The concern is for patients who have been on Zocor 80 milligram for 12 months or less because the drug at that dosage has been found to cause muscle toxicity or muscle rhabdomaylosis, which is the breaking down of muscle tissue.   These side effects are rare, but can be quite serious and deserve immediate attention.  So, if you are taking Zocor 80 mg and have been on it for less than a year and/or you have muscle pain, please check with your physician about modifying your dosage or switching medications.

Other statin drugs are not as much of a concern for these potentially serious side effects because they are metabolized in different ways.  However, if you have a concern about your cholesterol lowering medication, whether it is Zocor or another brand, the best thing to do is to ask your doctor or pharmacist.

Lynn Eschenbacher is a manager of the WakeMed Raleigh Campus pharmacy.

WakeMed

And, we think we have a very strong case for adding beds to WakeMed Raleigh Campus and Cary Hospital as noted Stan Taylor, WakeMed vice president corporate planning, in a press release distributed on April 15, the day of the certificate of need filing.  

“WakeMed is the leading provider of inpatient health care services in Wake County – the second fastest growing county in North Carolina.  And, WakeMed’s high inpatient occupancy drove the allocation of 101 beds in North Carolina’s State Medical Facilities Plan.  Additionally, the other hospitals in Wake County currently have un- or under-utilized acute care beds and have not shown a good track record in providing the inpatient capacity that the community needs.”

He continued, “Wake County will soon have five hospitals and four stand-alone emergency departments in geographically diverse, densely populated areas, ensuring access to healthcare across the county.  Wake County does not need more hospitals. It needs to add more inpatient capacity in the county’s two busiest existing hospitals, leveraging existing infrastructure and support services already in place to add beds quickly, cost-effectively and efficiently.” 

Please join us and support WakeMed’s applications either by speaking or simply attending the hearing.  The more people there in support of WakeMed’s applications the better.  Comments from the community in support or opposition of any project should be no more than 3 – 5 minutes.

Public Hearing specifics are as follows:

June 20, 2011
10 am – until all comments are heard
Garner Historic Auditorium (Old Garner High School)
742 West Garner Road, Garner, 27529

WakeMed is strongly encouraging safety as clean-up efforts progress.  Chainsaw injuries are typically the most frequent and serious injuries seen after storms that cause a significant number of fallen trees.

“Neither gas nor electric chainsaws are safe. Chainsaws are inherently dangerous tools, and people who do not have experience simply should not operate a chainsaw,” warns Osi Udekwu, MD, director, WakeMed Physician Practices – Trauma & Surgery. “Additionally, even people who are experienced with a chainsaws need to use common sense and extreme caution when operating this very dangerous equipment. Chainsaw lacerations are very difficult to treat because they do not cause clean cuts.”

Follow these steps from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to protect yourself and others. Remember, safety features cannot substitute for knowledge.

• Get the dealer to demonstrate how to use the saw. Read the manual, learn all you can before using the saw – it’s a potential killer.
• Wear snug-fitting protective equipment. That includes goggles, face and head mask, gloves, boots, ear protection, and heavy-duty clothing. Wear the equipment properly.
• Carefully check the area for loose bark, broken limbs, or other damage before trees are felled or removed.
• Cut safely; keep both hands on the handles. Keep the handles dry, clean and free of oil or fuel. Keep your eye on the blade and what you are cutting. Cut with the lower edge of the saw blade whenever possible. Cutting with the tip of the saw is inviting injury. Let the chainsaw do the work. Don’t try to force the saw.
• Do not overreach or cut above shoulder height. It is very difficult to control the saw in awkward positions.
• Do not operate a chainsaw in a tree or from a ladder unless you have been specifically trained and are equipped to do so.
• When cutting a spring pole or other tree under stress, permit no one but the feller to be closer than two tree lengths when the stress is released
• Do not operate a chainsaw when tired, if you have been drinking alcohol, or if you have been taking prescription medication or non-prescription drugs.
• Do not smoke while refueling your saw. Move the chainsaw at least 10 feet away from the fueling point before starting the engine. Use gasoline powered chainsaws only in well ventilated areas
• Sharpen the saw regularly.
• Look for anti-kick nose guards, quick-stop brakes, and wraparound hand guards on any saw you use. Kickback accounts for almost a third of chain saw accidents.
• Don’t wear yourself out. Stay alert. Take frequent breaks.

U.S. Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) is also an excellent resource for chainsaw safety information. 

WakeMed Raleigh Campus

WakeMed Health & Hospitals today submitted two Certificate of Need (CON) applications to add 101 beds in as identified in North Carolina’s 2011 State Medical Facilities Plan.  WakeMed is proposing to add 79 acute care beds to Raleigh Campus and 22 acute care beds to Cary Hospital.

Both Raleigh Campus and Cary Hospital currently operate above the State’s CON performance occupancy threshold of 71.4 percent for hospitals the size of Cary Hospital and 75.2 percent for hospitals the size of Raleigh Campus. By 2015, growth coupled with an aging population, will cause Raleigh Campus and Cary Hospital to have occupancy rates at or above 90 percent if no additional beds are opened at these facilities.

WakeMed Cary Hospital

“WakeMed is the leading provider of inpatient health care services in Wake County – the second fastest growing county in North Carolina.  And, WakeMed’s high inpatient occupancy drove the allocation of 101 beds in North Carolina’s State Medical Facilities Plan.  Additionally, the other hospitals in Wake County currently have un- or under-utilized acute care beds and have not shown a good track record in providing the inpatient capacity that the community needs,” notes Stan Taylor, WakeMed vice president corporate planning. 

Taylor continued, “Wake County will soon have five hospitals and four stand-alone emergency departments in geographically diverse, densely populated areas, ensuring access to healthcare across the county.  Wake County does not need more hospitals. It needs to add more inpatient capacity in the county’s two busiest existing hospitals, leveraging existing infrastructure and support services already in place to add beds quickly, cost-effectively and efficiently.”

Letters of support for WakeMed’s Certficiate of Need are still being accepted.  Click here to learn more.

WakeMed Raleigh Campus received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Gold Performance Achievement and Gold Plus Quality Achievement Awards for exceptional performance for 24 months.  WakeMed Cary Hospital received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines^®-Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award for exceptional performance for 12 consecutive months.   

Award quality measures include aggressive use of medications, such as t-PA, antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.

The press release announcing this exciting news can be found here.

Construction on the Raleigh Campus is continuing on schedule. The new patient tower is well underway, and grand opening events are being scheduled for this spring.  We expect the second and third floors, which are dedicated to cardiac care, to open by early April.  The ground floor lobby, first floor and Children’s Hospital (fourth floor) are expected to open by mid-to-late May. Stay tuned for regular updates as we move closer to our opening dates.

Click here to read more about the new patient tower.