East Texas Review » News/Features

Healthcare unites

Kelly Bell — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:50:24 +0000

The Diagnostic Clinic of Longview (DCOL) and Longview Regional Medical Center (LRMC) have revealed their impending collaboration and how it will advance healthcare services yet further for East Texans already accustomed to expert care from both institutions.
This partnership will spawn perhaps the most advanced, integrated, progressive and effective medical unit in the region. LRMC’s parent company, Community Health Systems, Inc., will effect a merger with DCOL, to be completed over the next few months. All physician ownership interests in LRMC will be repurchased. DCOL President Dr. Robert Wheeler, M.D. has great expectations for the new alliance.
“DCOL and Longview Regional have worked side-by-side for more than 30 years to bring revolutionary medical advancements to our patients, recruit physicians to our region, and broaden the health services we provide,” he said. “We have deep respect for one another and common goals for medical excellence and patient service. Affiliation between our organizations solidifies an already strong relationship and brings the promise of immeasurable benefit for our patients and the region.”
The healthcare industry’s evolving dynamics have already established collaboration as a positive trend, producing improved medical treatment and advancement in the overall patient experience. With learning being an ongoing process despite a field’s state-the-art status doctors and hospital administrative staff are careful to keep seeking means for advancing these goals in all health systems.
“DCOL physicians value the opportunity to create a system of coordinated patient care across the full spectrum of health services,” said DCOL CEO Bert Ratay. “Whether it’s an office visit, a diagnostic test, an emergency room visit, surgery or hospitalization, DCOL physicians will have a greater involvement in the healthcare landscape than ever before.”
With over 700 employees DCOL is one of East Texas’ biggest multi-specialty establishments. There are 132 doctors and mid-level healthcare providers in the 18 locations, all of which will continue to operate under the name of Diagnostic Clinic of Longview following the merger, and with the same skilled staff. The changing ownership structure will have little impact on the facilities’ day-to-day service and procedures.
Following the merger a joint oversight committee comprised of representatives from both DCOL and LRMC will direct DCOL. Furthermore, DCOL physicians will commence serving on the LRMC Board of Trustees. LRMC CEO Jim Kendrick is enthusiastic about the coming union.
“The forward-thinking physicians at DCOL have always been pioneers in their field,” he said. “We have great respect for their commitment to their patients, the community and to clinical excellence. We welcome their increased involvement in our hospital.”
Dr. John Greifencamp, M.D. is one of DCOL’s original founders, and echoes Kendrick’s enthusiasm about the merger’s positive implications.
“I am proud of how DCOL has evolved over the years, and the opportunity we have now through this affiliation with Longview Regional,” he said. “We’re excited about partnering with a physician-oriented hospital that shares our vision for the future and commitment to the patient. We look forward to what we can accomplish in our work together.”
DCOL concentrates on such primary care services as pediatric/adolescent medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, family practice and internal medicine, although a broad spectrum of medical specialists have recently joined the staff. Most practitioners are board-certified.
A 131-bed acute care facility, LRMC aims to provide East Texans with medical care that is constantly updated through advancements in treatment and technology. It is Longview’s only hospital providing daVinci robotic surgery, Stryker joint replacements, BrainLab spine and trauma solutions, 100% off-pump beating heart surgery with minimally invasive technique, the HALO procedure for reversing damage to Barrett’s esophagus, and bariatric weight-loss surgery.
This hospital has the city’s only vein treatment center in which interventional cardiologists perform all procedures, in the process earning the recognition of “Best Vein Care Center of Excellence.” LRMC employees are delighted by their hospital being named one of the “Best Companies to Work for in Texas.” This is unsurprising since the owning partnership includes a number of physician-owners, some of whom are on the hospital’s staff. For more information on LRMC please visit www.longviewregional.com.

Unity Honors Luncheon to be held Thursday

ETR Staff Report — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:40:52 +0000

The Unity Honors Luncheon, hosted by the Race Relations Committee, will be held on Thursday, Feb. 2 starting at 12:00pm at the Maude Cobb Activity Center.
Tickets are $10 each and are being sold at the following locations:

Partners In Prevention Office
140 E. Tyler St. #400
Broughton Recreation Center
801 MLK Blvd
Barron’s
405 W. Loop 281.
Tickets WILL NOT be sold at the event.

