[
music playing ] Hi, I'm Dana Jay, and this is Henry Ford Health System News.
We focus on all the ways that our team members make lives better through
excellence in the science and art of care.
Sometimes that means bringing you an extra dose of cuteness.
We have both animals and babies for you this time around,
and sometimes it means telling you how research and innovations are making a
difference in our communities.
We start this time with a study that aims to improve voter participation.
Research shows that practicing physicians typically vote at a lower rate than
the general public. Emergency medicine physicians.
Nikhil Goyal ,Emily Ervin, and Taher Vohra teamed
up to see if that trend held true for doctors in training.
We were curious, and we didn't really know what our assumptions were of,
do residents actually vote, and if they don't vote,
what are some of the barriers that might keep them from doing that.
Research conducted in 2018 and 2019 was encouraging.
We did find that our residents and fellows, so our trainees,
vote at higher rates than the general population,
even when compared to people of their own age cohort,
which was actually very surprising to us because we thought that residents being
so busy would actually vote less.
Even though Henry Ford residents and fellows were more engaged than the general
public over the course of four elections,
the researchers wanted to see if simple interventions would tick participation
rates up even higher.
Why don't they make time for it? Isn't an interest issue. Is it an,
is it an understanding of how important it is to their own personal practice?
Is it a barrier such as just not having the time to go do it?
Goyal who has experienced as a computer programmer and coder created an app to
help Henry Ford team members register to vote and request absentee ballots?
The research team is working with Henry Ford government affairs to talk to
residents about the major issues in the election.
How does it affect them? Not just to motivate them to vote,
but also to point out to them that it's actually not that hard to request a
ballot and turn it in.
After the election, the team will study whether or not voting rates improved.
And if Henry Ford trainees cast ballots at a greater rate than their peers and
other local programs.
And now let's take a look inside a brand new hybrid operating room.
Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital is the latest to add an advanced procedural space
that combines a traditional operating room with an image guided intervention
suite.
It's a critical step in creating Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital's structural
heart program.
The hybrid operating room combines the powerful imaging equipment of a cardiac
catheterization lab with the specialized features of an operating room designed
for open heart surgery.
That means if a patient undergoing a minimally invasive cardiac procedure
suddenly needs open heart surgery,
they don't need to be transferred to another operating room.
And that can be lifesaving.
The purpose of this room is to bring the most advanced minimally invasive
technologies with the ability to do them in a mixed fashion with surgical
access with bailouts and high risk patients,
and to do things in collaborations,
with different specialties that we haven't been able to do and bringing all that
technology and better crisper pictures with less radiation dosing
built in ultrasound capabilities allows for minimally invasive imaging
anesthesia built into the room ability to go on heart lung bypass
and uniquely We have this table that has been done in
very few other installations that allows us to position patients in
ways previously not possible in hybrid operating rooms to
allow for more advanced, uh,
neck and head procedures than we've been previously able to do.
Henry Ford also has hybrid operating rooms at our hospitals in Detroit and
Macomb. Okay, now that double dose of cuteness that I promised you,
and we're going to start at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital.
The therapy dogs are back here.
They are returning for the first time since COVID precautions went into effect.
This is a day I've been hoping for since we had to stop it in March.
And it's just wonderful to bring it back.
I keep hearing the dogs are missed at the hospital and to be able to bring it
back and have them get the greeting they're getting is absolutely wonderful.
I know people have gone through some very stringent and stressful times,
and I knew nothing could beat that better than being able to see
and pet the dogs.
There are new COVID protocols in place.
Hand sanitizer before and after interacting with the dogs.
You'll notice handlers are wearing masks and face shields,
and the dogs have learned a new command "go say hi",
urging them to walk toward their new friend rather than having that person get
close to the handler.
For now to ensure those protocols are followed only therapy dogs owned by Henry
Ford West Bloomfield Hospital are visiting.
And now let's go to the Henry Ford pumpkin patch also known as the neonatal
intensive care unit at Henry Ford Hospital.
The annual Halloween photo shoot was as cute as ever with the babies,
posed with props and dressed in outfits, knit by nurse Sarah Muzzin.
But this year Infection Control required an extra step to disinfect the
costumes for our tiniest patients.
They use the Xenex robot to blast the costumes with UV light.
The robot is typically used to disinfect patient rooms and surgical suites.
The photos of the little pumpkins are always a hit with their parents and our
friends on social media. Finally,
this time around our featured photo comes from our virtual care team,
a small but mighty group of seven,
who have worked behind the scenes to enable Henry Ford doctors and patients to
conduct than 180,000 virtual visits. So far this year,
the team took some time for an outdoor retreat at a local cider mill to
celebrate, reconnect, and take in Michigan's beautiful fall views.
We want to see what your team is up to.
So send us your featured photos and your story ideas.
The best email is newstips@hfhs.org.
Thanks for watching. And I'll see you around.
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