Stanford Health Care People - Winter 2016

STANFORD HEALTH CARE

A PUBLICATION FOR EMPLOYEES OF STANFORD HEALTH CARE ISSUE FOURTEEN / WINTER 2016

THE PATH TO 500P UHA TURNS FIVE OUR PATIENTS NOW

AROUND SHC Rev. Tony Iraci and Rabbi Lori Klein (top row, middle photo) of Spiritual Care Services hosted a Prayer Wall (top row, far left) at the second annual Compassion Fair for patients, families and staff. The group wrote blessings, affirmations, and prayers on strips of paper infused with wildflower seeds. The seed will be planted in a garden on H2 ... Members of the Women’s Heart Health Clinic are enthusiastically embracing American Hearth Month, which is celebrated in February. Pictured here (top row, far right, L to R): Sandra Tsai, MD; Katharine Edwards; Jennifer Tremmell, MD; Tina Arvayo; Katie Janaszek; Sahar Naderi, MD; Mary Nejedly; Abha Khandelwal, MD; and Valerie Hoover ... SHC employees came up big this year when it was time to give toys during the annual holiday toy drive: They donated more than 1,000 toys and gift cards. JoJo Plang (L) and Sherrie Montiague (R) are pictured here (left, middle photo) with toys donated by clinical lab employees ... The Stanford Neuroscience Health Center opened to patients on January 11 and the infusion team was ready. Picture here (left, bottom photo) are (back row, L to R): Rocio Serrano, Rosy Blemur, Helen Tan and Jong-Mi Lee. Front row (L to R): Erica Amezquita, Darla Watanabe and Danielle Brewer.

from the CEO Dear Colleagues, The new Stanford Hospital finally looks like a “real” building, at least from the outside. Of course, there is still much work to be done before 500 Pasteur is ready to receive patients, and perhaps no group of people knows that better than the Transition Strategy team. Inside you’ll learn about the massive amount of planning that has already taken place to

ready us for opening day in 2018, as well as the work yet to be done.

Also in this issue you will hear how SHC’s University HealthCare Alliance has significantly increased patient access across the Bay Area since it was created five years ago. You will also find a inspiring story about a critically ill patient who was able to fulfill a promise to his daughter following minimally invasive surgery at SHC. Thank you all for everything you do to help heal humanity through science and compassion, one patient at a time.

Most sincerely, MARIANN BYERWALTER INTERIM PRESIDENT & CEO

STANFORD HEALTH CARE PEOPLE is a publication of the SHC internal communications department: Gary Migdol, Director; Katie Lipovsky, Manager; Himani Sharma, Coordinator. Photography by Norbert von der Groeben.

Grace Hammerstrom, writer. Send comments to connect@stanfordhealthcare.org.

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ON THE COVER: Susan Ganz, Administrative Director of Transition Strategy (left), and program manager Elizabeth Callahan (right) are leading SHC’s efforts in planning and preparing for moving into 500P in 2018.

GETTING READY FOR

MOVE-IN DAY HUNDREDS OF EMPLOYEES, WORKFLOWS AND COMMITTEES NEEDED OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS TO PREPARE FOR 2018 OPENING

B

EFORE THE FIRST SHOVEL SCORED THE EARTH AND THE FIRST BEAM WAS LIFTED INTO PLACE, A SMALL, TARGETED TASK FORCE WAS ASSEMBLED TO TRANSFORM 500 PASTEUR DRIVE (500P) FROM AN EMPTY SHELL INTO A FULLY FUNCTIONING HOSPITAL. From inspecting and validating every

door to determining the location of every sharps box to mapping out the most efficient workflows, Transition Strategy is tasked with ensuring that on opening da everything is in place, and everyone is fully trained and able to deliver care at the future Stanford Hospital.

Planning for move-in started two years ago when a group of process management experts began validating current workflows across the hospital with input from staff t every level. Today, their work has shifted to the future state. “We need to look at the way we want to work in the future and compare that against how we’re working today,” said Susan Ganz, Administrative Director of Transition Strategy.

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SHC’S MOVE-IN DAY IS STILL A FEW YEARS AWAY, BUT THE TASK TO PREPARE FOR OPENING DAY IN 2018 HAS ALREADY BEGUN, PARTICULARLY FOR THOSE WHO ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON THE TRANSITION: (L TO R) JOHN CUNNINGHAM, ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR, SUPPLY CHAIN; HELEN WILMOT, VICE PRESIDENT, FACILITIES SERVICES & PLANNING; KARL AUTEA, ED REGISTRATION MANAGER; NATALIE KAPLAN, RN.

