Digital Edition of HUPdate - 10/16/2015

Volume 26

Number 21

October 16, 2015

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

HUP’S HUP'S PAPAL WEEKEND NUMBERS:

Papal

6,501 851 BED LINENS DISTRIBUTED EMPLOYEES STAYED THE WEEKEND

1,477 EMPLOYEES ENJOYED TWO BARBEQUES

21 PATIENTS BROUGHT

TO ED FROM PARKWAY FESTIVITIES

INSIDE Reaching Out to Patients..........3 Celebrating Health Literacy Month..........................3 2015 Employee Flu Campaign Has Started!...............................4 2015 Penn's Way Campaign....4

WEEKEND:

T H E “B E S T ” S C E N A R IO

During the many months of planning for Pope Francis’s visit, HUP’s teams followed what Bernard Dyer, director of UPHS Safety and Emergency Management, called the “classic emergency management scenario: Plan for the worst; hope for the best.”

Luckily, we got the “best.”

As part of the planning for the pope’s visit, Materials Management had arranged for two shower trucks—each with eight shower stalls—to be brought onsite shortly before the weekend but would that be enough? Carolyn Jackson, COO, catalogued all the showers in the buildings surrounding HUP. They discovered usable ones in the Perelman Center and Smilow Center, but several in HUP clearly needed work. “We did ‘Extreme Makeover: Locker Room Edition!’” she joked.

Maintenance and Environmental Services sprang into action—painting, cleaning, repairing and replacing curtains where needed. The final shower tally: 66 showers, plenty for employees staying the weekend.

Despite projections that thousands of papal pilgrims would require emergency care for illness or injuries during the weekend’s festivities, Dyer said only 425 people sought help at the medical tents set up around the Parkway and of that, 21 were brought to HUP’s emergency department.

One, an elderly man who came on a bus from New York with his church, was brought in with chest pains. After he was medically cleared to leave, one small challenge remained: getting him back to his bus at the Wachovia Center before his group left at 7 that night! With an okay from the City Command Center, Security director Joe Forte, along with Robin Weingarten, MSN, PhD (c), nurse manager of Emergency Services, drove the patient in a Security vehicle, only to find the Continued on page 2.

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(Continued from cover)

HUP’S

Papal

WEEKEND:

THE “BES T” S C ENAR IO

bus locked. A subsequent phone call to the patient’s deacon—and a talk with the driver in the bus parked next door—brought a solution. The patient was allowed to rest in the bus next door until his group returned.

Penn Police did their part as well, working with HUP’s Command Center to get patients— including four transplant patients and 10 women in labor—through the road blocks to HUP. Corporate Operator Services—which covers calls for all three city hospitals and GSPP—processed approximately 18,850 calls from that Friday through Monday, about twice the norm!

Special Photos with the "Pope" The biggest hit of the weekend turned out to be “photo shoots” with a life-size cardboard cutout of the pope. Jim Browning, director of Pastoral Care, brought it to the Command Center on Friday and, by the next morning, word had spread. Mauri Sullivan, MSN, RN, clinical director of Medical Nursing, and Betty Ann Boczar, MS, BSN, nurse manager of Founders 14, were preparing to round on the clinical units and decided to bring the pontiff with them. “We went from one unit to the next and the reaction from both staff and patients was overwhelming,” Sullivan said. “One patient started to cry when we brought it to her room. She was so touched to see his image, and her daughters were thrilled.”

The “pope” even made an appearance high above HUP, on the helipad, and “when we ‘walked’ the pope into the Eagles tailgate in Smilow, the Eagles scored a touchdown!” Jackson added.

Food Services went all out to ensure that the employees spending the weekend were well fed, with cookouts on Saturday and Sunday, and the “tailgate” party in Smilow on Sunday. “Bob

Vasek [director of Food Services] and his group went all out.

Their motto was: If you’re working, we’re feeding you.’” Dyer said. “I don’t think other [non UPHS] hospitals in the city were doing that.”

Accommodations in Penn Tower also received a thumbs-up, as did entertainment for the off-hours: movies, card games, karaoke and a dance party.

“We received emails complimenting us on how well it went, how concerned leadership was to make this as good an experience as possible,” Dyer said. “Everyone was very engaged and friendly.”

“When I first came to HUP, I heard that its employees always stepped up when needed, and it was so true,” said Jackson, who began planning for the papal visit just weeks after her arrival at HUP last spring. “People rose to the occasion and did what needed to be done, without complaint.”

`` To see more photos from the papal weekend, go to http://news.pennmedicine.org/inside/hupdate/.

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REACHING OUT TO PATIENTS It can be hard for patients to understand how to care for themselves when they’re sick, especially the elderly who may feel overwhelmed trying to manage multiple medications. These issues can result in frequent trips to the health-care provider… or worse. This is where R.E.A.C.H. to Teach—an approach that promotes health literacy for our patients and families—can help.

It’s a simple process. “For health education to be effective, staff need to reach out to patients and families and find out what the patient wants to learn and how they feel about their health,” said Lynn Washington, BSN, RN, co-chair of HUP’s Patient and Family Education Committee. “Then, using very simple words, you educate the patient while encouraging patients and families to ask questions and check the patient’s understanding with teach back.”

The committee works year-round with staff on the best ways to educate patients and families. It recently introduced the “R.E.A.C.H. to Teach” Toolkit for Professionals, a web-based tool that provides simple instructions, examples and resources. The tool can be found at http://uphsxnet.uphs.upenn.edu/hupnursing/patientfamilyed/ toolkitNew.html.