Summer program seeks donations

ETR Staff Report — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:38:42 +0000

Tyler Parks and Recreation is seeking donations of arts and crafts supplies, table games, sporting equipment and youth reading books for its free, summer playground program that will take place at five park locations for 10 weeks beginning in June.
“Instead of throwing away an old board game or baseballs that no longer get used, please donate them to our summer playground program where the children will get hours of amusement out of them,” said Ann Santana, the Glass Recreation Center Supervisor. “We really try to get the kids into an active, healthy lifestyle at a young age, and that includes lots of outdoor games and activities.”
Any financial donations or sponsorships would also be greatly appreciated. If your organization would like to help please call (903) 595-7271 or drop off your donations at the Glass Recreation Center at 501 W. 32nd St.
“Our summer youth programs are extremely important to the community, so we want to do everything we can to ensure their success,” says Parks Director Stephanie Rollings. “And this call for donations comes just in time for everyone’s spring cleaning.”
All children age 5-12 are invited to take part in the summer playground program.
For more information contact Ann Santana at (903) 595-7271.

Play it safe

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:33:59 +0000

The Super Bowl is America’s most popular national sporting event. All across the country, millions of people gather to socialize and watch the big game.
The U.S. Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), with support from the National Football League (NFL) and Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management (TEAM) Coalition, have joined forces with Texas Department of Transportation and local highway safety and law enforcement officials to spread an important safety message to the public about designating a sober driver on Super Bowl Sunday – Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk.

“This message is for everyone who will be drinking during the big game. Make the right play and pass your keys to a designated driver so they can get you home safely,” said Irene Webster, Traffic Safety Specialist. “There is no excuse to get flagged for a false start. The men and women of our local law enforcement agencies will be out to stop anyone who decides to drink and drive.”

In 2010, alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities accounted for 31 percent of the total motor vehicle traffic fatalities in the United States.

Driving while impaired could result in a loss of your driver’s license or even possibly the loss of your or someone else’s life. On Super Bowl Sunday, make it a team effort to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. If you plan on driving, plan not to drink alcohol.

If you are hosting a Super Bowl party:

•         Make sure all of your guests designate their sober drivers before kick-off or help arrange ride-sharing with sober drivers.
•         Find unique ways to recognize the designated drivers at your party
•         Give them a great spot to watch the game.
•         Whatever non-alcoholic beverage they are drinking, make sure their glass is always full.
•         Let them have the first pass at the buffet table.
•         Make sure their cars are easy to access when it is time to start driving people home.
•         Serve plenty of food.
•         Offer a variety of non-alcoholic choices like soft drinks, juice, and water.
•         Serve one drink at a time and serve measured drinks.
•         Only serve alcohol to guests over 21 years of age.
•         Determine ahead of time when you’ll stop serving alcohol, such as one hour before the party ends or at the end of the third quarter (just like NFL stadiums) and begin serving coffee and dessert.
•         Add the numbers of local cab companies into your phone so they are just one touch away.
•         Take appropriate steps to prevent anyone from drinking and driving.
•         Be prepared for guests to spend the night if an alternative way home is not available.

Remember, you can be held liable and prosecuted if someone you served ends up in a drunk-driving crash.

If you are attending a Super Bowl party or watching at a sports bar or restaurant, please follow these guidelines to make sure you enjoy Super Bowl XLVI responsibly:

• Designate your sober driver before the party begins.
• Avoid drinking too much alcohol too fast. Pace yourself—eat enough food, take breaks, and alternate with non-alcoholic drinks.
• If you don’t have a designated driver, ask a sober friend for a ride home; call a cab, friend, or family member to come and get you; or just stay where you are and sleep it off until you are sober.
• Always buckle up – it’s the best defense against other drunk driving.

City slates annual Kid’s Fishing Day

ETR Staff Report — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:29:50 +0000

The City of Longview Partners in Prevention and Texas Parks and Wildlife will host the 21st Annual Kid’s Fishing Day at Teague Park Lake on Sat., Feb. 11, from 10am to 2pm.
Teague Park is located at 411 American Legion Boulevard. This free event is open to children ages 3 to 16. The event has consistently drawn approximately two to three hundred children.
Besides prizes for catching a tagged fish, there will be door prizes. In addition, the sponsors will provide free bait. To boot, a limited number of fishing poles will be provided for the young fishermen. But, that is not all. Happy the Clown will entertain attendees.
The City of Longview Partners in Prevention, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Ricky Borden, and the Longview Sportsman Bass Club are the sponsoring the event.
For more information, please call Partners in Prevention at 903-237-1019 or visit PIP.LongviewTexas.gov.
Kid’s Fishing Day started 21 years ago as a partnership between the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the City of Longview Parks and Recreation Department. Currently, City of Longview Partners in Prevention has partnered with Texas Parks and Wildlife and Sportsman Bass to host the event in order to introduce city kids to fishing sport.

