Volume 26
Number 16
August 7, 2015
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
`` Penn Medicine CARES grant recipient Carmen Guerra, MD (l.) and Andrea Nicholson. `` (Bottom right) CAREs grant recipient Kerry Nihill being interviewed for the CAREs video.
A community t ha t
`` (From left) Laura Lombardo, coordinator in Government and Community Relations, and Pat Wren, VP of Human Resources, greet grant recipient Cynthia Ross.
Cares
Since its inception in 2012, the Penn Medicine CAREs program has awarded nearly $200,000 in grants to support the volunteer efforts of UPHS doctors, employees and students from the Perelman School of Medicine who go out of their way to help others less fortunate. All told, 160 projects have received this funding. At the annual luncheon celebrating their outreach efforts, CEO Ralph Muller told grant recipients, “Your contributions make such a difference.” Some of the recent ways that CAREs grants have helped our local communities include:
Inside Lancaster General Health Joins UPHS................................2 HUP/Penn Presbyterian Again Named Among Top 10..............2 Penn Medicine a “Frontline Healthcare Worker Champion”...2 Take It From the Top..................3 IS Receives Prestigious Recognitions..............................4
• Holding monthly education sessions for
African immigrants to help them maintain their cultural values while creating a balanced lifestyle. • Bringing a playground back to life for students at an elementary school in an under-served community near Philadelphia. • Educating families who deliver at HUP on caring for their babies in a safe and nurturing environment. • Providing food for those fighting hunger. • Screening African Americans for glaucoma.
Penn Medicine awards grants on a quarterly basis for expenses (not including salary support) directly related to community outreach activities. The grant funding can be used for projects big and small and for new or existing community outreach efforts. If you volunteer your time and expertise to a community organization, you may be eligible to receive a Penn Medicine CAREs grant. To learn more, go to http://uphsxnet. uphs.upenn.edu/community and click on CAREs Grant.
Do the Philadelphia Undy Run/Walk..........................4
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Lancaster General Health Joins UPHS It’s official! Lancaster General Health (LG Health) has become a member of UPHS, effective August 1st.
The combination unites Penn Medicine with a health system nationally ranked for its clinical quality. Both are among the top five systems in Pennsylvania, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. LG Health is regionally and nationally recognized for its cost-effective patient care services, clinical excellence, patient safety, and three-time Magnet hospital designation for nursing excellence. “Lancaster General Health is an exceptional organization, providing the highest levels of care for patients and a leader in population health management,” said CEO Ralph W. Muller. “Uniting with LG Health offers powerful opportunities to connect medical teams and experts to improve care for all patients we serve and find solutions to health care delivery challenges ahead.” LG Health’s extensive community benefit efforts — including its charity-care policies, community health programs, and initiatives that improve the health of the elderly, poor and other at-risk populations — will continue to be governed by the LG Health Board of Trustees.
HUP/Penn Presbyterian Again Named Among Top 10 Penn Medicine hospitals have been ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the nation, #1 in Pennsylvania, and once again #1 in the Philadelphia metro area by U.S. News & World Report. With the combined results for HUP and Penn Presbyterian, we were ranked as the 9th best hospital in the United States, one of only 15 institutions named to the publication’s Honor Roll — out of nearly 5,000 hospitals analyzed nationwide — and the only one in the Philadelphia metro area. According to the magazine’s editors, this distinction “signals both rare breadth and rare depth of medical excellence.” In addition, HUP-PPMC was also recognized for its excellence in 13 specialties, including Cancer, Cardiology and Heart Surgery, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), Geriatrics, Gynecology, Nephrology, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, Psychiatry, Pulmonology, and Urology. Both Pennsylvania Hospital and Chester County Hospital were in the top 10 for the region, tying for #8 in the rankings. Also, Lancaster General Hospital was ranked as the 5th best hospital in the state. These achievements truly reflect the extraordinary dedication and expertise of the physicians, nurses, technologists and staff at Penn Medicine hospitals.
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Penn Medicine a “Frontline Healthcare Worker Champion” Penn Medicine was among 10 health care employers recognized nationwide as 2015 “Frontline Healthcare Worker Champions” by CareerSTAT, an initiative of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and Jobs for the Future. This recognition program acknowledges health care organizations that have made a lasting investment in their frontline workers by promoting internal career progression and providing access to on-site training and skills development opportunities. Penn Medicine offers five-week apprenticeships for on-the-job training, 300 development sessions to enhance job performance, and a tuition assistance program to help develop its frontline workforce, which includes patientintake coordinators, medical assistants, certified nursing assistants and dietary service staff.
Tower structure, it will affect commuters from the University City train station. The entire alley between the garage and Museum will be closed to all pedestrian traffic. “Anyone walking to HUP will need to walk on the sidewalk on the Perelman Center or along South Street.” Demolishing the garage will take approximately three months. Then, come November, they’ll start on the main structure.
