Articles Tagged: St. Luke’s Hospital

For more than 20 years, volunteer Corinnie Ketelsen found joy in doing the little things for the smallest patients in Cedar Rapids.

While Iowans are generally highly vaccinated against polio, Linn County public health officials say recent cases in New York, Israel and the UK serve as a reminder and a warning not to forsake vaccines.

The innovation lab at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids helped build an adaptive keyboard for Lotus Friedman, a 13-year-old from Dubuque who was paralyzed from the waist down after a skiing accident earlier this year. The ability to play her favorite game is a reprieve from day-to-day hospital life, she said.

Even while undergoing the rigors of chemotherapy for his stage 4 colon cancer, Phil Decker was among the select few who qualified for and completed this year’s Boston Marathon.

It’s been about two-and-a-half years since “generate,” an innovation lab, opened in St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. So far, 375 inventions have been built by clinicians in the space, even as the hospital grappled with COVID-19.

UnityPoint Health officials have revised masking policies for three Eastern Iowa hospitals, including St. Luke’s in Cedar Rapids. Masking is optional for most patients, visitors and fully vaccinated staff, with certain exceptions.

UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital has established a second incentive program for nursing students, this time with Kirkwood Community College. Students will get financial aid and a sign-on bonus in exchange for 18 months’ employment.

UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital has partnered with Mount Mercy University to launch the Senior Promise Program, which offers financial aid to cover tuition and other costs for senior nursing students’ final two semesters at school. After graduation, these students will work as full-time nurses in units that face the greatest staffing challenges, hospital officials say.

A nationwide shortage of monoclonal antibody therapies and oral antiviral medications used to treat COVID-19 patients has prompted local hospital officials to adjust treatment protocols, prioritizing the patients at highest risk for developing serious illness.

As new COVID-19 infections continue surging statewide, both Cedar Rapids hospitals continue to delay elective, non-emergent surgical procedures to preserve hospital capacity.

According to the Iowa’s public health’s weekly coronavirus report, those not fully vaccinated — like Samantha Morris, 24 — account for 88 percent of patients in COVID-19 intensive care. Morris was put on a ventilator and ECMO machine during her 51-day stay at St. Luke’s.

As their hospitals experience a concerning increase in COVID-19 admissions, the top medical officers at Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital say more people with boosted immunity could help slow the surge.

Witwer Children’s Therapy is doubling the footprint of its Cedar Rapids clinic at 3245 Williams Parkway SW after providers say they’ve seen an increase in demand for services since COVID-19 started.

Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids announced new steps to develop its cardiovascular program as part of officials’ ongoing goal to grow the heart program as its patient numbers continue to climb. “We wouldn’t have gone down that path unless we were pretty confident.”

A bed warmer is an open bed with radiant heat. It allows the medical team to safely assess and evaluate a baby after birth, while keeping the baby warm and safe.