- Employee Spotlight, Graduate Medical EducationGeneral Page Tier 3BlogOne January day, resident Abdel-Moneim Mohamed Ali, MD, was completing his acute care surgery rotation when he received a call to the Emergency Department to evaluate a patient for an urgent umbilical hernia repair. When Dr. Ali saw the patient, he learned that the patient was also on a waiting list for a liver transplant. He consulted his fellow resident and senior team member, Shyam (Jay) Jayaraman, MD, and, together, they made a decision that would ultimately save the patient’s life: they decided to calculate the patient’s MELD score. A MELD score is used to gauge how urgently a patient needs a liver transplant. Patients with higher numbers are higher on the transplant list. As they suspected, their patient’s score was dangerously high. “The patient’s liver failure was getting worse,” said Dr. Jay. “The hernia was purely excess fluid in the abdomen caused by the patient’s liver failure.” Thanks to Dr. Jay and Dr. Ali’s meticulous evaluation, the patient received a life-saving liver transplant the very next day. When they’re not saving lives, the two might be found preparing for a game of jeopardy. In 2018, Dr. Jay and Dr. Ali competed as a two-person team in the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Surgical Jeopardy contest at the ACS Annual Clinical Congress held in Boston. The duo took an impressive second place in the rigorous contest. “It all comes down to teamwork,” they concurred. Pro tip: “Treat the patient and not the imaging or lab value. Look at the whole picture and do what’s best for the patient.” Learn more about GME at AAMC by visiting www.AAHS.org/Graduate-Medical-Education. Watch our video to hear program officials describe AAMC’s unique learning environment for residents, as well as the benefit of a teaching hospital to the community. If you know a great individual or a fantastic team going above and beyond to make a difference, make sure to let us know! Looking for a career in health care? We invite you to join a diverse and collaborative team of professionals working together to innovate the future of health care for our entire region. Check out our career opportunities.
- WellnessGeneral Page Tier 3BlogIf you’re a vegetarian or trying to change your eating habits to sustain the environment, you might be swapping real meat burgers for veggie burgers. The sustainable food movement has recently gained tremendous traction and the faux meat industry — with brands like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat — is growing as a result. But if you think eating alternative meat burgers is healthier than having real meat burgers, think again. While they’re made with veggies and other plant-based ingredients, many other added ingredients can make faux meat burgers high in sodium and saturated fat. Let’s take a closer look at why fake meat substitutes aren’t necessarily a healthier option to real meat products: Saturated fat. Some people choose not to consume beef burgers because of saturated fat, which increases our LDL cholesterol or the bad cholesterol. But an Impossible Burger is comparable to an 80 percent lean beef burger patty in calories as well as saturated fat. It’s swapping one form for another. Sodium. Fake meat burgers are higher in sodium in comparison to beef and turkey burgers. The Impossible Burger and a Beyond Burger contain over 300 milligrams of sodium. A beef patty has over 60 milligrams of sodium and a turkey burger has just over 90 milligrams. Protein. When it comes to protein content, generally, plant-based burgers aren’t as high in protein as real meat burgers. A lack of protein can leave us feeling hungry and craving more. If your food philosophy steers you away from meat, consider grain-based veggie burgers. Grain-based veggie burgers have less calories and roughly one gram of saturated fat, making them the healthier option. They’re made with real ingredients, like quinoa, edamame, walnuts, chopped veggies and more. Plant-based substitutes are fine to eat, but there is no need to replace your beef burger if you do not enjoy these alternatives. Since most of these plant-based alternatives are highly processed, those who eat them should try to incorporate more whole foods and plant-based foods into their diet. For the healthiest route, eat lentils, fruits and vegetables in recipes prepared at home, not processed into a patty along with a laundry list of other additives. READ MORE: Check out healthy recipes from our dietitians Authors Maureen Shackelford is a nutritionist and registered dietitian at Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center. To reach her, call 443-481-5886.
