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Volume 10 • Issue 3 • Summer 2006
St. John’s encourages smoking cessation as
all Missouri health care
facilities and grounds become smoke-free this fall
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We hope this issue finds you and your family happy and healthy, and
enjoying summer safely.
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Welcome to
the summer edition of Healthy People magazine.
The Springfield-Greene County Health Department released its 2006
Community Health Report in the spring. St. John’s was pleased to
learn that nearly 90 percent of pregnant women in Greene County are
receiving prenatal care in the first trimester, and childhood
immunization rates have remained almost as high for the last four
years.
One concerning statistic on the report card, however, is that about
20 percent of pregnant women in Greene County continue to smoke
while pregnant.
In this issue, St. John’s encourages expectant parents to get help
to quit smoking through their physician or through one of St. John’s
smoking cessation programs, Road to Freedom and Smoke-Free Babies,
which is designed specifically to help pregnant women break the
habit.
On Sept. 1, all St. John’s facilities and grounds will become
smoke-free, in accordance with a state-mandated policy that requires
all Missouri health care facilities and grounds to be tobacco-free
in order to maintain their licenses.
Visitors to St. John’s facilities who smoke will be handed a
business card with information about smoking cessation and asked to
not smoke while on St. John’s property. We ask for your
understanding and cooperation as we make this transition.
St. John’s is proud to be one of 10 health care organizations
selected to participate in the first pay-for-performance initiative
for physicians under the national Medicare program.
The project gives physician groups an opportunity to demonstrate
that improving care in a proactive and coordinated manner also
reduces costs, which is something that St. John’s has been doing for
years. Read how two St. John’s physicians are participating in this
project with a custom-designed, computerized patient registry.
On page 8, read how one 30-minute treatment with St. John’s
CyberKnife offered a Fremont Hills resident an alternative to
surgery for a tumor that affected her hearing.
Also in this issue is an article on the 50th anniversary of St.
John’s-St. Francis Hospital in Mountain View. Sister M. Cornelia
Blasko, DSF, who came to Mountain View in August 1956 to reopen the
hospital, will also celebrate her 50th year of ministry at St.
Francis this fall.
On page 18, a St. John’s dietitian offers parents tips for
encouraging kids to eat their veggies, without turning your kitchen
table into a battleground.
We hope this issue finds you and your family happy and healthy, and
enjoying summer safely.
Sincerely,
Kim Day
St. John’s Health System President / CEO |
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