How It’s Done
Take It From the
Top
Forty years ago, Penn Tower (then the Hilton Hotel) was put up, piece by piece. And that’s pretty much the way it will be coming down this fall. According to Bryan Heigh, project manager in Real Estate, Design, and Construction, the “take it from the top” approach was chosen over implosion due to the surrounding structures (such as the Penn Museum) and the location. “If we used implosion, we’d have to close down the streets, including the one to HUP and CHOP’s emergency entrances, and there’d be a major gridlock,” he said. While deconstructing seems to be a lot more straightforward than constructing, many factors still need to be considered to ensure a safe and efficient mechanical take-down. For example, scaffolding will surround the building to protect the adjacent areas from debris. Water will be sprayed on pieces as they’re removed, to keep dust to a minimum. Filter media will be placed over all building intakes in the surrounding area and the air quality will be monitored monthly. Vibration monitors at the Penn Museum and select locations in the Perelman Center and HUP will track the impact, if any, of the demolition on that building. Just to be safe, “the museum is moving its stored collections in the basement to a new location while the demolition takes place.” The Penn Tower garage comes down first, starting in September. In preparation, workers have already moved the oxygen tank farm, originally located right outside of the garage. This essential storage unit supplies oxygen for patients at both HUP and Perelman. A larger-capacity farm was built behind Smilow and has been in operation for a number of weeks. “The capacity has been increased to support not only existing oxygen demand but also what’s projected for the future,” Heigh explained. The garage is totally separate from the Penn Tower building, with separate power and water lines, Heigh continued. While demolishing the garage will have no impact on the remaining Penn
Before any demolition takes place, a floor-by-floor cleanout of all nonstructural components occurs, eg, drywall, carpeting and millwork. “The newer equipment and furniture will be repurposed throughout the Health System,” Heigh said. Then the demo team will start, at the roof, to dismantle the structural components. “They’ll cut the heavier pieces [such as the exterior precast panels] into a manageable size and put them in the large bin, which will then be lowered to the ground by a huge crane,” he said. “Lighter pieces will be sent down the elevator shaft.” All cars will have been removed by this point. To ensure that the structure safely supports the floor-by-floor demolition activity, the team will install a series of additional reinforcing columns and braces from the basement up while working above. “This was originally built as a hotel so it’s a light structure in a lot of ways.” This piece-by-piece take-down continues until they hit the fifth floor. Then a high-reach excavator on the ground will “munch” the building, with hydraulic jaws that weigh 20,000 pounds! The estimated time to demolish both structures is one year. So come next September, the view directly across the street from HUP will be significantly changed! “People will be able to see straight through to the University City Station.” At least for now.
demolition
t imeline
September Demolition of Penn Tower garage begins.
October New pedestrian bridge linking Perelman to HUP opens.
All employees in Penn Tower have relocated.
November Take-down of Penn Tower begins.
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IS Receives Prestigious Recognitions Penn Medicine Information Services (IS) recently received several national health-care information technology awards. The Most Wired Survey and 2015 Innovator Awards, both from Health & Hospital Networks, recognize the organization for its work in keeping ahead of the technological curve. Most Wired distinguished Penn Medicine for its use of technology throughout the Health System. The 2015 Innovator Award recognized the team’s work in developing and implementing a Mobile Patient Dashboard. Developed with clinical staff in mind, the Mobile Patient Dashboard app provides quick access to electronic medical records through an easy-to-use interface that provides real-time patient data in a clinically oriented fashion for health care providers. IS was also recognized by this year’s Fierce Innovation Awards: Healthcare Edition for developing its mobile EMR patient dashboard. In addition, IS was ranked among the top 10 of all entries and the first among health care entrants in this year’s Information Week Elite 100, an annual list of the best U.S.-based users of business technology, for its implementation and use of PennSeek, a self-service, web-based data discovery platform. PennSeek provides researchers with an easy-touse tool to search medical documents housed in separate databases for analysis on the fly, enabling them to translate that data into improved patient care. The information is presented in a customizable, search-style interface intended to be intuitive and simple to navigate.
`` Michael Restuccia (l.) and Brian Wells with the IS award for ranking among the top 10 of all entries in the Information Week Elite 100.
“These prestigious awards resulted from thousands of hours of tireless effort among members of our Information Services team and Penn Medicine’s clinical and research community,” CIO Michael Restuccia said. “Our IS team demonstrates an ongoing commitment toward innovating and accelerating technology advances to provide excellence in delivering patient care.”
Do the Philadelphia Undy Run/Walk Help support the UPHS Colon Cancer Screening Navigation Program by participating in the 2015 Undy Run/Walk on Saturday, September 12. A portion of the proceeds will go to Penn’s program, which helps West, South and Southwest Philadelphia patients complete colon cancer screening, one of the most powerful ways to prevent colon cancer. The event includes both 5K Adult and Youth runs and a one-mile fun run. To join Penn’s team, go to http://support.ccalliance.org/goto/TEAMpennmedicine.
Preparation Continues for Papal Visit As Philadelphia prepares for the World Meeting of Families and the Pope’s visit in September, Papal planning teams at each entity have been meeting to assess site-specific issues that may arise, including ensuring necessary staffing levels and adequate supply delivery. Each entity will provide more detailed guidance to staff as required. General information, useful external web links and FAQs, which includes HR policies for Emergency Preparedness, and the ability to submit questions can be found at http:// uphsxnet.uphs.upenn.edu/hr/papal-visit/index.html. As a reminder, all elective procedures and outpatient appointments in any downtown facility on Friday, September 25th, and Monday, September 28th, will be rescheduled. Additional information will be shared with all Health System entities as plans are confirmed.
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HUPdate Editorial Staff Sally Sapega Editor and Photographer Trissy Laurito 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.