Northwest Medical Screens Infants, Potential Hearing Problems Found

Newborns at Northwest Medical Center in Springdale are getting an extra test these days: They’re being screened for possible hearing problems.

The screening is now routinely done — at no cost to the patients — on all infants born at the hospital. It’s proven so popular that parents whose babies were born before the new equipment came on line in November have called to inquire about testing for their children.

The testing was made possible through donations from the Walton Family Foundation and the First National Bank of Springdale. Those gifts along with others enabled the Northwest Medical Center Development Council to purchase $20,000 worth of hearing screening equipment, the ALGO 2, made by Natus Medical Inc.

Karen Nichols is a registered nurse who works in Northwest’s nursery. She says the equipment is easy to use, but the screening can only be done when the infant is asleep. The screening equipment scans the infant’s brain waves and picks up on waves that may be consistent with hearing problems. Newborns are too small for a diagnostic procedure — too many things can interfere with the readings, Nichols says.

But the screening can alert parents to possible problems, so they can be addressed early, if necessary. As of early December, Nichols says about 12 infants had been referred for further audio testing.

Dialysis clinic open house

Fayetteville Dialysis Clinic has planned an open house to allow the public to view the new facility in North Hills Medical Park. The clinic, 107 E. Monte Painter Drive, will be open from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Jan. 16.

The 7,880-SF clinic, which opened Nov. 17, has 18 hemodialysis stations and a larger home-training area than did the previous location on the Washington Regional Medical Center campus. More centrally located, the new facility was expected to be more convenient for dialysis patients, many of whom undergo treatment three times a week.

Fayetteville Dialysis Clinic is a part of Regional Kidney Centers, which also has a facility in Bentonville, Hidden Springs Dialysis Clinic.

Columbia’s back in the ratings

again, firm rates it a ‘hold’

Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. is down but Morgan Keegan, the Memphis-based stock investment firm, has reinstated its coverage of the company’s stock. Morgan Keegan’s latest analyst report, released in mid-December, rated Columbia a “hold” and predicted a five-year earnings per share growth rate of 12 percent.

Columbia’s new management is “exceedingly challenged” to meet reasonable performance expectations any time soon, the investment firm says, but the managers are “extremely credible” with a strategy for optimizing shareholder value. Eventually, analysts wrote, management will “achieve a significant restoration of enterprise value through its collective restructuring efforts”

Specifically, analysts noted Columbia’s third-quarter decisions to discontinue a $90 million national advertising campaign, terminate 10 construction projects, cancel five acquisitions, table $200 million of committed construction projects and divest the company of its home-health care business.

Morgan Keegan analysts say that, while settling the ongoing government investigation will likely prove expensive, prevailing consensus earnings estimates “remain optimistic” although additional restructuring and possible reserves against a government settlement could result in “lackluster” operating results for future quarters. n