Disabled Women's Breast Screening, Latex Allergies, Transplant Innovations Feature Story Ideas From Sutter Health.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Oct. 27, 1998--

October 1998

Disabled Women No Longer Ignored - Breast Screening Available

Berkeley, CA - Judi Rogers' disability prevented her from performing breast self-exams. When Judi was diagnosed with breast cancer, her reality brought to light an obstacle faced by many disabled women. Now because of Judi and a nurse who listened, disabled women do have access to life-saving breast screenings with special provisions for their physical limitations.

The Breast Health Access for Women with Disabilities Center at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, California is designed to offer women with disabilities recommended breast cancer screenings - including mammograms. This specialized center, the first in the nation, is also involved in research and the development of materials about screening women with disabilities, with the goal of creating a national model of care for this population.

Hospital Team Develops Model Program for Dealing with Latex Allergies

Auburn, CA - Imagine performing a surgical procedure on a patient without putting the patient in contact with standard hospital supplies like rubber gloves, tubing, tourniquets or syringes. That was the challenge faced by the staff of Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital in Auburn, California when they were presented with an expectant mother who had a severe allergy to latex, a substance found in scores of commonly used medical supplies.

Their efforts resulted in a comprehensive set of guidelines that have inspired other hospitals to develop procedures for dealing with patients and employees who have varying degrees of sensitivity to latex. The incidence of latex allergies has been rising due to the increased use of latex gloves in the late 80s.

Transplant Surgery Innovation Cuts Donor Recovery Time in Half

San Francisco, CA - At a time when kidney transplants seem almost too routine to write about, an innovation is drawing attention for its ability to have donor patients up and around in record time. Surgeons at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, California performed one of the first laparoscopic kidney transplants in the San Francisco Bay Area when they removed a healthy kidney and successfully transplanted it to the donor's brother.

The laparoscopic procedure, which involves making a series of small incisions and utilizing imaging technology, provides the cosmetic benefit of smaller scars and can decrease pain and shorten the donor's recovery time by half.

One of the nation's leading non-profit networks of community health care services, Sutter Health has physicians and care centers in more than 100 Northern California communities. Sutter medical centers deliver more babies than 6 any other network in Northern California and lead the region in providing heart, cancer, orthopedic and newborn intensive care services.