News - St. Clair Hospital

St. Clair Hospital Donates Meals To Meals On Wheels

Written on December 10, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — St. Clair Hospital is stepping up to help Meals on Wheels in a time of need.

Meals on Wheels of Peters Township said the hospital will deliver 175 hot meals on Monday morning.

On Friday, five volunteers at the Meals on Wheels of were taken to the hospital after a carbon monoxide leak.

Due to the evacuation, the 150 meals that were in the ovens were not delivered to clients.

The kitchen was also closed and a new exhaust fan needs to be installed.

No meals can be prepared until the fan is fixed.

The hospital will also send one of its repair persons to check out the vent.

Links: https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/video/4232515-st-clair-hospital-donates-meals-to-meals-on-wheels/ and https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019/12/07/st-clair-hospital-to-help-meals-on-wheels/

St. Clair Designated as Hip and Knee Joint Replacement Surgery Center of Excellence

Written on December 9, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories, News Releases.

UPMC Health Plan announced it has designated St. Clair Hospital as a UPMC Health Plan Hip and Knee Joint Replacement Surgery Center of Excellence.

This UPMC Health Plan program recognizes surgical facilities and orthopedic surgeons who demonstrate high quality outcomes, low complication rates, and the best patient experience for UPMC Health Plan members in need of joint replacement surgery. Board-certified orthopedic surgeon Brett C. Perricelli, M.D., who performs hip and knee joint replacement surgery exclusively at St. Clair Hospital, was cited for demonstrating rigorous quality measures with excellent outcomes and exceptional patient experiences. Dr. Perricelli practices with South Hills Orthopaedic Surgery Associates.

St. Clair Hospital Leads The Region With Its 15th Consecutive ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade From The Leapfrog Group

Written on November 7, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories, News Releases.

MT. LEBANON, Pa. – The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit health care ratings organization, today released new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades for Fall 2019, awarding St. Clair Hospital an “A” for its commitment to keeping patients safe and meeting the highest safety standards in the U.S. St. Clair Hospital’s A grade is the Hospital’s 15th consecutive A, placing St. Clair amongst the top hospitals in the country and the leader in the region for patient safety. The Safety Grade assigns letter grades of A, B, C, D and F to hospitals nationwide based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms.

Developed under the guidance of a Blue Ribbon National Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign A, B, C, D and F grades to more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals twice per year. It is calculated by top patient safety experts, peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.

TAVR Treatment Offering Hope To Aortic Stenosis Patients

Written on September 27, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories.

Needing a heart valve replacement used to mean open heart surgery, but now doctors are doing it in a much less invasive way.

“We call him Superman. He’s always been our Superman. We truly thought we were losing him,” says John Lieberman’s daughter, Amy.

He had a problem with one of his heart valves — a problem that nearly cost this Superman his life.

“I was sort like out of breath at times, if I went up the steps, and I would stop half way, or a third of the way, and then continue on,” he says.

Aortic stenosis happens when the aortic valve, becomes calcified, stiff and tight. The heart has to work harder to pump blood out to the body, and the heart gets weaker, leading to fatigue, shortness of breath and swelling in the legs.

Without any intervention, death is the usual outcome.

Typically, doctors would do surgery to fix the issue — take out the old valve, and sew in a new one — not a matter to take lightly.

“Once you start operating on people that are elderly, especially around the aortic valve, you “increase the risk of infections and stroke,” says Dr. Andy Kiser, a cardiac surgeon at St. Clair Hospital.

Doctors came up with a new way, called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement — or TAVR.

Mayo Clinic, St. Clair Hospital Hail Partnership

Written on September 26, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories.

Mayo Clinic and St. Clair Hospital officials say they’re happy with the partnership from both ends of its clinical relationship.

The Mt. Lebanon hospital struck a collaboration with the Mayo Clinic in 2016, allowing among other things St. Clair Hospital the ability to be connected with Mayo Clinic specialists for diagnosis, treatment or clinical management of complex diseases. It’s one of only about 40 such relationships Mayo has with other hospitals. Both sides said it’s working well.

Dr. Henry H. Ting, a professor of medicine and chief value officer of the Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic, and Dr. David L. Hayes, medical director, provider relations-international, recently visited St. Clair Hospital and spoke with the hospital’s staff and presented a talk on value-based care.

Ting and Hayes spoke to St. Clair staff about the importance of institutional excellence and a strong culture at the Mayo Clinic. Hayes, who visits potential as well as existing partners, said a laser-focus on culture and quality are among the key attributes of successful partners.

St. Clair Hospital Named A ‘Most Wired’ Hospital

Written on September 25, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories, News Releases.

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – St. Clair Hospital has been named a Level 8 Most Wired hospital in the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives’ (CHIME) 2019 Most Wired Survey. A Level 8 designation highlights hospitals that have deployed technologies and strategies (e.g., population health/cost-of-care analytics, HIEs/integration engines, and patient portals) to help them analyze their data and are achieving meaningful clinical and efficiency outcomes.

St. Clair Hospital’s Dr. Florez weighs in on Roethlisberger Injury

Written on September 17, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – When a local doctor saw a replay of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow injury, he immediately knew it would be serious.

As someone who treats elbow injuries daily, it wasn’t hard for Dr. Gerson Florez at St. Clair Hospital to realize Roethlisberger suffered a serious injury after he saw the Steelers quarterback holding and shaking his elbow in Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks.

The question is: which side of the elbow? Was it on the outside or on the inside?

St. Clair Hospital expansion gets $1 million gift from Richard King Mellon Foundation

Written on September 3, 2019. Posted in Uncategorized.

The St. Clair Hospital Foundation has received a $1 million donation from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to help build a state-of-the-art outpatient center for the hospital’s main campus in Mt. Lebanon.

The money is earmarked for what will be called the Dunlap Family Outpatient Center.

The donation brings to $28 million the total in grants and private gifts toward the $142 million project. The development, largest in the hospital’s history, is intended to meet growing patient demand and adapt to trends in health care nationally, officials said Friday in announcing the gift.

Construction is underway, and planners hope to open the outpatient building in late 2020.

Foundation gives $1M to help build St. Clair Hospital new outpatient center

Written on August 30, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories.

The six-floor outpatient center that is being built at St. Clair Hospital is getting a $1 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation.

The grant will help build the $142 million Dunlap Family Outpatient Center, which will include preop and postop suites, diagnostics and physician offices, and will be connected on two floors to St. Clair Hospital in Mt. Lebanon. The award-winning independent hospital, with 2,300 employees, is meeting patient demand with the new center.

Groundbreaking Medical Announcement on Transcatheter Aortic-Valve Replacement Made at St. Clair Hospital Heart Team Summit

Written on August 16, 2019. Posted in Most Read News Stories, News Releases.

MT. LEBANON, Pa. (August 16, 2019) – Lead author of a groundbreaking study on Transcatheter Aortic Valve-Replacement (TAVR), Michael Mack, M.D., Medical Director of Cardiovascular Surgery at Baylor Health Care System, announced today FDA approval of TAVR for low risk patients at St. Clair Hospital’s Heart Team Summit.

This announcement expands the availability of TAVR for all patients with aortic stenosis, not just those who are at high-risk.

TAVR is offered at St. Clair Hospital by Andy Kiser, M.D., and Ryan Zuzek, M.D.

About St. Clair Hospital

St. Clair Hospital is a nationally recognized integrated health system with more than 2,500 employees and 600 physicians serving 500,000 residents of southwestern Pennsylvania. In 2016, it became a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. As the region’s largest independent hospital, St. Clair participates with all major insurers.