Non-urgent surgeries reduced
BayCare Health Systems has begun to reduce the number of non-urgent surgeries performed at its hospitals in Hillsborough and Polk counties, due to the rising number of severely ill COVID-19 patients, according to a BayCare news release.
The temporary change in policy went into effect on July 16 and impacts all six of BayCare’s Hillsborough locations: St. Joseph’s Hospital, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Women’s in Tampa; St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz; St. Joseph’s Hospitals-South in Riverview; and, South Florida Baptist in Plant City.
Under the plan, all surgeries for life-threatening situations will continue to be performed. And, unlike the state-mandated ban on elective surgeries earlier this year, BayCare’s effort will still allow many non-urgent surgeries and procedures to continue. Generally, surgeries that could be deferred are those that are not medically urgent and require overnight recovery in the hospital.
BayCare’s Ambulatory Surgery Centers, which specialize in outpatient surgery and were closed under the earlier government ban on electives, will continue to operate.
In the past month, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk and Pasco counties have seen available hospital bed capacity decline significantly due to rising COVID-19 cases.
Lighthouse is August charity
Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano’s five offices will be collecting donations in August for the Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired & Blind. The mission of the Lighthouse is to educate, empower and employ people who are visually impaired and blind.
The organization provides early intervention services for blind babies, programs for children, a teen school-to-work transition program, independent living skills training for adults and seniors, and other services to help people become as self-sufficient as possible.
Services are provided at no cost to program participants and all donations received will help provide more services to more people.
“The Lighthouse has a long history of serving visually impaired individuals in Pasco County,” said Fasano, in a news release.
“It is estimated that over a half million Floridians are sight impaired, with over 27,000 living within the Lighthouse’s service area….I encourage our community to support the Lighthouse either through making a cash donation or perhaps purchasing a specialty license tag, which will help the Lighthouse for years to come,” Fasano added.
Cash donations can be made at any of the five tax collector locations in Pasco County, and checks will be accepted by mail, too.
Individuals interested in switching their current tag for “A State of Vision” specialty tag may do so at any of the same locations.
For information about the tax collector’s charitable giving program, call Assistant Tax Collector Greg Giordano at (727) 847-8179, or visit PascoTaxes.com.
For more information about services provided at the Lighthouse, call Patricia Porter at (813) 713-2492.
Study volunteers needed
Researchers at the University of South Florida Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute are looking for participants age 50 and older with no memory loss to take part in an Alzheimer Prevention Trials (APT) Webstudy.
The Webstudy is a first-of-its-kind online study that detects if people experience memory loss over time and need early intervention, and matches them with the right Alzheimer’s study, as quickly as possible.
Twenty percent of Floridians, more than 4.3 million people, are 65 and older, making Florida one of the ‘grayest states’ in the nation. Consequently, it has one of the largest populations of people with Alzheimer’s disease — a projected 580,000. This number is expected to skyrocket by 24% to 720,000 people in the next five years, according to a Message Partners PR news release.
Volunteers take no-cost memory tests online every three months to monitor memory changes over time. If changes are observed, volunteers may be invited to an in-person evaluation to determine eligibility for additional Alzheimer’s studies.
To learn more and enroll, visit APTWebstudy.org.
New health degrees offered
Saint Leo University has announced the start of a new four-year degree — a bachelor’s in health education and health promotion — that will prepare graduates for a growing number of health education positions at community organizations, health care agencies, and workplaces.
Health education specialists play an important role in organizations by developing new education programs for various groups and improving programs that may already exist.
The instruction of Saint Leo graduates will be to promote a “culture of health” wherever they work, through effective teaching, through the examples they set as individuals who prioritize their own well-being, and through the cooperative working relationships they maintain with clinicians and other health professionals.
Saint Leo will launch the Bachelor of Science program in the fall semester at its residential campus. Faculty anticipate that students most attracted to the program will be those with a desire to learn about health and to engage with others, and those who enjoy working with groups of people.
The program will prepare students with a contemporary curriculum that draws from courses in anatomy, professional speaking, statistics, psychology, ethics, and nutrition, and layers in courses in education and health promotion.
Education courses, such as teaching diverse populations, brain-based learning and assessing health learning, will ensure that students not only understand health material, but are able to make it understandable to future clients.
At the end of this program of study, students can choose to take a national competency exam for the Certified Health Education Specialist credential. Some employers require the credential. In general, it is considered an asset for those in the field.
Visit SaintLeo.edu for information.
