Bong Curameng Named August EOM

A Weekly Publication for the People of Queen’s | Volume 19 | Number 37 | September, 6 2010
Bong Curameng Named August EOM
“It’s your compassion and passion that
really sets you apart—it’s not just what
you do, but how you do it,” said Mark Yamakawa, Queen’s Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, in praise
of the August Employee of the Month
Bethuel “Bong” Curameng. Bong, as everyone calls him, is an Intake Coordinator for the Progressive Care Unit on Pauahi 5, where he has worked since 2003.
Bong describes his job as evaluating
patients with regard to their eligibility
for the skilled services of the PCU. His
coworkers have nothing but praise for
him, offering accolades such as, “Bong
is an incredible resource for QMC staff.
He screens patients all over the hospital
for appropriate admission into the PCU.
If a patient is not appropriate for the
PCU, he provides valuable insight into
what would be an appropriate discharge
plan. He has helped many times to figure out a discharge plan for complicated
patients.” Another colleague said, “Bong
keeps the PCU going. He works hard to
address all the issues that face our patients and never stops smiling.”
“His demeanor is humble, kind, and
knowledgeable. He is the best screener
PCU has ever had,” states another supporter. Nurse Manager Mike Morimoto,
RN, feels that Bong is a role model for
what a professional should be. “Everything he does is exemplary. It is a pleasure
to work with him. Bong should be the face
on the Shared Values posters,” Mike said
enthusiastically. Barbara Cannan, RN,
CNS, Gerontology, says that Bong makes
it look easy, even though it is not.
“He is an asset to the unit, and one
of the reasons we are successful in being able to rehab our patients and send
Above: Daughter Xandee, wife Aurora,
and daughter Xamantha.
them out in a timely manner,” commented another staff member. “He
builds relationships with the patients,
families and staff.”
(Continued on page 2.)
QMC Granted $100,000 by The Hearst Foundation
The Queen’s Medical Center has been
granted $100,000 by The Hearst Foundation, Inc., to supplement the Queen’s
Cancer Center’s Cancer Survivorship Program, which has helped over 100 patients
since the inception of this program.
The Queen’s Cancer Center’s Survivorship Program is the first and only program of its kind in Hawai‘i, ensuring
post-treatment quality of care for cancer
patients and their families. Launched in
August 2009, the goals of the program
are to establish a future care plan; provide treatment summaries; provide educational materials about the anticipated
side effects; ensure follow up and surveillance; coordinate appointments; assess
psychosocial and economic issues; and
assist with transition after treatment.
“The Queen’s Medical Center is very
pleased to receive this grant,” said Art
Ushijima, QHS/QMC President. “We
are committed to providing the highest
quality of care to our cancer patients.
The Queen’s Cancer Center’s Survivorship Program is forward-thinking, and
aims to minimize the recurrence of
cancer by providing quality follow up
care after treatment.”
“There will be more than 1.4 million
cancer patient diagnoses in the United
States this year,” said Darlena Chadwick, RN, Queen’s Vice President of Patient Care. “Currently, there are over 10
million cancer survivors, and this survivorship number will continue to grow
with the aging population, improved
screening, and patient education.”
The Hearst Foundation, Inc., grant
allows the Queen’s Cancer Center’s
Survivorship Program to provide these
services free of charge to all cancer patients. “We are also expanding our efforts to the neighbor islands as well,”
said Francisco Conde, APRN, of the
Queen’s Cancer Center. “This program
impacts patients through educating
and empowering them, which provides
comfort after treatment.”
The Hearst Foundation, Inc., was
founded in 1945 by publisher/philanthropist William Randolph Hearst. In
1948, Mr. Hearst established the California Charities Foundation, renamed
the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in 1951. Operating independently from The Hearst Corporation, both
foundations are national private philanthropies, managed as one entity.
Both foundations are national philanthropic resources for organizations and
institutions working in the field of education. The goal of the foundations is to
ensure that people of all backgrounds
have the opportunity to build healthy,
productive, and inspiring lives.
EOM Bong Curameng
(Continued from page 1.)
Those relationships are what Bong
loves the most about his job. “It’s the
people I meet; it’s all about them, the
patients, the families, the staff,” he remarked. “It can be very stressful, but
also very rewarding.”
