Volume 24
Number 24
November 29, 2013
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
`` Sharon Smith from Rhoads 5 and Edward Franklin of Ravdin 6 in the new uniform for unit secretaries.
A NEW ROLE FOR
UNIT SECRETARIES Unit secretaries are an essential part of every patient care floor at HUP. From communicating important messages to getting supplies and scheduling repairs, they are, basically, the ‘go-to’ people for the floor staff. Now, they’ll get to use their skills to help improve the inpatient experience. Jean Romano, MSN, RN, clinical director of Nursing Operations, explained that, as part of a new initiative, unit secretaries will undergo customer service training, receive new uniforms, and then start doing their own rounds on the unit. “We want them to have the opportunity to get out from behind the desk and talk with patients, make them feel safe, warm, and
INSIDE IS Collects More than a Ton of Food.............................2 We Want to Hear from You......2 Speaking with HUP’s Leaders..3
comfortable,” she said. While secretaries can’t take care of clinical needs, they can “make emotional connections with patients and assist them by making sure the phone and call bell are within reach, or getting a glass of water or a blanket.” Not only will this help the patient but it will also allow the patient’s clinical nurse more free time to focus on teaching and care. “Our goal is to have the secretary round at least once a shift,” Romano said, adding that the secretaries have scripting they can employ when speaking with patients and families. “They will work with their unit councils to identify the focus of their questions. We want them to engage in conversation and acknowledge each patient as a unique individual.” The customer service training — using the AIDET (acknowledge, introduce, duration, explanation, thank ) patient
“ I feel a stronger connection with patients and families.”
communication model — will also help secretaries engage with visitors to the unit. In addition, the secretaries will be responsible for discharge ‘thank you’ cards mailed to the patient. “All of a patient’s caregivers will sign the card while the patient is here, and then it will be mailed out after discharge.” Romano said that staff on the units will also undergo an in-service about the new program “to explain the change in the unit secretary role and also understand the role they have in supporting this initiative” in rolling the program out. This includes providing coverage at the front desk so the secretaries can round on the floor and supporting the expectation that it is “everyone’s responsibility at the desk to look up and greet people who enter the unit,” she said. Right now, the program is working only with a core group of four units (Rhoads 1 and 5, and Silverstein 7 and 11) but feedback from the secretaries has been positive: “There is more value added to my role” and “I feel a stronger connection with patients and families.” The next phase of units is being scheduled now for training.
ICN Celebrates First Halloween for Patients and Families..........4
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IS Collects More than a
`` Poppy Bass led the IS food drive, which resulted in Tom Riesenberg singing the Eagles fight song at a recent IS Town Hall meeting.
TON of Food!
And the race was on! At first it was just a trickle but then people’s competitive natures kicked in. “I kept a tally board in our department lobby. Suddenly people were pre-ordering boxes and cases of food and before I knew it, there was food everywhere!” she said. “Everyone had fun figuring out how to ‘outdo’ the other teams.”
Poppy Bass, senior project manager for IS, has held food drives for Philabundance in her department before — fighting hunger is her passion — but she knew she needed a competitive edge to really motivate people. Her strategy: separate the department into five teams, one for each division. Then, to sweeten the competition even more, she announced a prize: The CIO for the winning division would sing the Eagles fight song at the next IS Town Hall meeting. (She first got the green light from all CIOs.) To keep it simple, she picked out five priority food items from the Philabundance website — canned green beans, canned corn, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, and canned tuna — and assigned one to each of the teams. She also color-coded the teams — the ‘yellow’ team collected corn, the red team collected PB&J, and so on.
By the time the three-week food drive ended, IS employees had contributed nearly 4,400 food items — more than 2,700 pounds! The orange team brought in a whopping 1,574 packages of macaroni and cheese. “It brought me to tears … such a generous group,” she said. “Look how many people this will benefit. It was a lot of fun for a great cause. ” In a thank-you note, Stephen Schaeffer, program coordinator of Food Drives for Philabundance, said, “Because of the commitment of partners like you, we are able to provide food to more than 72,000 individuals each week.” Orange team CIO Tom Riesenberg recently had his singing debut and, according to Bass, “It was great! Fantastic, actually.”
