For Indiana’s Elkhart County—known primarily for its large Amish population and for manufacturing roughly half of the world’s recreational vehicles (RVs)—brownfield sites have long posed a challenge.

“A brownfield site is an abandoned industrial property with an environmental or safety stigma attached to it,” says John Hulewicz, environmental health supervisor in the Elkhart County health department. “Maybe people think there’s hazardous material onsite that’s leaching into the water supply, or maybe they believe that the property is a gathering place for vandals and gangs. Whether these beliefs are based in fact or fiction, brownfields decrease the county’s tax base. Our goal is to encourage revitalization and redevelopment wherever and whenever we can.”
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Six years ago, if you’d asked Ron Anderson how to add 150 employees to his medical billing company without relocating or acquiring new office space, he’d have looked at you and laughed. “I’d have told you it’s impossible,” says Anderson, director of business development at San Diego, California-based CHMB and a past president of the California chapter of the MGMA. “We’d have had employees sitting on each others’ shoulders.”
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It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes teamwork to change a city. For Westminster, a city of nearly 100,000 people located in Southern California’s Orange County, the need to change was highlighted when a new Assistant City Clerk—Pat Jacquez-Nares—came onboard.
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In a year marked with more bank failures than we’ve seen since the height of the savings-and-loan crisis, D.L. Evans Bank, a family-owned institution with 22 branches, 320 employees and $875 million in managed assets, has cause to celebrate. Its ten-year use of Laserfiche has netted the 105-year-old, Idaho-based bank a wealth of dividends, including:

• Faster audits.
• Streamlined lending.
• Improved business continuity planning.
• More efficient processes for opening new accounts.
• A 33% reduction in hard copy document production and an 85% reduction in paper storage.

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Fertility treatment is an intensive process that requires sensitivity and an understanding of the physical and emotional aspects of a patient’s fertility problems. But when doctors don’t have fast and easy access to all of their patients’ medical data, it can be difficult to be as responsive as desired.

With ten clinics and two in-vitro fertilization (IVF) centers located throughout the greater Chicago area, the Fertility Centers of Illinois (FCI) already had an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system in place. However, the ArtWorks EMR system only stored patients’ current, FCI-based medical data—historical medical records were kept as paper files, as were lab results, surgery reports and other outside correspondence.
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Giving underprivileged children a head start in life is more difficult now than ever before. Broken homes, urban violence, poorly-funded school districts, inadequate access to health care and constant increases in the cost of living are making life more and more challenging for these kids every day. That’s why, for the disadvantaged youngsters in Los Angeles County, the Head Start-State Preschool program is so vital to their well-being and future success.

Created in 1965, Head Start is the most successful national school readiness program in the United States. It provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. All told, nearly 25 million preschool-aged children have benefited from the program nationwide.
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As chief probation officer for LaPorte Superior Court No. 4 in Indiana, Steve Eyrick knows a great deal about rehabilitation. Every day, he works with clients who’ve been charged with misdemeanors and Class D felonies, and it’s his job to help them turn their lives around.

Of his probationers, Eyrick says, “They’re just people who make some bad decisions. I try to focus on their issues and their individual dynamics, while at the same time testing them and making sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”
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There’s little in life that’s more personal than health care, and those of us who have faced serious illness know how important it is to receive quality care from a doctor we trust. Unfortunately, not all medical professionals consistently provide the highest level of patient care, and that’s where, in Texas, the Texas Medical Board comes into play.

As the state regulatory agency charged with protecting citizens’ health and safety, the Medical Board regulates the practice of medicine in Texas by licensure, discipline and education. It has a legislative mandate to file and track all complaints filed on any doctor licensed in the state—typically hundreds of them a year.
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There’s little in life that’s more elemental than water. And yet, in most developed countries, it’s easy to take access to safe water and sanitation for granted.

Prior to the creation of the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (CCCSD) in 1946, however, Contra Costa County—located east of San Francisco, CA—was in crisis. A post-war building boom had brought an influx of new residents, most of them relying on septic systems that didn’t take well to the area’s heavy adobe clay soil. With septic tanks overflowing and waterborne diseases such as typhoid becoming a potential threat, health authorities considered the polluted conditions in the county to be among the worst in California.

As a result, the CCCSD was formed as a special district, a sewer system and treatment plants were put in place, and the public received much-needed access to safe water and sanitation.
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When manufacturing medical devices such as spinal fusion cages, knee replacements, hip replacements, bone screws and the like, precision is essential. Deviating from product specifications by even a miniscule amount can cause serious problems when a physician attempts to implant the device in a patient.

As a contract manufacturing company that specializes in medical device implants and surgical instruments, precision is a chief concern for RMS. For over forty years, the company has ensured the accuracy and quality of its products, spurring expansion and business growth. But as the organization grew, some of its processes failed to evolve along with it.
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As any practice manager can tell you, keeping track of patients’ paper records requires more than a little blood, sweat and tears. Finding information can be difficult, paper and storage space are expensive, and office staff spends a lot of time organizing and updating records so that doctors can stay well-informed.

Such was certainly the case for Dr. Brian Hanson’s gastroenterology (GI) practice in Ukiah, CA. One of just two GI doctors within a 90-mile radius in rural northern California, Hanson at times may see more than 200 patients a month. He’s a member of several boards and committees, and his practice is affiliated with three different hospitals, two ambulatory surgery centers and two rural healthcare clinics which serve patients in both Mendocino and Lake Counties.
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We’ve all seen them: the young man suffering from his first bout of bipolar mania—paranoid, delusional and unable to sleep; the 40-year-old veteran, injured in Iraq, addicted to painkillers and living on the streets; the single mother with schizophrenia—abused, uneducated and unconvinced that antipsychotic drugs will ease her pain.

For the people who struggle with these issues in southeast Texas, Spindletop Mental Health Mental Retardation (MHMR) Services has the resources to support their recovery and relieve their distress. But with over 8,000 patients every year and upwards of 400 employees, Spindletop’s ability to respond promptly to records requests—and, by extension, to patients—was being compromised.
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