HJBR Nov/Dec 2020

60 NOV / DEC 2020  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Hospital Rounds enhanced access and communication, we are making strides toward reducing Louisiana’s alarm- ingly poor health rankings and disparities among our most vulnerable population.” Efforts that contributed to OACN’s 2019 MSSP results include: • Improved preventive care delivery by increasing annual wellness visits, decreas- ing unnecessary emergency room (ER) vis- its, and increasing life-saving screenings for common cancers and other health issues, including depression. • Enhanced access to primary and urgent care services and focus on communication. • Improved collaboration with patients’ care teams through EPIC, a best-in-class elec- tronic health record. • Utilization of software and technology that can identify and predict health risks in patients. • Sharing of robust health data, tools and technology to support clinicians in the care of our most vulnerable patients who suffer from chronic conditions. OACN is an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) that consists of more than 2,700 providers in Louisiana and Mississippi. OACN was founded in 2013 to ensure that patients, especially those with chronic conditions, get the right care, at the right time, in the right place. OACN is dedicated to improving health outcomes and supports pop- ulation health efforts across Louisiana and the Gulf South. As the largest ACO in Louisiana, OACN’s team includes Ochsner employed and commu- nity providers in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, St. Tammany Parish, Houma, and South Mississippi. ACOs are groups of physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers who come together voluntarily to provide coordinated, quality care to Medicare patients. Woman’s Hospital Promotes Wendy Singleton to Associate Chief Nursing Officer Woman’s Hospital has promoted Wendy Sin- gleton to associate chief nursing officer. Single- ton began her nursing career at Woman’s two decades ago caring for new mothers and babies. “As a nurse leader, I take great pride in the qual- ity of our nurses at Woman’s and the level of care they provide to our patients,” said Singleton, MSN, APRN, ANP-BC, NEA-BC, who has served as director of nursing administration for the past six years. “I have an incredibly talented group of nurses and support staff around me, and I look for- ward to growing together as a team.” Singleton will work alongside chief nursing offi- cer Cheri Johnson in planning, directing, and managing nursing resources for the hospital and continuously improving quality and patient satisfaction. “Wendy has been a valuable leader in this orga- nization for many years and has made a positive impact on almost every aspect of nursing and patient experience in her career at Woman’s,” said Johnson. Under Singleton’s leadership over patient expe- rience, Woman’s has received the Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award for patient satis- faction for six consecutive years. She has coordi- nated the Magnet recognition program, includ- ing Woman’s third Magnet designation in 2017. She implemented the Patient and Family Advi- sory Council, launched the nursing research pro- gram, and led the charge on numerous quality and safety projects to improve care for surgical and OB patients. Singleton began her nursing career in 1998 as a clinical nurse and charge nurse on the Mother/ Baby unit at Woman’s. She has since earned an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) cer- tification and served as clinical nurse special- ist before moving on to director over nursing administration, informatics, and patient experi- ence. She has also worked as a nurse practitio- ner in the Woman’s Employee Health Clinic for 15 years providing acute care to employees and their family members. Researchers at Baton Rouge General Use Taste Test to Predict COVID-19 Severity Researchers at Baton Rouge General have dis- covered that a simple taste test may predict how different people respond to COVID-19. Early research shows a connection between a person’s ability to taste certain bitter flavors and the ability to fight upper respiratory tract infections, which could help identify people at higher risk for hos- pitalization or intensive care. The perception of taste, controlled by taste receptors, is known to impact a person’s response to respiratory infections and sinus infections. Baton Rouge rhinologist Dr. Henry Barham applied that connection to COVID-19. His ini- tial study looked at patients who had previously tested positive for the coronavirus and how their taste test results corresponded to their symp- toms. Barham, along with Dr. Christian A. Hall and Dr. Mohamed A. Taha, is working on a larger study. The taste tests place people in one of three groups: “non-tasters,” “super-tasters,” or “tast- ers.” The research shows that those categories could predict symptoms and severity of a COVID- 19 infection. • Non-tasters: Up to 25 percent of people can’t detect certain bitter flavors at all. This group is at a higher risk for develop- ing more severe symptoms and potentially hospitalization from COVID-19. • Super-tasters: 25 percent can detect exceedingly small quantities of bitter flavors. This group is most likely to be asymptomatic. • Tasters: Everyone else in between these two extremes. This group is likely to display mild to moderate symptoms often not requiring hospitalization, unless they have existing underlying conditions. “As we now know, a new loss of taste and smell are hallmark symptoms of COVID-19,” said Barham. “That connection prompted us to take a closer look at how a person’s taste recep- tors relate to their body’s immune response to COVID.” Wendy Singleton, MSN, APRN, ANP-BC, NEA-BC