Lexington, KY – Both the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University have announced health-care partnerships aimed at better reaching the eastern part of the commonwealth.
UK HealthCare has teamed with Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital (OLBH) in Ashland to create a satellite multidisciplinary clinic for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The new satellite clinic began this month, and its development is supported through a research grant from the ALS Association.
Meanwhile EKU and Alice Lloyd College have announced a new partnership that will send 10 Alice Lloyd students to EKU to study in its baccalaureate nursing program. Participants would earn a dual degree from the institutions.
The 21-month program will allow students to complete the general portion of their four-year degree at Alice Lloyd before transferring to EKU to complete the nursing portion of the program. Earlier this year, Alice Lloyd reached a similar agreement with the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, which guarantees admission to two Alice Lloyd pre-nursing graduates each fall.
Alice Lloyd College’s decision to launch a pre-nursing program was guided by an increased need for bachelor degree-level nurses in eastern Kentucky, according to a release from EKU. Demographics have indicated a dramatic shift in the rural Appalachian population from a youth-dominated population to an aging one that requires a greater presence of health-care providers.
UK’s partnership with the Ashland hospital will allow for patients from the tri-state region in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia to avoid traveling to Lexington for treatment. During each clinic visit in Lexington, patients are evaluated by a neurologist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, nutritionist, respiratory therapist, neuropsychologist, mobility specialist, and nurse. Treatment is similar at the satellite clinic. At the end of the appointment, OLBH and UK HealthCare clinicians consult on the patient's status via teleconferencing, according to a release from UK.
The satellite clinic takes place the second Monday of each month at the OLBH Sleep Lab on the hospital campus.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, causes muscle weakness and atrophy throughout the body. The disease is degenerative and characterized by muscle paralysis causing difficulty speaking, swallowing and breathing. According to statistics from the ALS Association, approximately 5,600 people in the United States are diagnosed with ALS each year. The annual incidence of ALS is two per 100,000 people, and it is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans may have the disease at any given time. The life expectancy of an ALS patient averages about two to five years from the time of diagnosis, although approximately 20 percent of people with ALS live five years or more, 10 percent will survive more than 10 years and 5 percent will live 20 years.