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In brief

Crowds at previous spring Foxfield races have been around 25,000 people, but turnout was lower this year. Photo by Robert Llewellyn.

Off to the races

Every spring, college students and families flock to the track for the Foxfield Races. While patrons galavant through the fields and watch the occasional horse race, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad makes sure everyone stays safe. This year, C-VILLE tagged along with CARS for the festivities.

The day started early at the McIntire Road CARS station, with everyone in full motion at 6:45am. For Social Events Captain Nicole Post, planning began more than a month before the actual races. “I take inventory of what we used from last year, what’s going on, and make sure we’re doing all of our ordering,” she says. “We have a bunch of cards, a bunch of backpacks, a bunch of walking packs, so all of that has to be updated and stocked, all the expired stuff needs to be thrown out.”

The CARS squad headed out in a fleet of ambulances, trucks, and other EMS vehicles around 7:30am. After a pit stop at Chick-fil-A in the Mass Casualty Incident truck, we arrived at the racetrack, where the squad split up after breakfast briefings that included assignments for interior treatment center, ambulances, walking teams, and the exterior care center. This helps ensure that CARS can access and treat patients at any location.

After meeting up with Chief Virginia Leavell, I was given a highlighter-yellow CARS jacket and joined the gator teams in the interior treatment center. The gators—essentially souped-up golf carts converted into field ambulances—transport patients who can’t easily get to the main medical area on their own.

Despite the early morning rain and chillier-than-normal temps, the gator teams were quickly dispatched. Calls typically end with either no patient located or an intoxicated 20-something loaded onto the stretcher after a basic lookover. Unless something is wrong with a patient’s airway, breathing, or circulation, the person is immediately driven to the interior medical center.

“Those are like the three big things that are our top priority on every patient, the three things that we check first in all cases,” says Jaime Lear, one of the gator drivers who manned the MCI to and from Foxfield.

Once at the medical center, patients are assessed and treated as appropriate. Most people hang out in the tent for at least an hour, and the doctor on site approves each discharge. Anyone brought in for intoxication must pass a quick walking test before leaving. 

“A vast majority of patients get treated and released from here,” says CARS medic Michael Chilmaid. “Usually each year a couple end up having to be transported to the hospital.”

“Normally if we’ve treated a patient, given them medications, or put [in] an IV, they would be going to the hospital, but here it’s a little different,” adds paramedic and training officer Jasmyn Powers. 

Amid the chilly weather, CARS was less busy than usual this year, with 16 patients in the interior medical center all day and no transports to the hospital.—Catie Ratliff

Money moves

Albemarle County Public Schools adopted its operating budget for the 2024-25 school year on April 25. The budget comes in at $269.4 million, a $9.5 million increase from last year. Highlights include a 3 percent raise for all employees, an increase to the Academic Leadership Compensation Program, and the addition of five full-time equivalent positions to both the English Learner and Special Education program.

The wheel deal

Meals on Wheels Executive Director Hailey Peterson. Supplied photo.

Effective April 29, Hailey Peterson is the new executive director of Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville/Albemarle. Peterson started with MOW in 2021 as a volunteer manager, later serving as the organization’s assistant director and has been the interim executive director since September 2023. “I’m honored to continue my work with Meals on Wheels as the Executive Director,” Peterson said in an April 25 press release. “Having spent the past three years getting to know the volunteers, learning more about the organization, and better understanding the needs of our community, I’m looking forward to deepening our connection to our neighbors in need.”

Fire alarm

The Charlottesville Fire Department is investigating a fire at the University of Virginia Medical Center. The fire started at approximately 11:45am on April 27 in an inpatient room in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. A patient and a visitor were both treated for injuries, and the hospital returned to normal operations by the same afternoon. At press time, the cause of the fire is unknown.

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‘Lean thinking’ saves UVA hospital millions

Richard Shannon says 96 fewer worker injuries at the UVA Medical Center is priceless. Photo by Ryan Jones

Sixty patients died unexpectedly while receiving care at the University of Virginia Medical Center last year, according to Executive Vice President of Health Affairs Richard Shannon. This year, he says doctors are on track to drastically reduce that number.

