Painting for Purpose sparks creativity
Participants of the Painting for Purpose event last month, at the Wesley Chapel Recreation Complex, show off their take-home creations as part of the RECreate Your Mind Mental Health Awareness campaign aimed to use leisure services as a catalyst to promote mental well-being and stress relief. The class was led by Guava-Rose, also the complex’s yoga instructor. For more information about upcoming campaign activities, call 813-345-3145.
New hospital opens
BayCare Health System has opened its newest state-of-the-art hospital at 4501 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in Wesley Chapel. The 86-bed, 318,000-square-foot hospital will provide comprehensive medical services and health care resources, including an emergency department, intensive care unit with virtual-monitoring beds, diagnostic services such as imaging and lab, and surgical services. For more information, visit BayCareWesleyChapel.org.
Trauma Center verification
HCA Florida Bayonet Hospital is a Verified Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma (COT), a voluntary process designed to evaluate and improve trauma care, according to a news release.
The hospital is a designated Level 2 Trauma Center by the Florida Department of Health and the ACS process verifies that the hospital has the resources listed in the COT’s current Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient manual.
The Bayonet hospital is the only designated Trauma Center in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.
It recently opened a 30-bed Inpatient Rehabilitation Center to further support the rehabilitative needs of patients recovering from a wide range of illness and injury, including trauma.
Human Trafficking
Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano has announced that 100% of the tax collector’s office employees are trained in human trafficking awareness — every active employee has completed an extensive training in the recognition of human trafficking, according to a news release.
The office is now part of Attorney General Ashley Moody’s “100% Club,” a designation that indicates the agency has taken the proactive steps needed to train employees to recognize the signs of human trafficking and have been given the resources to report the indications to law enforcement, the release said.
“I applaud Staff Development Manager Alicia Albanese and her staff for putting in the hard work to ensure that all 229 active employees of the tax collector’s office have been trained to recognize the red flags of this crime,” said Fasano, in the release.
“Utilizing curriculum created by the Florida Alliance to End Human Trafficking, we have taken the positive steps needed to make sure our employees are fully trained in spotting human trafficking in its many forms,” said Fasano.
New tumor treatment
Advanced Cancer Treatment Centers now uses a combination of imaging and motion management technologies from Varian Medical Systems to treat a wide range of cases involving moving tumors, according to a news release.
The treatment combines the use of Varian’s On-Board Imager device for automated, image-guided patient positioning with Varian’s respiratory gating for synchronizing treatment with the patient’s respiratory cycle, the release said.
Respiratory gating is a non-invasive technique for dealing with tumor motion during radiation therapy treatments for cancer. The computer-aided technique synchronizes the radiation therapy with a patient’s breathing patterns. This enables doctors to safely treat lung and other cancers of the chest and abdomen with radiation therapy, while exposing less volume of healthy tissue to radiation.
“Respiratory gating lets us treat during only part of the respiratory cycle and that allows us to minimize tumor motion so we will be aiming at a smaller area for treatments,” said Dr. Clayton Alonso, board-certified radiation oncologist, in the release.
For more information, visit ACTCHealth.com, or call 352-345-4565.
