Inova Visionaries 2022 Impact Report

INOVATION An Inside Report Specially Prepared for Inova Donors

SUMMER 2022

Meet Moo, Inova’s Newest Team Member!

Welcome the Newest Member of Inova’s Animal Assisted Care Team The team at Inova Loudoun’s outpatient rehabilitation clinic has grown by four paws.

Moo, a two-year-old English Lab, joined the Inova Health System as our newest facility dog at the beginning of 2022. As part of the Outpatient Specialty Rehabilitation Center in Lansdowne, Moo will help adult and pediatric patients who are there for a variety of treatments, from speech therapy to physical and occupational therapy.

INSIDE

THIS ISSUE: Meet Moo, Inova’s New Facility Dog New Treatment Reducing Hospital Stays for COVID-19 Shielding Kids from Harmful Social Media Content Year-Round Water Safety Tips Inova by the Numbers Your generous philanthropic commitment as an Inova supporter helps ensure that Inova has the resources to perform innovative research, develop new treatments, invest in state-of theart technology and ensure that every member of our community has access to high-quality, personalized care.

This report details some of the ways our partnership is working to create and deliver worldclass healthcare to patients and become one of the leading health systems in the nation.

Established in 2001, Inova’s Animal Assisted Care (AAC) program is designed to complement patient rehabilitation & recovery efforts, providing patients with an opportunity to interact with dogs while in the hospital.

“He’s very playful, emotional, sympathetic.

He seems to be able to read people’s feelings and emotions very well and recognize them,” said Monika Stolze, program manager for the rehabilitation clinic and Moo’s new mom.

Moo has a broad scope of duties at the clinic. Some patients simply need quick hugs and hellos, which he is happy to oblige.

Still others need assistance perfecting their fine motor skills, and Moo patiently waits as they pick up small pieces of kibble to feed him one at a time. These patients also practice buckling and unbuckling Moo’s collar or unzipping his vest.

Moo’s magic touch has already brought real progress and joy to patients who are often undergoing difficult courses of treatment.

Stolze recalls a recent appointment with a patient recovering from a stroke: “He stood the longest he had stood in several years; he stood while Moo was on the mat and brushing Moo. From the

beginning of the session to the end he went from one-word commands to stringing several sentences together, talking about dogs he used to have. When there’s emotion behind it, people can recall words more easily,” she said.

The biggest challenge since Moo joined the team is his popularity.

“Everybody wants him,” Stolze said. And that can be challenging, considering the clinic sees 200 patients a day. Currently, Stolze said he is participating in about six sessions a day as she works to orient more therapists to Moo. “The therapists have been so happy and excited. Frequently they just come in and say, ‘I just need a Moo hug’.”

New Treatment Brings Hope for Fewer Hospital Stays

Inova Nurses Weigh in on the Use of Monoclonal Antibodies for COVID-19 Across the Inova network, a new treatment using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) has been showing positive results in neutralizing the COVID-19 virus and preventing progression of the disease. mAbs treatment targets the spike protein on the outside of the virus, mimicking a patient’s own antibodies to inactivate the virus and keep it from penetrating cells. By acting quickly, bypassing the time it typically takes the body to create antibodies, the monoclonal antibodies are able to immediately attach to the virus.

But what started as an early treatment for those who test positive may have broader applications moving forward.

We chatted with some Inova nurses and administrators to learn about the months-long process of rolling out and standardizing this treatment within the Inova system.

“What started as a treatment for patients who had [COVID-19]… has shifted now to being preventative. Our transplant populations and patients who are at high risk — we give them the treatment to prevent them from getting sick,” says Erin Hodson, Vice President and Administrator, Inova Medicine Service Line.

Amanda Costello, RN, BSN (left) and Shannon Bensten, RN, BSN (right) of INOVA Staffing Solutions

Shannon Bensten, Registered Nurse, recalls an especially moving case: “One day we had five lung transplant patients come in for treatment. For the past two years, they’ve been really isolated. They’d all had their transplants during the pandemic and have avoided going out in public.

“I think this has opened people’s eyes to what we could do — what’s next. How to keep people out of the hospital in Northern Virginia,” said Amanda Costello, Registered Nurse.

“Early on, we were doing way more than anyone in the state,” says Hodson. “Because we figured out early how it could keep people out of the hospital. We developed an online scheduling process, so patients weren’t flooding our clinic.

And we were able to manage 50 patients a day without overwhelming our emergency rooms.”

This outpatient treatment — administered via IV over the course of an hour-long infusion — could have important implications for how Inova develops outpatient care protocols for other ailments, with the goal of reducing inpatient overcrowding in our hospitals.

“Patients are aging in place,” Hodson says. The geriatric population in Northern Virginia is increasing by 40 percent between 2020 and 2030. So we have to preserve beds for truly sick patients in our hospitals. Whatever we can do to expand outpatient care is really important.”

