A Roanoke council of the Knights of Columbus has made it possible for a women’s medical clinic to get a new ultrasound machine.

Checks totaling about $27,000 were presented Saturday to the Blue Ridge Women’s Center.

Half of the amount came from a number of fundraising activities by the Roanoke Council 562 of the Catholic fraternal service organization. The other half came from the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus as part of a national program that has donated 350 ultrasound machines to pregnancy centers in 45 states.

The new ultrasound machine will replace an older one used by the Blue Ridge Women’s Center. As a Christian-based medical clinic, the center deals with unplanned pregnancies, relationships and reproductive health. It also offers counseling to women who have had abortions.

Since the center opened in 1984, it has provided free services to more than 15,000 women.

“We could give no better gift this Mother’s Day weekend than to donate to the Blue Ridge Women’s Center the ability to provide mothers with the very best diagnostic ultrasound technology available,” Karl Kleinhenz, grand knight of the Roanoke Council 562, said in announcement released Saturday.

A former Pulaski County doctor who served as the director of a medical spa has been cited by state regulators for improperly dispensing a weight-loss drug.

Dr. Ralph Hasspieler will pay a $1,500 fine, according to an agreement recently reached with the Virginia Board of Medicine.

An April 10 order from the board states that from November 2008 to June 2009, Hasspieler dispensed phentermine, a diet drug, to five patients at a medical spa without being licensed to do so by the state Board of Pharmacy.

The order does not identify the medical spa by name or location.

Dr. William Harp, executive director of the Board of Medicine, declined to elaborate on the disciplinary action, saying in an email that “the order speaks for itself.”

In addition to not naming the medical spa, the order does not say if the five unidentified patients who received the drug were harmed.

Phentermine, a controlled substance, has been prescribed as an appetite suppressant at medical spas, which often offer nonsurgical cosmetic procedures to reduce weight and erase wrinkles alongside traditional salon offerings such as manicures, hairstyling and massage.

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The Virginia Board of Medicine has fined three Salem physicians $1,000 each for using a dishwasher to clean medical instruments.

Dr. John Harding and Dr. Christopher Keeley, both gynecologists affiliated with LewisGale Physicians, were named in orders recently filed by the board following a hearing last month. A third physician in the practice,  Dr William Kevin Walsh, consented to the fine without asking for a hearing.

After the hearing, the board found that Harding and Keeley improperly disinfected medical instruments, including speculums used for gynecological examinations, by cleaning them in a dishwasher at their practice.

John Jessee, a Roanoke attorney who represented the three doctors, said there was no evidence that any patients were harmed as a result of the practice.

However, the doctors’ office began using an autoclave, which disinfects medical instruments at much higher temperatures than produced by a dishwasher, after a LewisGale director of quality expressed concerns about the practice in July 2011, according to the board’s order.

Harding and Keeley told state regulators they believed using a dishwasher was an acceptable practice that presented no risks to patients. Speculums are not required to be sterilized in the way a scalpel is before surgery, they argued.

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The former head of a small-town rescue squad has been sentenced to four years in prison for a scam that billed the government for unneeded ambulance transports.

Eddie Wayne Louthian Sr., former president of Saltville Rescue Squad, received the term Wednesday in Abingdon’s federal court after being convicted of health care fraud.

Last September, a jury found that Louthian, 61, cheated Medicare and a private insurance company out of nearly $1 million by using ambulances to repeatedly take three patients to and from dialysis treatment without a legitimate medical reason.

Billing statements to Medicare and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield were fabricated to make it appear the patients were bedridden and in need of an ambulance, when in fact they were capable of making the half-hour trip to a dialysis center on their own, federal prosecutors said.

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The Virginia Department of Health has added a new position in an effort to reduce heart disease and stroke in Southwest Virginia.

As the region’s heart disease and stroke prevention coordinator, Sophie Wenzel will be based at the New River Health District in Christiansburg. She will work with local partners – coalitions, health departments, hospitals, pharmacies, volunteers and non-profits – from Roanoke and Lynchburg south to Danville and west to Lee County, the health department said in announcing the position.

Wenzel will also promote the national Million Hearts Initiative, which Virginia was the third state in the nation to join, according to the health department. This campaign, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Center for Medicaid Services, seeks to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in the U.S. over a five-year period.

