Cone Hospital review [September, 1986]

              Review
The Moses HL Cone (^ Memorial Hospital
INSIDE:
Lab Computer Joins Local
Area Network  2
Employee Visits Soviet Union ... 2
Picnic  3
Two Employees Make $63,000
Suggestion   4
Nurse Excellence Day    4
Cone Cares for Life  5
September 1986
In Vitro Fertilization to be
Done at Moses Cone Hospital
Couples who have exhausted every resource in the treatment of infertility are being offered new hope through 1VF.
Eight years after the birth of the
world's first test-tube baby in
England and almost five years
since the first baby conceived in
vitro in our nation was delivered
in Norfolk, Virginia, an in vitro
fertilization (IVF) program is
being established at The Moses
H. Cone Memorial Hospital. In
conjunction with The North
Carolina Reproductive Center, a
group formed by four Greensboro physicians, Drs. Stuart J.
Abrahams, Daniel L. Gottsegen,
A. Kelly Maness, Jr., and
Howard C. Mezer, the IVF program will begin accepting
patients by early fall of this year.
Abrahams, Gottsegen, Maness
and Mezer, who are members of
two separate Ob/Gyn practices,
are experienced in the treatment
of infertility. Dr. Mezer was a
member of the IVF team at Yale-
New Haven Hospital. They identified a need for this treatment in
our area and approached Moses
Cone Hospital with the idea of
opening an in vitro fertilization
program here. The program has
been reviewed and approved by
the Medical Board and the
Board of Trustees, and preparation is underway for the
establishment of this service.
During the past year these physi
cians have attended special training programs and have visited
other established IVF clinics in
preparation for opening the
North Carolina Reproductive
Center at The Moses H. Cone
Memorial Hospital.
Couples who have exhausted
every resource in the treatment
of infertility, who have lost hope
of ever achieving a pregnancy,
are being offered new hope
through IVF. "Most successful
programs achieve a 15-to-30 percent pregnancy rate," said Sue
Brody, Director of Patient Care
Management. "In vitro fertilization began in medical school settings, and in the last couple of
years, has branched into community hospitals. Several of the
existing programs have long
waiting lists," she stated.
Literally translated, in vitro
means "in glass." In vitro fertilization is the union of the egg and
the sperm in a petri dish or a test
tube. "There are several steps
that must take place before this
procedure can be accomplished,"
Brody said. "The woman must
make visits to the clinic on a
daily basis. Her cycle is carefully
monitored by sonogram and
blood tests to help determine the
size of the follicles and the time
REVIEW
Moses Cone Hospital
1200 North Elm Street
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of ovulation." A stimulated cycle is regulated through a combination of medications which
are used to stimulate ovulation.
At the time of ovulation, laparo-
scopy, an outpatient surgical procedure, is done to capture mature
eggs.
For the process of IVF, the captured egg, depending on its
maturity, is allowed to incubate
in a culture medium for eight to
sixty hours. This incubation
period seems to increase the rate
of fertilization.
The patient's husband delivers
a semen specimen to the in vitro
laboratory. The sperm is treated
by two procedures called "sperm
wash" and "sperm rise" to provide the sperm with the most
suitable environment for survival.
After the eggs and sperm are
brought together, they are placed
in an incubator to see which eggs
will develop into embryos.
"Typically, the embryos will
develop to the four-to-eight cell
stage two to three days after the
retrieval and fertilization," said
Brody. "The patient must then
return to the hospital for implantation of the embryo into the
uterus. This is a simple procedure
which can be accomplished in
approximately five minutes on an
outpatient basis. Following a day
of rest, the patient can resume
her normal activities. A pregnancy test will be performed about
two weeks after the implantation," she explained.
The total cost for this procedure will range from $4,000 to
$5,000 per cycle. This includes all
fees for laboratory, operating
room, ultrasonography, medication, all procedures and physician fees. The cost is a reflection
of the large number of tests and
continued on back page
Barry Elected to American
Hospital Association
Board of Directors
Dennis R. Barry, President of
The Moses H. Cone Memorial
Hospital, has been elected Chairman of the American Hospital
Association Regional Advisory
Board and a member of the
Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association.
The 25-member Board of
Trustees governs the association,
which is made up of 5,400 health
care institutions throughout the
United States. As the national
organization representing hospitals, the AHA helps its members
maintain and improve America's
hospital system.
Barry serves as Chairman of
Region 3, which includes the
hospitals in North Carolina,
Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland,
West Virginia, Delaware and the
District of Columbia. His election is for a four year term, beginning January 1, 1987.
Barry is a recognized leader in
the hospital industry. He is a
member of the Board of Trustees
of the North Carolina Hospital
Association and is past chairman
of the board. He is a member of
Barry
the American College of Health
Care Executives. He has been
President of Moses Cone Hospital for seven years. Previously, he
was Director of North Carolina
Memorial Hospital in Chapel
Hill.
Barry serves on the Board of
Directors of the Greensboro
Chamber of Commerce, Hospice
at Greensboro, Home Health of
Central Carolina, the Guilford
County Area Mental Health
Board and Greater Greensboro
Merchants Association.
The Review Has New Design
The new look of the Review is in
keeping with our renewed commitment to provide you with an
up-to-date newspaper filled with
the latest Moses Cone Hospital
news as well as features and personal columns of interest to
employees, physicians, volunteers and retirees.
The open and easy-to-read
Goudy typestyle (which you will
be seeing in many of the
hospital's publications) of the
masthead is repeated in the body
copy. We opted to use a sans serif
typestyle for the headlines, in
keeping with traditional newspaper style.
Pages have been divided into
five columns rather than four,
and columnar lines were added
to give the Review increased
readability. We also eliminated
the second color, which can be
distracting in a newspaper, hence
our new look is black and white,
clean-cut and easier to read.
Let us know what you think
about our new design. The
Review staff welcomes your comments. We want your newspaper
to be the best it can be.
Building Project Receives Donation
Dennis R. Barry, Hospital President, is pictured with Jim Bethel and Chuck Edwards
of First American Savings Bank, who presented a $1,000 donation toward Moses
Cone Hospital's new day surgery facility.