Chest pain and numbness in the left arm means heart attack right? While these are classic heart attack symptoms, there are several other warning signs that men and women may ignore. 

Most heart attacks start with mild pain or discomfort. In general, 64% of women, as opposed to 50% of men, who die from heart attacks do not have classic symptoms. 

For men the most common symptoms include chest pain, tingling/numbness down the left arm, shortness of breath, sweating and light-headedness. Studies have shown that women may experience different signs than men.

“Women often experience less specific signs and symptoms such as back, neck, jaw or stomach pain; shortness of breath, indigestion or vomiting. Women tend to have more heartburn, loss of appetite, heart flutter or new fatigue,” said Dr. Salem Maaliki, interventional cardiologists at Prairie Lakes Healthcare System.  “Studies suggest that women tend to have a better body awareness overall than men. Therefore, it’s critical women learn the signs and symptoms of a heart attack.”

According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is not gender specific. It is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. The AHA advises people to learn the signs of a heart attack and to have any unusual symptom checked out by a doctor.

In December the Prairie Lakes Caring Club House was blessed with a variety of donations from the Watertown Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO). Donations included of sheets, towels, toiletry items, bottled water, canned goods, and gifts cards for groceries for the House. PEO is an international women’s organization with approximately 250,000 members.

Pictured here are PEO members who delivered the donations: Dorothy Bassingthwaite, President, Donna Schoenbeck, Helen Adducci, Kim Vener and Carol Johnson. Also pictured are Alison Gilbertson, Director of the Prairie Lakes Healthcare Foundation and Mary Opseth, Caretaker of the Caring Club House.

The Caring Club House was created to help meet the hospitality needs of patients, their families and caregivers. As Prairie Lakes Healthcare Systems grows as a regional medical center, more people utilize Watertown for medical services.  As part of our mission to provide compassionate care, we are pleased to offer this special home to help ease the burdens patients, families and caregivers may experience during a medical illness and treatment. In 2013 the Caring Club House served nearly 1,000 guests from a variety of communities and states.

Funded and furnished completely through community support and donations, the Caring Club House is a not-for-profit, community based project of the Prairie Lakes Healthcare Foundation. All contributions of time, materials and money are welcome and are tax deductible as allowed by law. Without support from generous donors, this service would not be possible.

Prairie Lakes Healthcare Foundation exists to raise funds with which to support and advance the health care services through Prairie Lakes Healthcare System. Your support is appreciated and necessary to continue the maintenance and advancement of healthcare services in our region. For questions about how you can make a donation, please contact the Foundation office at 882-7631, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.prairielakes.com.

This past year brought about great change to the healthcare industry, nationally and right here in Watertown. Hospitals across the country are working diligently to adapt to the changes brought by the Affordable Care Act, including: cuts to Medicare reimbursements, the need for new policies and procedures to comply with the law and the emphasis on improving quality.

"In 2013, healthcare reform proceeded at full speed making it a challenging time to be in healthcare. Hospitals are experiencing cuts in reimbursement, decreased utilization and increased costs due to government regulation," said Jill Fuller, CEO of Prairie Lakes. "In spite of these challenges, Prairie Lakes had a great year in 2013. We are well positioned to service the region with great doctors and new services in 2014."

Prairie Lakes Healthcare System has managed to meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, while also growing services to meet the needs of the region, adding physician, meeting quality standards and remaining financially strong. Following are a few highlights from 2013:

