Emory, Braves team up to hit

first aid home run at Turner Field

Emory Healthcare has been chosen by the Atlanta Braves to be the health care provider at Turner Field for the next three years.

Emory nurses and physicians will staff and maintain first aid stations in the stadium and be available to provide all first aid as well as emergency and related medical services needed by Braves and Turner Field employees and the approximately 40,000 fans attending each game.

The first aid stations are coordinated by Barbara Sverdlik, director of nursing for emergency and community services for Emory Hospitals. Sverdlik also had oversight of Crawford Long's health care involvement with the 1996 Olympic Games. She has recruited at least three nurses for each of the 81 home games from the hospitals' nursing staffs. Emergency medicine specialist Stephen Holbrook and family practice physician Wayne Blount, medical director of The Emory Clinic at South DeKalb, are responsible for establishing and overseeing guidelines for the care provided at Turner Field. At least one Emory Clinic physician will be present at each game.

Emory Clinic Director Rein Saral said, "The ability to provide this service reflects Emory's rapidly growing strengths in primary care, as well as its well-established reputation in emergency medicine. It's another way we are moving away from the campus into the community-and a wonderful opportunity for our physicians, who are Braves fans of the highest order."

Emory is partnering with American Medical Response for ambulance and in-stadium transportation. Emory Healthcare also plans to provide free in-stadium wellness programs at selected games.

"This is a wonderful partnership between two of Atlanta's finest-and we hope most winning-institutions," said Michael Johns, executive vice president for health affairs. Johns has been asked to throw an honorary "first pitch" at the home Braves game selected as Emory Hospital's employee night, a longstanding tradition at Emory.

-Sylvia Wrobel


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