By Brianna Hoge
UAB News
Summer camps across the University of Alabama at Birmingham are gearing up for an educational and entertaining summer. Camps offered through various UAB departments will be hosted all summer, providing children with the opportunity to develop skills they will carry through life.
Candice Dye, M.D., assistant director of the UAB Department of Pediatrics Residency Program, says there could be several benefits to participating in summer camps.
What can children gain from socializing with other children at summer camp?
Meeting other children and engaging with them in play and learning are beneficial to a child’s growth and development.
What health benefits are there by staying active through camps during the summer?
Having a camp that encourages children to be active helps them from becoming “couch potatoes” during summer break. It is very easy to slip into sedentary behavior; but attending camps will keep your children up and moving through activities like hiking, swimming or playing games.
What lifelong skills could children learn by attending summer camp?
Many camps offer what are often referred to as “specialty camps,” such as a tennis camp or an acting camp. This gives a child an outlet to explore their interest, and they also learn valuable tools during such experiences that they can continue to build on.
What are things parents could find value in by sending their children to summer camps?
By allowing their child/children to attend a camp, they are providing an opportunity for them to have fun while socializing with other children. The challenge of trying to keep their children entertained all summer long is taken away and put into the hands of camp directors and counselors.
For more information on how to register your student for a 2019 UAB summer camp, visit uab.edu/summer.
In other news, UAB Hospital and UAB Highlands Hospital have earned an A grade on patient safety from the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a public service of the Leapfrog Group. Only seven hospitals in Alabama earned an A grade. UAB and Highlands were the only Birmingham hospitals to receive an A.
The organization rated approximately 2,600 hospitals across the nation, using national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey and Health Information Technology Supplement and other secondary sources.
Leapfrog uses a 10-person panel of public safety experts from across the country to produce the grades. The panel examined 28 measures of hospital safety data and determined the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement and impact.
UAB and UAB Highlands hospitals received the maximum safety scores in a number of categories, including staff handwashing, computerized medication ordering and staff collaboration to prevent errors.
Leapfrog also reported that both hospitals received maximum scores in effective leadership, qualified nursing and specially trained intensive care physicians. Communication, responsiveness, overall safe practices and infection control were also cited as strengths at both hospitals.
“Patient safety is of the utmost importance, and UAB Medicine has taken innovative steps to maintain the highest possible safety standards,” said Loring Rue, M.D., UAB Hospital chief medical officer. “Our Magnet nursing designation, Partners in your Care program and fall prevention team are just a few examples of our efforts that have created an enterprise wide culture of safety.”
UAB is part of the national Surgical Care Improvement Project and has participated in the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network for several decades