Where will patient care stations be located? Where will supplies be stocked? How will the 20 new operating rooms be set up? How will patients be transported from the emergency department to inpatient rooms? How will supplies get from the receiving dock at 300 Pasteur to the new space? How can elevators and the tunnel be utilized to manage the flow o patients, staff and clinicians? How do all 3,000 doors need to open and close?

“The role of activation and transition is to integrate all of these various pieces in preparation for moving in,” said Helen Wilmot, Vice President, Facilities Services & Planning. “It’s like the Epic rollout, times 10. Our job is to make sure that we have an integrated plan across all the disciplines and within, so that the infrastructure works, that the hospital works, and that it works for patients and the staff.”

Staff Engagement As facilitators of move-in planning and activation, Transition Strategy has enlisted subject matter experts in eight key areas—Ancillary Services; HR, Marketing and Education; JENNY SALINAS (LEFT) AND STEPHANIE RACHO (RIGHT) OF THE PATIENT ACCESS SERVICES TEAM AT A RECENT 500P WORKFLOW PLANNING SESSION.

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“We’re being very mindful of reducing delays and really showing that we value the patient’s time. We’re doing everything in our power to streamline the process.”

IT Services; Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment/Logistics; Interventional Platform; Patient Care Services; Support Services; and Patient Experience—to identify how work gets done currently and explore what that work will look like in the larger, more vertically oriented structure at 500 Pasteur. In all, more than 300 employees, as part of 10 committees and 47 workgroups, are working on a daily, weekly or monthly basis on transition planning.

In mid-December, these transition-planning teams assembled on the empty third floor of Pavilion C in Redwoo City to participate in a series of intensive workflow desig sprints. Led by consultants trained in lean health care design, participants went through floor-plan orientation, as well a current and future workflow mapping, and looked at where there are intersections with other departments, and where there are conflicts and gaps “Our job is to facilitate and integrate the dots across the disciplines,” said Wilmot. “To identify conflicts, things tha need to be reconciled between the different disciplines, and then to make sure that the flows are optimized as we g across the disciplines.”

“It’s like running 60 Rapid Process Improvement Workshops all at one time,” said Ganz. By the time 500 Pasteur opens, staff will have participated in nearly 28,000 workflow simulation and 143,211 hours of training.

For ED charge nurse Natalie Kaplan, RN, these sprints were an opportunity to see conceptually how all the workflows fit together. Huddled around large diagram displayed on the walls, Kaplan and other members of the ED Taskforce went step-by-step through their current

PATH TO ACTIVATION

BY THE NUMBERS

2018

ANTICIPATED OPENING OF 500P IN EARLY 2018

300

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES CURRENTLY WORKING ON TRANSITION PLANNING

processes, while a design consultant marked up their workflows. “The ED is doubling in size” said Kaplan. “There will be a lot more movement and a lot of modifications to our current workflows” The ED’s football-field size poses new challenges to Patient Access Services (PAS) as well. “We’re going to have to be very mobile,” said Karl Autea, ED Registration Manager. The 500PAS Gladiators, a task force made up of registrars, registration managers and IT Services, is refining its admissions and communications workflows, mapping out how it will hand off patients in the new space and estimating staffing needs for the move into the larger hospital.

For the Supply Chain team, the distance from the receiving dock behind 300 Pasteur to 500P, roughly the distance of three football fields, means enlisting the help of robots.

“Getting supplies, linens, equipment and medications to the new space will be done with robots traveling through the ground floor tunnel multiple times a day” said John Cunningham, Administrative Director, Supply Chain, and Co-chair of the Support Services Transition Team with Helen Wirth. “This requires that we balance our activity with dietary, environmental services and patient transport, to optimize the use of elevators and the tunnel.”

47 and 10

WORKGROUPS AND COMMITTEES WORKING DAILY, WEEKLY OR MONTHLY ON TRANSITION PLANNING

13,761

HOURS EMPLOYEES WILL TRAIN FOR MOVE-IN-DAY ACTIVITIES OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS

14,416

LICENSING AND TRAINING WALKTHROUGHS THAT WILL BE CONDUCTED PRIOR TO OPENING

16,478

HOURS REQUIRED TO TRAIN EMPLOYEES AND VENDORS ON NEW SYSTEMS

DID YOU KNOW?

