BHS Health and Wellness Center Names Fran M. Shope Women’s Diagnostic Center

Ron Wilshire

Ron Wilshire

Published June 27, 2022 4:50 am
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CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Fran Shope was a legend in whatever she did in the greater Clarion community, no matter if it was a Clarion area gym teacher, women’s athletic Director at Clarion University, or choir director for the Methodist church.

[Pictured above: People involved in the Lives of Legacy Program included Bridget Thornton, Emily Bonk, (a photo of Fran Shope), Hospital Administrator Steven Davis, Dr. Anie Perard, and Tracy Myers.]

Fran Shope - 1-2

“Fran Shope’s legacy has many different layers,” said Tracy Myers, Director of Oncology Services and BHS Cancer Care Clarion, (pictured below) on Thursday night at the BHS Health and Wellness Center at Trinity Point honoring Shope’s support over the years.

“Her commitment to a financial gift to Clarion Hospital is what brings us together this evening,” continued Myers. “Her leadership has touched countless lives as lessons learned have been passed on to others. Her faith in God was evident in how she chose to live each day of her life. She walked the walk.”

Tracey Myers

“Her passion for excellence and all that she did should inspire every one of us. I think it is a rare person who works to support their hospital, their university, their church, their community, and their family and friends.

“It is with heartfelt gratitude and respect that the administration, providers, and employees of BHS formally name our new women’s suite the Fran M. Shope Women’s Diagnostic Center.”

Her legacy is on display at the new three-story BHS Health and Wellness Center.

Speakers at the naming ceremony offer their insight into the concept of offering health education to help prevent illness in addition to treatment.

Excerpts from the speakers follow:

Anie Perard, MD, President, medical staff Clarion Hospital

Perard audience

This building is a culmination of a lot of conversations, a lot of planning, and being able to put all of these services under one umbrella in the one building to serve the community, particularly the women in the Clarion community that is near and dear to my heart.

This has been a vision of mine, even in the early days of practice, to have a one-stop-shop, full-service place where women can come have their imaging studies done, see a physician, medications, take care of blood work, and the bonuses–you can have a healthy snack while you’re waiting for your appointment in between.

A National Institute of Health study says that the majority of health care decisions in the family are made by women.

Eighty percent of family health care decisions are made by women, but 70 to 78 percent of women don’t make it to the doctor themselves to have their health issues looked into and taken care of, which is a little astounding.

What’s the number one killer of women? It’s heart disease, and most women don’t know that. Why do you get a pap smear? It is a screening for cervical cancer, but 81 percent of women thought a pap smear was all-inclusive to check for all cancers.

It also speaks to how busy women are and not having the opportunity or the time to take a moment to figure it out or see the doctor.

Women’s needs are different at different times in their lives.

Our needs for healthcare and health and wellness encompass your social health, your sexual health, your mental health, and physical health. What your needs are in your twenties are very different from what they are in your fifties and sixties. That’s when we start to talk about cancer screening, breast cancer awareness, and colon cancer awareness. Now, you are at that age group where you are more vulnerable to heart disease. All of these things can be impacted.

The more you talk to your doctor, the more you can assess what those risks are as you get into your fifties and menopause hits.

You are fortunate enough here to have not only new technology with pap smear screening but quick detection, as well. When you have cancer that has set precancerous changes, we can diagnose it before you have cancer. We can treat it before you develop cancer. It’s the same thing with colon cancer. Women are at risk for colon cancer, and a simple colonoscopy or a stool test at home could find precancerous changes that would prevent you from getting cancer.

I want you to recite this to yourself over and over again. I want men who are here to take the quote home and recite it to your partners, your moms, and your sisters, ‘putting your health first is not selfish it’s necessary.’ So I’m going to say it again. ‘Putting your health first is not selfish, it’s necessary.’ So, let’s put ourselves first.

Jayme Baumcratz Nurse practitioner, BHS Women’s Care Associates

Jayme Bsumcratz

I also work with Dr. Perard and Dr. Doverspike on the third floor in women’s health and would like to talk to you just briefly about my two roles here. The first one is I’m the new nurse practitioner. I’ve realized that over the last few months, educating our women is a very big deal. I cannot tell you the number of women with that I spend at least 15 to 20 minutes discussing what is a pelvic exam or lactation.

