OB/GYN Celebrates Women

Dr. Emily Zoulek knows how to make women feel comfortable.

From puberty to pregnancy, through menopause and beyond, Dr. Zoulek wants every woman to feel informed, empowered, and valued.

“I love working with women,” Dr. Zoulek says. “I like my patients to be well-informed and to have choices.” Dr. Zoulek says she feels privileged to be part of some of the most important transitions in a woman’s life. She enjoys connecting with women during pregnancy and childbirth. “I have two young daughters, so I just went through the birth experience myself,” Zoulek says.

Using the latest advances in gynecological care, Dr. Zoulek enjoys helping patients with problems ranging from heavy periods and abnormal pap tests, to pelvic pain and urinary incontinence. “In the past, many problems required major surgery,” says Dr. Zoulek. “Today, more problems can be treated in the office or on an outpatient basis.”

“Women talk with their girlfriends about everything—except female problems,” says Dr. Zoulek. “I reassure my patients that everything they are going through is normal.”

For an appointment, call (320) 234-3290 or (800) 944-2690.

 

Adult & Pediatric Urology, one of the leading urology specialty clinics in Minnesota, has partnered with Hutchinson Health.

Urologic problems can affect anyone—male, female, young and old. “Some people think that this is a normal part of aging and that they just need to put up with it,” says Dr. Keegan Maxwell. Most conditions are common and treatable says Dr. Maxwell, who along with Dr. John Matsuura and Dr. Gregory Parries, regularly sees patients at Hutchinson Health.

Areas of specialization include minimally invasive treatment of urologic conditions, kidney stones, enlarged prostates, urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, male infertility and urological cancers.

For an appointment, call (320) 234-3290 or 800-944-2690.

If you have varicose veins, surgeon Joshua Knudtson, M.D., has the solution.

Dr. Knudtson is offering an innovative procedure to eliminate varicose veins. Taking less than an hour, the procedure is performed in the office with minimal discomfort.

Leg pain disappears almost immediately, and legs look better within weeks. Clinical studies have found the treatment to be more than 97 percent effective. Not just a cosmetic concern, varicose vein treatment is considered a medical necessity as it may lead to more serious problems.

Varicose veins may also signal a higher risk for other circulatory problems. The procedure is covered by Medicare and private health insurance.

For an appointment with Dr. Knudtson, call (320) 234-3290 or (800) 944-2690.

Mission to Mongolia: Helping to heal broken hearts

Stethoscopes in hand, Dr. Dean Nissen and Dr. Tim Remple travelled 6,000 miles to the Altai Mountains of Mongolia to screen youngsters with heart defects.

Working with “For Hearts and Souls,” the physicians helped identify children to receive life-saving operations.
Hutchinson Health surgical nurse Jean Elliott, Carol Nissen, Tim Sanken, Beth Kasal, Bryce Remple, Cole Myers, Zach Hartnady, Naomi Polzin and Jacob Sanken also participated in the mission.

Excellian Electronic Health Records

Hutchinson Health and your care providers are excited to announce the implementation of Excellian, an electronic health record system installed and supported by Allina Health.

As an independent health care organization, our ability to work with Allina Health on this endeavor is an added benefit. If you are referred to Allina Health for advanced care at, for example, Minneapolis Heart Institute (MHI), your MHI care provider will use and update your same medical record. This fully secure system will be in place early February. Soon after that patients will be able to view portions of their medical record online.

Benefits of Excellian

• Shared patient information for your medical visits
• Timely care provider access to medical information
• Quicker access to test results
• Automated safety checks, such as allergy checking, to prevent medical errors
• Improved quality and safety of care
• Decreased costs and errors

Minnesota's Top 100 Medical Leaders

DR. STEVE MULDER Selected as Minnesota's 100 Most Influential Healthcare Leaders

Dr. Steve Mulder, President and CEO of Hutchinson Area Health Care, was recently selected as one of "Minnesota's 100 Most Influential Health Care Leaders" by Minnesota Physician magazine.

Every four years, Minnesota Physician compiles a list of the 100 most influential health care leaders in Minnesota. The list includes U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, U.S. Representative Erik Paulsen, and other leaders across the spectrum of clinical care, health care policy, research and management. Dr. Mulder and the other honorees were recognized for their leadership and spirit of inspiration.

“While I’m honored to be mentioned in such distinguished company, I know it is the physicians and staff of HAHC that make all our great work possible,” said Mulder.

A recent recipient of the Patient Safety Leadership Award from the Minnesota Hospital Association, Dr. Mulder is recognized for leading the charge to improve patient safety both within Hutchinson and on a statewide level. He is the immediate past chair of MHA's Patient Safety Committee where he led several statewide patient safety initiatives, including adverse event calls to action, safe site surgery work, and standardizing overhead emergency pages.

Dr. Mulder is currently working to integrate Hutchinson Area Health Care, a 66-bed hospital, with Hutchinson Medical Center, a private, physician-owned multispecialty clinic with 30 providers. “The integrated organization will be well suited to serve our community in the evolving era of health care reform,” Mulder said.

Nurses Transform Care

Transforming Care at the Bedside

Hutchinson Area Health Care is one of 22 Minnesota hospitals participating in an 18-month project called “Transforming Care at the Bedside” or TCAB for short.

“Nurses are invigorated, excited, empowered,” said Sandy Linder. ”TCAB empowers front-line staff to make decisions that will allow them to spend more time at each patient’s bedside.

“This is nursing the way it’s supposed to be,” said Sarah Henschke. “Nurses went into this field because we enjoy caring for patients. Now we have more time to spend with each patient.”

Caring for patients is obviously what nurses do, but the fact is they spend a large chunk of each shift filling out paperwork, hunting down supplies, picking up medication and performing other tasks. The goal of TCAB is to streamline hospital practices to free nurses from these extraneous demands and enable them to focus more on patients' safety, comfort and overall hospital experience.

To identify areas of potential transformation, nurses engage in “snorkeling” - a lengthy brainstorming session designed to explore methods of improving bedside care in medical surgical units.

TCAB is a quality improvement project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that focuses on empowering nurses to redesign the care they deliver. It helps nurses identify where change is needed, suggest and test potential solutions, and decide whether innovations will be implemented. TCAB has demonstrated impressive results in helping nurses care for their patients