RAIL Keeps Tasks on Track In all, there are more than 700 major tasks, plus hundreds more sub-tasks, that will need to be accomplished at the right time, and with the right amount of substance, to be prepared for the move, said Ganz. To manage that complexity, Transition Strategy developed RAIL, the Required Action Item List, a project management tool that lists every task with deliverables and due dates, to ensure transparency.

“RAIL is our most important tool right now, but people are our most important resource,” said Ganz. ”Countless employees work tirelessly every single day to bring 500P to life, in addition to keeping the doors open and the lights on in 300 Pasteur, and they should be applauded for the effort and energy that they’re putting into this project.”

Robots will be used to transport supplies from the receiving dock behind 300P to 500P. They will travel through the ground floor tunnel multiple times a day carrying medications, equipment and linens.

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University HealthCare Alliance Turns Five Since its launch in 2011, UHA has grown from 40 to 300 providers and has expanded SHC’s ability to serve patients throughout the Bay Area.

Premier cardiologists in the East Bay partner with Stanford Medicine faculty to provide care to heart failure patients in Walnut Creek and Oakland. Local physicians in Oakland, Menlo Park and San Jose train residents and medical students. Stanford Medicine faculty and local oncologists work together to treat cancer in the South Bay. Stanford Health Care’s presence and ability to serve patients in the Bay Area is expanding.

In 2011, Stanford Health Care (SHC) and the Stanford School of Medicine (SOM) created a medical foundation, University HealthCare Alliance (UHA), to broaden Stanford’s reach in the Bay Area. UHA has become the local network for the Stanford Health Care system, with medical practices stretching down the Peninsula as far south as Los Gatos and San Jose, across the bay to Hayward and Livermore, and as far north as Pinole.

In five short years, University HealthCare Alliance has grown from 40 providers at Menlo Medical Clinic to nearly 300 primary care doctors, 6 / STANFORD HEALTH CARE PEOPLE

specialists and advanced practice providers, in 44 medical clinics across the bay. Since forming, UHA and Stanford have grown outpatient visits by 200 percent.

“Creating a medical foundation was a great way to expand into the community, bringing on high-quality local physicians,” said Jenni Vargas, Chief Strategy Officer for SHC. “It’s a partnership that brings world-class specialized care into our communities.”

University HealthCare Alliance offers benefits to all parties involved said Bruce Harrison, Vice President of Network Development for SHC. “It allows patients to be treated by their local physicians in their own communities, with access and support from leading edge medicine at Stanford.” For Stanford, the partnership offers community-based teaching experiences for its medical residents, it expands the population of patients who can participate in clinical trials, and it provides more coordinated

care to our patients.” And for local physicians, many of whom were in private practice before joining UHA, it offers practice management support for insurance, human resources, payroll and regulatory guidelines. UHA medical practices are trained in C-I-CARE and brought onto the Epic electronic medical record platform. This allows their physicians to easily consult and collaborate with Stanford specialists, and gives their patients access to online health management tools like MyHealth and appointment scheduling.

“We can spend more time with our patients and not have to worry about the business side of medicine,” said Charlene Reimnitz, MD, a physician with Los Olivos Women’s Medical Group, which joined UHA in July of 2015. For Michele Pacheco, a Payroll/ Human Resources Coordinator at Bay Valley Medical Group in Hayward, joining UHA transformed how she does her job. Instead of manually processing time cards, for example, she now uses

CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS OF UNIVERSITY HEALTHCARE ALLIANCE: TOP ROW, L TO R — BRYAN BOHMAN, MD, UHA CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER; VICE PRESIDENT BRUCE HARRISON; CHARLENE REIMNITZ, MD, LOS OLIVOS WOMEN’S MEDICAL GROUP; MEMBERS OF THE ALAMEDA FAMILY PHYSICIANS. BOTTOM ROW, L TO R — CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER JENNI VARGAS; MICHELLE PACHECO OF THE BAY VALLEY MEDICAL GROUP; WILLIAM SELMAN, MD, ALAMEDA FAMILY PHYSICIANS.