Heart disease and stroke are two of the leading causes of death and disability in Virginia and nationwide. Cardiovascular diseases – including heart attacks, other heart diseases and strokes – are responsible for one of every three deaths in the U.S.

To learn more, go to www.vdh.virginia.gov/ofhs/prevention/hdsp/millionHeartsva. Or call Wenzel at 540-381-7100, ext. 124.

Free testing for HIV is being offered today in Roanoke as part of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

Blacks who think they might be infected with the virus can receive the tests at the Drop-In Center, a program of the Council of Community Services, at 356 Campbell Ave. in downtown Roanoke.

The testing is part of a larger effort to increase awareness of HIV and AIDS among blacks in the United States. While blacks represent about 14 percent of the population, they account for 44 percent of the nation’s new HIV infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An estimated 1,984 blacks are living with the virus or disease in Southwest Virginia; 240 of them are in Roanoke, the Council of Community Services said in a news release announcing the testing.

The testing will be offered until 5 p.m. today.  For more information, call the Drop-In Center at 982-2437.

Carilion Clinic wants its employees and visitors to step up their exercise regimen by taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

This week, the heath care system launched Stairwellness, adding splashes of bright color and health information about the benefits of stair climbing to the south tower stairwell at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

The idea was to do something that would be “motivating and encouraging and just a little bit of fun” to encourage people to use the stairs more often, Carilion President and CEO Nancy Agee said.

Whether people go just a floor or two or up 14 stories, they will be met with painted blocks on the walls with messages such as “There’s a reason why a piece of exercise equipment was designed after stairs.”

While hospital visitors are encouraged to take the steps whenever possible, one of the program’s key goals is to keep Carilion employees healthy so they can better care for their patients.

“Our employees are our patients too,” employee wellness consultant Michele Hamilton, credited by Agee for coming up with the idea, said in a news release. “We are cultivating an environment that supports healthy decision-making.”

Carilion plans to extend the Stairwellness program to its community hospitals in the coming months.

A little help is now available for those who care for a loved one with disabilities or a chronic condition.

Under a program that began this week, families in Virginia can apply for up to $400 in reimbursement for respite care.

The program, run by the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Serivces, will distribute vouchers to eligible caregivers from a $179,079 federal grant.

Respite care is short-term, temporary relief for those who care for family members. It can include in-home or center-based programs, a child or adult care center, or an assisted living or nursing home program.

Jim Rothrock, commissioner of the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services, said in a news release that the Lifespan Respite Voucher Program is part of the state’s efforts to support a network of coordinated caregiver services.

“Everyone at some point is a caregiver or care recipient,” Rothrock said. “Those who are responsible for caring for someone, whether young or old, are important in that person’s life. Respite can provide support so you can continue to care for your loved ones as well as yourself and others in your family.”

For information on how to apply for a voucher, go to the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services website at www.vadars.org/services.htm.

When David Chedester was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 27, his first reaction was to sink into depression and drinking.

Now 29, the Moneta man has moved on, and is doing all he can to raise awareness of the disease.

“As long as I can talk and walk, I’m going to do what I can,” Chedester said.

That will include a trip to Capitol Hill on Feb. 27, when Chedester and other members of Parkinson’s Action Network will lobby members of Congress for more funding for research to find a cure for Parkinson’s, a disorder of the brain that leads to tremors and difficulty with walking, movement, and coordination.

Last year, Chedester published a book, “Shakin’ Not Stirred (finding perseverance through Parkinson’s)” that outlined his long battle of alcohol and depression after first learning that he possibly had Parkinson’s.

He also started his own non-profit group to help raise money for his cause.

“This will be a new and exciting experience for me,” Chedester said of his upcoming trip to Washington D.C..  “I’ve never been in a situation before where my voice was this important and impactful for so many people.”

“Over 1 million people in the U.S. battle Parkinson’s disease every day, but only a handful of those are anywhere near my age.  This disease continues to have an effect on people’s lives, and it needs to stop.”

A surge of patients sick with the flu is stretching the resources of emergency rooms at Roanoke-area hospitals.

On Wednesday, the number of patients treated at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital’s emergency department exceeded the normal operating capacity of 225 patients per day.

Both Roanoke Memorial and LewisGale Medical Center in Salem have seen their capacity levels tested more than once recently, as an influenza outbreak struck hard in Southwest Virgina starting in mid-December.

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