When the new 18-story Mary Catherine Bunting Center opens at Mercy Medical Center this month, the state-of-the-art hospital tower will unveil an unlikely visual for an urban hospital: a series of rooftop gardens.

The gardens will stretch across the 8th, 9th and 10th-floor rooftops and will cover half of the surface.  Baltimore-based landscape architectural and urban design firm Mahan Rykiel Associates designed the highly-placed gardens as well as the streetscape. Rykiel worked with the center’s lead architectural group, Ellerbe Becket, on designs for the rooftop gardens.

Mercy officials say the roof gardens will provide a peaceful respite for patients and their families, as well as staff, at the more than $400 million brick, glass and metal structure. The gardens will feature native plantings and recycled materials, and the green roofs will help to maintain environmental sustainability.

“I refer to it as a spiritual oasis,” said Dr. Kathy Helzlsouer, of Mercy Medical Center. “You just need a break and nice environment.”

Mahan Rykiel Associates has been designing therapeutic, restorative gardens in healing and health care facilities for nearly 30 years. Other gardens by the firm are blooming (or going dormant at this point in the season) at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in east Baltimore, INOVA Hospital in Virginia and St. Luke’s Hospital in Pennsylvania.

The official opening of the new Bunting tower is Dec. 19.

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We all know it’s hot out there. Yesterday my colleague heard about someone baking cookies on the dashboard of their car in D.C.

To keep office life pleasant, companies generally pump up the air conditioning on super-hot days like the sweltering ones we’ve been dealing with this week. That means that businesses, which use the most power anyway, up their consumption during heat waves, causing power plants to run at peak load and putting a strain on the regional power grid.

Recognizing the issue, the folks at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center are doing their part to stop electricity use from skyrocketing on these miserably hot days.

GBMC has already declared five “Code Red” days this summer – June 23 and 25, and July 6, 7 and 8 – where lights that aren’t essential are turned off and the thermostat is turned up a few degrees in non-critical areas of the hospital.

GBMC’s green team started working on reducing the hospital’s peak electrical load in 2009 to reduce its costs and its impact on the environment. Last year, the hospital reduced its load by 700 kilowatts on 11 peak days, saving the hospital about $30,000.

This year’s goal is to reduce consumption by 1,500 kilowatts. Reaching the goal could mean savings of $50,000. GBMC works with South River Consulting, a Baltimore-based energy consulting firm, to keep track of high demand days.

To determine conservation measures, the hospital codes each day depending on the weather. Most days are “green,” meaning that the  hospital will use standard conservation practices like turning off lights in unoccupied rooms, keeping air registers clear, closing blinds to keep rooms cool and shutting computers down at the end of the day.

On “yellow” days, hospital staff is asked to follow green protocol, with a heightened awareness. Staff follows the same steps on “red” days, but they are asked to turn off computers during the day when they are away from their desks.

photo from bakingbites.com

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Sometimes ignorance can be bliss … but depending on your health needs, ignorance can also be deadly. That’s part of the reason I’m torn on a bill that’s being heard today before the House Health and Government Operations Committee.

The legislation proposes posting calorie and other basic nutritional information next to each food item in a menu. Essentially, that means the next time you’re standing in line at Starbucks and eying that rainbow cookie, you’ll also see a lovely 420-calorie label posted below the price.

The bill was first introduced last year and died in committee. Health advocates say it would help people at risk for diabetes and obesity make more informed choices about their food when they eat out. Restaurants (especially fast food joints) say they already post the health information inside the restaurant. (I just have to point out that usually means, however, it’s usually near the bathrooms or somewhere you don’t notice until after you already eaten.)

I understand both sides’ point of view, but the reason I’m torn is because it’s just one more step toward people not having to think for themselves anymore. If you have health problems and should be watching your diet, why are you eating at a fast food restaurant? And if that’s what you have to do for a lot of your meals for whatever reason, I don’t get why folks can’t just grab one of the nutritional information pamphlets that are usually by the register. That’s what I do when I’m on the road and eating fast food restaurant, and it really does require minimal effort.

If it’s OK to legislate how people take responsibility for what they eat, what’s next? Enforcing a two-drink maximum per customer at bars and pubs? (And don’t tell me that’ll cut down on drunk driving because people will just bar-hop.)

Call me crazy but for better or worse, I’d rather go down the road of people screwing up but at least being responsible for their own decisions rather than being able to claim ignorance.

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Today I got a package at work with these words printed on the front: “To prevent cervical cancer, open this box.”

Inside I found a bottle of white distilled vinegar and cotton swabs. Huh?

Turns out, January is cervical cancer awareness month, and cervical cancer is the No. 1 cause of cancer death for women in the developing world. While Pap tests have lowered the U.S. mortality rate by 70 percent, about 95 percent of women in developing nations don’t have access to the test.