At a June 3 seminar called First Do No Harm, Shannon presented the health system’s efforts to improve safety and patient care.

“Please raise your hand if you’d like to get an infection when you come to the hospital,” he asked, adding that patients receive 1.7 million infections in hospitals annually, which can be attributed to 100,000 deaths. In the U.S. last year, a trillion bucks was spent on harm, failures, overtreatment, fraud and abuse in hospitals, he added.

As part of his almost 2-year-old Be Safe structure, also adopted by the National Institutes of Health’s clinical center, 725 UVA staff are now trained in “lean thinking,” a business model that aims to eliminate waste. In this case, it’s saving cash.

So far, the practice has spared the hospital several million dollars in expenses, including $4.2 million saved from 109 fewer pediatric infections, $1.83 million in 53 fewer sepsis deaths and over $3 million in a  95 percent reduction of wasted medical supplies.

However, 96 fewer worker injuries, says Shannon, is “priceless.”

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Volunteer effort: UVA Medical Center denies ex-offender’s application

Julius Henry poses for a portrait outside of the volunteer services office in the main wing of the UVA Health Center early Friday morning, February 12, 2016. Henry received cancer treatment later that morning and is speaking out to raise awareness of the Medical Center's policies on disallowing volunteers with a criminal record after being rejected by volunteer services. Photo by Ryan Jones

Julius Henry was first sent to prison when he was 14 years old. After a 30-year reincarceration cycle, including charges ranging from trespassing to possession of drugs with the intent to distribute, Henry was released for the last time in 2006. Ten years later, he owns his own business and wants to give back, but his recent volunteering efforts have been rebuffed.

In January, Henry applied to volunteer at UVA Medical Center’s Escort & Wayfinding program, which directs patients through the hospital who might not know their way around.

When he had not heard back about his application after two weeks, he visited the volunteer coordinator to ask about it and was told he had been rejected. He says it was “a slap in my face as an ex-offender.”

He wanted to find out why UVA would not accept him and asked for a list of UVA’s qualifications for volunteers. Instead he received a new application.

“[The application] does not have the information on what kinds of qualifications they expect from their volunteers,” Henry says. “It does say that they ask for a background check. But it does not say that ‘we do not accept ex-offenders.’”

Eric Swensen, spokesperson for UVA Health System, says that on a volunteer application, all convictions found through a criminal background check are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

“We consider: the seriousness and frequency of any offense(s), the length of time since the offense(s), subsequent work history, the nature and responsibilities of the position and the honesty of the applicant in completing the application form,” Swensen writes in an e-mail.

Henry says that during his 10 years out of prison, he has started a home business, J&J Hand Car Wash and Detailing Services, volunteered at The Haven, volunteered with a peer support counseling program, had his voting rights restored and is now a member of Believers & Achievers, an ex-felon support group. The UVA Medical Center is the only volunteer work for which he has been rejected, he says.

“We are not asking you to accept rapists and murderers,” Henry says. “We are asking you to accept nonviolent ex-offenders to come and volunteer for therapeutic reasons.” He says he wants the opportunity to show the world and his family he can “do the right thing” after coming home.

Jim Shea, 77, spent one year in federal prison for refusing to pay taxes during the Vietnam War, and says his felony has followed him his entire life.

He agrees with Henry that there is a general stigma against ex-convicts.

“Imagine finding yourself week after week, year after year, a victim of this undeniable rebuff,” Shea says. “It keeps people on the outskirts of society. It keeps people from feeling like this is their country and their society.”

When ex-convicts such as Henry are denied opportunities, it creates a “kangaroo court” where private citizens “assume the right to continue punishing someone who has already paid their debt through court,” says Shea.

Swensen disagrees, and says that although ex-offender volunteers are not common at the UVA Medical Center, the opportunity to volunteer is still there.