Partnering to Personalize Education The Patient and Family Education Commmittee also helps staff identify and create educational approaches for patients and families with specific disease concerns.

For example, it recently partnered with the HUP Diabetes Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Committee to create a way to teach patients. Based on patient and staff input,“our two groups chose key points for education, including diet, medicine, and survival skills, like how to treat high or low blood sugar,” said Maureen Bonnell, co-chair of HUP Patient and Family Education Committee.

The group used two types of written information, a one-page “action plan” and a packet. “The action plan tells patients what to do based on their blood sugar and how they are feeling,” said Rebecca Stamm, MSN RN, Diabetes EBP Committee cochair and associate director of Clinical Implementation. Using a traffic light logo, the plan shows patients: when they are doing well (green light), when they’re not doing well (red light), or when they need to take steps to prevent getting worse (yellow light). The packet describes diet and medicine more in depth with pictures to show how to do things. “We want to provide consistent as well as personalized education,” said Ilona Lorincz, MD, of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism.

`` Kristen Sigafus of Rhoads 4 reviews the diabetes action plan with patient Khai Nyugen.

Celebrating HEALTH LITERACY MONTH

To celebrate both Health Literacy Month and Health Education Week, the Patient and Family Education Committee has planned many events. Cara Bridley, Committee co-chair, said, “We want all staff to have fun at the events while learning the best ways to educate our patients and their families.”

• Jeopardy Health Literacy: Monday, October 19, and Friday, October 23, from 11 am to 1 pm

on the Ravdin Mezzanine.

• Schwartz Rounds “Reaching to Teach in a Fast-Paced Environment”: Tuesday, October 20, from noon to 1 pm on Maloney 5.

• “K.I.S.S.” Board on unit rounds: Wednesday and Thursday, October 21 and 22.

• Safety Rounds on the units: Thursday, October 29, from 2 to 3 pm.

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2015 EMPLOYEE FLU CAMPAIGN HAS STARTED! Over the past six years, more than 98% of UPHS employees have been vaccinated for seasonal influenza. Getting the flu vaccine reduces the risk of illness for our staff and helps keep our patients, colleagues, and families safe and healthy. Penn Medicine has been recognized repeatedly by the State of Pennsylvania for this key patient safety initiative.

Occupational Medicine Flu Vaccine Clinics will be offered at a variety of locations. To ensure minimal waiting times and rapid documentation, bar-coded vaccine consent forms will again be available to employees and faculty online. Find times and locations of Flu Vaccine Clinics—as well as the necessary bar-coded form—on the Intranet home page. Click on Flu Vaccine under “What’s Hot.”

2015

Seasonal influenza vaccine is provided free of charge to all Penn Medicine staff, clinical faculty and contractors. Annual vaccination is needed for maximum protection because each year's influenza vaccine protects against the virus strains most likely to be circulating that year. (For more information about this year’s vaccine, go to http://www.cdc.gov/ flu/keyfacts.htm.) The UPHS Influenza Vaccine Policy is unchanged from last year.

Contact your HR generalist for any questions about the policy or see the policy on the Flu Campaign Page. Again this year, vaccinated employees have a chance to be entered into a raffle. Employees who submit their completed flu bar-coded consent form by October 23 will be entered into the raffle and eligible to win one of several exciting prizes.

Egg-free vaccines have been manufactured and FDA-approved; we will have these available to egg-allergic employees by midOctober. To learn more about egg-free flu vaccine, go to http://www.cdc.gov/flu/faq/ index.htm and click on Types of Vaccines and then Flublok Seasonal Influenza (Flu) Vaccine.

If you choose to be vaccinated outside a UPHS Flu Vaccine Clinic this year, please send a pdf of your documentation—with a copy of your bar-coded form (to make sure you get timely credit)—to OccupationalMedicineHUP@ uphs.upenn.edu.

PENN’S WAY CAMPAIGN

The 2015 Penn’s Way campaign is in full gear, running through Friday, November 20. This year’s theme is “Giving is Penn’s Way.” Our campaign honors the culture of generosity, kindness and thoughtfulness that exists among our employees. Collectively, our donations make a broad and immediate impact on the communities in which we live and serve. With renewed energy from your collective generosity last year, we are determined to reach our higher goal of $1.55 million and achieve an even greater community impact this year.

A complete list of organizations participating in this year’s campaign can be found on www.upenn.edu/pennsway. Donate today by visiting the website and clicking on “Contribute.” For questions and to learn more about the campaign, please email David.Bendell@uphs.upenn.edu or Rachel.Kleinman@uphs.upenn.edu.

HUPdate EDITORIAL STAFF Sally Sapega Editor and Photographer

DONATE TODAY.

OCTOBER 5 - NOVEMBER 20 | www.upenn.edu/pennsway Center for Responsible Funding • Penn Medicine • United

Maureen McGirr Graphic Designer

ADMINISTRATION

Susan E. Phillips Senior Vice President, Public Affairs

ALL EMPLOYEE MEETINGS Be sure to attend an All Employee Meeting to learn more about HUP and the Health System and have your questions answered by hospital leaders.

The next three will be held:

All Employee Meetings are held in

M ONDAY, DECEMBER 14 5:00 to 6:00 pm

Medical Alumni Hall, on 1 Maloney.

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Holly Auer Director of Communications

T HURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12 Noon to 1:00 pm

T HURSDAY, JANUARY 21 8:30 to 9:30 am

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.