Faith in the workplace

Kelly Bell — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:27:18 +0000

Can the Christian faith make an impact on the workplace? In America workers are more and more hoping their jobs will provide something more fulfilling than a paycheck. Is there a place for pastors here? LeTourneau University’s (LETU) Dallas-based Center for Faith & Works says yes to both questions.
Ninety-three percent of all pastors say they want to help members of their congregations integrate faith and work, but fully two-thirds of them admit their efforts fall short,” said Center for Faith & Work Executive Director Bill Peel. “People work more, and better, when their labor carries a sense of calling, but most employers can’t give it, and most pastors don’t.”
Center-commissioned surveys by the Barna Group highlight the failure of faith to infiltrate the workplace:
• Nearly all (93%) of pastors say helping people integrate faith into daily work is “very important.”
• One-third (32%) of these pastors claim to have an “excellent understanding” of workplace issues.
• Half (49%) of churchgoing, employed Christians”strongly agree” that their churches give information, guidance and support to parishioners’ practicing of their faith at work.
• 26% of pastors claim their sermons address the issue of faith at work.
• 8% of all pastors provide prayer support for workplace issues.
• 3% of all pastors report they visit their church members on the job.

LeTourneau established its Center For Faith & Work in 2011 in hopes of supporting a burgeoning “faith at work” movement aimed at helping Christians (employed and unemployed) exercise their faith outside the church. To study the Center’s mission further visit www.CenterforFaithandWork.com. This resource reveals the program’s resources, tools and curriculum. The Center is founded on the premise that the Lord prizes good work, well done.
“From Genesis to Revelation, work is essential to human flourishing,” said Peel. “Pastors and pew populations too often default to esteeming ‘church work’ over traditional business, but God doesn’t draw that line.”
LETU President Dr.Dale Lunsford clearly outlines his institution’s support of the Center’s objective.
“In 1947, R.G. LeTourneau, industrialist and inventor, founded LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, and his refusal to separate faith and business formed the DNA of the university,” he said. “The Center is the university’s strategic initiative to graduate professionals prepared to integrate their faith and work.”
Peel is the founding executive of the Center for Faith & Work. He is an award-winning writer of seven books, including Workplace Grace, What God Does When Men Lead and Discover Your Destiny. He finds time for interviews and to provide content on such subjects as:

* Executives’ Faith at Work.
* The Faith at Work Movement.
* The Bottom Line on Faith at Work.
* Five Ways Churches Can Send Faith to Work.
* What Americans Want: 21st Century Work and Meaning.

For more information on LeTourneau University please visit www.letu.edu.

Museum honors black history

ETR Staff Report — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:16:37 +0000

Black History Then and Now is the theme of the Gregg County Historical Museum’s 2012 salute to African-American history.
This month-long exhibit opened February 2 and features a timeline of American Black History, spiced with a chronicle of local black history and how it relates to black history nationally.
Photographs, documents and various artifacts will comprise the display detailing noteworthy African-Americans locally and coast-to-coast. This will include an array of black Barbie dolls, and works from a local artist.
A highlight of the month-long recognition event will be a panel discussion in which area residents will debate race relations past and present. The museum will host this forum February 22 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
The museum has incorporated the vital subject of black history into its ongoing yearly calendar of events and Educational Program which are open to the public and admission free.
The museum is located at 218 Fredonia Street in downtown Longview, across from Regions Bank.

Green seminar slated

Kelly Bell — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:24:21 +0000

The Community Garden Network has scheduled free gardening workshops for Friday February 3 and Saturday, February 4. Lubbock’s Ken Hargescheimer will teach the seminars from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Friday and from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Saturday. Both will be held at the First Baptist ROC at Green and South Streets.
Hargescheimer has taught all over the world, offers workshops in gardening and mini-farming, and produces relevant videos through the Gardens/Mini Farms Network. His Longview seminars will concentrate on organic, no-till and permanent-bed gardening, featuring such topics as soil amendments/fertilizing, weed control, drip and bucket irrigation. Anyone interested in gardening is urged to attend. After the presentations there will be question-and-answer sessions.
Hargescheimer took his BS in agriculture from Texas Tech University in 1957 and worked three years in the university’s dairy farm before traveling the world to share his knowledge. He worked in Guatemala as a correspondence course director, and in Nigeria as business manager of a Christian college.
In 1995 he visited the Ivory Coast and put on one of his first mini-farming workshops. This was the kickoff of his habit of going abroad about once yearly to put on agriculture programs in such countries as Mexico, Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, Nicaragua, India, Uzbekistan and South Africa. His efforts are also extended to domestic audiences as he has taught in Texas, Mississippi, Florida, California, New Mexico, Washington and Arkansas.
The Longview Community Garden Network is a project of the Stragent Foundation, and strives to further the development of community gardens throughout East Texas. Steering committee members represent community gardens maintained by multiple Longview congregations, ministries and education programs.

The better health resolution

ETR Staff Report — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:27:03 +0000

This isn’t the only New Year’s resolutions list you’ll read this month, nor is it the only one with good ideas to offer. But it is one you should take to heart if you want to make the others far more do-able.