You!
We Want to Hear from 2013 PATIENT SAFETY CULTURE SURVEY
The Patient Safety Culture survey asks for your opinions about patient safety issues, medical error, and event reporting. An “event” is defined as any type of error, mistake, incident, accident, or deviation, regardless of whether or not it results in patient harm. “Patient safety” is defined as the avoidance and prevention of patient injuries or adverse events resulting from the processes of health-care delivery This year we are offering a survey specific to hospital staff (“Hospital survey”) and a new survey that is specific to ambulatory care (“Medical Office survey”). You may take one or the other based on where you spend most of your time. Employees can take the survey directly from the Intranet homepage (Patient Safety Culture Survey under “What’s Hot”) or using a specified hyperlink directly from their mobile device or home computer:
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“ IS employees contributed nearly 4,400 food items — more than 2,700 pounds — to Philabundance!”
>> >>
• direct link to Hospital Survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Hospitalsurveydec2013
• direct link to Medical Office Survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/medicalofficesurvey2013
The survey is available from Monday, December 2, through Sunday, December 15. It is an anonymous electronic survey. The survey provides benchmarking within Penn Medicine and other institutions nationally. All participants are eligible for a weekly raffle: iPad mini or Beats headphone.
SPEAKING WITH HUP’S LEADERS “ We need to make sure our patients know that we’re glad they selected Penn Medicine and that they have a good experience at HUP.”
Trauma’s transition to the Advanced Care Pavilion at Penn Presbyterian may be a year away, but preparations for the move are already in place, said Al Black, HUP’s chief operating officer, at this month’s Meal with an Administrator. Numerous efforts are underway to prepare the staffs of both hospitals for the move. Information sessions have helped to build excitement among trauma staff, said Judy James, HUP’s associate HR chief. The new building includes many features that will improve trauma patient care, based on suggestions by trauma staff. For example, unlike at HUP, “all of Trauma will be on one floor, along with radiology and respiratory care. The inpatient unit will be located directly above,” she said. Black said that communicating information about the move externally — to the community, firemen, policemen, emergency medical technicians and others who depend on Penn’s trauma team — is a challenge but meetings with these groups and others have begun as well.
In other construction news, work continues on the South Pavilion of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. Once completed in the first quarter of 2015, many additional clinical outpatient services from both HUP and Penn Tower will move into the Perelman Center. Other employees currently in Penn Tower will move into HUP or to locations off campus, such as Market Street. Black said that both Penn Tower and its garage are planned to come down some time in 2015. A new parking garage, next to Lot 51, will replace the PT garage for visitor parking. While not yet approved by the Board of Trustees, the hope is to build an inpatient tower tower on the current site of Penn Tower.
Financial News The first quarter of FY14 was very positive, Black said, thanks in part to an increase in surgical volume and bone marrow transplants. However, we still need to continue to focus on expenses, because of many external pressures on reimbursement. As part of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals agreed to
a decrease in the disproportionate-share funding (additional money for treating uninsured patients) because more people were supposed to be insured under an expanded Medicaid program. We still care for uninsured patients but are not yet receiving the same level of extra funding. Also, more and more health-care services are done on an outpatient basis and thus receive lower reimbursements. And, starting October 1, the two-midnight rule went into effect. “A patient must stay over two midnights in order to be considered an inpatient by Medicare,” Black said. “There are exceptions but this change will have an impact on our revenue.” In addition, insurers are concentrating more and more on pay for value, putting pressure on hospitals to reduce readmissions, hospital-acquired infections, and falls. Black reminded everyone that we need to continue to look for ways to be more efficient in how we deliver high-quality care. “And we need to make sure our patients know that we’re glad they selected Penn Medicine and that they have a good experience at HUP.”
