HJNO May/Jun 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  MAY / JUN 2022 39 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalNO.com stimulus – repetitive exposures of the mice to environmental hypoxia – air with low oxygen con- tent akin to what we experience at high altitude – for one hour per day, three times per week over two consecutive months, prevented loss of rec- ognition memory and reversed impairments in nerve-to-nerve communication in the hippocam- pus, a key brain region involved in memory con- solidation. They also documented the same resil- ience to memory impairment in adult offspring of a separate group of mice exposed to repetitive hypoxia prior to mating – an inter-generational epigenetic response. Terrebonne General Wound and Hyperbaric Clinic Receives Restorix Patient Satisfaction Award Terrebonne General Health System announced the Terrebonne General Wound and Hyperbaric Clinic is a recipient of RestorixHealth’s Patient Sat- isfaction Award. Recipients of this award meet or exceed national patient satisfaction bench- marks over a set period of time. RestorixHealth launched its Center Recognition Award for Patient Satisfaction program to recognize those centers that have met or achieved a patient sat- isfaction score of 96% or higher. Louisiana Healthcare Connections Offers Peer-to- Peer Provider Continuing Education Series Louisiana Healthcare Connections is offering their spring provider educational series featur- ing webinars with healthcare experts from across Louisiana. In partnership with Louisiana Academy of Fam- ily Physicians (LAFP), Louisiana Chapter of Amer- ican Academy of Pediatrics (LA AAP), and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Loui- siana, each session in the seven-topic series will focus on challenging health issues confronting healthcare providers in Louisiana. A peer expert will discuss the issue’s impact on our state and actions healthcare providers can take. Addition- ally, the Lunch and Learn sessions will include tips to streamline claims and administration, and to maximize quality-based incentives offered to providers by Louisiana Healthcare Connections. These learning opportunities also qualify for continuing education credits (CE’s, CMEs and CNE’s) for physicians, nurses, and social workers, where applicable. “These peer-to-peer sessions focus on real- world healthcare challenges facing physicians in our state, helping providers solve the issues they see every day in their practices,” said Stew- art Gordon, MD, chief medical officer for Louisi- ana Healthcare Connections. “In this way, we help ensure the highest quality care for our members.” Attendance is free, but registration is required. Interested healthcare professionals should sign up at https://lahealth.cc/learn. TulaneWins $2.27MGrant to Combat Burnout Among HealthcareWorkers The Tulane University School of Social Work (TSSW) plans to address issues associated with burnout as part of a $2.27 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. Over the next three years, TSSW will team up with Access Health Louisiana, a network of com- munity health clinics, to develop, implement, and disseminate innovative, evidence-based self-care models that address retention, burnout and overall wellbeing and resiliency of the health- care workforce. The program is called Project RETAIN (Resil- ient, Empowered, Trained, and Invested Net- work). Initially, it will target healthcare workers in rural, medically underserved communities in the Gulf South, with longer-term goals of taking the program regionally and nationally. “Tulane School of Social Work has well- regarded experts who have significantly contrib- uted to the knowledge base around burnout, compassion fatigue and resilience,” said TSSW Dean Patrick Bordnick. “This grant enables us to apply this expertise to assisting the helping pro- fessions in the here and now so that they can bet- ter care for the broader community and fill the emerging needs to come.” The study will be led by Tonya Hansel, direc- tor of TSSW’s doctorate program, and include numerous faculty members. Others on the team include Anneliese Singh, Tulane’s chief diversity officer and a TSSW faculty member; Stephen Murphy, an assistant professor in Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; and experts from Access Health Louisiana. Project RETAIN will employ a multi-component, evidence-driven strategy to achieve its goals. It will begin with a series of surveys and interviews with healthcare workers and agencies to reduce gaps in knowledge regarding self-care needs and barriers. Based on those responses, the team will implement short-term resilience trainings to fos- ter compassion fatigue resilience and reduce burnout. Healthcare workers will participate in three self- care service models – routine self-care training, or standard care; innovative engagement in activi- ties selected by healthcare workers; and access to virtual reality mindfulness approaches. “Evaluation of these approaches will increase understanding of how well and for whom differ- ent approaches work,” Hansel said. Based on ongoing evaluations, the team will develop and implement a training-the-trainer toolkit aimed at expanding the reach of the pro- gram to approximately 6,500 healthcare workers. 2022 Health Summit Outlines Policy Solutions Public health professionals, education profes- sionals, and individuals invested in the well-being of Louisianans gathered virtually for the 2022 Health Summit: Pathways through Policy for Equi- table Recovery. Local, state, and nationally recog- nized speakers lead discussions around pathways to equitable recovery, renewal, and resilience to move Louisiana forward. Gov. John Bel Edwards opened the two-day summit, followed by Gail Christopher, MD, exec- utive director, National Collaborative for Health Equity, who served as the keynote speaker. Davondra Brown, director of the Bureau of Com- munity Partnerships and Health Equity for the Louisiana Department of Health, was also on hand to discuss how the department is address- ing health equity and moving Louisiana forward. The summit was organized via the Louisiana Center for Health Equity in collaboration with the Louisiana Department of Health Office of Pub- lic Health and Pennington Biomedical Research Center.