May 2022 Newsletter

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers! And Happy Memorial Day! Remember our military, including moms, on Memorial Day who have sacrificed ALL to fight and maintain our country’s freedom!

May is "Better Speech and Hearing Month"

DiagnosTEX has been celebrating BSHM with 1st in-person CE since 2017!

TOTAL Dysphagia for TOTAL Success
Friday, May 20, 2022, 8:00 – 4:30 pm Holiday Inn Express
820 Thousand Oaks Dr, Hurst, TX 76054
(817) 427-1818

Cost: Early bird discount: $25.00 for 8 CE’s if registered before May 6th! $50.00 after May 6th

Positively affect your dysphagia program with improved evaluation and treatment, and an improved understanding of the important things that link these together for TOTAL dysphagia success.  Hear from multiple speakers with expertise in the multiple areas of dysphagia.  All of this in one day for 8 FUN in-person CE’s!

Speakers:

• Celeste Larkins, PT – author and stroke survivor
• Lisa Milliken M.S. CCC-SLP – TSHA President and educator
• Pam Ragland M.S. CCC-SLP – partner/owner DiagnosTEX
• Paul Hefner – Simply Thick
• Rick McAdoo M.S. CCC-SLP – Partner/owner Ampcare
• Ronda Polansky M.S. CCC-SLP - partner/owner DiagnosTEX and Ampcare

Register today! (+ $1 transaction fee)

Resources available for your BSHM education can be found in the DiagnosTEX Store

This annual event provides opportunities to raise awareness about what we do! This is how we educate that we are essential in times like this. We need to let others known what we do and what we need to effectively carry out our responsibilities. This is the month to self-advocate! ASHA has many resources to help you at www.asha.org. May is also American Stroke Awareness Month with the National Stroke Association. Some other good resources on www.dysphagiadiagnostex.com include:

ABOVE and BEYOND
By: Ronda Polansky M.S. CCC-SLP

Patient, Caregiver, and Healthcare Professional Educational Reference Sheets and Handouts for Effective Dysphagia Rehabilitation. Over 30 handouts on specific disorders in dysphagia in ONE location to use in your practice, plus a resource section for SLP’s on cranial nerve testing, pharyngeal exercises, and treatment techniques. A need to have booklet in your therapy bag!!
Cost: $40.00. (+S&H). Discounted to $30.00 for MBSH Month. Call us, we will get one out to you!

DVD or jumpdrive – What You Can Not See at Bedside
By: Ronda Polansky M.S. CCC-SLP and Pam Ragland M.S. CCC-SLP

Copies of MBSS studies for education of staff and families on various disorders and clear episodes of penetrations and aspirations. Cost - $40.00 (plus S & H). Discounted to $30.00 for MBSH Month. Great educational tool for anyone! This is the same videos we presented at TSHA.

An SLP Should NEVER Lose Their Voice - Advocate for Proper Dysphagia Evaluations
By: Ronda Polansky M.S. CCC-SLP

Material to assist in educating Physicians, Administrators, Nurses and other Medical Professionals on Dysphagia and MBSS.

Memorial Day Holiday

DiagnosTEX will not be operating vans on Monday, May 30th for the holiday. Please keep this in mind when scheduling your MBSS around that time. We will run vans Tuesday through Friday that week. We have veterans working for DiagnosTEX. We honor them, any others who have served, and those who are currently sacrificing for our freedom! We also remember those who paid the ultimate price for our country and our freedom today! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all the veterans who served and are serving our country for the freedom we cherish.

DiagnosTEX Mobile MBSS 19 years in DFW!

Our company specializes in dysphagia evaluation and we love what we do! We have been in business in DFW for 19 years and have completed over 100K Modified Barium Swallow Studies (MBSS) in those 19 years. Dr. Jeri Logeman, was the pioneer in evaluating dysphagia under fluoroscopy, long before Varibar, MBSImp, AP scales, and social media. Over the years, our profession has advanced as has dysphagia research and now we have supporting evidence of the effectiveness of neuromuscular stim to treat this disorder, above and beyond a cold laryngeal mirrors and oral motor exercises. DiagnosTEX sometimes makes recommendations that make peoples day (we love those days) and sometimes we make recommendations that do not. We live in a world where differences of opinions are the norm anymore on all levels, so we know not everyone will agree with each other, ever, but it is nice when it does. There is one guarantee we can make is that the staff here has nothing but your patients’ best interest at heart and we take pride in what we do. The best days on the van are good swallow days! Yes, DiagnosTEX has guidelines we follow in our studies to assess structure and function/ physiological components and how it impacts the pattern of the swallow. DiagnosTEX averages 10+ boluses a study with a minimum of 2 trials per consistency. We regularly do QA on our studies, either on a particular van day or follow up on months of studies. Last year in August, 65% of all of our recommendations were for PO. Of those 65%, thin liquids were recommended for 43% of the studies completed. In comparison, nectar thick liquids were recommended for 10% of studies completed (honey for 13%, and pudding for 1%). For us, this clearly disputes the ongoing controversary that many patients receiving a MBSS are most often recommended thickened liquids as a conservative measure to reduce dysphagia. Thirtytwo of the 51 patients (63%) with previous NPO status received some degree of PO recommendation (including therapeutic trials or pleasure feedings) following instrumental evaluations by MBSS. This is a 63% upgrade from having nothing by mouth to oral feeding as the source of nutrition and hydration. DiagnosTEX does not use the AP scale to rate, the reason for this is if we did the possibility of each and every penetration and/or aspiration on each and every consistency tested would have a different rating. Yet we do give enough information in the report on any penetration and aspiration, that you are able to rate it on your own. The MBSImp viscosity, volume, dose and method are included/embedded (and always have been) in the DiagnosTEX “protocol”. Residue and aspiration are functionally important aspects but are no more than signs and risks, they don’t tell you about the reasons of impairment. If you don’t know this then you do not know how to modify this and how to treat it. This is not a DTEX quote, but a Bonnie Martin Harris quote. She also says that it should take 10 min to do a study and 15 minutes to write a report and a skilled clinician should be able to do this. This has been our model for 19 years. You should be able to read a report and know it exactly what is going on. Although Dr. Harris agrees that exact match of food is virtually impossible, DiagnosTEX assesses thin liquids and thickened liquids, both thin and thick puree, mixed consistencies and dry solid (based on safety, as always). Why is a cookie a solid? As Dr Harris says, because all the literature before was done with a cookie. DTEX has always welcomed custom consistencies provided by staff or family, if necessary to evaluate. All barium and consistencies utilized have been measured against the barium calculator to ensure consistency across the board based on food/liquid to barium ratio. DiagnosTEX takes priority in implementing compensatory strategies or facilitative techniques if appropriate and/or indicated and always base treatment recommendations after the pathology of the swallow.

In the not so friendly environment of social media and appalling unprofessionalism and HIPAA violations that take place on it daily, we believe most everyone knows that the DiagnosTEX staff is available to everyone (SLPs, staff, patients and families), by phone or email and we pride our small business on open and DIRECT communication. We have no desire in discussing patient care on a national platform in front of an audience that do not qualify as “need to know”, although we all watch it happen daily. Our promise to you, is that you will never see any of our therapists discussing any another therapist’s evaluations (BSE, FEES, MBSS) or quality of their treatment of any patient we see, on social media. It is disrespectful to our colleagues, unprofessional and against our standards, ethics, and our morals and honestly against DTEX policy, but we will respond to anyone who discusses ours. We take what we do very seriously and very personally. It is our responsibility and our job to stand by what we do, and protect all of those involved (staff and patients).