Lung patients need active physician involvement in support
groups, particularly for non-cancerous lung patients including
COPD, the 3rd leading cause of death in
the US. For many of us COPD is only the beginning of medical
conditions including Sleep Apnea.
We are fortunate that Harrison’s Respiratory Department has
gotten more involved and active in support services for lung
patients and the Better Breather’s monthly programs are becoming a
Don’t Miss.
That said last month’s program was the beginning of another
round of new stuff and no MD to connect all the dots.
Pulmonary support groups NEED direct physician involvement. I
know they are busy. So are the patients. We want to be
educated and the physician is the only person to answer medical
questions.
Joyce had Cheryl Ball, Respiratory Therapist in
charge of the Sleep Apnea program with guest speaker, Jeff
Lackey, Patient Care Coordinator of Pacific Pulmonary
Services. Both did a great job inciting keen
interest, as you will see in the following photos.
I wrote the following post in answer to the Kitsap Sun Reporter
Rachel Pritchett’s article that Harrison Medical Center’s Heart
Surgeons won a second year of the highest rating given for
Bremerton Cardiothoracic Surgery.
*********************
“The most successful support group – or one of them – is
AWAKE, the Sleep Apnea support group in Kitsap
County.
Why? It is physician led.
Well. It is time for lung doctors to step up to educate the
Better Breather’s pulmonary support group.
I recently attended a BB meeting and too many questions could
not be answered by the knowledgeable techs present – they needed
answering by doctors who know the whys and wherefores of sleep
apnea.
Educating patients is vitally important and the lung patients
have been sadly neglected…yes, I do understand about the money
trail in popular medical conditions.
Many of us lung patients kick off due to heart disease caused by
lung issues. It’s no small wonder that COPD is now the third
leading cause of death in the US considering that educating lung
patients is at the bottom of the physician scale of things to
do.
Am I being unfair to busy physicians? I am a patient – the
answer is NO.
Doctors – get involved with educating us. Please!
Contact Harrison’s Pam or Joyce (Respiratory) for scheduling a
PHYSICIAN speaker for the next Better Breather’s meeting.
“…Harrison HealthPartners Bremerton Cardiothoracic
Surgery is part of a larger group of Harrison
Medical Center heart physicians called Harrison
HealthPartners Thoracic and Vascular. “The bigger group
also includes vascular surgeon Dr. George Berni
and vascular surgeon Dr. Shankar Sundaram, who
begins later this month.”
Read more:
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/aug/08/harrison-heart-surgeons-receive-top-rating-again/#ixzz1Ut6EsPQz
*****
Part 1 of 2
Gabriel, medical miracle baby and g’g’ma’s recumbent trike
…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi8FufDkSDQ
Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara
