Christian Hospital among top hospitals for treatment of heart attack patients

Golfers hit the greens for the 2021 Greater North County Chamber Golf Tournament

Golfers enjoyed a beautiful warm day at the Greater North County Chamber of Commerce 2021 Golf Tournament on June 4 at the Florissant Golf Club.

In a sold-out event, First place “A” Flight winner was Team Edward Jones – Joe Meyer; second place “A” Flight was Team Rev. Cedric Portis; first place “B” Flight was Team Dorsey; second place “B” Flight was Team State Farm – Brennen Sowa.

VIP Business sponsors were ServPro of Overland/Cool Valley; Ultimate Team Sponsors were Catering To You Banquet Center, City of Hazelwood, Delmar Mortgage, Goldkamp Heating & Cooling, Hutchens Mortuary & Cremation Center, Morrison Travel & Cruise, and Pirrone’s Pizzeria. Trophy sponsor was Dana McKitrick, PC Attorneys at Law; Longest Drive sponsor was Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties; Valet Car Sponsor was Angels at Work/The Taste in Ferguson; Golf Ball Sponsor was Gary’s Auto Service; Cigar Sponsor was Edward Jones-Joseph Meyer; Beer was donated by Grey Eagle; and water was donated by Dr. Pepper. There were many other sponsors including “Fore My Business” Hole sponsors and Par “Hole” Sponsors.

Derick Wellmann with Amore Pizza chaired the 2021 Golf Committee, with committee members Bret Berigan, Christian Hospital; Paul Manganelli, American Family Insurance; Joe Meyer, Edward Jones; Mike Moehlenkamp, Gary’s Auto; Scott Palermo, A Skeets Production; Teri Reiter, Freedom Title; and Jon Vogt, Catering To You Banquet Center.

Submitted photo

First place “A” Flight winner was Team Edward Jones at the Greater North County Chamber of Commerce 2021 Golf Tournament on June 4 at the Florissant Golf Club.

Christian Hospital among nation’s top hospitals for treatment of heart attack

Christian Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain - MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2021. Christian Hospital is one of only 212 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.

The award recognizes Christian Hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that Christian Hospital has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.

To receive the Chest Pain - MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Christian Hospital has demonstrated sustained achievement in the Chest Pain - MI Registry for two consecutive years (2019 and 2020), and performed at the highest level for specific performance measures. Full participation in the registry engages hospitals in a robust quality improvement process using data to drive improvements in adherence to guideline recommendations and overall quality of care provided to heart attack patients.

“As a Platinum Performance Award recipient, Christian Hospital has established itself as a leader in setting the national standard for improving quality of care in patients with acute myocardial infarction,” said Michael C. Kontos, MD, FACC, chair of the NCDR Chest Pain – MI Registry Steering Subcommittee, and cardiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that almost 700,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year. Treatment guidelines include administering aspirin upon arrival and discharge, timely restoration of blood flow to the blocked artery, smoking cessation counseling and cardiac rehabilitation, among others.

Chest Pain - MI Registry empowers health care provider teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current, science-based guidelines and establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk heart attack patients.

Northwest Views: What we’ve learned

By Dr. Jim Wipke

It didn’t matter where your degree came from, or the number of years of experience you had, or how many challenges you had navigated previously in your career; no educator was fully prepared for what the past 12-plus months demanded of them. Since March 2020, there have been countless struggles, long nights, difficult conversations, and most importantly, students needing more support and care than ever before. Yet, here we are. Another year of school in the books and we continue to move forward. How did we get here?

For me, it comes down to embracing all of the things we’ve learned. Among the first things we learned in education during the pandemic was how committed our teachers and staff were to adapting. No matter how many times the news turned for the worse, educators continued thinking about the next day, the next adjustment they needed to make and the next opportunity to reach out to their students to let them know, everything will be okay. This resolve helped chart our path over the last 12 months, and we are a better district and community for it.

We learned about community, and how much stronger we become when we have parents, families, businesses and local leaders working together for our kids. That’s not to say there weren’t disagreements over the decisions we made, or the timeline we developed for attempting a return to normalcy, but it was clear from the beginning that it takes everyone respecting differences of opinions and truly listening to each other to help guide us along this journey. Of course, no decision will ever garner unanimous support, but we knew at the heart of it, our community understood that we all shared the same goal, to create healthy and safe learning environments for students. A perfect example of this was creating our Medical Task Force, a team of doctors who volunteered their time throughout the school year to review our practices and provide guidance on how to safely move forward. To have our families and neighbors sharing in the discussion of how to best achieve our goals was an incredible asset to our district. We now have a better understanding of how to collaborate with and incorporate our various stakeholders, a process that can only make us stronger.

It became obvious that we must continue to shape how we incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion in our schools and community. As we committed all of our focus to fighting the pandemic, the issue of racial injustice and equity for African-Americans and other persons of color, almost half of our Ladue Schools student population, demanded our attention at the same time. As a result, we worked to amplify student voices and learn more about how our schools could do better from their perspective. We continued to engage with our community, giving parents and families a chance to share concerns and indicate how we could better reach all students and teach them the stories and viewpoints that had previously been underrepresented. These efforts will continue into the next school year and beyond, but I feel confident that we are in a better position to serve our diverse student-groups than we were before.

Finally, and most importantly, this past year has taught us that our students are resilient. They are brave, they are creative, they are determined, and they are what made the biggest difference for us in the last year. They kept their heads up, embraced everything that was new, and made this one of our most memorable years for all the right reasons. We are so fortunate as educators to be able to lead our students each day, and this past year served as a reminder that they deserve everything we can give them. I believe we were able to meet that expectation for them and look forward to making our next year even better.

When the pandemic began, it was clear that we as a school district were about to change. However, it was up to all of us to determine what kind of a change that would be. I am exceedingly proud to know that we as a community never lost sight of what was best for our students and made a change for the better. What have we learned? We’ve learned in education that even if the days ahead are uncertain, and even if they might not turn out perfect, that all will be okay when you have a committed staff, the support of a wonderful community, and the resolve of children to see it through!

Dr. Jim Wipke joined the Ladue School District as Superin tendent on July 1, 2019. He received a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from Harris-Stowe State University in 1993, a master’s degree in administration and education from Southwest Baptist University in 2000, and a doctorate degree in education from Maryville University of St. Louis in 2008.

The opinions expressed in this column are the columnist’s alone and do not reflect the opinion of the owners or staff of Community News.