November 2023 Newsletter

Happy Thanksgiving Month!

There is no better time to express our appreciation for your business and trust in us since 2003!

The friendship of those we serve is the foundation of our success serving the DFW area for 20 years! This is the season to reflect on blessings. I know at DiagnosTEX, we are incredibly thankful for each and every one of you who chose to use us as your preferred mobile healthcare provider and have shared both your friendship and endless support over the years in both the good times and bad. We truly wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving with many, many blessings as we enter this 2023 holiday season.

IT IS ELECTION TIME! PLEASE VOTE BECAUSE YOUR ONE VOTE COUNTS!

Holiday Season Schedule

Please keep our holiday schedules in mind when scheduling your MBSS at the end of November and December! Keep in mind that during this busy time of year, specific requests for specific times and/or days become exponentially difficult to accommodate. We may be unable to quickly schedule your patient with certain time and day requests. Please notify your staff, patients, and families of this. DiagnosTEX bases our mobile clinic schedules by geographical areas only for time, efficiency and operational cost. This has been our business model for the last 18 years. If your patient’s personal schedule is limited to certain days and times, we recommend an outpatient facility (such as a hospital). Our mobile service is an option for you that offers convenience in the equipment coming to you, but it is not for the customized days and time schedules.

DiagnosTEX is not a STAT service. Any emergency concerns the patient may have need to be seen at the ER. DiagnosTEX is an independent physician clinic/office and operates under normal physician office hours Monday through Thursday with an occasional Friday. Fridays are typically a day we use to service and deep clean all of our mobile vehicles and this is company policy. As with any physician office, every patient’s paperwork must be processed and insurance must be verified before we will schedule an appt. Also, as a physician clinic/office we schedule our appointments as it fits into our schedules and it may take anywhere from 1-7 days to get scheduled with us.

Need CE before end of year??? Deciphering Dysphagia with Ampcare’s ESPTM (Effective Swallowing Protocol)
On-Demand + Zoom Webinar Wednesday & Thursday, November 1-2, 2023 4-6 pm CT (5-7 pm ET) *8 Hours Advanced

ASHA CE. This seminar will guide clinicians through the latest clinical approach to treat dysphagia. Ampcare’s ESP combines NMES with specifically designed electrodes to fit the submental and facial areas to work in conjunction with indirect (NPO) techniques and newly developed therapeutic exercises. This systematic rehabilitation approach works to improve hyolaryngeal excursion, speed up laryngeal vestibule closure reaction times and enhance swallowing posture by providing the tools to accelerate swallow function. This course will teach participants the specific rationale behind the parameters best suited for small muscle rehabilitation, review the anatomy of the muscle groups and cranial nerves associated with the swallow, and provide extensive “hands on” experience using the technique.

TSHA Convention 2024

The TSHA 68th Annual Convention & Exhibition will be held February 22-24, 2024, in Fort Worth, at the Omni & Fort Worth Convention Center! Registration is open!

November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month

Dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia are the 2 most serious medical conditions seen in late-stage Alzheimer's disease patients. Due to the degenerative aspect of Alzheimer's and the varying speed of degeneration, it is important to evaluate and re-evaluate these patients. Malnutrition and dehydration are the major issues in this population; therefore, it is important to understand their current level of functioning concerning their feeding and swallowing as they progress through the stages. Never overlook the importance of this population’s need for dysphagia evaluations and proper diets. There is a touching article written by a daughter titled “What I Wish I Knew Before my Mother’s Alzheimer’s Death”. This is part of the article: “I didn’t know it then, but we finally encountered the real killer with Alzheimer’s—forgetting how to swallow. In late March I found her still sitting at the dining table two hours after the meal, staring at her bowl of fruit. The nurses said she had become a slow eater. I realized at that point that the suddenness of my mother’s spiral had even surprised the staff. They didn’t realize the blisters were from bedsores, thinking her shoes were too tight; they didn’t help her to eat, thinking she was taking her time. It was the disease, slowly shriveling the part of her brain that takes care of the physical processes and basic functions. It was the swallowing, or lack thereof, that was the beginning of the end. One day she just stopped eating and drinking completely. Not only does Alzheimer’s make you forget how to swallow, but it also attacks the part of the brain that sends thirst and hunger pangs. And that’s when I understood what would kill her—she would slowly wither away, dry up, unable and unwilling to eat or drink.” The full article can be found at https://www.beingpatient.com/alzheimers-death/.I unfortunately got to see this same horrific journey with my own mother.

My job as a Speech Pathologist is to be proactive with these patients andfamilies. Education is so very important, and re-evaluations along the way as well.

Access to speech pathology services for adults in rural Texas Survey

A second-year graduate student in the Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program at Minot State University, located in Minot, North Dakota is asking for participation in her study.. She is currently recruiting participants for the study titled Access to speech pathology services for adults in rural Texas and North Dakota: a quantitative and geographic perspective. The purpose of this study is to identify barriers that clients and speech-language pathologists living in rural areas of Texas and North Dakota believe impede their access to speech language pathology services. Both North Dakota and Texas were chosen due to personal interest in the affairs of both states, and to provide information about how access to speech-language pathology services differs across two states that have social, economic, and geographic similarities and differences. If you would like to participate, please complete the following brief survey: https://minotstate.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_42tfc8bzZ73xTGS. This study was approved by the Minot State University Institutional Review Board, IRB Exempt Approval #2409. Please contact erica.foster@ndus.edu or Dr. Mary Huston at mary.huston@ndus.edu if you have any concerns or questions.

Bringing Back the Joy Of Mealtime With Easy To Swallow Meals

Pureese Meal Co. provides nourishing and delicious puree meals for those with swallowing difficulties that are IDDSI compliant and delivered right to your door. They offer a wide range of pureed meals from breakfast, entrees, sides, and desserts available both in molds and in tub options to best cater to your needs. I was honored to taste the food and meet the chef! The presentation was beautiful and the taste.....OUTSTANDING! To contact them you can call at 682-651-5507 or email: info@pureesemealco.com. Please pass along this information to your dysphagia patients and their families. Their simple ordering process makes it incredibly easy to select the meals that are tailored to each person and delivered right to their doorstep. Let them take care of mealtime, for more stress-free days and able to start feeling better inside and out.

DiagnosTEX Dysphagia Calendar is back for 2023!

Available in December when we see you!

Want to give a shout out to St. Augustine University!

Thank you for inviting me to speak to the dysphagia class! Always enjoying sharing my passion!