Beaumont Executives to Speak During Chamber's Healthcare Forecast Breakfast

A pair of Beaumont officials will talk about the rising cost of healthcare and the impact of the Affordable Care Act during a special meeting next week.

How high will health care costs climb in the next few years? What will new government regulations mean for my family or my business? Those are the questions two Beaumont officials will try to answer next week at the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber's 2013 Healthcare Forecast Breakfast, scheduled for 8 a.m. March 21 at the Townsend Hotel. Gene Michalski, president and CEO of Beaumont Health Systems, and Michael Herbert, senior vice president and executive director of Beaumont Physician Partners, will speak to how Birmingham-area businesses can "better navigate the health care minefield." The event is a partnership between the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber and Beaumont Health Systems, and is the third in the Chamber's annual "forecast series." …

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Beaumont Children's Hospital Hosts Baby Fairs for New, Expecting Parents

With funds provided by Children’s Miracle Network, the baby fairs will provide new and expecting parents free information, product demonstrations, activities and tours of the family birthing centers.

Birmingham Students Explore Careers As Surgeons, Engineers

Young women from local high schools, including Seaholm and Groves, participate in program designed to inspire young women to consider careers in orthopedics.

To encourage more women to pursue careers in orthopedic surgery and engineering, this weekend Beaumont Hospital’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery brought together 36 young women from area high schools — including Seaholm and Groves — for a daylong, hands-on program at Beaumont's Surgical Learning Center. This is Beaumont’s second year hosting the Perry Initiative, which aims to get young women interested in orthopedics and engineering — fields where women currently comprise only 7 percent of the professional workforce. It's the only program of its kind in Michigan. The event featured lectures and interactive workshops with prominent female surgeons and biomedical engineers in orthopedics. By exposing young women to these fields, more may…

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Getting to Beaumont Hospital Tricky During Woodward Dream Cruise

Alternate routes for emergency vehicles Saturday include mile roads, neighborhood streets, Coolidge Highway and Greenfield Road, officials say.

There is no easy solution for public safety vehicles trying to access Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak during the Woodward Dream Cruise, officials say. Law enforcers and ambulance drivers do their best to avoid Woodward Avenue during the event — which is expected to attract 40,000 classic cars Saturday —  and would have to rely on their lights and sirens, along with the common sense of other motorists, to get through should an emergency occur on the historic roadway. "I do think, generally speaking, there is definitely a blind spot that the hospital is right there," said Laurie Thiel, CEO of Alliance Mobile Health, which provides ambulance service to Berkley, Oak Park, Huntington Woods, Beverly Hills and Troy. "There is not a clear-cut plan …

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Beaumont, Royal Oak Completes Family Birth Center Renovations

Delivery rooms come complete with spa-like design and high-tech amenities.

Beaumont Health System has completed renovations of 20 labor and delivery rooms in its Family Birth Center at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak. Expecting parents stay in birthing rooms complete with cozy furniture, sleeper sofas and bathrooms with spa-like amenities – for extra comfort during labor. "While we continue to offer the same high quality obstetrical care to expecting mothers, each of the labor and delivery rooms have been redesigned and updated to provide our patients a comfortable environment that is extremely relaxing and calming,” says Anne Ronk, director of nursing, Beaumont, Royal Oak.   The private patient birthing rooms include a docking station for portable media players, flat-screen televisions, refrigerators and blanket …

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Destination for Healing: Woman Travels to Local Hospital for Pelvic Pain Treatment

Oklahoma woman travels more than 1,000 miles to seek help for her pelvic pain – pain that was very real and preventing her from moving forward with her life.

At 29 years old, Deborah Baucom wants what so many young woman aspire at her age — to start a family. But following a series of surgeries related to a deformity of both kidneys and ureters, the otherwise healthy, young woman started to experience severe pelvic pain, forcing her to put that desire on hold. “I felt a constant pain. It would worsen throughout the day and be debilitating by late afternoon,” says Baucom, a development officer from Edmond, OK. “I would have bladder spasms. I had pain when I used the restroom or had intercourse and a burning pain in my abdomen. It was always in my left side radiating from my pubic bone to my left hip.” Baucom had stopped exercising, volunteering with the youth group at church and avoided hosting …

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Breast Cancer Survivor: 'You Have to Save Yourself'

Former Birmingham resident stresses education and giving back as keys to recovery.

When Deb Dumler learned she had breast cancer in March 2010, a close friend gave her a clover charm for good luck. Now, more than 18 months later and cancer free, 59-year-old Dumler said she recently gave that charm back to that same friend after she was diagnosed with leukemia. Because if breast cancer taught the former Birmingham resident anything, it was the importance of paying a good deed forward and staying positive in the face of hardship. “Be positive, be happy, embrace life and don’t look back,” Dumler said. “Dance in the rain as the cool raindrops bounce off your bald head. Umbrellas are for nonbelievers.” One of the 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, Dumler — a wife, mother and grandmother now living in …

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