Latest news with #MultiCare
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Puyallup hospital's new robotic technology revolutionizes lung cancer diagnosis
New robotic technology has arrived at Puyallup's MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital – and it creates a world of difference for lung cancer patients in Pierce County. The DaVinci ION robotic surgery system is used during lung biopsies, where doctors find lung growths and gather the information they need for treatment. 'This is a worldwide phenomenon,' said Abhishek Biswas, a pulmonologist at MultiCare. 'It was much harder to get a stage 1 diagnosis before the advent of this ION.' Biswas told The News Tribune the technology came out around 2019 or 2020, and MultiCare first acquired it in 2022. Good Samaritan Hospital acquired the new system in April. 'We wanted to expand [to Good Samaritan] — not as a big business venture, but to make sure patients have care close to home,' Biswas said. 'Get treated and, subsequently, get care.' The News Tribune asked MultiCare how much it cost them to acquire the technology, but they declined to say. The procedure happens after a doctor has run a CT scan on someone and detected nodules in their lungs. 'We need to know if the nodule is malignant or benign — if it is cancer, what type of cancer? What is the stage?' Biswas said. 'This procedure gives us answers to all three of these questions at the very outset.' It is not a surgery, Biswas said, it is a minimally-invasive procedure. The doctor gives the patient general anesthesia and conducts X-rays — then puts a needle and probe down the patient's mouth. The tools go down the throat, through the trachea and down to the lungs. On another screen, doctors use the patient's previous CT scan to map a path to the nodule. 'It generates a map to reach into the nodule, into the lung, and once we actually have that map ready, we go down the mouth with a tiny catheter on my way into the nodule,' Biswas said. This helps with accuracy, Biswas said, as the nodule is constantly changing positions as the patient breathes. After the procedure, patients can get a diagnosis as early as 45 minutes after doctors wrap up, Biswas said. Biswas told The News Tribune the procedure is covered under Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance. He has not seen any denials. Before the ION system came out, doctors couldn't do anything if the lung nodules were less than a centimeter. Instead, they were forced to wait until the nodules grew to a size where they could perform the procedure and get information they needed about the growth. 'Historically, the strategy has been we used to have a scan for this photo and [then] watch them grow and do another scan – and only when it reached a substantial size would someone be able to get tissue from that,' Biswas said. '[Patients] have the knowledge there to make a decision on what they want to do next … no normal human being likes to be in a situation with so much uncertainty.' Biswas said that while only 4% of nodules are malignant, it is important to catch potential cancer as early as possible. The five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients was more than 80% when detected during stage 1 — significantly more than the 60% five-year survival rate at stage 2. 'The whole idea is, we are trying to identify lung cancer in the early stages so we don't have loss of lung functions or quality of life,' Biswas said. This procedure used to be two different procedures, Biswas said, until the ION system allowed doctors to combine them into one. It also used to be a lot more invasive, with doctors making a puncture in the chest and reaching into the tissue until they found the nodule. '[It's] 1/20th of the risk that we did before — so, so much better for the patients,' Biswas said.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Pierce County man with dementia walked away from hospital. He made it 9 miles
On a gloomy morning in June 2024, an elderly Orting man stood gingerly in front of a King County sheriff's deputy on a wet, rural two-lane road in Kent. The deputy held steady onto the man's right hand for support, as if the two were prolonging a handshake, and asked him if he knew his current whereabouts. Gary Lay, a 74-year-old retired Boeing worker, responded, 'Yes,' but then he laughed. He couldn't give a straight answer. He appeared disoriented. Body-camera footage obtained by The News Tribune captured the scene from June 15, 2024, including law enforcement's efforts to solve an apparent mystery. 'What is he doing up here?' one deputy can be heard asking. Lay, who suffers from dementia, wandered overnight for more than 10 hours and at least nine miles, walking away from Auburn Medical Center where he had been admitted the day prior to undergo an evaluation for his condition, according to a lawsuit filed this week against the hospital's owner, Tacoma-based MultiCare. The complaint, filed in King County Superior Court on Tuesday, alleges that MultiCare knew Lay had dementia and was a significant flight risk but failed to properly monitor him, implement an adequate plan to prevent him from leaving or detect his absence within a reasonable time. No missing-persons report was filed with law enforcement and no Silver Alert — an advisory for missing persons over 60 years old — was requested, the lawsuit claimed. 'This should never have happened. We entrusted him into their care,' Marcene Lay, the victim's wife of nearly 40 years, told The News Tribune in an interview Tuesday. 