Volume 11, Issue 21 October 10, 2003
In This Corner by Jon D. Smiley, C.E.O.
By now I hope many of you have had an opportunity to welcome Dr. Robert Kim to the Valley. Dr. Kim was profiled in our last issue of Community Highlights - and was scheduled in to do his first surgeries last week. Those who have already met Dr. Kim have found him to be a delight to work with, and I believe you will too.
Our efforts to continue to bolster and rebuilt the medical staff are continuing. You are all aware of the fine job that Dr. Lisa Anthony has done with us on a temporary basis. We will be interviewing two other internists looking at our opportunities in the next two weeks. We are expecting at least one more internal medicine visitor prior to Thanksgiving. We are also planning the visit of a D.O. trained family physician.
So you can see the work to bring more doctors into meet the needs of our community is on going. We cannot have patients without a full medical staff. We certainly have seen that be the case with internal medicine. Dr. Anthony's work, along with that of Dr. Coke Smith has been very beneficial over the past six weeks. Likewise Dr. Kim has begun to help us restore surgery volumes.
The other major effort that has begun is an examination of whether the hospital can become a critical access hospital. If this change is made, it can have considerable positive financial impact on the hospital. We have begun to study whether the logistics can be achieved without compromising our ability to serve the community. I will keep you posted as that study moves forward.
October New Employee Orientation
(Click for larger photo.) Left to right: Jeani Brubaker, Family Birth Center. Jeani and her husband live in Zillah. She also worked at Lourdes hospital in Pasco. Amanda Karoline Melendrez, Admitting. Worked previously at Toppenish hospital. Sunnyside High School class of 2000. Engaged to be married next summer. Janet Gonzales, Med/Surg, from Prosser. About a year ago, Janet and her family moved to the valley from New Jersey. She also worked at Kennewick General Hospital. Faith Smeenk, Admitting. Faith is from Sunnyside and we are happy to welcome her back to the hospital staff.
Important Weeks in Healthcare
This past week has been honored as Materials Management Week and also Emergency Room Nurse Week. Next week October 12 - 18 is National Patient Financial Services Week.
National Respiratory Care Week Oct 19-25.
National Lung Health Day, Oct 22.
Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Nov.
Great American Smoke Out, Nov. 20
October 20-26 is National Infection Control Week. The theme for Infection Control Week is "Infection Protection - Lend Healthcare a Hand By Washing Yours." Hand washing is the important connection between stopping the spread of illness to others. We wash those germs away when we wash our hands.
Education News
Northwest MedStar is dedicated to providing continuing education to health care organizations around the state. In October they will present Pediatric Assessments and Common Pediatric Emergencies via the Telehealth system. The program will be October 27th from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m.
There will be no programs from MedStar in November or December, but they will resume in January 26 with an inservice on Diabetic Emergencies.
An inservice called Mass Casulty Incident Response will be presented Friday, October 24th at 12:00 p.m. in the classroom via Telehealth. This program is designed for all interested hospital personnel including members of the hospital disaster committee. The program will originate from the Medical Services Officer of the Spokane Fire Department.
Healthstream has instituted some improvements all employees should be aware of when working on line inservice education files. Some of these changes are administrative but you should know about test completion alert - now when you submit a test for scoring the system will alert you if you have left a question unanswered.
For more information contact Gabriella Barker at ext. 1673.
Recognition and Reward
submitted by Monica Saenz
The Employee Committee team has started a recognition team consisting of the following members:
Wendy Veliz - ICU Araceli Trujillo - ER Susie Moreno - Med Surg
Charlene Maling - IS JoAnn Smith - Nutrition Services Jessie Correa - Lab
Gerardo Rodriguez
- Imaging Elaina
Castillo - Nursing Services
We will be placing boxes and nomination forms along with the criteria for
recognition and awards that may be received. We will be selecting an
outstanding employee every quarter. If you have any questions about this
process please contact any of the people mentioned above. We encourage
everyone to nomination employees who you see doing a good deed.
Help Us Serve You Better
submitted by Jean Clary
I heard some employees may not know our Café hours and options of menu items through the day:
7:30 am - 9:30 am - breakfast items on Café line (eggs, breakfast meats, gravy, biscuits,
hash browns, fruit/juice/milk/soda/toast/muffins)
9:30 am - 11:30 am - fruit, muffins, milk, cookies, soda & juice
11:30 am - 1:30 pm - our Café lunch specials, hamburgers, and Café sands (fruit/cookies/desserts)
1:30 pm - 5:00 pm - our Café hamburgers, sands and all hot items on Café line, beverages, fruit, cookies & desserts.
Due to our staffing and patient care needs, we can no longer accept calls asking "what is on the menu" and to have a particular item held for you. We have had these requests, we store them in our frig and often they are not "picked up and paid for" consequently they get thrown out. Thank you for understanding as we are working hard to reduce waste.
.
the Kerry File -
The following interesting news items were forwarded by Kerry Montague, RT.
From AARC TIMES, Strange but true. That's a Wrap! Food researchers believe they've found
a new way to keep harmful bacteria out of our food: wrap the items in a plastic infused
with basil. Seems the herb exudes chemicals capable of keeping food fresher longer.
(Journal for Agricultural and Food Chemistry, May 2003)
The Gall - A German woman plans to claim the world's record for number of gallstones
removed during surgery: 3110 of them. She is currently seeking a place in the Guinness
Book of Records.
A new study says Viagra may be a treatment for PULMONARY HYPERTENSION. Pulmonary
hypertension
patients who were treated with sildenafil (Viagra) in addition to standard treatment with
inhaled iloprost, not only saw their conditions stabilize but also experienced improved
exercise capacity and hemdynamics, report researcher publishing in the July issue of the
Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The study involved 73 patients who were
already on iloprost. Oral sildenafil was added to the regimen for 14 patients whose
conditions were getting worse despite an initial favorable response to iloprost. Prior to
any treatment, these patients were able to walk, on average, just 217 meters in the
six-minute walk test. Iloprost initially improved that result to 305 meters, but the number
dropped to 256 within 18 months, After adding sildenafil, six-minute walk distance
increased to 346 meters and the increase was sustained for up to a year.
Small Improvement, Big savings
Just a small reduction in the number of people who suffer from severe asthma could end
up saving the health care system a bundle, report researchers publishing in the June
issure of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. They find if just 5 percent
of severe asthmatics were shifted into the moderate asthma catergory, about $1.4
billion in direct and indirect costs could be eliminated.
Other Reminders
We want to make sure you are remembering the Halloween Day activities. Also, the special event for Breast Cancer Awareness at the hospital next Saturday October 18th. Rather than reprint those stories - please visit the archives of Community Highlights to review details of those and other upcoming events.