“In the past six months to a year, we’ve probably only had a handful of applications from ex-offenders,” Swensen says, “but there is not a blanket prohibition on accepting them. We do enlist people who have things come up on their background check.”

The UVA Medical Center is not the only organization with strict guidelines for ex-offenders. The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, for instance, says on its website that those who have been found guilty of violent offenses, robbery, drug possession and other charges will not be accepted as volunteers.

Henry says he understands the need for these guidelines when allowing ex-convicts to volunteer, and he wants to open a dialogue between Believers & Achievers and UVA that will help more ex-convicts meet those qualifications.

“We are willing to listen,” Henry says. “We are willing to accept any type of guidelines so that this will be an opportunity not just for one ex-offender, but for all ex-offenders, no matter of race, color or creed. That’s all we’re asking for—an opportunity.”

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Not appealing: Fourth time’s the charm for fired UVA nurse

The University of Virginia will be paying Susan Jordan’s legal fees in a case UVA appealed four times. Rammelkamp Foto

Up until last week, everyone who has reviewed Susan Jordan’s firing, from state hearing officers to a circuit court judge to the Court of Appeals of Virginia, agrees that she was unfairly terminated—everyone except her former employer, the University of Virginia Medical Center.

It wasn’t until a February 2 appeals court decision affirming her reinstatement that UVA finally threw in the towel and decided not to appeal a fifth time. “We are not going to appeal any further, and we are not going to have any additional comment,” says UVA Health System spokesperson Eric Swensen in an e-mail.

“I’m very excited and so glad it’s ended and turned out the way it did,” says Jordan. “I’m not excited they dragged me through this for two years.”

Jordan got in hot water with the university in 2014 and was escorted from the building for looking at her ex-husband’s medical records “without authorization,” according to her termination letter.

What the letter didn’t note was that Kurt Jordan, also a hospital employee, asked his ex-wife to help him understand his medical records. He had cancer and was in an advanced stage of myeloma, and in 2012, he had made Jordan his agent for his durable power of attorney and his advanced medical directive. He’d filed a form with the medical center that authorized her to access his records, which was lost, according to the appeals court memorandum, and he filed a new one after Jordan was fired.

Four times after a clinical visit, Kurt, weak with tremors and having a hard time seeing, came to Jordan’s department and asked her to help him understand his lab results. At least two of those times Jordan’s supervisor was present. Because Jordan used her own code to access his records, she was shown the door April 23, 2014.

A hearing officer found that Kurt was looking at his own records, which is allowed, and Jordan was acting as his agent. The officer upheld Jordan’s grievance in August 2014. UVA appealed to the Department of Human Resources Management, which also found that her conduct didn’t violate medical center policies. Again the hospital appealed, and March 24, Albemarle Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Higgins ruled in Jordan’s favor.

Undaunted, the university appealed for a fourth time to the state appeals court, which again ruled that Jordan did not act improperly in helping Kurt review and understand his own medical records. Jordan violated neither federal nor state law, said the court in a 13-page memorandum, and it rejected the medical center’s contention that the power of attorney did not give her authorization to access Kurt’s records.

UVA read the state code “too broadly” and its interpretation was “wrong,” say the judges. “In short, Jordan did nothing wrong.”

The appeals court sent the case back to Albemarle Circuit Court to determine the amount UVA must pay for Jordan’s legal fees, including the foray to appellate court.

“I’m just thrilled and a little bit shocked they’re not going to go to the next step,” says Jordan’s attorney, Janice Redinger. “We’re happy they’re not appealing. This has been prolonged enough.”

“I’m glad I had the financial backing to follow it to the end,” says Jordan. “Most people in my position would not.”

She adds, “I just wish Kurt was here to celebrate. That’s the hard part.” Kurt Jordan died January 30, 2015.

UVA Health System’s decision not to appeal comes the same week the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce named it the 2016 recipient of its Hovey Dabney Award for Corporate Citizenship.