Enter Jhpiego (pronounced ja-pie-go), an international nonprofit health organization associated with Johns Hopkins University. The group is working to save the lives of women in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa through a visual inspection of the cervix that consists of vinegar, cotton swabs and a flashlight.

Sounds pretty elementary for such a complex disease, but it’s been working for Jhpiego.

A basic health worker is trained to compare a patient’s cervix with photos of a diseased cervix. The worker is trained to use cryotherapy to freeze the cells if any precancerous cells are discovered. With one visit, a woman can be screened and treated. All at 1/50 the cost of a Pap.

Now if only this bottle of vinegar and these cotton swabs were doing some good in Africa rather than sitting on my desk.

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Here’s something to chew on as we enter the holiday-food binge: Maryland is among six states where more than half of all residents will be obese by 2018. That’s according to a new report based on findings from Emory University health care economist Ken Thorpe, who heads up the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease.

No pun intended, but that’s huge.

Thorpe finds that if trends continue, then 43 percent of American adults, or 103 million people, will be obese, and the costs associated with obesity would quadruple to $344 billion in 2018. But he says that the U.S. can save $200 billion if obesity levels hold steady at 31.3 percent.

With all the talk in Washington about cutting health care costs, it sounds like obesity should be a big target for Congress.

If Thorpe’s predictions are correct, 52.1 percent of Maryland adults will be obese in 2018, with related health care costs of $7.9 billion. In 2008, 31.2 percent of the state’s adults were obese and $1.4 billion in related costs were spent.

People that have body mass indexes above 30 are considered obese. (Go here to calculate your BMI).

Oklahoma is projected to be the worst off in 2018, with 56.1 percent of adults falling into the obese category. Ohio would have the highest related costs at $16.2 billion. (Oklahoma has 3.6 million residents compared to Ohio’s 11.5 million).

Which state would fare the best? Colorado, known as the leanest state in the nation, would have the fewest adults who are obese at 29.8 percent, but Connecticut would have the lowest associated costs at $2.9 billion. (Colorado has 4.9 million residents compared to Connecticut’s 3.5 million).

Thorpe doesn’t offer much in the way of advice on how to stop obesity levels from increasing in his report — he briefly mentions that including calorie and fat count on restaurant menus has the potential to cut obesity growth in half and that taxing high-calorie sodas can help.

But in a piece on the Huffington Post, he identifies four ways to attack the issue:

1. Convince Americans that obesity is a serious medical condition that increases other health risks (diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease), not a lifestyle choice.
2. Make sure the stigma attached to obesity doesn’t overshadow the need to combat it.
3. Get employers invested in wellness.
4. Reconfigure health care system to allow docs to treat obesity as a preventable health condition.

If none of those options work out, looks like The Biggest Loser might have to start accepting more contestants.

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The University of Maryland Medical System’s storied history is chock full of larger-than-life personalities. In my reporting on the system’s 25th anniversary since it separated from the state, some interesting and humorous anecdotes emerged. Below are some tidbits that we couldn’t fit in the story in the paper…

After the system went private in 1984, some big changes had to be made to make it financially stable.

Frank Gunther, the first UMMS chairman of the board, told me one change was that the clinical chiefs at the University of Maryland Medical Center were going to be held accountable for their budgets, something that had never really been a practice. That didn’t quite sit right with R Adams Cowley, the world-renowned doctor behind the Shock Trauma Center, according to Gunther.

I have a very vivid memory of telling them they had to submit their budgets. And Dr. Cowley came in and said, “Here you go, see you next year.” And I said, “No, we’re going to be looking at this and making sure that you’re following your budget.” He was aghast that anyone would be looking at his budget and checking up on him.

The system also struggled with changing the employment culture. Those who stayed on from the old system were still state employees, with state benefits and two times as many holidays as system employees.

When Gov. Harry Hughes declared the Friday after Christmas a state holiday in 1986, it was great news for the state employees, but bad news for the system. The hospital system needed to run 24-7, and so it had to pay state employees double time for their work. It was a Christmas present that cost UMMS $400,000.

Morton Rapoport was the system’s CEO for more than two decades, beginning in 1982. He was trained as a doctor and had some management experience from his time at the medical school, but mostly he told me he was learning his business skills on the job.

It turned out his management style left a little something to be desired. The clinical chiefs of staff at the hospital publicly said that they wanted Rapoport out.

Around that time, Shock Trauma was getting new helicopters, and Cowley, its chief, had really been pushing for the state to pick a French company as the vendor. One day, Cowley called and said the CEO of the helicopter firm was in town and wanted to take Rapoport for a ride.

For a fleeting moment, perhaps an insane moment, I thought that the clinical chiefs had come up with an ingenious plan to remove me. I would be killed in a helicopter crash. ~Excerpted from Rapoport’s book “Alignment,” about the system’s privatization, written with Stephen C. Schimpff, the former executive vice president and chief operating officer of the system.