'He's very vulnerable. He cannot take care of himself. And they let him down. He should never have been able to walk away from that hospital.' Marcene Lay, 65, is the plaintiff in the suit, named individually and as the power of attorney for her husband, according to a copy of the complaint. She and her attorney, Neil Stubbs, spoke to The News Tribune about the incident from Stubbs' law office in downtown Tacoma. Stubbs claimed that medical records he obtained indicated that MultiCare did nothing to try to find Gary Lay, who he noted has the mental capacity of a child due to his condition. 'Imagine if a 1 to 1-1/2 year old had escaped day care,' he said. 'What would happen?' In a statement, MultiCare spokesperson Scott Thompson said that the health care system could not respond to the allegations because litigation was ongoing. 'MultiCare's commitment to our mission — partnering for healing and a healthy future — is unwavering,' Thompson said. 'We have no higher priority than the health and safety of every patient in our care.' Gary and Marcene Lay met in Palm Springs, California, and lived in Orting for three decades. Gary Lay is an Air Force veteran who served two tours in Vietnam. Both worked in the aviation industry until Marcene Lay later took a job in the Orting School District, she said. The couple have two children. Around 2021, Gary Lay began to exhibit signs of dementia — a broad term for symptoms that affect memory, thinking and social abilities, according to Mayo Clinic. Its most common cause is Alzheimer's disease. Prior to then, personal issues in their relationship led Marcene Lay to move out of their Orting home, but she remained nearby. She took care of him after his diagnosis, she said, including ensuring that his bills were paid and he had groceries. She ultimately would begin to split time between Orting and Oregon, where she had family who also needed her attention. In 2023, Marcene Lay said she received a phone call that her husband had wandered from his home and needed to be placed in a facility for seniors who require care for dementia. For nearly a year, Gary Lay stayed at an assisted-living facility in South Hill. As he gradually declined and grew more agitated, the facility sought to adjust his psychiatric medications. To do so, he needed to be admitted for as long as a week to Auburn Medical Center, according to Marcene Lay. 'He does not know who I am at all,' she said. 'Doesn't recognize me a bit, which is probably the hardest part ever.' His hospital stay would prove to be short-lived. On his first day, he walked out at roughly 11 p.m. and was seen leaving by staff who didn't intervene, the lawsuit claimed. At about 9:30 the next morning, someone called 911 to report that Gary Lay was disoriented in the vicinity of the 31400 block of East Morton Drive Southeast in Kent, the suit said. Gary Lay may have walked for longer than nine miles, according to Stubbs. The estimated distance of 9.2 miles was calculated using a direct path between the hospital and where he was found. There were six to eight potential routes that Gary Lay could have taken, a couple of which would have required him to cross State Route 18 twice. Marcene Lay said she was told by a deputy it was believed her husband had traveled 13 miles and crossed SR 18 at least once before he was found in a yard, curled up and hurt. 'How he's still alive, I have no clue,' she said. Marcene Lay recalled driving to Washington from Oregon after being notified of the situation by the couple's daughter, who had received a call from a deputy. 'I was flabbergasted,' Marcene Lay said. In the body-camera footage, which was shared by Stubbs with The News Tribune, Gary Lay is bent noticeably to his right and hobbling in a blue jacket and dark pants. The video begins with Gary Lay standing on the side of a road and speaking with a deputy near the deputy's parked patrol vehicle. Deputies who responded to the location where his trek ended called medical aid to attend to his injured back, according to the footage. Law enforcement learned that Gary Lay had been in a memory-care facility and knew, based on his hospital wristband, he was in a hospital the prior day. It was clear from the footage that deputies were investigating where he had come from — his bracelet apparently didn't have the hospital's name — and one deputy worked to identify and reach out to family members. After a deputy informed a partner that Gary Lay's daughter had confirmed his admittance to Auburn Medical Center, the other deputy replied: 'And he walked away? And nobody knows? Holy.' Marcene Lay is suing MultiCare for negligence and abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult, among other claims, according to the suit. The complaint seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress, medical expenses and other causes, and legal fees. The incident negatively affected Gary Lay, who was subsequently in the Auburn hospital for roughly two weeks for treatment, according to his wife. She said that a COVID-19 outbreak in the facility's geriatric psychiatric center precluded her husband from receiving the evaluation he was originally intended to have. As a result, Gary Lay couldn't return to his assisted-living facility in South Hill, forcing Marcene Lay to act quickly to find him a new home in Puyallup. 'I want the hospital to have a protocol or a system or something that never lets this happen again to anybody,' she said. 'That's the biggest thing I want out of it. It should not have happened to him and it should never happen to anybody else.'
