CAREER PULSE – Sep 17

Facial Cosmetic & Maxillofacial Surgery Welcomes Kernizan

EAST LONGMEADOW — Facial Cosmetic & Maxillofacial Surgery, P.C. announced that Max Kernizan, DMD has joined its oral-surgery practice.

Richard Fraziero, the practice’s owner, said Kernizan “is bringing to Western Mass. the excellent surgical skills that our patients have come to expect from our surgeons at FCMS. He will be performing full-scope OMF [oral and maxillofacial] surgery in our surgical office, as well as at Baystate Medical Center. We are very excited to have Max join the Valley’s premier OMFS practice.”

Kernizan completed his undergraduate education at Philadelphia University, graduating magna cum laude, and earned his dental degree at Temple University in Philadelphia. While in dental school, he achieved the Oral Surgery Scholarship award and served as vice president of the Anesthesiology Honor Society. Following dental school, he completed his specialty training in oral and maxillofacial surgery as chief resident at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn. He will begin treating patients at 382 North Main Street, East Longmeadow, in September.

“I’m thankful to have been given the opportunity to be a member of the Facial Cosmetic and Maxillofacial Surgery, P.C. team,” Kernizan said. “I am looking forward to working with surrounding colleagues in Western Massachusetts while providing great care to the surrounding community.”

Kernizan is trained in the full scope of oral and maxillofacial surgery. His primary clinical interests include orthognathic/corrective jaw surgery, wisdom teeth removal with sedation, dentoalveolar surgery, dental implants, and repair of traumatic facial injuries. He maintains certifications in BLS, ACLS, PALS; currently has affiliations with the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and the American Assoc. of Cosmetic Surgery; and is an AO CranioMaxillofacial affiliate.

To schedule an appointment with Kernizan, at (413) 525-0100. He will also be offering same-day emergency appointments based on the direction of the patient’s general dentists; area dentists may press option 1 to be directed to a front-desk coordinator who will accommodate the patient.

 

Elms DNP Graduate to Present Paper at International Conference

CHICOPEE — Grace LaValley, who earned her doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree in the inaugural DNP class at Elms College, had a paper accepted to the American Assoc. of Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR) for a podium presentation at AACVPR’s 32nd annual meeting in October, where it is a candidate for the conference’s Beginner Investigator Award.

The paper LaValley will present at the AACVPR conference was her capstone project in the DNP program at Elms College. Each DNP student is required to complete a scholarly capstone project that contributes to the field of nursing. The project topics are related to the areas of nursing where they currently work or areas in which they have a particular interest.

LaValley’s project earned her the 2017 DNP Capstone Award from Elms College, which honors a DNP student who has developed a distinguished capstone project that demonstrates scholarly rigor, innovation, and outcomes that improve health or health-related outcomes for a specific population, and has the potential to advance nursing science, practice, or policy.

The paper is titled “A Telephone Intervention to Improve Patient Return Rates in Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Pilot Study” and focuses on cardiac rehabilitation, or CR.

“Cardiovascular disease accounts for 17.3 million deaths per year, a number projected to reach 23.6 million by 2030,” LaValley said. CR improves patient outcomes and reduces risk in the earlier post-discharge period, but it remains highly underused, she added. Despite its benefits, many patients are at risk for not following the CR program, for a variety of reasons.

She and her colleagues decided to investigate whether a telephone call focused on patient motivation, education, risks, and goal setting would improve return rates among patients identified as at risk for non-adherence to the CR program.

“Telephone interventions are known to be an important tool to provide support and help overcome barriers after discharge,” she noted.

They studied 100 patients in Baystate Medical Center’s outpatient CR program and found that those who received the telephone call were more likely to attend their second session of CR as scheduled, compared with patients who did not receive this intervention (80{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} versus 51{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5}). The overall return rate was higher in the intervention group as well.

“This straightforward strategy represents an attractive adjunct to current management of outpatient CR patients,” she said.

LaValley’s coauthors are Heidi Szalai, Dr. Quinn Pack, and Andrew Storer, associate professor of Nursing at Elms. Their paper will be published in the September/October 2017 issue of the AACVPR’s Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention.

Storer was the capstone chair for Lavalley’s project; he supervised the project from the development stage through implementation and analysis. The project, he said, “has made a positive impact in the quality of care for the patients, institutions, and communities served.”

Added Lavalley, “this project may be of great value to other cardiac rehab programs around the nation, particularly in this complex healthcare environment,” Lavalley said.

 

Gallant Joins CMIC Group as Chief Operating Officer

GLASTONBURY, Conn. — CMIC, a leading member-owned medical professional-liability insurance company, announced that Stephen Gallant of Glastonbury, Conn. has joined the CMIC Group team as the new chief operating officer.

Gallant has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of MMG Insurance Co., a property and casualty carrier headquartered in Maine. Additionally, he worked for MMG Insurance Co. as the vice president of Marketing and assistant vice president of Accounting. He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration and his master’s degree in business from Husson College in Maine. He also completed executive-development programs at Dartmouth College, Tuck Business School in New Hampshire.

“Stephen brings a long, successful history of managing a variety of departments to CMIC Group,” said CEO Denise Funk. “His proven track record of growth and expansion will prove to be an asset to the company as we continue to enhance our services to our current membership and expand our services to cover new regions and policyholders.”