This month’s meeting will be at North Austin Medical Center Auditorium on the 2nd floor, Tuesday, July 8, 2008. (Click here for MapQuest Directions)

The meeting will begin at 11:45am preceded by lunch from approximately 11:15-11:45am. You can RSVP onlne. Visitors are welcome for a $5.00 charge which includes lunch and the CEUs.

Our topic this monthis “Updates in Breast Cancer” presented by Lisa Painter, FNP-C. Lisa will review the basics of breast cancer, including risk factors, different treatments and new genetic tests that we are using in our patients. Lisa is a nurse practitioner with Texas Oncology and involves caring for people as they go through their treatments as well as long term follow-up. Lisa works closely with two physicians so she is lucky to really get to know her patients. Much of her role is patient education – i.e., explaining cancer and their treatments in terms people can understand – so that they can be involved in their care. She also works with end-of-life care issues, preparing patients and their families. Lisa feels so lucky to work at Texas Oncology as they provide medical-based/science-based care; have a full research department with some of the newest treatments available. They have a wonderful staff, all of whom help people through their treatments. People feel like they’re “family” which doesn’t happen very often.

This month's sponsors are:

and

West Oaks Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in South Austin is the premiere rehab center for SNF patients. What makes West Oaks the best? West Oaks averages 40 rehab-SNF patients every day and typically discharges 15 residents back to their homes every week – our average length of stay for a SNF patient is 30 days and we are constantly trying to make that shorter. Our goal is to return our patients back to the community as soon and as safely as we can.

Another reason for West Oaks’ success is our rehab medical director, Dr. Greg Westmoreland, one of the most successful orthopedic surgeons in South Austin. We have 16 full-time therapists with educational experiences and specializations including NDT certification, balance retraining, neurological rehab, McKenzie certification and low vision training.

Our therapists also use the Nintendo Wii to make rehab fun and beneficial. Out of those therapists, we have 3 full-time speech therapists who are all vital-stim certified.

West Oaks residents get to select the food they want to eat. We call this our select menu and we do this every meal, every day.

Sometimes a rehab patient cannot safely return to their prior living setting and chooses to stay at West Oaks long-term. West Oaks has 70 Medicaid beds available. Dana Howland is the Marketing & Admission Director, she’s been with West Oaks since it opened. She is available to assess on-site and will do anything she can to make the discharge process as easy as possible. You can reach Dana at (512) 736-3087 and her direct fax is (512) 282-0451.