The Woodlands Edition | June 2023

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WHAT’S NEW?

Memorial Hermann The Woodlands. “Heart exacerbations are the No. 1 reason why patients and the Medicare population get readmitted.” Iqbal said women make up just over half of the patient population for heart issues, and many contributing factors are symptoms women are not properly screened or treated for, such as high blood pressure, continued emotional stress and even inamma- tory issues. “There’s a constellation of symp- toms that all make sense together most of the time, and the primary care will unfortunately have a dif- cult time trying to verify all those things. So you get people that are unfortunately mismanaged and then misdiagnosed,” Iqbal said. High blood pressure is one of the many factors that signicantly heighten the risk of heart failure and heart dysfunction, Iqbal said. “We’re denitely seeing a higher acuity of patients,” said Nicole Rodriquez, interim director of wom- en’s services at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands. “Our postpartum hemorrhage is increasing our hyper- tension and our pregnancy [rates].” Filling the gap Area medical experts said to under- stand the factors putting women at risk for potentially life-threatening issues they must improve research methods and hire more women in the medical eld. “There’s a lot of women research- ers researching women, and [there is] growth of the professional women out there who want to research [women’s health],” Moiser said. According to a study performed in 2021 by the Association of Ameri- can Medical Colleges, the percent of physicians who are female increased from 28.3% in 2007 to 36.3% in 2020. In 2019, women made up 50.5% of admissions into medical programs for the very rst time. “It’s interdisciplinary, across many di erent elds, and that is one of the biggest topics we have talked about was many researchers now are becoming more involved in women,” Moiser said. O¥cials with local hospital sys- tems said women joining medical professions has spurred a greater focus on women’s health within the medical eld. However, the growth needs to occur across the board in

Hospital systems in The Woodlands area are working with new technologies and features to begin providing more comprehensive care to women.

OBGYN HEALTH

Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital has

undergone expansions to provide resources for new and existing mothers.

• A dedicated lactation center has been expanded, and maternity bed space has doubled from 106 to 212 beds . • A full-time clinical social worker provides therapeutic service and resource help. • A new text system alerts women to upcoming appointments for babies.

New parents at Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital have access to an expanded birthing center and additional social worker support in 2023.

HEART HEALTH

MENTAL HEALTH

Houston Methodist and Memorial Hermann are working on identifying postpartum depression using early screenings and community resources.

Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center is using a new device the size of a dime that could help predict and prevent heart failure through electronic tracking.

• 13% of women are likely to experience delayed depression. • 1 in 8 women who have a live birth experience a major depressive episode within three months. • Screening for depressive issues is now a key factor of prenatal care.

• The device tracks heart movement and monitors potential heart abnormalities . • Patients with heart issues can use the device to monitor future events. • 50% of patients admitted for cardiac related failure get readmitted.

SOURCES: HOUSTON METHODIST, MEMORIAL HERMANN, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA COMMUNITY IMPACT

Mental well-being In January 2022, Houston Methodist completed a $250 million expansion that included doubling the labor and delivery bed capacity of The Wood- lands facility from 106 to 212 to keep up with rising birth rates. According to available data, Houston Methodist recorded a 19% increase in deliveries in The Woodlands from 2021-22. However, as more mothers went through the system, doctors have also started focusing on treating depres- sion and anxiety among women, Moi- ser said. Postpartum depression can be a severe and long-lasting condition a ecting women’s ability to care for themselves and their families, and a majority of cases go unnoticed or untreated due to a lack of resources for mothers. “The OB/GYN would nd it—you know whenever they were weeks or months out—and then they don’t come back to us, and we thought, ‘Well, how do we hit it on the front end?’” said Moiser, who has also

worked as a labor and delivery nurse. Houston Methodist hired a licensed clinical maternal health social worker in early 2023 to conduct screenings for women who have given birth,

pressure and all other risks,” Moi- ser said. “We have nurses who come straight out of nursing school, and we put them in that evidence-based practice before they can graduate out of their internship.” The silent killer Issues with anx-

are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant, Moiser said. There is also a new system in place that sends texts to mothers remind- ing them of key appointments and providing check-in opportunities. As a part of mater- nal care, Moiser said nurses and doctors

WE HAVE A GOOD DEAL MORE WORK TO DO IN TERMS OF GENDER EQUITY. MICHAEL DILL, ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES DIRECTOR OF WORKFORCE STUDIES

iety, high blood pressure and other common health issues can have an e ect not just on maternal health but women’s health as a whole, experts said. Heart health and cancer screening

was part of the focus of the $250 million expansion of the South Tower at Memorial Hermann in The Woodlands, which opened in June 2022. “The major growth in cardiology is in structural and advance heart fail- ure aspects,” said Dr. Ahmad Iqbal, an interventional cardiologist with

train and prepare for the worst-case scenarios at multiple stages of mater- nity. The expansion of delivery rooms provided additional space for physi- cians and nurses to undergo training drills in a variety of scenarios. “We run quarterly drills that cover not just hemorrhage but high blood

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