But in the meantime, this mAbs treatment is already changing lives in patients at a high risk for COVID-19.

“They started exchanging stories while they were getting their treatment, and it was kind of like group therapy — something they hadn’t been able to do since their transplants because they’d been so scared to go out around people. They actually stayed about an hour and a half after their treatment, to just talk to each other — it’s the first interactions with strangers they’ve had in two years. I could hear them afterward, exchanging phone numbers and making plans to meet.

One of them came up to me afterward and thanked us for offering the treatment. He said, ‘You’re basically saving our lives.’”

Powerful stories like these are made possible by generous people like you, and by the months of hard work Inova care teams devoted to identifying the safest, most effective uses of the mAbs treatment — and the best processes for administering it in an outpatient setting.

“I think this has opened people’s eyes to what we could do — what’s next. How to keep people out of the hospital in Northern Virginia,” said Amanda Costello, Registered Nurse.

Shielding Kids from Harmful Social Media Content Protecting our Teens’ Mental Health Online

are gradually exposed, and because the platforms’ algorithms show you more of what you’re interested in, that exposure leads to more exposures, accelerating the problem.

How can parents protect their children from detrimental content online?

• Begin at a young age by limiting exposure, aiming for close to zero screen time in the preschool years and increasing gradually.

Over the past few years, we have seen a significant spike in social media use among teenagers — and we have also seen a dramatic increase in teenage anxiety, depression and suicide rates over the same period of time. What can parents do to help their teens adopt healthy attitudes toward social media use?

Social media is an environment that promotes constant comparison with others. Research shows that teenage girls are more vulnerable to these factors than boys are and tend to find themselves in cyberbullying situations more often.

With all of these external pressures and internal emotional turmoil, teens can be vulnerable to seeing, and being influenced by, detrimental content online.

Detrimental content, also called harmful content, is defined as any kind of posting on social media that is exposing and also encouraging viewers to engage in a self-destructive routine.

It’s important to know that no teenager starts out watching detrimental content on TikTok or another platform. Rather, they

• Monitor how your teen handles internet and social media

use. What content is your teen following? Remember, there is helpful and healthy content on social media as well: It’s not all good or all bad.

• Friend or follow your child on social media, reassure your

child that interaction is not needed and give developmentally appropriate space.

If a problem develops, use the situation to start a conversation, rather than jumping straight to punishment.

Despite your best intentions, you can’t monitor your teen at all times (nor would you want to). Instead of focusing on protecting them, focus on preparing them to use social media responsibly, including internet safety basics like not sharing any private information online.

Give them the chance to make mistakes and come to you for help, so that by the time they are 16 or 17, they know how to protect themselves and be responsible online.

Health and Safety on the Water

Water Safety Tips for Every Day of the Year Whether you’re planning a family beach vacation or visiting an indoor pool, safety should always be top of mind whenever water is nearby — especially if you have young children. Small children can drown in as little as two inches of water, so even everyday activities like bathing pose a risk.

Here are Inova’s best tips for ensuring your little ones are safe in the water, whether you are out swimming or in your own home:

• Model safe behavior. Listen to lifeguards, put cellphones away

• If an important call or text comes through, make sure you have

• Remember the arm’s length rule. If your child is swimming, be

• Always wear life jackets in open water. Even if your children

and safely enter and exit the pool. Also, be sure to reiterate water safety rules each time you take your children swimming, as children can often forget. no more than an arm’s length distance away.

• Don’t leave toys in the pool. If you have a pool at your

house, avoid leaving floaties and other toys in the pool, as this could entice young children to jump into the water when an adult isn’t around.

• Put your smartphone away. Children can drown in as little as

25 seconds, the time it takes to do a quick scroll through your newsfeed or check your email.

a “water watcher.” This means that if you’re at the pool with more than one adult, one can be the water watcher, while the other takes an important call.

can swim, they should always wear life jackets while swimming in open water, such as a lake.

• Always supervise children in the bathtub. If you’re giving

your child a bath and the phone rings or the dog barks, it can be tempting to run off and see what’s happening — but it’s important to stay focused on the task at hand!

Inova by the Numbers: 2022 Report Inova continues to provide world-class care for thousands of patients across the region. Below is a snapshot of the impact you’ve helped us make this past year. dmitted 92,875 patients to Inova hospitals, including psychiatric care, rehabilitation, pediatrics, NICU and adult •A

inpatient admissions

• Handled 416,802 emergency room cases • T reated 40,953 cancer patients for benign and malignant cancers, including radiation oncology and infusion elivered 19,022 babies •D ischarged 4,517 COVID-19 patients and managed the care of thousands of other COVID-19 patients.

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Inova is a nonprofit community organization.

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