Bong’s wife Aurora and his daughters Xamantha and Xandee made a
brief appearance at his celebratory party. “We have to get Xamantha back
to school,” mom said as they quickly
grabbed some food and headed for the
door. “Be sure to ask him about his
dancing,” called back Xamantha. Bong
chuckled and gladly professed his love
for any kind of dancing, from the tra2
Hand Dryers Installed in Restrooms Hospital-Wide
Mitsubishi Electric stated in 2008
that “to make one ton of recycled paper, it takes 7,000 gallons of water, 360
gallons of oil, 158 million btu’s of energy, and about 86 pounds of pollutants
go into our atmosphere.” While Mistubishi has a vested interest in selling
hand dryers to replace paper towel dispensers in institutions big and small,
there is truth in advertising here: hand
dryers are the green way to go.
Facilities has contracted the installation of new Mitsubishi “Jet Towel” hand
dryers to an electrical contractor which
has been working from the beginning
of August on 160 designated restrooms
hospital-wide. The hand dryer retrofit
will be completed by the last week of
September. Although the main reason
the switch is being made from paper towels to hand dryers is to comply with the
state Division of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) Regulatory Control Branch, there
are many benefits to Queen’s.
The DEQ is obligated by EPA standards to monitor the discharge from
residential and commercial establishments on a daily basis. They have issued
several advisory notices to QMC in the
past three years due to paper towels that
have caused main sewer lines to backup.
Each commercial building that utilizes
the City and County’s main sewer lines
must submit an Industrial Water Dis-
charge Permit that states clearly “allowable discharges” into the sewer system.
Facilities & Building Services is responsible for the plumbing infrastructure for the medical center. Part of this
responsibility is the sewer discharge into the city’s main sewer lines located under Punchbowl and Beretania Streets.
Unfortunately, attempts at staff and
public education regarding what paper
products are allowed to be flushed (toilet issue only) were unsuccessful. This
resulted in a violation notice, part of
ditional dances of his native Philippines to ballroom style. “Every child in
the Philippines knows how to dance,”
Bong shrugged. He has performed at
many social gatherings for groups such
as the Nursing Advocates & Mentors,
Inc. In addition to dancing, Bong says
that he also loves to go to the movies
and do “anything with my family.”
The family feeling found in the PCU
is clearly demonstrated by the giant pot
of fried rice (right) that Mike cooked up
for Bong’s party. “Wouldn’t you know he
got in the elevator with me this morning,
too,” Mike lamented. Bong immediately
asked if that was fried rice and was it for
the ‘working lunch meeting’ Mike had
announced earlier in the week. Mike apparently had prepared a batch for a staff
breakfast
when Bong
first came to
the PCU and
he now looks
forward to
eating it any
time he can.
“I really love the
people here
and I thank
them all for
welcoming
me into the
‘ohana and nurturing me,” Bong said.
“It has been my utmost desire to be
the best that I can be. If people work
together, you achieve more.”
which imposed a requirement to remove
all paper towel usage from the medical
center. Facilities mediated the violation
notice to allow the focus to be mainly
on restrooms that are used by the public
and other areas that may be more prone
to have paper towels disposed in toilets.
Some areas, such as the General Services Building, will have both paper towel
dispensers and hand dryers.
Facilities researched and found the
Mitsubishi commercial hand dryer to
be the most suitable to be installed in
the restrooms in lieu of the paper towel
dispensers. The large scale use of commercial hand dryers has been very successful in major airports, recreation areas, and large shopping centers. The Ala
Moana Shopping Center’s public restrooms have been retrofitted with commercial hand dryers, as well as large retail stores like Costco and Sam’s Club.
The up side for QMC is that hand
dryers greatly reduce the high (and increasing) cost of paper towels. Queen’s
Environmental Services has estimated
that hand dryers in the public restrooms will save over $100,000 annually. Storage, manpower support, and
the disposal cost of paper towels will
also be significantly reduced.
Mike Kim Seu, Manager, Facilities & Building
Services, contributed to this article.
3
McCully: 1/1, quiet end unit. No pkg.
$800. Call Stannie @ 258-3366.
Enchanted Lake: Part furn attached cottage. N/S, no pets. Avail mid Sept. $1,300 incl utils. Reduced rent (to $1,200) for help w/
painting, repairs, & yd work. Long term lease
desired (min 1 yr). Aileen @ 261-1787.