“Creating a medical foundation was a great way to expand into the community, bringing on high-quality local physicians. It’s a partnership that brings world-class specialized care into our communities.” an electronic time and attendance system to do payroll, which takes her a fraction of the time.

Building a collaborative communityacademic medical model has been another goal of this partnership.

Stanford has been able to bring clinical trials to the community; its faculty members offer clinics in nine UHA locations; and local and faculty physicians are working together on clinical care. “This model brings together the leading edge care that exemplifies Stanford Health Care with the coordinated, lifelong care that most people receive in their local communities,” said Harrison, who joined

SHC in 2010 to develop its communityphysician network.

This community academic partnership is especially evident in cardiology, where providers in the Cardiovascular Consultants Medical Group regularly meet with the chairs and division chiefs in cardiology, vascular surgery and cardiac surgery at Stanford. “Our goal is to not only discuss specific patients an their treatment plans, but to advance cardiovascular care in the East Bay,” said Paul L. Ludmer, MD, practicing cardiologist and president of CCMG. Improving patient care at the local level has been another goal of UHA. In 2012, it introduced the Model Clinic

concept to a pilot clinic, Alameda Family Physicians. The Model Clinic applies lean methodologies and efficiency principles to the health care setting to improve the quality of patient care, reduce waste and improve processes that affect patient satisfaction.

“We’re creating a new kind of primary care right here in the community,” said William Sellman, MD, a family medicine physician at Alameda Family Physicians.

Today, 16 offices across UHA are implementing Model Clinic concepts in their practices. With the deployment of population health dashboards across its clinics, UHA has begun collaborating with SHC on population health efforts.

Next on the horizon is the creation of a new, multi-specialty practice in Emeryville that will combine UHA physicians with Stanford faculty.

That clinic is scheduled to open in mid-2017.

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FOCUS ON Preventive Cardiology Clinic To prevent a heart attack, patients at risk need to change their behavior. Whether that means taking daily medication, exercising more, quitting smoking or eating more fruits and vegetables, it’s up to them to make the switch.

For that reason, the clinicians at the Stanford Preventive Cardiology Clinic often take on the additional role of health coach.

“Our philosophy is to engage patients in decision making,” said Clinical Nurse Specialist Mary Ann Champagne, RN, MSN, CNS. “We have to give people leeway. We can tell them what to do until the cows come home,” she added.

But if they have a different opinion or if they’re not motivated, they won’t embrace the recommendations or change their habits.

The Preventive Cardiology Clinic treats patients who have or are at risk of developing coronary artery disease or having a stroke related to blockages in their arteries called atherosclerosis.

Many have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, a family history of heart disease or all of the above.

At the clinic, which operates Tuesdays and Thursdays, patients can learn the chance that they’ll have a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years.

That likelihood is based on age, gender, race, cholesterol level, blood pressure, smoking status, and whether there is a history of hypertension or diabetes.

The level of risk determines whether 8 / STANFORD HEALTH CARE PEOPLE

COACHING PATIENTS TO GOOD HEART HEALTH IS ONE OF THE GOALS OF SHC’S PREVENTIVE CARDIOLOGY CLINIC. PICTURED ABOVE ARE TEAM MEMBERS (L TO R) SARAH HOUSTON, PRACTICE CARE COORDINATOR; DAVID MARON, MD; AND MARY ANN CHAMPAGNE, RN. SPECIAL AWARENESS WILL BE PAID TO A HEALTHY HEART DURING FEBRUARY, WHICH IS AMERICAN HEART MONTH.

“Each patient has preferences about taking medication, altering diet or exercising. We have to be aware of their values and preferences, and their resources.” the patient would benefit from taking a statin (cholesterol-lowering medication) as well as making a lifestyle change.

“When the decision to add a statin is not straightforward, either because we are not certain or because the patient is apprehensive, performing a coronary artery calcium scan can be very helpful,” said David Maron, MD, director of the clinic. This test can detect atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries years before a heart attack and often motivates people to take preventive action sooner rather than later, he said.

The clinic uses a multidisciplinary team approach that includes four physicians (Drs. Maron, Josh Knowles, Mike McConnell and Sandra Tsai), Champagne and a dietitian. They talk with patients about their diet, physical

activity, smoking habits and willingness to take daily medication. That’s where the coaching comes in. “Each patient has preferences about taking medication, altering diet or exercising,” Champagne said. Also, sometimes the need for medication is not clear-cut.

