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Madison — Know Your Care Wisconsin today thanked Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) for its call for women to take advantage of preventive health care such as breast and cervical cancer screenings during National Women’s Health Week. Such screenings are required to be offered without cost sharing under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as health reform.

Getting more people to use preventive services is key to saving lives and bringing down health care costs. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 7 in 10 American deaths and 75 percent of health care costs are the result of chronic disease such as heart disease, cancer, and Type 2 diabetes. Many of these diseases can be prevented, but Americans generally use preventive services at about half the recommended rate.

“During this National Women’s Health Week, we encourage everyone to refocus on how important preventive care is to saving women’s lives and reducing health care costs,” said Doug Hill, director of Know Your Care Wisconsin. “It’s vital that women know that they can now receive so many preventive care services without a co-pay or deductible due to health reform.”

A full list of preventive services required to be offered by health insurance companies without cost sharing due to health reform is listed at:

http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2010/07/preventive-services-list.html

MADISON, Wis. — Surgeons who believe their technical error harmed a patient are much less likely to honor that patient’s request to withdraw life-supporting therapy than if the patient’s complications were not clearly the result of a surgical mistake, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

The study, published online today ahead of its appearance in the July issue of Annals of Surgery, is the first large-scale study to identify a link between surgeons’ personal responsibility for technical performance and their decisions about post-operative life-supporting treatments.

Dr. Margaret “Gretchen” Schwarze, an assistant professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, surveyed 912 vascular, cardiothoracic and neurosurgeons across the country to better understand their practices regarding decisions about the withdrawal of life support. The survey presented surgeons with different scenarios where a patient suffers dire post-operative complications. In one scenario, the problem is caused by surgeon error; in another, it is unclear what caused the complications; sometimes the operation is portrayed as an emergency and sometimes as an elective procedure.

In the scenario where patients suffer complications from technical error, only 33 percent of surgeons said they would honor their patient’s request to withdraw life support.  However, that number jumps to 41 percent when the complications presented in the scenario were not explicitly the result of surgeon error. The gap was the same in the elective surgery versus emergency scenarios, where surgeons were more likely to withdraw life support after emergency surgery than after elective surgery.

“Our study strongly suggests that a surgeon’s emotions and sense of responsibility have inevitable clinical consequences for patients,” says Schwarze. “I think it protects surgeons psychologically to feel that they’ve done everything possible to save their patient.”

Surgeons also reported being influenced by their own optimism and the belief that patients can’t accurately predict their future health state. Schwarze, who is a surgeon herself, says this sense of total responsibility and accountability is a result of both surgical culture and training.

“Surgeons think, ‘I got you into this situation, and now I need to get you out of it.’ And that’s a great attitude for a surgeon to have,” she says. “I think we would all want our surgeons to feel responsible for us and to fight for us.”

The problem, Schwarze acknowledges, is when the surgeon’s patient has little hope for improvement and does not want to be kept alive by machines, but the surgeon refuses to consider palliative care options because of the “all in” attitude that comes with being a surgeon.

“Our findings call into question the degree to which non-clinical factors may unduly interfere with a patient’s ability to control his or her health care decisions,” Schwarze says. “It highlights the importance of frank discourse and consultation with other disinterested parties to help navigate what may be difficult decision-making about end-of-life care, particularly when there is disagreement between patients, their families and the treating physician.”

Co-authors of the study include Andrew Redmann from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Karen J. Brasel of the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Dr. G. Caleb Alexander of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Schwarze’s work is supported by the Greenwall Faculty Scholars Award and the Department of Surgery in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. An abstract of the study is available online; full copies of the study are available upon request.

Contact: Hannah Wente, Coordinator, APDA Information & Referral Center of Wisconsin, Parkinson_assn@ssmhc.com, (608)229-7628

WISCONSIN—National Neuroscience Nurses Appreciation Week is May 13-19, 2012. In recognition of this week, the American Parkinson Disease Association of Wisconsin (APDA), Wisconsin Nurses Association (WNA) and Teva Neuroscience (Teva) are partnering to recognize outstanding nurses in eight neuroscience clinics across Wisconsin.

“We wanted to say thank you to nurses who provide outstanding care every day,” says Hannah Wente, APDA Coordinator for Wisconsin. “Many Parkinson’s patients rely on nurses throughout their journey for emotional support as well as medical care.”

The sites are: UW Hospital of Madison, Dean/St. Mary’s Outpatient Center Neurology Clinic of Madison, Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Aspirus Spine and Neurosciences of Wausau, Neuroscience Group of Neenah, Mercy Clinic East of Janesville, Neurology Consultants of Green Bay and Prevea Health of Green Bay.

Each site will have an award ceremony with cake and beverages. All clinic staff and media representatives are welcome to attend. All honorees will also be invited to attend a statewide recognition dinner in Fall 2012.

Nurses will be nominated by their co-workers and a winner will be selected based on adherence to the following core qualities: leadership, communication skills, teamwork, task management, actions and mentoring abilities.

Here is a list of the area locations and times of their celebrations:

The Wisconsin Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association is a not-for-profit, local organization founded in 2005 to increase public awareness and offer programs to individuals, families, and caregivers affected by Parkinson disease. These programs include Parkinson-specific exercise classes, a caregiver respite program, educational seminars, support groups and a statewide mentoring program. For more information, call (608)229-7628 or visit www.wichapterapda.org.

The Wisconsin Nurses Association (WNA) has served as the voice for professional registered nurses in Wisconsin for over one hundred years. Together with our national partner, the American Nurses Association (ANA), we work to foster high standards of nursing; stimulate and promote professional development of nurses including the advancement our economic and general welfare; and, work for the improvement of health standards and the availability of health care services for all people. For more information, visit www.wisconsinnurses.org.

Teva Neuroscience is dedicated to investigating, developing and marketing ground-breaking products and technologies, with emphasis on cutting-edge treatments for patients who are living with neurological conditions, including multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson`s disease (PD).