- PediatricsGeneral Page Tier 3BlogAs a parent, you are the most important influence on your child. You can do many things to help your child develop healthy eating habits for life. Start healthy eating habits by introducing your child to a variety of foods. Children need nutrients from a variety of food groups to support their growing bodies and minds. They are more likely to try new foods, and to like more foods, if they are exposed at an early age. But don’t stop there. Here are some additional tips to get your child on a path to a lifetime of healthy habits. Lead by example. Let your child see you indulge in fruits and vegetables at meals and snacks. Go grocery shopping together. Use a trip to the grocery store to teach your child about food and nutrition. Discuss where foods come from and let them add their own healthy choices to your cart. Be creative in the kitchen and let your child help. Cut fruits into fun shapes with cookie cutters. Try a simple, healthy recipe like a trail mix with dry whole-grain cereals, nuts and dried fruits. And name a food your child helps make, like “Sarah’s zucchini noodles!” Prepare one meal for all. Avoid becoming a short order cook by accommodating different preferences or pickiness. This will expose your child to new foods and help to avert a picky eater. Plus, it is easier and cheaper to serve one meal to everyone in your family. Reward your child with a fun activity, not food. Celebrate with activities, such as a trip to the pool, a bike ride or family hike. When you use candy or dessert, especially as a reward, your child might think of those foods as better options. Eat dinner at a table and focus on each other. Pleasant topics at mealtime will help make dinner that much more enjoyable. Limit screen time. TV viewing has a direct correlation to obesity. Aim for less than two hours of TV per day. Listen to your child. If they are hungry, serve fruits or vegetables as between-meal snacks. Encourage physical activity. Play with your child and encourage outside activities. And, be an example. Research shows that children of parents who exercise are more likely to exercise as they grow up. Be sure to use safety gear such as bike helmets or other sport- specific gear. Don’t force it. Offer one new food at a time. Serve something your child likes along with the new food. Avoid lecturing or forcing your child to eat. Cook together, eat together, talk together and make mealtime family time! You can find more information on childhood eating at EllynSatterinstitute.org or at choosemyplate.gov. Authors By Ann Caldwell and Maureen Shackelford, nutritionists and registered dietitians at Anne Arundel Medical Center. To reach them call 443-481-5555. Originally published Sept. 11, 2017. Last updated Oct. 23, 2019.
- News & Press ReleasesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogAnne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) has again received Magnet® designation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program.® AAMC was first recognized as a Magnet organization in 2014, as the designation is bestowed every four years to organizations that continue to meet ANCC’s standards for nursing excellence. Magnet recognition is the highest national honor for professional nursing practice. Organizations must pass a rigorous and lengthy process that demands widespread participation from leadership and staff. This process includes an on-site visit and review by the Commission on Magnet Recognition. Only 502 U.S. health care organizations (out of over 6,300 U.S. hospitals) have achieved Magnet status. Watch as our team receives this honor: “Magnet recognition is a tremendous honor and reflects our commitment to delivering the highest quality of care to our community,” said Barbara Jacobs, chief nursing officer at AAMC. “To earn Magnet recognition is a great accomplishment and an incredible source of pride for our nurses and all of our caregivers. Our repeated achievement of the Magnet designation underscores the foundation of excellence and values that drive our entire staff to strive harder each day to meet the health care needs of the people we serve.” The Magnet Model provides a framework for nursing practice, research, and measurement of outcomes. The foundation of this model comprises various elements deemed essential to delivering superior patient care. These include the quality of nursing leadership and coordination and collaboration across specialties, as well as processes for measuring and improving the quality and delivery of care. Magnet recognition has been shown to provide specific benefits to hospitals and their communities, such as: Higher patient satisfaction Lower mortality and complication rates Higher job satisfaction among nurses “We’re a better organization today because of the Magnet recognition we first achieved five years ago,” added Jacobs. “Magnet recognition raised the bar for patient care and inspired every member of our team to achieve excellence every day. It is this commitment to providing our community with high-quality care that helped us become a Magnet-recognized organization, and it’s why we continue to pursue and maintain Magnet recognition.”