Axios
27-03-2025
- Health
- Axios
Early evidence shows AI scribes reduce burnout, but without financial improvement
AI-powered medical transcription tools are alleviating clinician burnout but not yet saving practices money or making care more efficient, according to a report from the Peterson Health Technology Institute. Why it matters: AI scribes that can securely transcribe medical notes for providers have exploded in popularity, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investments. State of play: There are now about 60 companies offering technology that listens to and transcribes a patient appointment using AI. The promise of so-called ambient scribes to alleviate clinician stress is driving health systems to pilot these tools, the Peterson institute says. As providers increasingly adopt AI scribes, the institute convened a task force of developers, health systems, investors and academics last year to discuss the outlook for the technology. What they found: Mass General Brigham found a 40% reduction in reported burnout during a six-week survey pilot of an AI scribe, the institute's report says. MultiCare, a health system in Washington state, found a 63% reduction in clinician-reported burnout due to AI scribe use. Anecdotes and survey evidence from other providers also show that AI scribes improve clinician and patient experience. Yes, but: It's too early to tell if the AI tools are making health providers more efficient. A study of 112 physicians using an ambient scribe at Atrium Health showed that the technology did not reach that goal overall. Task force members also haven't seen significant financial improvements from their scribe technologies. "As interest grows beyond a subset of clinicians and costs remain significant, health systems will increasingly need to demonstrate a clear return on investment, particularly at current prices," the report notes.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MultiCare's MyChart, other systems were out of commission Monday. Here's what happened
Tacoma-based MultiCare health system's operations are back to normal following a network outage. MultiCare media representative Scott Thompson, in response to questions from The News Tribune, said via email that all systems 'were back up and running' as of 7:30 p.m. Monday evening. The initial incident occurred in the early-morning hours Monday. Thompson explained that the issue 'stemmed from rain that filled a power vault at the Mary Bridge hospital construction site. A conduit allowed water to collect in one of our data centers, which shorted out an electrical switch and left hardware at risk due to the water.' A new Mary Bridge Children's Hospital is under construction. The new hospital will include a new inpatient hospital tower, ambulatory building with specialty clinics and urgent-care services, and new parking structures. The site has a projected completion date of early next year, according to the project's online site. Monday's outage reportedly affected the health system's electronic health records (MyChart) and other online networks. 'The computer hardware was tended to and the switch replaced,' Thompson added, with services restored by Monday evening. In February, a separate electrical mishap affected MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital and Mary Bridge Children's Hospital for several days. In that instance, they were reduced to generator power after a water leak in a piece of medical equipment at Tacoma General short-circuited an electrical switch feeding Phillips Pavilion at the hospital, 315 MLK Jr. Way. Repairs were further delayed by a small fire that later broke out in an electrical vault. Full power was restored a few days later. Previous reporting by The News Tribune contributed to this report.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kootenai Health, MultiCare to build 30-acre medical campus in Post Falls
Mar. 12—With goals of eventually opening a new hospital, Kootenai Health and MultiCare are building a new 30-acre medical campus in Post Falls. The expanded partnership between the two health care nonprofit companies will connect Kootenai Health's services in Coeur d'Alene and MultiCare's presence in Washington at Deaconess and Valley hospitals. The "Prairie Medical Campus" will be located at the south-east corner of Highway 41 and Prairie Avenue in the north-east corner of Post Falls. "Working together we do what we can't do alone," MultiCare CEO Bill Richardson said. "The opportunity and challenge in health care is best served in partnership." Richardson added that the first phase of the project should be completed "fairly rapidly" in the next two to three years. That phase will include a micro-hospital with a 12-room emergency department, imaging services and rooms for overnight patients. A medical office space built in the initial construction will have a new ambulatory surgery center and house physician practices for Kootenai Clinic and independent physicians. Kootenai Health spokesperson Caiti Bobbitt said that many Kootenai clinics are at full capacity at their Coeur d'Alene facilities, and the increased access to health care in the region "will be significant." As Post Falls' population grows, the partners hope to expand the facility to a full hospital. The latest population estimate for Post Falls is 48,500 people. Five years ago, the city had 39,250 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's estimate of county populations. "The Prairie Medical Campus in Post Falls is a transformational investment in the future of our region's health care," Kootenai Health CEO Jamie Smith said in a statement. "It is our mission to serve this rapidly growing part of our community. We are excited to partner with MultiCare; working together allows us to build on the strengths of both organizations for the benefit of our patients. It allows us to create something bigger, faster and better in the Post Falls to Liberty Lake corridor than either of us could alone." MultiCare and Kootenai Health jointly purchased land for the project several years ago, but the long-planned expansion stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bobbitt said. While MultiCare provides a financial investment to the project, the campus will be under Kootenai Health administration and branding. Both organizations declined to answer what the financial cost is to each nonprofit for creation of the campus. MultiCare and Kootenai health previously collaborated to start a joint electronic health record system and on two urgent care locations in Coeur d'Alene and Hayden.