In that case, Champagne said, if a patient is reluctant to take medication, she’ll work with him or her to find other ways to lower the risk of a heart attack.

“We have to be aware of their values and preferences, and their resources,” she said.

With lab results and medical records so important to completing the evaluations, the clinicians rely on Sarah Houston, CMA, the Practice Care Coordinator, who makes sure the patients’ tests are scheduled and the results are available.

“I’m always on the phone with the lab or a patient,” Houston said, adding that her goal is to streamline things for the patient. “Coming to the clinic isn’t exactly a fun experience, so if I can make that easier for people, I’m happy.”

Maron admitted that the clinic’s work is “not glamorous.” You don’t know on a given day whether you’ve prevented a heart attack. But we’re helping people live healthier lives and realize their potential,” he said. “It’s very gratifying.”

FOCUS ON Interpreter Services Nowhere is the diversity of the Bay Area more evident than in the hallways of Stanford Health Care. Serving this multicultural population of patients and families is a team of medical interpreters who provide in-person interpretations for the most vulnerable patients, and interpretation by phone or video for clinic visits.

Since 1971, interpreters at Stanford have been providing patients access to their medical information in their native tongue. “Language access is an issue of patient safety and quality of care,” said L. Alberto Molina, Manager of Interpreter Services.

“Our role is to facilitate clear, effective and safe communication with providers, patients and families; to give easy access to everyone so they can communicate and avoid any misunderstandings.”

One of the biggest shifts in medical interpreting over the past decade has been the professionalization of the career. Today, all interpreters must pass stringent oral and written testing, and volunteers are no longer used.

“Interpreting takes more than being bilingual,” said Johanna Parker, Lead Interpreter for Education and Training.

“It requires a high level of concentration.

The ability to intake a message, remember the message, convert it to the other language, and express it in the same tone, same register, is a skill that has to be learned.”

Each day, a team of SHC interpreters is at the patients’ bedsides at the hospital and in patients’ clinic rooms via video medical interpretation (VMI) services to help patients communicate with their doctors and care team. Each month, these 40 staff interpreters conduct on average 2,500 in-person interpretations, 1,500 by video and 250 more by telephone, in 45 different languages.

They also translate medical documents and medical records.

New waves of immigration require that additional languages be covered.

To meet this need, SHC contracts with 100 interpreters who conduct an additional 650 in-person interpretations each month. Clinicians can also dial 2-4-4 from any telephone in the hospital

“Interpreting takes more than being bilingual. It requires a high level of concentration. The ability to intake a message, remember the message, convert it to the other language, and express it in the same tone, same register, is a skill that has to be learned.” and clinics for immediate access to interpretation services in an additional 200 languages, 24 hours a day. In all, more than 11,000 patient interactions are interpreted across the hospital and clinics each month.

That’s 11,000 interactions that could not occur without the help of an interpreter. “Having an interpreter available allows patients to fully express themselves,” said Molina.

Long-standing kidney patient Elmer Lopez, who spoke through an interpreter for this story, said it best.

“The interpreters at Stanford have been very helpful to me. Everything is clear to me. I understand everything that is going on.”

L. ALBERTO MOLINA (LEFT) AND JOHANNA PARKER (RIGHT) ARE PART OF THE INTERPRETER SERVICES TEAM THAT ASSISTS PATIENTS IN OVER 200 LANGUAGES. CHENGSHUI ZHAO, MD, AND JANET MAXWELL (CENTER) USE SIGN LANGUAGE TO WORK WITH A PATIENT DURING A RECENT OFFICE VISIT.

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GOOD WORKS At SHC Adopt-a-Patient Program Spreads Joy to Homeless For the past four years, the SHC Director’s Forum has adopted a group of patients at the Medical Respite program, a 20-bed facility located in a homeless shelter in San Jose.

The program offers a safe place for homeless individuals to recover after being discharged from an acute care setting. As in past years, the response from staff to the gift drive was overwhelming, said Laura Bravo, a Manager in ITS Informatics Education, who coordinated the Adopt-a-Patient effort this year.

