Volume 26
Number 10
May 15, 2015
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
`` Celebrating Wanda Ward (c) and her Helen Lysun Award are Kathryn Gallagher, her unit’s nurse manager, and Matthew Walker, assistant nurse manager.
A MODEL OF Enthusiasm & Kindness Each year, HUP recognizes the many ways unit secretaries improve the experience of both patients and families, as well as staff. An important part of this celebration is announcing the winner of the Helen Lysun Award. This year’s winner is Wanda Ward of Rhoads 1. Although she has been unit secretary on that unit for barely a year, her impact on staff, patients, and families is already a model of excellence. According to her nomination letter, Ward is an “enthusiastic team player… and goes out of her way to make patients and their families feel welcomed and comfortable. She is not limited by any typical definition of a secretary’s role.” Ward is often in the family waiting room, talking to patients’ families about the unit, what to expect, and reviewing education folders with
them. “Patients call our front desk and talk to her after discharge; they bring her gifts and mention her name frequently in letters and cards received,” her nominators wrote. “She is the model of what customer service should look like.” “Wanda is always looking for innovative ways to improve Rhoads 1 for both the staff and the patients/families we care for. She has been a vital part of decreasing our noise at night. As evening shifts start out, she rounds on the entire floor offering patients (or their families) eye masks, ear plugs or headphones, and checking in on visitors who plan to stay overnight to make sure they have everything they need. “She truly understands and embraces her role as the gatekeeper to our unit — taking into
account patient needs, the pressures on individual staff, and the dynamics of the health system as a whole.” At this year’s celebration, all unit secretaries were treated to a Mexican fiesta. “We count on your expertise,” said Jean Romano, MSN, clinical director of Nursing Operations. “This fiesta is a small token of our appreciation of your contributions to our team.” Regina Cunningham, PhD, chief nursing executive, couldn’t be present at the celebration but videotaped her thanks to all unit secretaries. “Your work is so important. Patients rank us on care they receive and you influence those outcomes,” she said. “You are the heart and soul of HUP.” `` Nominees for this year’s award were (from left) Danielle Jackson (Rhoads 4), Deborah Jones (PACU), Aia Nable (Rhoads 7), Wanda Ward (Rhoads 1), Mary Davis (Founders 8 CCU), and Denene Dancey (Founders 9 MICU).
INSIDE Spring Has Sprung at the Transplant House......................2 Patients Walk the Unit for Be The Match.......................2 Chain of Love Saves Lives.......3 Helping People All the Time.....4
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Spring has Sprung AT THE TRANSPLANT HOUSE!
The Board of Women Visitors has long supported the Penn Transplant House. The organization donated $500,000 to the fundraising efforts in 2007, naming the house in honor of Clyde F. Barker, MD, who performed Penn’s first kidney transplant in 1966. The group has also been “guest chefs” over the years, cooking welcoming meals for the many patients and family members who stay at the house. Last fall, the Board funded another Transplant House project: sprucing up the arbor area in front of the building. Board member Linda Schelke took on the task. “The front area looked scraggly, with weeds and trash. We wanted to make it as welcoming as the House,” she said. Schelke tackled the job with her friend Suzanne Duffy. To fill the 40-foot-long area, they picked up 36 Stella D’Oro daylilies and 200 daffodil bulbs — at wholesale cost — as well free fertilizer “and great advice” from Laurel Hill Gardens of Chestnut Hill. “We chose hardy plants that could withstand blazing heat from the sidewalk and also were low maintenance,” she said.
and making holes for both the daylilies and daffodil bulbs. But it was worth it. Now that warmer weather is finally taking hold, the garden has been transformed.
It took Schelke and Duffy more than four hours to transform the garden, digging up the old plants, cleaning out the street debris,
“It’s an amazing gift!” said Kirsten King, Penn Transplant House operations manager.
`` Thanks to the hard work of Linda Schelke (l) and Suzanne Duffy, the front garden of the Penn Transplant House is filled with flowers.
PATIENTS WALK THE UNIT FOR
BE THE MATCH
Very fragile immune systems prevented HUP patients recovering from a bone marrow transplant — or those waiting to be matched to a bone marrow donor — from participating in last month’s official Be The Match Walk, but that didn’t stop them from showing their support. On a walk through the hallways of Rhoads 7, patients celebrated their marrow donors, their medical team, and a second chance at life. With the help of the nursing staff and family members, patients walked or were rolled in wheelchairs around the unit — some took multiple laps — cheered on by all who had gathered for the event. Participants waved and clapped as they passed the rooms of those who couldn’t leave their beds. Said one patient, “Just the cheering alone gives us energy. We’re gonna make it!” The official Be The Match walk/run — which raises awareness of the importance of registering as a bone marrow donor and raises money for research — took place April 18 at the Navy Yard. Team Penn — 120 members strong — raised nearly $11,000! `` Taking part in the walk through Rhoads 7 were (from left): Karen Pitter, Constantina Martinez and Edith Barleh.
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`` Patients Matt and Michele Crane were reunited one day after kidney transplant surgery.