That’s because improving your physical and mental health gives you a strong leg up on hiking the Alleghenies, getting back your 32-inch waistline, learning a foreign language, running your first marathon and countless other life-enhancing changes.

Our list of five resolutions starts with one we think you’ll especially appreciate:

Think in terms of what you’re gaining, not what you’re forcing yourself to sacrifice. “Giving up cheese chile rellenos” sounds rather punitive, doesn’t it? One might even say it unfairly demonizes one of the noblest examples of Texas-Mexican fusion cuisine. So why not set the positive goal of balancing culinary pleasure with health eating? Work with your doctor to create a dietary plan that gets you where you want to be — and allows occasional gooey, queso-rific rewards for a job well done.

Slow the throttle on aging. For our first three decades or so, youthful health and fitness are durable assets we can almost take for granted. From then on, they’re conditional gifts we have to work to maintain. The best way to do that is a half hour or so per day of vigorous physical activity. If you lack the time for daily gym visits or the cash for a personal trainer, get creative.

From your body’s standpoint, a six-level parking garage is as good a walking track as a hilly hiking trail. Office building stairs sub nicely for Stairmasters. Dumbbells store neatly under a desk and can work almost as many muscle groups as a multifunction exercise machine. Then, on the weekend, set your DVR to record less urgent games and use the daylight to play Frisbee or touch football with your kids, ride a bicycle or do a long-delayed home repair project.

The satisfaction and visible benefits of exercise grow more obvious over time because, although physical activity can’t keep your hair as dark and lush as a 20-year-old’s, it can put the brakes on most other physical and mental signs of aging. For advice on lifelong physical health and fitness, go to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services’ websites GetFitTexas (www.getfittexas.org) and Texercise (www.texercise.com), or the Department of State Health Services’ Walk Texas! Site (http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/diabetes/walktx.shtm).

Take a breather: Quit smoking. Yes, we did urge you to think in turns of what you can add, not give up during 2012. But really, can it be anything but a plus to spare your lungs a daily bombardment of more than a dozen harmful chemicals (including arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde and vinyl chloride) and dramatically lower your risk of lung cancer and emphysema? You’ll need plenty of will power and help to succeed, but it’s well worth the effort. Start by visiting the Yes! I’m Ready to Quit website (www.dshs.state.tx.us/tobacco/quityes.shtm).

Head off or control adult-onset diabetes. Heredity, ethnicity and age all can influence risk of diabetes, but other variables are under our control. If you’re 45 or older, the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) recommends a test for diabetes every three years. If you’re at risk for diabetes, there are plenty of steps you can take to manage it, including dietary changes, physical activity and blood sugar monitoring. For more information, visit DSHS’ Diabetes Prevention and Control Program website (www.dshs.state.tx.us/diabetes/tdcprgrm.shtm).

Volunteer in your community. For social engagement, mental stimulation and pure emotional satisfaction, few activities are more rewarding than volunteering your time and energy to improving the lives of others. Volunteers are needed in every Texas community, so you’ll never lack for opportunities to help. Start your adventure by going to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services’ Volunteer and Community Engagement website at (www.dads.state.tx.us/volunteer/vce.html).

Point In Time survey slated

ETR Staff Report — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:54:26 +0000

The annual Point-in-Time Survey will be held Thursday, January 26, 2012. The survey is conducted across the nation as a way to gather information on the number of people experiencing homelessness at that particular point in time.
The NET is a group of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and advocates who address the needs of the homeless population in Gregg, Uphsur, Harrison, Marion, Panola, and Rusk Counties. The group meets the first Monday of the month at 11:30 a.m. at a different location. If you are interested in learning more about the NET please contact Jodi Cobler, Jodi@stragentfoundation.org, 903 646 3533. The NET is a member of the Texas Homeless Coalition who coordinates the statewide count.
On January 26th their volunteers will be going to the shelters, homeless programs, motels, and the unsheltered to survey individuals and families who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless.
The information from the surveys will be used to generate a report on the state of the homeless in our community. The report will be used to address the gaps in services identified in the survey.
The group is looking for donations of LED cap lights, toothpaste and brushes, soap, gloves, socks, and stocking caps to hand out to the homeless who take the survey. Please take your donations to Newgate Mission, 207 South Mobberly Avenue, Longview.
About Texas Homeless Network
Texas Homeless Network (THN), based in Austin, is a 501(c)3 organization that is partially funded through Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and Texas Department of State Health Services. THN provides training and technical assistance around the state helping service providers and communities better serve the homeless population. Working together, we can end homelessness. For additional information, visit: www.thn.org or call Eric Samuels at 512-482-8270.