Newsworthy

Dear Community Partners,

Here are today’s updates:

• Michael Cox, M.D., New Medical Director for Clinical Research
• Deaf Awareness Purpose of Month, Week
• Current Status at Stormont Vail Health

Michael Cox, M.D., New Medical Director for Clinical Research

Michael R. Cox. M.D., has been named medical director of the Stormont Vail Clinical Research Center. Dr. Cox, who practices internal medicine at 901 S.W. Garfield, has been a Principal Investigator for the research department since 2005. He takes over the medical director position from Scott Teeter, M.D., who retired this summer.

Dr. Cox has worked on more than 64 clinical research studies that have covered a wide variety of areas, including Alzheimer’s disease, weight loss, hypertension, Type 2 Diabetes, hyperlipidemia, chronic pain, gout, osteoarthritis, erectile dysfunction, cardiovascular endpoints and osteoporosis. He recently worked on the compound, tirzepatide; the first in a new class of medications that just gained approval by the FDA for Type 2 Diabetes.

Dr. Cox is a graduate of Hayden High School, Kansas State University and the University of Kansas Medical School. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at KUMC in 1993, when he started his practice of medicine with Stormont Vail Clinic and Stormont Vail.

Carmen Burns, Director of Research Services, notes that Dr. Cox is “well respected in the research arena and the staff enjoy working with him.” Congratulations, Dr. Cox, on this leadership role.

Deaf Awareness Purpose of Month, Week

September is National Deaf Awareness Month and this week is the international Week of the Deaf. These designated times highlight the importance of access for people in the community who are deaf, hard of hearing or have hearing loss; raise awareness about organizations that support those who are deaf; and encourage us to learn about sign language and other methods of communication with those who are a deaf.

Stormont Vail Health has a Language and Communication Policy that provides a list of resources that can be utilized when communicating with and providing care for hearing impaired patients.

Current Status at Stormont Vail Health

The weekly COVID-19 scorecard is posted on the Stormont Vail website. Here are highlights are from the scorecard:

• 12 inpatients are COVID-19 positive, compared to 9 last week.
• 96% of recent COVID-19 admissions are unvaccinated or had last dose/booster more than 6 months ago.
• COVID-19 inpatient discharges (previous week): 24. Deaths: 0.
• 3 COVID-19 positive patients in the outpatient Enhanced Primary Care program.
• 10.5% of people tested for COVID-19 at Stormont Vail facilities the past seven days were positive. That is down from 13.8% last week.
• 36 team members and 4 providers on contact leave for COVID-19. The total of 40 people on contact leave this week is down from 52 last week.
• 106,442 vaccinations (included boosters) administered.
• The new Pfizer bivalent boosters are now available at the Stormont Vail Retail Pharmacy Monday through Thursday, by appointments from 8:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Moderna bivalent boosters will be available in early October.
• To schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment:
  • Use online scheduling assistant at stormontvail.org/covid19/vaccine
  • Schedule through MyChart.

Call (785) 270-4786.

We together,
Dr. Kenagy