After two decades at the helm of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and its parent company, Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, Gary A. Mecklenberg has announced his decision to retire from the organization.

"We are clearly indebted to Gary for 20 years of remarkable leadership, exceptional vision and unwavering commitment," said Edward M. Liddy, chairman, Board of Directors of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare. "All one needs to do is visit our campus, examine quality indicators, ask our patients, talk to hospital leaders and review healthcare industry awards to realize what he has accomplished for this city and region. He leaves a truly outstanding legacy."

The board unanimously names Dean M. Harrison to succeed Mecklenburg as president and chief executive officer of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare. Harrison has served as president and chief executive officer of Northwestern Memorial Hospital since 2002.

Harrison joined Northwestern Memorial in 1998 as a senior vice president. Previously, he was the president and chief operating officer of the University of Chicago Health System. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University and an MBA from St. Francis College. He currently serves as chair of the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council Board of Directors and sits on the boards of the University HealthSystem Consortium, the National Committee for Quality Health Care and the Administrative Board of the Council of Teaching Hospitals.

The new Activities of Daily Living Performance Enhancement Center at Villa St. Benedict quite literally helps both young and old.

Villa St. Benedict is a new retirement community located on the 47-acre Sacred Heart Monastery grounds in Lisle. Co-sponsored by the Benedictine Health System and the Benedictine Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Villa St. Benedict features independent and assisted living for older adults.

The Activities of Daily Living Performance Enhancement Center (PEC), located in the community’s main building, is designed to promote quality of life among the facility’s senior residents. The PEC is part of a formal partnership between the Masters of Clinical Exercise Physiology (M.C.E.P.) program at Benedictine University, and Villa St. Benedict.

The fitness and geriatric research center also serves as a place where Benedictine University Masters of Clinical Exercise Physiology and students from other programs or universities can apply what they learn in the classroom.

"Our objective is to take healthy seniors and keep them healthy, take unhealthy seniors and make them more healthy, and take disabled seniors and reduce the impact of their disabilities," said Craig E. Broeder, Ph.D., director of Benedictine University’s Master of Science in Clinical Exercise Physiology (M.C.E.P.) program and director of the PEC.

"The center is also an outreach of our academic program," Broeder said. "Our undergraduate and graduate students will be able to conduct internships at the center. We will also be inviting undergraduate students from other institutions to perform internships there. These students will be responsible for organizing fitness programs and collecting data for research."

As the population of the United States ages, there is a greater demand for services directed to seniors. Addressing quality of life has emerged as an integral part of health promotion practice.

"The center is all about raising the quality of life for the residents," Broeder said. "In addition to helping them improve their aerobic fitness, strength and flexibility, we are also meeting with food services and bringing in people from the Nutrition department at the University to help residents improve their diet." The center features state-of-the-art exercise equipment, some of which was made possible through the generosity of corporate donors such as Waukesha, Wisconsin-based Wellspring Fitness and OPS Medical of Pasadena, Maryland.

The equipment made available by OPS Medical – the Tetrax Interactive Balance System, which is used to diagnose a balance disorder before the patient suffers a fall – is crucial to the center’s Balance Improvement program.

"Balance among the elderly is critical," Broeder said. "Studies have shown that in most cases, a person who falls and breaks a hip or leg usually passes away within 12 months. It is very rare that they can remain active enough to maintain their health. They go downhill very quickly."

The PEC will also be the site of intensive research by students enrolled in the M.C.E.P. program at Benedictine University and interns from other institutions. Students will be performing research in the areas of balance, strength and coordination, and metabolic syndrome including diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.

Regina Schurman, a graduate student in the M.C.E.P. program at Benedictine, serves as the program and personnel coordinator at the PEC. A former computer programmer and accountant, the facility is affording her an opportunity to pursue a dramatic career change.

"This is a fantastic opportunity," she said. "We are able to apply what we learn in the classroom here on a daily basis. And being able to work with Dr. Broeder, I’m learning things here before I even learn them in the classroom."

Healthcare professionals, community leaders and special guests toured the comfortable, homelike amenities at an open house and ribbon cutting for the new VITAS Inpatient Hospice Unit in the Warren Barr Pavilion last month. The 12-bed hospice unit, a home away from home for those at the end of life and their families, is located on the seventh floor of the Warren Barr Pavilion.

The seven-room hospice floor is designed to provide brief, around-the-clock medical care for terminally ill patients whose symptoms cannot be managed at home. Soothing colors, homey patterns, wood floors and accommodating furniture like rocker-recliners and sleeper sofas ensure a comforting, non-institutional environment for patients and their families.

Cutting the ribbon at the grand opening of VITAS’ inpatient hospice unit at the Warren Barr Pavilion in Chicago are, from left, Alma Phillips, VITAS Chicagoland Central General Manager; Barbara Gray, VITAS Vice President of Operations; Michelle Grabarski, Warren Barr Executive Director; and Kit Keane, Warren Barr Administrator.

"Our goal is to stabilize the patient so he or she can return home as soon as possible, where we can continue to provide care," says Doug Irvin, Director of Market Development for the VITAS Chicagoland Central program. "Home is where most hospice patients want to be, but sometimes it’s not an option. This inpatient unit, within Warren Barr but solely staffed by VITAS, is ideal. It allows families to stay with their loved ones day and night."

Adding to the homelike atmosphere are a laundry room, quiet room, kitchen and a family room with a computer offering Internet access.

"We’re excited about this collaborative effort with VITAS," says Michelle Grabarski, Executive Director of the Warren Barr Pavilion, a skilled care facility owned by Boulevard Healthcare. "An inpatient hospice unit enhances the continuity of care we already offer residents here."