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Pet project: Dog contraception could soon be man’s best friend

Contraline founder Kevin Eisenfrats holds a sample of the gel that is the basis of the non-surgical contraceptive procedure. Photo by Dan Addison/UVA University Communications

A group of UVA inventors has already won tens of thousands of dollars for an idea for pets that may have implications as a human male contraceptive.

Contraline, a highly praised innovation by judges at UVA’s Entrepreneurship Cup and the Darden Business Plan competition, is an alternative to the traditional surgical sterilization used to neuter pets. It’s a non-hormonal gel contraceptive, which can be injected into the vas deferens, or the duct that carries sperm from the testicles to the urethra, and monitored by ultrasound. The gel can also be removed should Sparky’s owners change their minds.

Though it’s still being tested in the lab, the group has developed an in vitro model to form the gel and run sperm through it. They are studying the clogging and spermicidal effects of the gel on the sperm, which the gel would block.

Local veterinarian Mike Fietz isn’t so sure about the neutering alternative. He says the students stopped by his practice at Georgetown Veterinary Hospital to pick his brain.

“I felt like I was raining on their parade,” he says. “Veterinarians are always happy to see new tools in their toolboxes, and I appreciate their enthusiasm in trying to create one. This idea—clearly inspired by similar techniques in people—comes from a good place, but it just isn’t a viable alternative to neutering.”

Pet overpopulation is a universal problem and Charlottesville is no exception, he says, but sterilization is not only used to control population. According to Fietz, neutered pets are also less likely to roam, fight, mark a home with urine or demonstrate sexual behaviors such as mounting and dominance. He says the procedure could be impractical because it requires sensitive ultrasound equipment and the skill and training to use it, along with “an implausibly cooperative patient.”

Also, animals will still have testicles afterward and “apologies to men everywhere,” he says, but “all the problems that go with them.”

Fietz adds that neutering pets protects them from medical problems like prostate enlargement and testicular cancer.

In his UVA group’s research, founder Kevin Eisenfrats says he learned that neutered pets are three times more likely to develop cancers like bladder and prostate. When using Contraline, he says pets will be sedated before the procedure, and the gel can be seen under any ultrasound, not just extremely sensitive ones.

“I’m not advocating against neutering,” Eisenfrats says. “All I’m saying is that there is room for a non-hormonal alternative on the market.” Any medicine or procedure that changes hormones affects every cell in the body, so there will be adverse side effects, which are still being researched. An increased risk of cancers, bone disorders and obesity are associated with neutering, he says.

In three to five years, Eisenfrats says they hope to have developed a product that works for pets and they’ll be able to release it to the veterinary community to start earning revenue while working on their next big feat.

“There’s a bigger need and that’s for men,” he says, adding that birth control pills hit the market 60 years ago and other female contraceptives are invented regularly, but there hasn’t been much contraceptive development for men.

“Ninety percent of men think that they should play a bigger role in family planning,” he says, “but, at the same time, it’s not being reflected by the products that are out there.” The only two options men currently have are condoms and vasectomies.

Ryan Smith, the project’s clinical adviser and a urologist at UVA Medical Center, says alternatives to a vasectomy carry widespread appeal and a couple are under development. RISUG, or reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance, was developed in India and still requires a small amount of surgery. Vasalgel, another gel product under development in the U.S., is not visible with ultrasound and also requires surgery to make the vas deferens accessible. Contraline, however, could be delivered through the skin without making an incision, he says.

Smith says Contraline could be the first to “make the procedure non-surgical, the gel imageable and the gel’s effects reversible.” They’ve even got a new name for their non-surgical procedure: vasintomy.

“It’s different than a vasectomy because we aren’t exteriorizing the vas deferens,” Eisenfrats explains, “and rather than cutting the tube, we’re putting a gel inside.”

Whether a vasintomy would be safer for humans than a vasectomy requires further investigation, Smith says, adding that the hormonal manipulation that results from neutering a pet surgically is concerning.