Rapoport only agreed to take the trip if Cowley came along, not knowing that the pilot would let Cowley take over the controls.

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I saw a television commercial for an anti-smoking prescription drug called Chantix that set me to wondering. After extolling the benefits of Chantix, the announcer proceeded to run through a litany of potential hazards of taking the pills, including the possibility of depression and thoughts of suicide. And I wondered: Why would the Food and Drug Administration approve a drug that could cause people to consider killing themselves, especially when there are other, presumably safer, anti-smoking remedies available?

According to an Associated Press story from last year:

“Government regulators said the connection between Pfizer’s anti-smoking drug Chantix and serious psychiatric problems is ‘increasingly likely.’

_ 

The Food and Drug Administration began in November [2007] investigating reports of depression, agitation and suicidal behavior in patients taking the popular twice-daily pill.
_

The agency’s announcement comes two weeks after Pfizer added stronger warnings to the drug. In doing so, the company stressed that a direct link between Chantix and the reported psychiatric problems has not been established, but could not be ruled out.”

I am an ex-smoker who stopped smoking a pack of cigarettes a day more than 20 years ago. Personally, I found two methods to stop the habit. One was to stop cold turkey when I had a heavy cold. When you’re suffering from coughing, sneezing, sore throat, etc., the urge to smoke drops sharply. With cold and flu season approaching, this might be something to keep in mind.

The other method, and the one that I used successfully, was to stop smoking when I entered a hospital for surgery. During the one week in the hospital and three weeks of recuperation, I had no access to cigarettes, and after a month, I no longer had the urge to smoke — and I haven’t ever since.

So you ex-smokers out there, I’m curious: What method do you recommend for quitting the smoking habit?

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The World Health Organization isn’t joking around when it comes to the H1N1 influenza, known to you and me as swine flu.

Friday morning, WHO predicted an “explosion” of the flu this coming fall.

“Many countries could see swine flu cases double every three to four days for several months until peak transmission is reached, once cold weather returns to the northern hemisphere,” WHO’s Western Pacific director, Shin Young-soo, told health officials and experts in China at a symposium.

“At a certain point, there will seem to be an explosion in case numbers,” he said. “It is certain there will be more cases and more deaths.”

The people over at the newly-formed Pandemic Prevention Council believe that a massive outbreak of the flu could derail the work of some businesses or organizations (see the CDC’s recommendations for businesses).

They’ve created a survey to be completed by heads of businesses and organizations to evaluate just how well they have planned for an explosive outbreak compared to their counterparts. I’m guessing you get points if your company has a continuity plan and probably lose some if that plan doesn’t include a swine flu contingency.

You can check back with the PPC once the survey’s results have been tallied and analyzed to see where on the preparedness continuum your firm falls.

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st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Dr. Joshua Sharfstein is already hard at work at his new job. On March 30, Sharfstein’s first day as acting commissioner of the FDA, the government issued a warning: Avoid eating pistachios and foods containing the nuts, which may have been tainted with salmonella.What’s significant here is that the FDA moved so swiftly. On March 24, Kraft Foods Inc. found salmonella in some pistachios during a routine product test,and just a few days later the government acted, instead of fumbling in the dark like it did during the Mexican jalapeno pepper mess.

According to an AP story, the moves could signal a shift in how the FDA handles food safety.

“What’s different here is that we are being very proactive and are putting out a broad message with the goal of trying to minimize the likelihood of consumer exposure,” said Dr. David Acheson, FDA’s assistant commissioner for food safety. “The only logical advice to consumers is to say ‘OK consumers, put pistachios on hold while we work this out. We don’t want you exposed, we don’t want you getting salmonella.’”

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the president’s new acting commissioner who started Monday, made it clear staff needed to move quickly, Acheson said.

Sharfstein, who was plucked by President Barack Obama from his post as Baltimore City health commissioner to serve as the FDA’s deputy commissioner, is acting as FDA chief until the Senate confirms the nomination of Dr. Margaret Hamburg.

Putting Sharfstein at the helm of the FDA allows the government to have its pick leading the troubled agency.

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Living in Montgomery County continues to have its perks.

Sure, it takes me an hour to get to work everyday, but it’s the best place to live in the country in terms of longevity, according to NPR this morning.

I can expect to keep on… keeping on until I reach 81.31 years, due to the top-notch hospitals and walkable neighborhoods.

Money mag was the source behind the news of Montgomery Co. residents’ longer lifespans.

Here’s NPR’s Pat Brogan with a full (audio) report.

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor 

P.S. A nod to HoCo residents; the county came in No. 22 on the list. Two counties in NoVa (Fairfax and Arlington) placed sixth and 15th, respectively.

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