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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
FEBRUARY 22, 1974
VOLUME 21, NUMBER 8
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Med Center Succeeds
In Conserving Energy
ST. VALENTINE'S DA Y PARTY—IhB Pediatric Playroom was the scene for fun and
amusement as both young and old paid tribute to St Valentine. Throughout the ages
Valentine's Day has rep esented a period of time when people share with their dear
ones sentiments of love and caring. Director of pediatric recreational therapy Nora
Shearer, left, joins her young friends Tonya and Darryl in celebrating the festive day.
See page three for additional photographs. (Photo by Dale Moses)
Is Heart Disease Related
To Personality Patterns?
Researchers at Duke have reported
that there is apparently no particular
personality type that predisposes a person
to a high risk of stroke.
Evidence indicates that persons with a
high - pressured, aggressive,
personality have a higher risk of
developing coronary heart disease, and
this in turn makes them more susceptible
to strokes.
The findings were reported by Dr.
Daniel T. Gianturco, associate professor,
of psychiatry and assistant professoi" of
community health sciences, at the annual
meeting of The Gerontological Society in
Miami Beach recently.
Gianturco said it is difficult to
understand how behavioral and emotional
stress can produce hardening of the
arteries selectively in a particular system
such as the coronary arteries and yet fail
to affect the vessels in the brain.
"Nevertheless, it is apparent from our
studies and those in the literature that the
vessels of the heart are indeed the
principal target," he said.
Statistical evidence has made it fairly
clear that the so-called "Type A"
personality—the aggressive, hard-driving
individual—is more susceptible to heart
disease than persons who are easy-going
and not always racing to nfieet deadlines.
But little information has been
available about the p)sychological factors
and personality types involved in p>ersons
with cerebrovascular diseases such as
stroke.
The Duke study involved 31 men who
had suffered strokes-10 with cerebral
infarction and 21 with recurrent cerebral
ischemia. The controls were 14 men
admitted to the hospital during the same
period with other types of acute illnesses
such as hernias and bone fractures.
The 45 subjects were given psychiatric
interviews to determine personality
characteristics including extremes of
aggressiveness, ambition and striving for
achievement, degree of dependence or
independence; pattern for handling anger;
and situations which evoked anger in the
P3tients. The psychiatrists also
determined what sort of mental
state—anger, guilt, depression,
(Continued on page 2)
The medical center's Engineering and
Operations Department has reported that
energy conserving efforts begun here
this autumn have resulted in a substantial
savings in both money and the amount of
electricity used.
Ernest P. Carter, assistant director of
engineering and operations, told
INTERCOM that the reduction of
lighting in non-essential areas will save the
medical center $14,979 yearly. In
addition, he said that the shutting off of
certain large air handling units where
there are no employees after 6 p.m. will
save another $14,040 over the next 12
months.
According to the readings, the demand
for electrical energy reached a high of
21,100 kilowatts per day on Oct. 5. Since
that time there has been a marked
reduction to a low demand figure of
16,750 kilowatts per day over Christmas,
when many medical center employees
and students were on vacation, and
18,250 kilowatts at the end of January.
Carter said the lights which have been
turned off have not caused any changes in
working conditions or safety, and that no
lighting has been turned off in patient
areas.
Clarence McClure, supervisor of air
conditioning and heating, explained that
the large air handling units consisting of
chillers, pumps and fans are now being
. regulated by time clocks which switch off
these units after working hours and that
the most economical thermostat settings
have been determined for all buildings.
Duke Staffers Join Health Planning
Council for Central North Carolina
Six people from the medical center
have been appointed to the Durham
Advisory Committee of the Health
Planning Council for Central North
Carolina.
Last year the planning council
presented to the Durham County
Commission a set of far-reaching
recommendations concerning the total
health-care needs of the county
(INTERCOM, May 11, '73). The plan was
for a coordinated system of primary
health-care services available to all county
residents.
The recommendations were almost all
aimed at ambulatory, rather than
inpatient, services; health education,
disease prevention; and health
maintenance.
One of the recommendations was for
establishment of a Durham Health—now
known as the Durham Advisory
Committee—whose function would be to
see that the study recommendations were
adopted and carried out and to promote
coordination of health-care and
health-related programs throughout the
county.
The 24-member committee is a
community cross-section of health
professionals, government officials,
agency representatives and private
citizens.
Those from Duke appointed to serve
are Chaplain P. Wesley Aitken; Dr. E.
Harvey Estes, chairman of the
Department of Community Health
Sciences; Dr. Patrick D. Kenan, associate
professor of otolaryngology and
community affairs assistant to the vice
president for health affairs; Dr. Evelyn
Schmidt, director of Lincoln Community
Health Center and an assistant clinical
professor of pediatrics here; Joe Sigler,
director of public relations; and Sfvrley
Turrentine, interviewer in the division of
community health models. Department
of Community Health Sciences.
DUKE
DURHAM
These settings will vary from 68 to 80
degrees, he noted, depending on the
outside temperature and type of air
conditioning systems in the various
buildings. Areas which contain patients,
research projects which could suffer as a
result of a change in temperature,
computers and research animals will not
be affected by the move to conserve
energy.
"Employees have been cooperating
well with our efforts," Carter
acknowledged, and he added that his
department will be happy to work with
anyone who has questions about energy
or heating needs in his or her department.
Blood Agreement
Program To Start
For the past eight months the Durham
Red Cross Blood Mobile has been coming
to the medical center to call on
empk>yees to participate in a donation
drive.
According to Frank Braden, medical
unit administrator and coordinator of the
bk>od drive, the success of each drive has
been measured in terms of a
pre-established goal of 100 pints a month.
As an on-going drive, the blood mobile
recently paid its eighth visit to Duke and
has collected a total of well over 800
pints.
This figure does not represent the total
number of employees who volunteered to
participate in the drive because not
everyone is an eligible donor.
As a donor, the Red Cross guarantees
that a donation of one pint of blood by
an employee will insure his or her family
against all blood needs during a 12-month
period following the date of the
donation.
In an attempt to provide those
employees who cannot give blood
protection against all blood needs for
themselves and their family, the Red
Cross has instituted a new ptrogram on
their behalf.
A group blood program participation
agreement is being distributed to each
department at the medical center. The
agreement states that if a total of 30 per
cent or more of a department contributes
blood, the remaining 70 per cent also will
be covered by the same blood protection
plan for a period of 12 months.
The next monthly drive will be held
on March 8, 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. in the
hospital Ambulatory Dining Room. The
following dep>artments are tieing asked to
contribute at that time;
Nurses in surgical specialties. Surgical
OPC, veterinary nfwdicine, community
health sciences, business office,
EKG-BMR, environmental services,
medical center purchasing, brace shop,
physical therapy and anatomy.