In Roads
Inside information for the employees of Mercy Medical Center
Mercy Will be Displaying Silent Witnesses for One Week in October
SEPTEMBER 19, 2014
“I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” - Vincent Van Gogh
Fill your plate with superfoods Each of the next several In Roads will feature a different superfood and its health benefits.
Blueberries
This year during the month of October, Merced County Human Services Agency (HSA) will partner with Valley Crisis Center to promote awareness about domestic violence, which will include bringing the Silent Witness Initiative to our community. The Silent Witness Project is a traveling exhibit of life-sized red wooden silhouettes. Each represents a victim who was murdered by a spouse, common-law partner, or intimate aquaintance. Because these victims no longer have a voice, the silhouettes are called Silent Witnesses. Each figure bears the name of a person who once lived and worked among us. Through research and information sharing, the Merced
County HSA will craft silhouettes to honor the victims in Merced County who have died tragically as a result of domestic violence. The goal is to create awareness by sharing information in our community about the nature and extent of family violence. The Merced County HSA wants to promote action by profiling local resources that support families coping with violence in their lives and encouraging an end to all forms of domestic violence. Mercy Medical Center will display Silent Witnesses from October 10 15th in the main entrance.
Blueberries are often singled out as a superfood because studies have shown they aid in everything from fighting cancer to lowering cholesterol. But all berries, including raspberries, strawberries and blackberries, contain antioxidants and phytonutrients. Worried about the price of fresh fruit? Experts say frozen berries are just as “super.”
Gift Shop News Employee Discount Week
Sept. 21-27 20% OFF
We will be closed for our Volunteer Luncheon on Sept. 26th between 11:00 a.m. and 1:30p.m.
2014 Employee Health Clinics Complete Your Employee Health Requirements to Win Two daily raffles will be held at the end of each Employee Health Clinic. Employees must complete their employee health requirements to enter to win. First Place winner each day will win $50 in Mercy Medal awards. Second Place winner each day will win $25 in Mercy Medal awards. All employees who complete the Employee Health fair will also be entered into the drawing to win the grand prize, an iPad! Oct. 1 Oct. 3 Oct. 6 Oct. 8 Oct. 9 Oct. 16 Oct. 17 Oct. 20 Oct. 21 Oct. 22 Oct. 28 Oct. 31
(9:00AM-3:00PM) (7:00AM-3:30PM) (7:00AM-3:30PM) (7:00AM-3:30PM) (9:00AM-5:30PM) (7:00AM-3:30PM) (7:00AM-3:30PM) (7:00AM-3:30PM) (8:00AM-1:00PM) (8:00AM-1:00PM) (8:30AM-5:00PM) (7:00AM-3:30PM)
Clinics C/D C/D C/D C/D C/D C/D C/D Mercy Outpatient Center Clinics C/D C/D
Frequently Asked Questions From the 2014 Open Forums
Q:
We believe we are short staffed in patient care units. There have been layoffs and staffing decisions that were made, and we were told it was because of budgets. But we hear that we are making profits, and we can see that money is being spent on improving facilities and buildings. We see advertising and branding campaigns, a corporate sponsorship at the Giants games. So why isn’t there money for nursing staff to take care of patients?
A:
Let’s talk about staffing first. It’s difficult to talk broadly about this, because we have literally hundreds of nursing units across our 39 hospitals, and each hospital is different. There have been nursing layoffs at some hospitals, not at others, and those were volume related. Right now, 20%of our nursing units have tighter staffing levels than two years ago, but the other 80%, in terms of hours per patient per day, have actually increased or remained the same. However, workflow has changed, new and additional responsibilities have been added, all of which means nurses are busier. We know that there are situations where nursing units are short staffed, even though we use a rigorous process to allocate staff – adjusting up from mandated ratios based on census and acuity and taking into account factors including average and historical census and acuity, and annually adjusted productivity standards. Despite our rigorous processes, we can’t 100% predict what will happen on a unit on a specific day. Several patients have special needs, acuity is higher than predicted, someone calls in sick, a physician needs to spend time talking with a patient’s nurse, an extra admission arrives from the emergency department. Suddenly and unexpectedly, there’s no time for a break because all staff are needed to handle patient needs. That’s another reason why staff can be stretched, because our nurses stay with their patients and put the patients’ needs ahead of their own. Our data shows that this doesn’t happen regularly or
every day, but we know it happens and we try to compensate –we pay for missed breaks, we have added relief nurses where it makes sense. And we continue to re-evaluate and adjust in real time wherever possible. Right now a team of nursing leadership and staff nurses are working with Page West, RN, our new chief nursing officer. Together, they are evaluating our staffing model, our staffing ratios, our staffing mix, the best use of nursing assistants, the “sitter” concept (for psychiatric patients and those at risk for falls), and the right balance of managers to be a resource to staff. They are also looking into whether we are generating unnecessary work for staff that wastes time or that can be done more effectively. Sometimes what’s perceived as an understaffing situation can be improved by making sure we aren’t wasting nurses’ time and energy. We are looking at all solutions because we understand that it is difficult to ask our nurses to give the best possible patient care when they are feeling overworked and stressed. This situation is taken very, very seriously. The creation of the first ever chief nursing officer position at Dignity Health shows that our leadership and sponsors are committed to doing all that is possible to support our nurses. The second question asked, about why money is being spent on one effort versus another – for example, improving our buildings versus hiring more staff – is a question of a health
system having multiple priorities, all of which are important. Staffing to provide excellent patient care is a priority. But so is maintaining and improving our technology and our physical facilities because those factors affect patients and the choices they make on which hospital to choose. Research shows that a run-down or dingy physical facility also makes people wonder about our quality. Advertising and marketing have to be a priority also, because all of our facilities operate in competitive environments, and patients, physicians, insurers, and donors make choices. We can’t expect them to choose a Dignity Health facility if we don’t help them understand why we are special, why we should be preferred, and why they should choose us. We have to maintain the highest standards of quality and patient experience, but we also have to make sure we communicate our value and our distinctive mission to our external audiences. The reality is that we have to allocate the resources we have to cover all of our priorities.
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