From the Heart: What would Stan Lee do?

Wednesday, October 28, 2020 | Vol. 1, No. 9

Excelsior!

If you’re a comic book fan – particularly a fan of Marvel Comics – you’re probably no stranger to the single-word headline atop this newsletter.

“Excelsior” was for years the traditional sign-off used by “Spider-man” co-creator and Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee to close his monthly column to readers. Taken from the Latin for “higher” – or “upward” – it also became Lee’s life motto.

With hurricanes still coming at us in late October, with the United States logging record numbers of new coronavirus infections, and with one of the more tumultuous presidential elections in recent memory less than a week away, we couldn’t think of a better word to introduce this month’s newsletter.

That’s because, as reflected in the stories below and in the latest edition of our quarterly Heart to Heart magazine, we at St. Tammany Health System continue to move onward and upward, despite the ongoing storm that is 2020.

We’re constructing new buildings. We’re expanding our healthcare offerings. We continue to embrace technology and innovation. In short, we are forging ahead, unbowed, in our mission of caring for the people of St. Tammany Parish.

And, in true St. Tammany Health System form, we’re doing it while embracing Stan Lee’s motto with both arms.

So, stay tuned, true believers – and, as always, Excelsior!

Community Checkup with Joan Coffman

This month marks six years of St. Tammany Health System's collaborative endeavor with Ochsner in providing improved access and quality of care to area families, STHS President and CEO Joan Coffman says in her latest video check-in. Find out more about what this means to you in this month's video.

Celebrating six years of improved access and quality of care

Meet the robots

Every superhero needs a sidekick. It just so happens that the healthcare heroes at St. Tammany Health System have robotic ones.

That’s especially true in our operating rooms, where our surgeons make use of a suite of robotic surgical aides. But it’s also true in nearly every other room of our Covington hospital, from our patient rooms to the break room.

Meet our robotic retinue, and learn more about each, by clicking the link below.

On the move

It’s official: St. Tammany Health System’s pediatrics practice has made the move to Covington. After operating for the past three years out of the health system’s Madisonville clinic, St. Tammany Pediatrics opened Monday (Oct. 26) in its new location, at 71338 Louisiana 21, creating a pediatrics hub just south of the health system’s Covington hospital.

Some enchanted evening

The St. Tammany Hospital Foundation wove a special kind of magic recently, inviting guests to “Step Into the Woods” for a whimsical – and socially distanced – night of fairy-tale-themed magic at THE Gala 2020, its annual flagship fundraiser. Couldn’t make it? No worries. Click below to check out photos from the festivities.

Simply the best

STHS has once more received top marks in Healthgrades’ annual evaluations of nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide. Just months after being named one of the nation’s top 5% hospitals for both patient safety and patient experience, it has earned five-star recognition for pacemaker procedures, and for treatment of respiratory failure, stroke, hip fractures and pneumonia.

House rules

For parents, rules rule. Not only do they set clear expectations, guidelines and boundaries for children, but they also introduce the sort of structure many kids crave. But not all rules are created equal, according to The Parenting Center’s Alexis Dill, who offers a few rules for making rules in her latest parenting column.

St. Tammany Health System