Hometown Glory

A win for better medical records: Houston hospitals earn "Most Wired" honors

This waiting area at the Martin Luther King Health Center of the Harris CountyHospital District is more technologically savvy than most hospitals in the U.S.
Photo by Hall Puckett
Behold the look of technological advancement in patient care.
Photo by Ralph Bivins
The Harris County Hospital District is breaking ground in more ways than one.
Photo by John Everett
The Memorial Hermann Healthcare System is more than just a pretty face.

What does it take to be named a "Most Wired Hospital" by the American Hospital Association?

Ask the Harris County Hospital District or the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. Both were included on the national 2011 Most Wired Hospitals list by Hospitals & Health Networks.

Score two for hometown health care glory.

“This recognition means the Harris County Hospital District is a leader in using the advances of technology to improve both the quality of care and the patient care experience,” Tim Tindle, HCHD executive vice president and chief information officer, said in a statement.

“A patient’s complete medical record, including imaging, now is available to all of our clinicians anytime and anywhere in our health care system. Even our patients can access their medical records using our online tools.”

To earn this recognition, hospitals and health care systems are evaluated based on a set of rigorous criteria: The progress of technology adoption, and the implementation and use of critical technology in the areas of infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety, and care continuum. Such accomplishments must be demonstrated in the effort to improve patient care.

HCHD and Memorial Hermann are two of only seven hospitals to be awarded the prestigious honor in Texas.

The complete list can be viewed here.

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A crucial big 4-0

Your heart in pictures: Methodist images provide a stark reminder of how quicklyheart disease strikes

Doctors use an imager to see where blood flow is weak. This image of an abnormalheart shows weakness in blue or black.
This is what a normal, healthy heart looks like.
The heart is enlarged in this image, showing a bypass graft, indicated by thesquiggly line.
This is what a heart with normal blood flow looks like.
This aorta shows evidence of a an aneurysm, a widening of the blood vessel. Thewhite line points to the aneurysm.
These images compare a normal abdominal aorta to an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

It's easy to dismiss heart disease as a health problem only affecting older people, or those with a family history of the deadly disease. The reality is, coronary heart disease is the number one cause of death in America for men and women of any ethnic background.

As the average age of people diagnosed with heart disease creeps lower, lifestyle changes are crucial to hitting the big 4-0 without having a cardiologist’s number saved in your iPhone.

The Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center shared images with CultureMap, giving us an up close and personal look at how that cheeseburger, lack of sleep and stressed-to-the-max life can increase your risk of heart disease. The American Heart Association (AHA) encourages people to quit smoking, lose excess weight, eat a healthful diet, control blood pressure and keep cholesterol levels in check to maintain a healthy heart.

Pictures of an abnormal heart show blood flow is weak across certain areas of the heart (blue or black). Information about blood flow helps doctors diagnose what ails a heart, and also help them decide how to approach surgery.

Two in three men and one in every two women are at risk for cardiovascular heart disease at the age of 40. If it’s hard to imagine what that looks like, consider a series of images of the same heart, as the imager moves in three dimensions. Each pair of rows is a different dimension. Red shows where blood is flowing the most.

The aorta is the largest and most important artery in the body taking blood from the heart, extending down to the bottom of the abdomen. The appearance of an aneurysm, a widening of the blood vessel, is usually the result of a weakening in the blood vessel wall. If left untreated, aneurysms can rupture, leading to internal bleeding and possibly death.

Cardiologists treat coronary artery disease with a bypass graft. The grafted blood vessel is taken out of a patient's leg, then surgically attaching it to the heart and the aorta. A bypass gives blood a clearer path, allowing it to flow more easily from the heart.

Other courses of treatment include mechanical heart valves commonly used by surgeons at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center. Surgeons insert a replacement heart valve by moving the device up the aorta, from the leg to the heart, avoiding open-heart surgery.

The same everyday choices that endanger the heart can also help it. The AHA suggests positive self-talk, deep breathing, counting to 10, smiling, doing things you enjoy and relaxation exercises as ways to tame the stress in life.

Even if you only smoke in social situations, cut it out. That is especially poignant for people between 25 and 44 — the age range with the highest percentage of people who smoke. Cigarette smokers generally have higher blood pressure which stretches arteries, causing scarring. Bad cholesterol, called LDL, often gets lodged in the scar tissue and combines with white blood cells to form clots. Good cholesterol, called HDL, helps keep the LDL from sticking and building up.

Consistent exercise is another heart-healthy choice and a mere 30 minutes a day can do wonders for the heart. Eating at least four and a half cups of fruits and vegetables plus a minimum of two three and a half ounce servings of oily fish, like salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring and trout, weekly are also encouraged by the AHA.