- Cancer Care, Women's HealthGeneral Page Tier 3BlogOver the past 15 years, rates of new breast cancer have remained stable. However, breast cancer deaths have steadily declined, driven by improvements in many aspects of breast cancer care. The good news is that better treatment doesn’t necessarily mean treatment that is more aggressive. In fact, during the same time period many breast cancer treatments have scaled back, and specialists are working hard to find even more ways to treat less while delivering better results. Here are just a few ways breast cancer treatment has scaled back over the past decade: Fewer lymph nodes removed. Most women with breast cancer need surgery to check the lymph nodes in the underarm for cancer cells. Usually, the surgeons will remove the first lymph nodes in a larger ‘web’ of lymph nodes under the arm. In the past, if any of the first lymph nodes had cancer, surgeons would remove all of the remaining lymph nodes as well. Unfortunately, the more lymph nodes that are removed, the higher the risk of side effects, such as swelling of the arm from backed up fluid. A few years ago, researchers proved that many women with cancer in the first lymph nodes do not need the remaining lymph nodes removed. As a result, surgeons are performing far fewer extensive lymph node surgeries, which has led to fewer complications for women with breast cancer. Less radiation. In the past, women who had a lumpectomy needed six or seven weeks of radiation afterward to treat the rest of the breast. More recently, however, many women have options for less radiation treatment, sometimes taking as little as one week. Targeted medical therapy. Medications particularly targeted at a more aggressive form of breast cancer, known as HER2 positive cancer, have dramatically improved survival. At the same time, women who receive these targeted treatments do not need as many chemotherapy drugs, so they experience fewer serious side effects. These and other improvements in breast cancer treatment are possible because of scientific research studies. Locally, specialists at the Rebecca Fortney Breast Center at Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) are also engaged in research to find ways to provide better care, while at the same time decreasing the side effects of treatment. Here are some of the exciting ways that research studies are moving breast cancer treatment forward today: Exploring the possibility of doing no surgery for some breast cancers that have shown excellent response to chemotherapy. Some women with breast cancer benefit from receiving chemotherapy before surgery. Sometimes, chemotherapy can shrink a tumor so that the patient requires less surgery. On occasion, the final microscopic analysis of the breast tissue removed after chemotherapy will even show that no cancer cells are detectable. If doctors could accurately predict which tumors would have no remaining cancer after chemotherapy, some breast cancers that show excellent response to chemotherapy might not need surgery at all. These women might be treated with chemotherapy and radiation alone. Although the approach of not having surgery would not be safe today, research studies are underway to determine if and when an approach of no surgery might be appropriate. Ultrasound to do less extensive lymph node surgery. Ultrasound, or sonogram, is a technique used to diagnose breast cancer in the lymph nodes before surgery. AAMC breast surgeons are studying information from ultrasound exams to tailor a patient’s treatment. Ultrasound may help to identify which patients with cancer in their lymph nodes should go to surgery, and which patients should start with chemotherapy prior to operation. For some patients, receiving chemotherapy prior to surgery may clear cancer from the lymph nodes, allowing the surgeon to remove fewer lymph nodes at the time of surgery. AAMC breast surgeons recently published research in the Annals of Surgical Oncology journal in this area in order to help specialists across the country improve their patient care. With rapid changes in the field of breast cancer care, medical decisions are complex. Talk to your doctor about which treatment option is best for you. We’ve seen amazing advances in breast cancer care in just a short time. I wonder what the next 15 years will bring? Author Rubie Sue Jackson, MD, is a breast surgeon at Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC). To learn more about the Rebecca Fortney Breast Center at AAMC, visit askAAMC.org/Breast. Originally published Oct. 2, 2017. Last updated Oct. 21, 2019.
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