Some women have no idea the difference between the two. That’s a pretty big deal to be in your fifties and not sure what those are. We’ve done our women an injustice; we need to educate them better.

I find myself doing a lot of educating. I’m excited about that right now because I have the opportunity to spend 30 minutes with my patients. I am trying to get as much information out there right now as I can and I’m finding they are very receptive.

My second role here is as an international board-certified lactation consultant. What that means is I help women who are breastfeeding and need that support.

We take care of five surrounding counties. We have a breastfeeding support group that meets in the room over there, and we do one-on-one consultations with them, as well.

I also do a lot of teaching with our prenatals, and that gives me ample time to talk with them and go over some things. I’m excited to be helping women through their entire journey. I was an OB nurse for 20 years before this.

Richard Begg, MD FACC, FSCAI

Dr. Richard Begg

My area of expertise in women is cardiac disease.

In the last several days, Butler Health Systems Cardiovascular Program has been awarded the platinum award by the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association. That’s a really big deal across the country because the AHA in particular is probably the largest governing board in cardiology in the world.

Out of a hundred in the state of Pennsylvania who participated, there were only seven that achieved the platinum or the highest level. One of those was Butler Health System. That includes a lot of what goes on between Clarion and Butler such as transfer times. How long does it take you guys to get an EKG from here to there, transfer time, etc.?

We met the criteria, so kudos to everybody from the nurses to the techs, to EMS, to the family, and to the education. It’s something we should all as a team be very, very proud.

This building is magnificent. I’ve been doing cardiology for a long, long time–too long. We’re good at taking care of sick people now across the board, not just us, but, in general, we take in sick people, in their moments of most need, open their arteries, and make them survive and help them get through a hospitalization.

The whole dynamic is different now because of the old saying, ‘an ounce of prevention.’ That dynamic is how we transition from taking care of our sickest people to preventing our people, as much as possible, from getting sick. My father was also a cardiologist for a long time, and he would have laughed and cringed if he said something like that. It was beyond their scope.

It’s not anymore. Engage the community, engage the patients, engage the community in their care, and make them partners, not victims. Partners can come and learn a little bit about this and exercise.

We have a group at Butler who comes in every day, has breakfast, and then they go play golf. They chat with their buddies, and the group is growing. That’s exactly what we’ve got to achieve. It’s part of taking care of yourself and learning.

The BHS Health and Wellness Center is one of the few centers, and the partnership is great. They can get this up and running right now because there are a ton of challenges. Nobody knows it better. They work with reimbursements and insurances that pay for these very important things.

This is probably the most exciting thing I’ve been involved in the last 20 years because I think we’ve got a shot.

I think we got a shot to take a community and get them in on it and get them interested in it and show what we can accomplish and the impact that we can make. I’m very excited to be a part of what we’ve got going here and the community behind it.

Everybody needs to be part of it: patients, doctors, nurses, and techs. Let’s just preach the gospel, shouting it from there to the mountains. This is a good place, and let’s just make it work.

Tracy Myers

About six months ago when the cancer center needed a nurse navigator to help our patients go from the time of a potential diagnosis throughout their journey, we decided to start with breast cancer patients, and our long-term goal is to be able to help anybody that has a positive biopsy.

Breast Health Nurse Navigator Michelle Donaldson’s responsibilities include case management from recommendation to diagnosis and referral for cancer care of breast cancer patients in the Breast Health Center setting. Other responsibilities include community outreach and public breast cancer education, program development of Nurse Navigator job, development and marketing for Free Screening Mammogram program, and collaboration and education with nursing in the development of breast health programs.

What is so special about it is that she can educate and offer emotional support to them. She’s available by phone call, and it has been extremely well-received. We are shortening our times, from the time that they’re told that they need a biopsy to the time that they get the biopsy, and that was probably one of our number one goals. It’s also helping to keep women within our health system.

Bridget Thornton, Coordinator Clarion Hospital Foundation

On behalf of the Clarion Hospital Foundation and the Butler Health System Clarion Hospital, I’d like to thank you all for coming tonight and participating in this wonderful event to honor Fran Shope.

This is the start of our Lives of Legacy program. I think we can all agree that she had a huge impact on our community in many different ways.

She served on our hospital board for many years and has contributed significantly to our hospital while she was here.

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