Forsyth Medical Center Announces The Maya Angelou Center for Women's Health and Wellness

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., May 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --  Forsyth Medical Center announced today the establishment of the Maya Angelou Center for Women's Health and Wellness, the region's first center to coordinate comprehensive healthcare and wellness services specifically designed to meet the unique needs of women through every stage of life. The center will also be the region's first to employ women's health navigators to help coordinate the vast array of women's services available throughout the medical center around the specific needs of women.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120515/NY07438 )

Media are invited to watch a live webcast of the announcement with Dr. Maya Angelou beginning at 11 a.m. EDT today.

"We're changing the traditional approach of caring for women by reorienting our entire medical center to recognize the significant physical and social differences that women have compared to men," says Jeff Lindsay, president of Forsyth Medical Center. "In many diseases and illnesses, women present with different symptoms and require a different approach to diagnosis and treatment."

Lindsay says that the Maya Angelou Center for Women's Health and Wellness brings together all the clinical programs and services at the medical center that touch women's health, including heart, wellness, cancer, surgical services, maternity, emergency care, bone and joint health, and behavioral care. "Women are often so busy caring for everyone around them that they can neglect their own needs. We want to remove all the barriers we can so that women receive the timely, appropriate care that they need and deserve, including bringing conversations about their preventive health and wellness needs to the bedside. In this way, we can offer to coordinate any needed appointments or support services to make getting care easy for them," Lindsay explained. He added, "We are confident that this collaboration in research, education and treatment will bring about innovations in care that will improve the health of women in our community, throughout our state and across the nation."

According to Lindsay, the inspiration for the center's name and its focus on creating greater health and wellness among women came from Dr. Angelou who transcends generations and whose words and ideas resonate with women around the world.

In developing plans for the center, it was essential that it be more than a coordination of services to improve care and access to care for women, according to Chere Gregory, MD, director of neurosciences at Forsyth Medical Center and a member of the team that created the vision for the center.

"We knew that we were embarking on a project that would change virtually every aspect of our medical center," Dr. Gregory says. "This is a rethinking of how we deliver women's health and wellness services from our women's health nurse navigators who guide the care of our patients, to advance the support of our physicians, nurses and staff to provide care customized to every woman to optimize her health and sense of well-being."

The center is committed to sharing its best practices with women's health advocates both home and abroad, especially in under-developed nations. This fall, in partnership with the National Council of Women of the United States, the center will lead a summit for women's health with thought leaders from around the world, to help advance optimal healthcare practices for women.

In honor of the center's opening, Forsyth Medical Center is encouraging women to describe how they were inspired to practice a new health behavior, or change a negative health behavior, to improve their overall health and well being. Women can enter the "Healthy Inspirations" contest on the new Maya Angelou Center for Women's Health and Wellness Facebook page www.facebook.com/mayaangeloucenter.  A passage from the winning healthy inspirations submission will be featured inside the center, and runners-up will receive an autographed copy of Dr. Angelou's book, "Phenomenal Woman."

About Forsyth Medical Center

Forsyth Medical Center is part of Novant Health, a not-for-profit integrated group of 13 hospitals and a medical group consisting of 1,115 physicians in 359 clinic locations, caring for patients and communities in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia. Hospitals include the following: Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian Orthopaedic Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital Matthews and Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville in the Charlotte, N.C., area; Forsyth Medical Center and Medical Park Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Kernersville Medical Center in Kernersville, N.C.; Thomasville Medical Center, Thomasville, N.C.; Brunswick Community Hospital, Supply, N.C.; Rowan Regional Medical Center, Salisbury, N.C.; Franklin Regional Medical Center, Louisburg, N.C.; Upstate Carolina Medical Center, Gaffney, S.C.; and Prince William Hospital, Manassas, Va. Other Novant facilities and programs include outpatient surgery centers, medical plazas, rehabilitation programs, diagnostic imaging centers and community health outreach programs. Novant Health is ranked 14th nationally among the 2011 Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks, according to an analysis by the SDI health informatics company.

SOURCE Forsyth Medical Center