Growth

• Eight physicians joined Prairie Lakes: Dr. Steven Feeney, hospitalist; Dr. Thomas Lechner, hospitalist; Dr. William Miner, hospitalist; Dr Jennifer Jones, cardiologist; Dr. Jeffrey Kowitz, pulmonologist; Dr. Henri Lanctin, urologist; Dr. James Bear, emergency medicine; and Dr. Leighton Singh, emergency medicine.
• Three new oncology outreach sites were established. Dr. Homam Alkaied, medical oncologist and hematologist, now sees patients in Appleton, Dawson, and Madison, Minn.
• Prairie Lakes opened the region's first full-time clinic focused on the specialty of pulmonology in August. Dr. Kowitz is the region's first full-time pulmonologist. This led to the start up of pulmonary rehabilitation program in October.
• Prairie Lakes entered into a partnership with Minneapolis-based Consulting Radiologists Limited in April. This allows for 24/7 radiology coverage through virtual transmission of images as well as 24/7 telephone access to CRL radiologists to discuss cases and interpretations. In addition, this has allowed the radiology department to expand imaging exams offered as well as offer new procedures.
• Dr. Lanctin, urologist, introduced cryo-ablation therapy and performed the first procedure at Prairie Lakes in November. Cryotherapy is a minimally invasive procedure that delivers freezing temperatures to the prostate destroying cancerous cells with minimal side-effects.
• Dr. Evelio Garcia and Dr. Salem Maaliki, cardiologists, began offering an innovative treatment for severe left heart failure known as Biventricular Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD). A biventricular ICD may be used to provide a more balanced method of controlling rapid heartbeat. The biventricular ICD detects when the heart is beating at a faster than normal rate and shocks it back to normal.

Awards

• Prairie Lakes received the American College of Cardiology Foundation's NCDR ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2013—one of only 197 hospitals nationwide to do so. The award recognizes Prairie Lakes' commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients, and signifies that Prairie Lakes has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) clinical guidelines and recommendations.
• Prairie Lakes was recognized as a top-ranked hospital in the country for the value it provides to the community by Cleverley + Associates, a leading healthcare firm specializing in operational benchmarking and performance enhancement strategies. Prairie Lakes received the Community Five Star® designation based on its performance in the following areas: financial viability and plant reinvestment, hospital cost structure, hospital charge structure and hospital quality performance.

Financially Strong

• Prairie Lakes completed its annual credit rating review by Standard & Poor's. The final report was published in March and affirmed an "A+" rating and a stable outlook.
• The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations released a report called "Medicare Margins at a Glance." This report compared Prairie Lakes to other hospitals in the state and nation. The total Medicare margin reported for Prairie Lakes was 15%. For South Dakota hospitals as a whole, the overall margin was only 2%. For the nation as a whole, the overall Medicare margin was negative 6%.
• In August, Prairie Lakes was notified that no penalties for avoidable hospital admissions were applied to Medicare reimbursement for Federal FY 2013 and Federal FY 2014. Of the 3,379 hospitals included in the Federal government's Hospital Readmission Reduction Program started in FY 2013, 2,225 hospitals will receive readmission penalties.

Prairie Lakes Healthcare System has received the American College of Cardiology Foundation's NCDR ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2013—one of only 197 hospitals nationwide to do so. The award recognizes Prairie Lakes' commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients, and signifies that Prairie Lakes has reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) clinical guidelines and recommendations.

"We are honored to receive this award," said Jill Fuller, President and CEO of Prairie Lakes. "This award exemplifies the quality of care we provide to heart attack patients at Prairie Lakes from treatment in the Cardiology Clinic, to the cath lab, and through the rehab process."

To receive the ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award, Prairie Lakes consistently followed the treatment guidelines in the ACTION Registry–GWTG Premier for 8 consecutive quarters and met a performance standard of 90% for specific performance measures. Following these treatment guidelines improves adherence to ACC/AHA Clinical Guideline recommendations, monitors drug safety and the overall quality of care provided to ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non- ST- elevation myocardial infarction patients (NSTEMI).

"The time is right for Prairie Lakes to be focused on improving the quality of cardiovascular care by implementing ACTION Registry–GWTG. The number of acute myocardial infarction patients eligible for treatment is expected to grow over the next decade due to increasing incidence of heart disease and a large aging population," said Leah Le, Prairie Lakes Cath Lab Director.

ACTION Registry-GWTG empowers health care provider teams to consistently treat heart attack patients according to the most current, science-based guidelines and establishes a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically high-risk STEMI and NSTEMI patients.

"The American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association commend Prairie Lakes Healthcare System for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols. The full implementation of acute and secondary prevention guideline—recommended therapy is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients," stated James Jollis, MD, FACC, ACTION Registry-GWTG Chair and Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Duke University Hospital and Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, ACTION Registry-GWTG Co-Chair and Chief of Cardiology at VA Boston Healthcare System, Senior Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

ACTION Registry–GWTG is a partnership between the American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association with partnering support from the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care.