We are pr oud
of the members of the Penn Medicine community who wish to help support relief efforts for the devastation left behind by Typhoon Haiyan in the Pacific islands of the Philippines. As many as 10 million people have been affected, with as many as 600,000 people displaced from their homes. We suggest that anyone seeking to make donations to aid in the relief work do so through the American Red Cross, which has mobilized to lend people, expertise and equipment to this massive global relief effort. Please visit www.redcross.org for more information about ways to donate.
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CALL FOR ENTRIES: The Next Celebration of Art and Life `` Kimberly Todd and Anthony Bulfaro with their twins Brooklyn (mouse) and Bynlee (bumble bee) who have made significant progress over their last nine weeks at HUP.
ICN Celebrates First Halloween for Patients and Families Many of the tiny patients in HUP’s intensive care nursery celebrated their first Halloween in style at the fourth annual ICN Halloween party. The babies were dressed in a variety of costumes, including a ballerina, Superman, dinosaur, princess, caterpillars, pumpkin, and penguin. “This day is special for the parents, as they enjoy their baby’s first holiday,” said Laura Matczak, RN. “It’s great to see so many families come together to celebrate with their little ones.” Kimberly Todd, mother of identical twins Brooklyn (a mouse) and Brynlee (a bumble bee), was grateful for the celebration break. Both her children weighed a little over two pounds at birth but have made significant progress over their last nine weeks at HUP. “The nurses are wonderful, and the doctors have been really good too,” said Todd. “The nurses treat my children how they would treat their own kids, which means a lot to me. It
doesn’t matter what time you call, they always give you a full update and make it so you can go to sleep at night.” La’Toyia Johnson, who dressed as a hamster while visiting her daughter and tiny bumble bee A’hziyah, agreed. “The staff takes great care of her, I come here and she’s fine,” she said. “She’s come a long way, is getting bigger and showing more of a personality.” “As nurses, we get an opportunity to have fun and let loose a little bit and enjoy them as babies as opposed to patients,” said Kaileen Burke, RN. “We take pride in the parents coming in and celebrating with their child and doing what we can to make that happen.” For more photos from the Halloween party as well as from a special reunion with former patients in the ICN, visit HUPdate online at http://news.pennmedicine.org/inside/hupdate/.
Penn Medicine presents a unique opportunity for faculty, staff, students and patients to participate in a competition showcasing individual creative expression. The exhibit, which will open in early 2014, is a juried art exhibition dedicated to the memory of Bernett L. Johnson, Jr., MD, HUP’s former chief medical officer. This year we are asking artists to submit their profile, digital images of their work and a digital application at cfeva.slideroom.com. After you initially register with Slideroom, you must check your email for an activation email from Slideroom. Once you have received this activation link, you can log in to cfeva.slideroom. com and start your application. You will not be able to start the application until you have received this activation email. If you don’t see this email, please check your spam filter/junk mail. The deadline for submissions is Friday, December 6. If you have any additional questions, please contact Rosemarie Cray at 215.349.8418 or rosemarie.cray@uphs.upenn.edu.
HUPdate EDITORIAL STAFF Sally Sapega Editor and Photographer Lisa Paxson Designer
ADMINISTRATION
Susan E. Phillips Senior Vice President, Public Affairs CONTACT HUPDATE AT: 3535 Market Street, Mezzanine Philadelphia, PA 19104 phone: 215.662.4488 fax: 215.349.8312 email: sally.sapega@uphs.upenn.edu
ONC OLINK . ORG/W E BCHAT DATE: Friday, December 6 TIME: 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm TOPIC: Keeping the ‘Happy” in Happy Holidays!
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HUPdate is published biweekly for HUP employees. Access HUPdate online at http://news.pennmedicine.org/inside/hupdate.