Huntington Woods Woman Copes With Lynch Syndrome

"I’m grateful my cancer was caught early," says Anita Harris, 48, who underwent genetic testing. "I also know there are options to help prevent or lower my risk of developing future cancers."

Michigan First Lady: Remember the ABCs of Infant Safety When Sleeping

Michigan First Lady Sue Snyder was among those speaking at Beaumont Children's Hospital on Monday in Royal Oak in support of a new educational program to benefit families with newborns.

The cause of baby Lailah Simpson's death "could have happened in any family," said her mother, Shareece Lee.  Lailah died of preventable, accidental suffocation after Lee placed the three-month-old on her stomach to sleep, just as she had done with her two oldest children. As Lailah's father, Patrick Simpson, of Novi, went to check on her, he realized she was not breathing. Lailah was transported to Sinai Grace Hospital and died on Aug. 3, 2011, which is Lee's birthday. Lee has since worked to share her experience with Beaumont Children's Hospital in Royal Oak, where on Monday, Michigan First Lady Sue Snyder announced her support for the education programs in partnership with the state Departments of Human Services and Community Health. "I…

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How Long an ER Wait at Royal Oak Beaumont? Feds Spill the Beans

Medicare database shows how hospitals throughout Metro Detroit – and the United States – compare for care.

If you go to the emergency room at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak with a broken bone, how long will it take before you get pain medicine?  The federal government says 63 minutes on average, according to a new database causing some hospital officials nationwide to cringe. That's shorter than the wait for a pain pill at Crittenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester (65 minutes) or Beaumont Hospital in Troy (68 minutes). However, it's longer than the state average (57 minutes) and the national average (62  minutes). Key measures of ER efficiency have been posted from hospitals taking part across the country, according to a report by former Union-Tribune writer Cheryl Clark, now senior quality editor for HealthLeaders Media. “With precious …

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Program Helps Young Women Become Surgeons, Engineers

Students from local high schools participate in program designed to inspire young women to consider careers in orthopedics.

To encourage more women to pursue careers in orthopedic surgery and engineering, Beaumont Hospital’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery brought together 36 young women from area high schools for a daylong, hands-on program at Beaumont's Surgical Learning Center in Royal Oak on Saturday. This is Beaumont’s second year hosting the Perry Initiative, which aims to get young women interested in orthopedics and engineering — fields where women currently comprise only 7 percent of the professional workforce. It's the only program of its kind in Michigan. The event featured lectures and interactive workshops with prominent female surgeons and biomedical engineers in orthopedics. By exposing young women to these fields, more may consider them as …

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Beaumont Receives Award for Medication Barcoding Implementation

Beaumont receives award sponsored by College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and American Hospital Association.

A systemwide safety initiative to implement barcoding to administer medication at Beaumont Health System helped to prevent a total of 23,500 potential drug errors from December 2011 through July 2012. The ambitious project led by Beaumont’s Information Technology department was recognized with the 2012 Transformational Leadership Award, sponsored by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and the American Hospital Association. Beaumont received the award Oct. 19 at the CHIME12 Fall CIO Forum in Indian Wells, Calif. With an estimated 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries in hospitals a year, resulting in $3.5 billion in unnecessary medical costs, Beaumont made medication error prevention a strategic imperative for …

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Beaumont, Henry Ford to Implement No-Nicotine Hiring Policy Jan. 1

Job applicants will be screened for signs of nicotine as part of the hiring process.

Beaumont and Henry Ford health systems announced today they will not hire job applicants who use tobacco products, effective Jan. 1, 2013. Job applicants will be screened for signs of nicotine as part of the hiring process. Beaumont and Henry Ford join a growing number of local and national health care systems that have implemented a no-nicotine hiring policy, reinforcing their commitment to good health and wellness. “As health care providers, we have a responsibility to take a leadership role in promoting healthy behaviors – starting with ourselves,” says Beaumont’s president and CEO Gene Michalski. Henry Ford CEO Nancy Schlichting says the “health and well-being of our patients, employees and visitors is our top priority. The no-…

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Cross-Country Horseman Talks About Journey

"It took over a month to get out of Texas. But my favorite place was Evergreen in Alabama," says Leslie Fender, who rode to Michigan to visit the doctor who treated him after a stroke 7 years ago.

It was a long ride up from Dublin, Texas, to Royal Oak – about 3,500 miles. But Leslie Fender was determined to thank the physician who brought movement back to the right side of his body after a devastating stroke. Seven years ago, Leslie was walking in the door of a Southfield restaurant when the stroke hit. “I was in the hospital two and a half weeks,” he says. About a month after the stroke left him paralyzed, he met Graham Long, a vascular surgeon at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. According to Fender, Long offered him the opportunity to try experimental surgery that would place a stent in his carotid artery. He agreed and after the surgery, he was able to move. “If I hadn’t had that surgery, I’d be in bed or a wheelchair,” Fender …

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Getting to Beaumont Hospital Tricky During Woodward Dream Cruise

Alternate routes for emergency vehicles Saturday include mile roads, neighborhood streets, Coolidge Highway and Greenfield Road, officials say.

There is no easy solution for public safety vehicles trying to access Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak during the Woodward Dream Cruise, officials say. Law enforcers and ambulance drivers do their best to avoid Woodward Avenue during the event – which is expected to attract 40,000 classic cars Saturday –  and would have to rely on their lights and sirens, along with the common sense of other motorists, to get through should an emergency occur on the historic roadway. "I do think, generally speaking, there is definitely a blind spot that the hospital is right there," said Laurie Thiel, CEO of Alliance Mobile Health, which provides ambulance service to Berkley, Oak Park, Huntington Woods, Beverly Hills and Troy. "There is not a clear-cut plan …

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Sheryl Crow's Brain Tumor a 'Common' Type, Beaumont Doctor Says

With word of the singer's meningioma coming out, the Royal Oak hospital's director of neuro-oncology offers information on the usually noncancerous tumors.

Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow announced Tuesday that she has a meningioma – a type of brain tumor that is usually noncancerous. The breast cancer survivor told CNN the tumor is benign and described it as a "bump in the road." As word spread about the announcement, Dr. Daniel Pieper, director of neuro-oncology at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, offered some insight into this type of tumor. Here's what he had to say: How common is it? "They are one of the most common of the intracranial tumors. If you look at studies on cadavers, probably 3 percent of all autopsies will show meningioma," Pieper said. "Meningioma, in and of themselves, account for almost 20 percent of all the brain tumors that we see." How are they diagnosed? Meningioma have …

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Beaumont Parents Follow State, National Baby Name Trends

Some baby names are universally adored, while others have more regional popularity.

Local parents are in tune with others throughout the nation and state when it comes to picking baby names, according to Vicki Moore, a birth certificate clerk at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. The Social Security Administration recently released a list of most popular 2011 baby names across the United States and Michigan. Several of the names, including Sophia and Jacob, also top the most popular names of the 5,088 babies delivered last year at Beaumont. Beaumont doesn't track birth names, but Moore, who has worked at Beaumont for 24 years, notices names trending. Popular names at Beaumont, which are not in the top 10 on the national and state lists, include Declan, Nolan and Kaiden for boys and Evelyn, Charlotte and Elizabeth for girls, …

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