“We had 14 departments adopt 23 patients this year, and collected nearly $2,000 in gift cards and cash donations,” she said. She and her team spent their last day of work before the holidays sorting, inventorying and wrapping gifts to ensure that every patient received at least one of everything, including a gift card to Target or Subway, a puzzle, cards, reading glasses, an alarm clock, art supplies and shower sandals. Many departments that weren’t able to adopt patients donated gift cards and cash anyway, said Bravo, whose work area was covered in gift bags and boxes.

“Every year, we always have many more people volunteer than we have patients to adopt,” said Lisa Meyer, RN, Director of Clinical Operations–Patient Care Services. Meyer coordinated the program for three years, before passing the baton to Bravo. This year, 10 / STANFORD HEALTH CARE PEOPLE

LAURA BRAVO (LEFT) AND KRISTEN STEWART (RIGHT) WRAP GIFTS FOR THE ADOPT-A-PATIENT PROGRAM.

she participated with her department, which adopted two patients. “I think it’s important to find ways within our own communities that we can give back,” said Meyer. Bravo agreed. “It’s great to see everybody wanting to help.”

In the Community Sleep Specialist Shares Knowledge Abroad When a group of sleep physicians from Hong Kong visited the Stanford Sleep Center in late 2014, they had a special request: Could Stanford send a sleep technologist to Hong Kong to help JULIE PITMAN (LEFT) WITH MEI YEE LAU OF THE KWONG WAH HOSPITAL IN HONG KONG.

train staff and develop new standards of care? From that request came an opportunity of a lifetime for Julie Pitman, Chief Sleep Technologist and Supervisor of the Sleep Studies Lab, who has 16 years experience in the sleep field Pitman visited Hong Kong last spring to share her expertise and train the sleep technologists there to help bring U.S.based standards of care to their practice.

Traveling on her personal time, Pitman spent two weeks at the Kwong Wah Hospital in Hong Kong. In that short time, she gave 25 lectures and oversaw an overnight study to teach sleep center staff about managing complex modalities and co-morbid conditions. “It was amazing to see how hard they work and how much they wanted to participate in sleep medicine,” said Pitman. She was also asked to consult on structural details of the hospital’s new sleep lab space, and to bring its workflows, policies an procedures up to the America Academy of Sleep Medicine standards.

“The role of the sleep technologist in other countries is not recognized as a health care profession, and there is no accreditation process for sleep labs worldwide to help set standards for the industry,” she said. “I hope that the work we’re doing now will pave the way for sleep technologists in other countries.”

KUDOS October C-I-CARE Service Spotlight Award LIN LAKALAKA-HUSSAIN Clinical Medical Assistant Lin LakalakaHussain knows something about going the extra mile. A patient starting treatment at Stanford was suffering from depression and had a history of suicidal ideation. His doctors referred him to a social worker, but he was hesitant to go.

Lakalaka-Hussain volunteered to walk the patient to a bus that would get him to that appointment. When he missed the bus, she waited with the patient for the next bus. Although the patient insisted that Lakalaka-Hussain did not have to wait with him, she stayed. Her company instantly brightened up the patient.

October C-I-CARE Service Spotlight Award

November Patient Safety Star Award

RANDY AMARAL

BRENDA CALDERON

When there was a need to take medication refrigerators and freezers to San Diego, Facilities Engineer Randy Amaral volunteered to transport the parts using his personal vehicle. Without the refrigerators and freezers, the opening of our newest Corporate Partner clinic could have been delayed. “Randy’s commitment is consistently demonstrated through his work,” says Joel McKinney, Facilities Manager and Chief Engineer.

Sometimes, an alert presence can make a big impact. Hospital technician Brenda Calderon, from the Outpatient Surgery Center Post Anesthetic Care Unit, was escorting a patient to a car when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She saw another patient nearly falling. Brenda rushed over to the patient and broke the patient’s fall. She proceeded to help that patient enter the hospital building safely.

October Heroes Healing Humanity Award RICKEY BURKS Technician Rickey Burks was on his way home from work when he saw someone who needed help. He was on a Stanford shuttle when another passenger fell from her seat.

Burks stepped forward immediately. Although he has had no medical training, he believed she was having a seizure and wanted to protect her from any accidental injury in the bus. He turned her on her side and talked to her until she was again alert and EMTs arrived. “He showed compassion and kindness when it was needed ,” said Linda Dyes, Patient Access Representative.

“He was a hero .”

