. “We used ECMO machines (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation), and that’s the highest form of life support we can offer.
The machine essentially replaces your heart and your lungs by pumping blood out of your body, oxygenating it, and then sending it back. It’s a last-resort,” says Dr. Osborn. Dr. Osborn remembers when he reduced Matthew’s anesthesia medication to wake him up to see how he was doing. But Matthew wasn’t responding. Dr. Osborn said, “You had no idea where his brain was… or if he was still in there. We have the best medical advancements available to us, but at that point… there’s something about looking into a patient’s eyes and seeing that they’re still a living being, and maybe they recognize they’re looking at another living being, and you can see and feel their life force.” Sherry and George got to visit “We’re pushing the boundaries of physiology and bringing a with their sons for only one hour patient to places they would never have gone on their own. a day. Sherry said, “It was hard to You’re suspending someone in the state right before death and go there, emotionally. We would keeping them in that place for days or weeks, so their lungs have rub their hair and hold onto their a chance to recover.” — Dr. Erik Osborn hands. We would read to them, sing, pray with them, try to have a conversation. There was no reciprocation. We’d search for anything hopeful until the hour was up.” George says, “Sometimes I would close my eyes and hold onto the fact that at least their hands felt warm.” After all the pain and anguish of that month, the parents felt intense joy when the boys began to recover and were taken off ECMO. When Matthew opened his eyes, he saw his mother and tried to get out of bed to hug her. The nurses and others on the unit were crying. And a short time later, Timothy made a similarly miraculous recovery. The relief that George and Sherry felt as the boys recognized them and reached for them, was incomparable. Matthew and Timothy are home and are working with specialists in physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. Sherry and George are very grateful to have come through an ordeal alongside their devoted team at Inova Fairfax, and now feel blessed to be enjoying their whole family under one roof again.
PHYSICIAN PROFILES:
Meet Erik Osborn, MD, Medical Director, Adult ECMO One of the many Faces on the Frontline
Dr. Erik Osborn is Medial Director of Inova’s Adult ECMO Program. Dr. Osborn is an internationally recognized adult ECMO physician and educator. During his Army service he started ECMO programs for the U.S. military in Germany and in Hawaii. He has led some of the longest successful adult ECMO transports on record in the Pacific, southwest Asia, and Europe. Dr. Osborn has led ECMO courses for the American College of Chest Physicians for a decade. For the last five years Dr. Osborn has been facilitating teamwork at Inova that has helped save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. By using innovative techniques Dr. Osborn was able to save both Matthew (16) and Timothy (15) Graveson’s lives from COVID-19.
FACES ON THE FRONTLINE: Real Heroes Work at Inova
They don’t wear capes, they wear scrubs. They don’t save the day, but they save lives every day. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, they have served on the frontlines, working tirelessly through long hours and extended shifts, summoning tremendous personal courage and a level of compassion that is truly heroic. But that’s what heroes do. And that’s why we have recognized their bravery with a series of limited-edition “Inova Heroes” cards as a testament to the men and women who inspire us every day.
PHYSICIAN PROFILES:
Meet Steven Nathan, MD, FCCP
Director, Professor, and COVID Eradicator Steven D. Nathan, MD, FCCP, wears many different hats at Inova. He serves as director of the Advanced Lung Disease Program, director of the Lung Transplant Program at Inova Fairfax Hospital, and professor of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Inova Campus. He is also one of the leaders of Inova’s Research Task Force, aka The COVID-19 Eradication Squad. The team has accomplished a lot of work in a very short amount of time. They have completed enrollment of their study of convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients as a therapy for patients. They have participated in two other drug studies, including the remdesivir study, that have completed enrollment. They are currently actively recruiting patients into 5 other COVID treatment trials. One such trial is a two-center study in close collaboration with the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Nathan (center) and his COVID-19 Eradication Squad.
The Inova COVID-19 biobank is also providing the “fuel” for NIH basic science researchers to unravel the mysteries of the virus. In addition, there is an ongoing collaborating with Virologists at George Mason University exploring ‘repurposing’ commonly available drugs that may be effective against the virus. Much of the Inova team’s work in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic is enabled by generous and kind donations to the Inova Lung Fund and the Emergency Research Fund. “We are chipping away slowly,” said Dr. Nathan. “Think about every big hospital and academic system around the country that does research. We have all pivoted 180 degrees to address this crisis, not only in the US, but around the world. We have made tremendous strides in a relatively short period of time; we are sure to make more and this is what gives me hope.”
“End of Year Giving Strategies in Light of Changing Tax Laws”
Charitable Giving Educational Series Wednesday, December 2, 2020 | 12:00PM – 12:45PM
Join us virtually for the first in an educational series to help maximize your charitable giving impact through innovative and strategic giving ideas. Experts from the Inova Health Foundation and Morgan Stanley will discuss financially beneficial information for philanthropic giving in light of rapidly changing tax laws. Please visit Inova.Events/EOYG1 or scan this QR code with your mobile device:
Profiles in Philanthropy: Meet Richard Ordeman
Richard and Marie Ordeman have been longtime annual donors to Life with Cancer and its vital support programs at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute.
Richard Ordeman will have an impact on Inova’s lung cancer program for generations to come.
When Marie, a nonsmoker with lung cancer, passed away in 2014, Richard wanted to create a lasting legacy for our lung cancer patients and their families. Because of the great care his wife received and his desire to make a lasting difference, Richard designated a portion of his estate to support the lung cancer program at Inova Schar with special emphasis on research, early detection, as well as psychosocial support and educational programs.
Charitable bequests can truly be the best gift of your life, both in terms of size and impact. Making Inova a beneficiary of your estate plan can be the ultimate means of saying thank you to the physicians, nurses, hospital or program who helped you or a loved one during a crucial time in your life. In addition, deciding to include Inova in your will can be a powerful means of giving life and health to others — for generations to come. To learn more about the benefits of charitable estate planning please contact Patricia Bowen at Patricia.Bowen@inova.org or at (703) 289-2056.
Create a Lasting Legacy Through Planned Giving Your support could help Inova for decades
Did you know there are ways to support Inova that don’t affect your current lifestyle or your family’s security? You can support Inova with gifts that don’t impact the way you live by either designating Inova to receive estate assets in the future or by making immediate gifts of assets that are “out of sight and out of mind.”
Here are just a few ways you can make a gift: • Wills and Trusts • Stock and Appreciated Assets • Real Estate • Life Insurance • Personal Property For more information, please contact Patricia Bowen at 703-289-2056 or by email at Patricia.Bowen@inova.org
Inova is a nonprofit community organization. 8110 Gatehouse Road, Suite 200 East • Falls Church, VA 22042 • 703-289-2072