Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania Awards Presentation

Best Places to work in PA hosted an awards presentation in December in Hershey for the 100 winning companies for 2009. Susquehanna Health received this award for the second consecutive year. Over 1,100 people throughout PA attended the event. Representatives from Susquehanna Health included Glenn Mechling, Senior Vice President of Human Resources; Colleen Albright, Director of Human Resources; Sr. Joanne Bednar, Development Coordinator; Linda Lorson, Communications Associate; Judith Krezmer, Human Resources Business Partner, Linda Cioffi, Personnel Assistant and Sr. Sharon Hartman, Chaplain, from the Susquehanna Health Service Partner Advisory Council.

This survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places to be employed in Pennsylvania, benefiting the state’s economy, its workforce and businesses. Companies from across the state completed a two-part process to determine the 100 Best Places to work in PA. The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophies, systems and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25 percent of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75 percent of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top companies and final ranking.

Based on the above process, Susquehanna Health was selected as one of the 50 large-size companies to receive the Best Places to work in PA award. For companies with over 2,500 employees, the program specifies that employees will be randomly selected to participate in an on-line survey. The employees selected for participation must be regular, full or part time employees. Last summer, 400 randomly selected Susquehanna Health employees were invited by the Best Companies Group to participate in the survey.

Many types and sizes of for-profit and non-profit companies participated in Best Places to work in PA, including manufacturing, banking, food service, insurance, service, healthcare, education and others.

Susquehanna Health is a three-hospital health system including Divine Providence Hospital, Muncy Valley Hospital and the Williamsport Regional Medical Center located in north central Pennsylvania. Serving patients from an 11-county region, Susquehanna Health is considered a healthcare leader and offers a broad array of services that include major centers for heart and vascular, neuroscience, cancer treatment, physical rehabilitation, orthopedics, urology and gastrointestinal services.

Room Mock Ups Share Glimpse Of Hospital’s Future

by R.A. WALKER, Sun-Gazette

The future Williamsport Hospital & Medical Center will include cutting-edge technology & amenities like flat-screen, wall-mounted televisions & a power backup system to restore & maintain electrical power in almost any emergency.

There will be same number of patient beds (226) in 2012 when the new patient tower opens, but the beds will be more comfortable & in single-patient private rooms designed with pull-out couches so relatives can stay over when circumstances warrant.  more

Learning how to control the spread of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)   more

The New Breast Cancer Treatment: "Take two aspirins and call me in the morning"

by Timothy J. Pagana, MD, FACS

Can taking aspirin everyday keep me from getting breast cancer? Earlier this month, the Journal of Clinical Oncology contained an article about using aspirin to decrease breast cancer. Publicity related to that article generated a lot of interest from women in our community. The research comes out of the Nurses’ Health Study. This is a U.S. national study that started in 1976. Every two years registered nurses in this study are asked to complete a questionnaire regarding the use of aspirin, hormones, other medications, and lifestyle habits. Interesting information has been provided from observations of this large group of women. While some of the conclusions from these observations have subsequently proven to be correct, because of the massive problems associated with statistical analysis of these observations, many conclusions have been found to be incorrect.

This latest study suggests that the use of daily aspirin diminishes the risk of dying from breast cancer if a woman has had breast cancer more than four years ago. These results contradict several other studies that show no decrease in breast cancer deaths with the use of aspirin. Previous studies have also shown that the use of Tylenol and Advil does not affect breast cancer cure rates.

It is important for women to know that this most recent study does not speak to the use of aspirin in preventing an otherwise healthy woman from getting breast cancer. Several previous studies, however, did look at that issue and failed to show that aspirin prevents breast cancer in previously unaffected women.

So what does this large observational study tell us about the use of aspirin? This study indicates that women with breast cancer may increase (slightly) their cure rate by taking an aspirin daily. Women must be aware that the observation of aspirin associated with improved breast cancer cure rate may be misleading. The findings may have occurred because the women in the aspirin group had less aggressive breast cancers than the women who happen not to take aspirin. Or perhaps the women in the aspirin group died and did not respond to the questionnaire.

We, breast cancer specialists, do look at this report with interest but are not inclined (at the present time) to recommend aspirin to every woman who has breast cancer. Aspirin is associated with considerable risks including bleeding and stomach ulcers. This data encourages us to conduct more defined prospective studies statistically powerful enough to accurately answer the question: "Does aspirin improve breast cancer cure?"

As a final note, however, aspirin has been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease and strokes in selected groups of women. Check with your doctor before you instigate the daily administration of aspirin. For now, the best way to insure a cure for breast cancer is to participate in annual breast cancer screening. At The Kathryn Candor Lundy Breast Health Center, we recommend annual mammography for all women between the ages of 40 to 80. Annual mammography and other imaging modalities may be recommended to other women in selective circumstances.

Timothy J. Pagana, MD, FACS is the Medical Director of Susquehanna Health’s Kathryn Candor Lundy Breast Health Center located at 1705 Warren Avenue, Suite 303 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He also serves as the Medical Director of Divine Providence Hospital’s Surgi Center. Dr. Pagana graduated from Temple University School of Medicine and completed his Residency at Episcopal Temple Hospital in Pennsylvania. In addition, he completed a Fellowship at Roswell Park Memorial Institute in New York. He is Board Certified in Surgery.