Love Chain of
Saves Lives Four years ago, Matt Crane was devastated when he learned that he was not a kidney donor match for his wife Michele, who was on dialysis after a long struggle with type 1 diabetes. Fortunately Michele’s brother was a match. But, after only a year and a half, her body showed signs of rejection and, in May 2012, she was relisted on the organ transplant list. As fate would have it, Matt was given a second chance to help his wife. In an unprecedented “chain” of events, Matt and Michele played crucial roles in what is now the nation’s longest multi-hospital kidney transplant exchange in history. The chain, involving 25 transplant centers and 68 patients — 34 donors and 34 recipients — was complete in late March when Michele received a kidney from a donor in New York, and Matt’s kidney was flown to the final recipient waiting in Madison, WI. But the chain itself started almost three months prior, when an altruistic donor at the University of Minnesota donated her kidney to a complete stranger in late January. “Matt’s donation not only made it possible for his wife to get a healthy kidney, but he also saved a perfect stranger,” said Ali Naji, MD, PhD, surgical director of Penn’s Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program.
“That 34 people are willing to step up for their friends and family in need, and that the pieces of a puzzle like this can come together, is a miracle.” The evening prior to Matt and Michele’s surgeries, transplant coordinators at the five remaining hospitals joined a call led by the National Kidney Registry, a non-profit organization that works to pair patients in need of a kidney transplant with healthy donors across the country. The healthy organs were transported via couriers, private planes, and commercial airlines to arrive at their destinations in time for transplant. Calls were made whenever one of the kidneys moved, informing the waiting teams and patients on the other end that a donor’s kidney had been successfully removed and packed and
was on its way, or that the recipient’s new kidney arrived successfully at its destination. Coordinators and nurses watched carefully on the NKR’s tracking page as a GPS shipped with each organ showed the packages moving slowly across the country. Late that afternoon, Matt and Michele’s families were overjoyed to hear from their surgeons that the procedures had gone beautifully. Overcome by tears of joy and with the news that Matt’s kidney had arrived safely in Wisconsin, Matt, Michele and their families celebrated the success of the day. `` The nation’s longest kidney transplant exchange ended when a New York donor’s kidney was delivered to surgeons at HUP for Michele Crane, and her husband’s kidney traveled to a recipient waiting in Wisconsin.
“ That 34 people are willing to step up for their friends and family in need, and that the pieces of a puzzle like this can come together, is a miracle.”
CONGRATULATIONS
to Corinna Sicoutris, MSN, CRNP, associate director for Advanced Practitioners, who was recently selected as a fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. This honor recognizes nurse practitioner leaders who have made outstanding contributions to health care through clinical practice, research, education, or policy.
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Turning the Pages of
History
In the fall of 1765, two forward-looking physicians, John Morgan and William Shippen, Jr., began lecturing at the first medical school in North America — part of the College of Philadelphia and forerunner of the University of Pennsylvania. Before then, American physicians received their medical education as apprentices to practicing physicians and from scarce textbooks published in Europe. Those with means, including Morgan and Shippen, may have studied abroad. The University of Pennsylvania changed those paradigms and transformed medical education in this part of the world. A limited-edition book, To Spread the Light of Knowledge will be published to mark the 250th birthday of what is now known as the Perelman School of Medicine. The book chronicles from its beginning as a few lectures given in borrowed space to the extensive curriculum, research, and multidisciplinary clinical practice within the Health System today. To learn more about the 192-page, full-color book commissioned to celebrate the institution’s 250th birthday, go to http://bit.ly/PSOM250.
FREE SKIN CANCER
SCREENING Penn Dermatology is offering a free skin cancer screening on Saturday, May 30, from 8 am to noon. It will be held in the Perelman Center on the first floor of the South Pavilion. To schedule an appointment for the screening, call 662-2737.
Helping People ALL THE TIME Congratulations to the winners of the December Helping People All the Time raffle. To nominate an employee who goes above and beyond, go to http://pennpoint.uphs.upenn.edu/ sites/HUP/hupse and click on “HUP Service Excellence Nomination” and then “New” at the top of the chart. You can also submit a name on a paper form, available at several locations throughout the hospital. Jason Colloton. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Radiology Marla Shelton. . . . . . . . . . . . . Patient Transport Carolyn Mylowe. . . . . . . . . . . Renal-Electrolyte and Hypertension Jamine Cierna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Security Rowena Boughter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MICU Tara Reap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PACU Erin Dolon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ravdin 6 Kasey Keenan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ravdin 6 Joseph Cox. . . . . . . . . . Materials Management Bonnie Lang. . . . . . . . . Materials Management Brenda Franks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhoads 1 Naeha Bhambhra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhoads 2
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Jessica Canosa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhoads 2 Usha Joseph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhoads 2 Nicole Clothier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nursing Danielle Jackson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rhoads 4 Beulah Wilder . . . . Patient and Guest Relations Susan Cristiano. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Silverstein 10 Jesse Newman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Silverstein 12 Kiersten Corless. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Silverstein 9 Joseph O’Connor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SFAS Anh Huynh. . . . . . . . . . . . . Pathology & Lab Med Brian Ragsdale. . . . . . . . .Pathology & Lab Med Marla Harris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PeriOp Surg Linda Gallen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stress Lab
HUPdate EDITORIAL STAFF Sally Sapega Editor and Photographer
Lisa Paxson and Maureen McGirr Graphic Designer
ADMINISTRATION
Susan E. Phillips Senior Vice President, Public Affairs Holly Auer Director of Communications CONTACT HUPDATE AT: 3535 Market Street, Mezzanine Philadelphia, PA 19104 phone: 215.662.4488 fax: 215.349.8312 email: sally.sapega@uphs.upenn.edu HUPdate is published biweekly for HUP employees. Access HUPdate online at http://news.pennmedicine.org/inside/hupdate.