November C-I-CARE Service Spotlight Award LOS ALTOS PRIMARY CARE CLINIC Medical assistant Kim Dickerson hadn’t seen her husband Michael Dickerson in 10 months —since his deployment in December 2014.

He was scheduled to come home to California this past December when he received notice that his U.S. Navy assignment was being extended until February 2016. Jennifer Vercellino, a fellow MA, noticed Kim was upset one morning and comforted her as Kim broke down and explained her family’s heartbreak at the news of her husband’s extension.

Vercellino immediately sprang into action, asking Assistant Clinic Manager Lydia Reyes for permission to rally the whole clinic into contributing what they could to help buy a plane ticket for Michael to see his family.

Nadine Massey, one of Kim’s colleagues, was able to obtain Michael’s e-mail address and began a secret correspondence with him. The team was able to secure a plane ticket back home to California for the very few days he had free during his current deployment. Unbeknownst to Kim, all of her team members of the Los Altos Primary Care Clinic contributed to pooling together funds to cover the cost of a plane ticket for Michael, as well as three extra days of PTO for Kim to spend with her family.

On September 30 last year, Michael arrived at SFO. The next morning, the staff reported to work for what had been described to them as a “formal, filmed huddl .” During this formal huddle, Michael walked in and gave Kim the surprise of her life. Tears filled everyone’s eyes and emotions ran high as Kim told her colleagues, “Because of you all, I have my husband at my side and the kids get to see their dad. I am so grateful for all of you.” For this generous act of compassion, the Los Altos Primary Care Clinic was honored with the November C-I-CARE Service Spotlight Award.

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OUR PATIENTS NOW

Paul Chamberlain got his heart fixed and fulfilled a promise to his daughter In October 2014, Paul Chamberlain, a lifelong runner, stood on the sidelines to watch his daughter run a half-marathon in San Francisco.

He couldn’t join her: He was suffering from an aortic valve regurgitation and aortic aneurysm.

His aortic valve had failed, permitting blood to flow backwards into his heart and the main artery that delivers oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the body was severely enlarged. At that point, he struggled even to climb stairs.

“I promised her that the next year I would run,” he said. “I would get this fixed and I would run with her.”

He fulfilled that promise: On October 18, Paul and Jaimie Chamberlain completed the halfmarathon, clocking 10-minute miles together. “It was a great accomplishment,” he said. “It meant a lot to me and my family.”

Ten months before the run, Joseph Woo, MD, Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, repaired Chamberlain’s aortic valve and aneurysm using advanced techniques — one of the hundreds of heart surgeries Woo performs each year.

Chamberlain went into the operating room thinking he might come out sporting a pig valve, but learned after the procedure that Woo was able to remove the aneurysm while preserving the valve, utilizing the valve-sparing aortic root replacement technique, a complex operation in which he and other Stanford surgeons have

specific expertise and have helped to refine.

As a result, Chamberlain doesn’t have to worry about a pig or cow valve wearing out soon nor does he have to take anticoagulants to prevent blood clotting in a mechanical valve.

“If everything goes as it should, I won’t need another surgery,” said Chamberlain, a software engineering manager. “I’m not concerned about any heart problems now.”

“I can’t say enough about the doctor and the staff, the help I got from them,” he added.

Weeks after the surgery, Chamberlain could feel the difference when he walked with his wife, Sharon, around Lake Elizabeth, close to their home in Fremont. “It was like breathing cool air,” he said. “It felt good going in.”

In late January of last year, he returned to work, and in August began training for the halfmarathon. Having mastered that run, he’s looking forward to even more physically demanding endeavors. This spring he’s planning to participate in a sprint triathlon in which he’ll swim a half mile, bike 12 miles and run 3 miles.

In the summer he hopes to conquer Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 feet the tallest peak in the continental United States. Like the half-marathon,

“When you’re given another chance at life, you want to do stuff.

You don’t want to sit in front of a TV with a remote. You don’t want to waste it.” the climb will be a family affair: He and his son Brandon plan to scale the mountain together.

“We climb Mission Peak a lot,” Chamberlain said of the 2,516-foot high summit east of Fremont, “but that’s nothing.”

Noting that Dr. Woo has given him the green light to be as active as he wants, he said, “When you’re given another chance at life, you want to do stuff. You don’t want to sit in front of a TV with a remote. You don’t want to waste it.”

Find more patient stories at stanfordhealthcare.org/now.