Roots and Branches 

National Nursing Home Week (NNHW) is May 13th to the 19th.

In celebration of Better Hearing and Speech Month, we are featuring Speech-Language Pathologists in our company and giving them an opportunity to tell their stories and have their voices heard. In this first installment of a series, we would like to introduce Alexandra McCullough.
Alexandra McCullough & Family 

Alexandra McCullough, an Evergreen Rehab Speech-Language Pathologist, has spent many years working with patients and residents in Lexington, KY. Not only is she an excellent clinician, she has taken many graduate students and Clinical Fellows under her wing.

“I started working for Evergreen a few months after graduating with my Master's from the University of Kentucky in 2003 and I'm still here! I consider my facility my "work home" and am grateful for my coworkers here in Lexington. Throughout the years with Evergreen, I've served as Rehab Manager, supervisor to graduate students and, most importantly, speech therapist! I've always appreciated the support Evergreen has given me regarding clinical decision-making. Not to mention, as a wife and mother of two young boys, the flexibility of my schedule has been invaluable."

“She is there for us,” says Evergreen Rehab President and CEO, Michael Houlihan. “She has always shown a true dedication to her patients and to Evergreen Rehab. In our industry, for someone to stay in the same building and to work for the same company for 9 years is pretty special and we are grateful to Alex for all of her quality work.”

More from Alexandra on being a Speech-Language Pathologist with Evergreen Rehab:

"I've always appreciated the support Evergreen has given me regarding clinical decision-making. Although working in long-term care can have its ups and downs, I think the best part of my job is the realization that most of these folks consider us friends, coaches and mentors. The trust that they put in us is so important and I feel privileged to be a part of their lives. I salute all Speech Pathologists and say enjoy what you do and know that you make a difference!”

Many thanks to Alex! We know that she is passionate about improving lives.

A recently performed study by a team of healthcare professionals at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine has concluded that aggressive swallowing therapy is an important and effective way of improving the quality of life of patients who have undergone chemoradiation treatment (CRT). One researcher, Dr. Eric Genden, MD, chair of otolaryngology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, asserted that swallowing difficulties are one of the largest problems experienced by patients undergoing CRT. In fact, Dr. Genden estimates that, “20 percent of patients [lose] their ability to swallow for the rest of their lives.”

The research team was led by Dr. Genden and Tamar Kotz, MS, CCC-SLP. The team conducted a randomized control trial (RCT) with 26 patients who were undergoing chemoradiation treatment for head and/or neck cancer. Half of the patients were randomly assigned to the treatment group, the other half to the control group. The treatment group received weekly swallowing therapy exercise sessions and performed five specifically targeted swallowing exercises throughout their CRT. The control group did not receive these treatments however they were referred for swallowing treatment, if it was needed, following the conclusion of the study. Two separate outcome measures were used to gauge the patients’ abilities to swallow, eat, and speak: the Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS) and the Performance Status Scale for Head and Neck Cancer. The treatment group showed significantly better scores on both outcome measures at three months following treatment. The same was found to be true six months following treatment as well.

With regards to the efficacy of swallowing exercises, Tamar Kotz had this to say:

"Research showing the efficacy of swallowing exercises has been criticized in the past due to a lack of randomization in certain studies. Our study is the first randomized trial to demonstrate a strong quality of life benefit at three and six months in patients undergoing CRT."

When following up with patients from the treatment group and the control group nine months and twelve months following treatment, the researchers found no significant differences between the two groups. The research team has indicated that they plan to conduct a similar study again in the future with an increased sample size to further examine how outcomes can be improved for this patient population.

Source: Advance Magazine