TB monitoring for the following departments is due in September: Central Distribution; Central Transport;
Native Hawaiian Health Strategy; Progressive Care Unit; Receiving; Quality
& Patient Safety; Same Day Surgery;
Same Day Pre/Post; Sterile Processing;
Surgical Units Administration; QET 9
DH; Urology Services; VP Surgery- Orthopedics-Behavioral Health Admin.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pacific Anesthesia, Inc., now provides
anesthesia coverage in the Main OR.
They will provide coverage of two rooms
and an anesthesia clinical coordinator in
Same Day Surgery (SDS) and the Main
OR. Call 543-8623 or 543-8624 for all
urgent and emergency sedation/anesthesia needs (including CRNA needs.) If
you have questions or concerns, please
call Karen Schultz at 547-4605.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Queens Basketball League week
14 results are: Rehab 55 - DLS 40; #1
RN 61 - #8 B Team 41. All-Star Game results: Makai (FTC, OR, Rehab, DLS) 83 Mauka (Nurses, Crisis, RN Squad, and B
team) 49. All-Star Game MVPs are Chris
Perry (OR) and Matt Cody (FTC). The
Shimazu Shave Ice 3-Point Shoot Out
winner is Patrick Ng (OR) over Jay Saavedra (FTC). Eliminated after semi finals
were Matthew Layug (Crisis) and Howard Bala (Nurses). Eliminated after the
preliminary round were Kenny Grimes
(DLS), Ron Govina (RN Squad), Ryan
Faylogna (B Team), and Russel Baldulgo
(Rehab). If you picked Patrick as the winner, you will be notified via email. Patrick
is the second-time winner of the 3-Point
Shoot Out. Come to the Kilauea District
Park Gym next Wednesday starting at
6:00 pm for more play-off action. Visit
www.theqbl.com for more information.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Registration is still open for the
16th annual Susan G. Komen Race for
the Cure to be held on Sunday, October
17 at Kapi‘olani Park. Join the Queen’s
Women’s Health Center or Queen’s Cancer Center team or donate today at
4
Sell:
iPod Touch: 8GB, brand new, still in pkg
fr Apple Store. Came w/new computer,
but too small for my old eyes! Your deal
@ $180! 428-1468.
’04 Saturn Vue SUV: 6 cyl, 61K mi, 1 yr
ext warr, moon rf, rims, rf rack, vry good
cond. $9,500. Call Red @ 277-3023.
Rent:
Upper Kalihi Valley: Lg 2/1/1 dwnstrs unit,
off Likelike, quiet, 10 min to QMC. NS, no
pets. $1,450 incl utils, cable. Call 221-2381.
www.KomenHawaii.org. For more information, call Jenny Mulholland at 5377757 or Darlene Sardinha at 545-8984.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Join Queen’s Geriatrics Services at
the Alzheimer’s Association 2010 Honolulu Memory Walk on Saturday, September 11. Meet at 7:45 am at Fisherman’s Wharf across from Ward Warehouse. The Walk begins at 8:00 am and
goes around Ala Moana Beach Park
and back to Fisherman’s Wharf. There
will be door prizes, refreshments, entertainment, and free parking at Ward
Warehouse. Sign up to participate or
donate at www.2010memorywalk.kintera.org/honolulu/queens. Participants
who raise more than $250 will receive a custom embroidered aloha shirt
available in three patterns with the
Aloha Chapter logo on the breast pocket. Those who raise $100 or more will
receive a limited edition 2010 Walk Tshirt. Participants who raise at least
$35 will receive a custom Alzheimer’s
Association pin. A drawing held after
the walk includes prizes that range
from admission tickets to local attractions to a two-night ocean front stay at
the Grand Wailea.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
All are invited to participate in a
guided session of Mindful Meditation
every Thursday in the QET 4 chapel
from 12:00 to 12:30 pm.
Moana Pacific: 1/1/1 fully furn condo,
walking to QMC, Ward & Ala Moana,
many amenities, flr to ceiling mt vws.
$2,200. Call 306-8317.
Kalihi: 2/1/1, Richard Ln, newly renov, sec
bldg, washer in unit. $1,200. For info, pls
call 391-3399 or 221-2381.
Misc:
Fashion Boutique: Clothes, bags, accessories from Fashion Boutique at the Women’s
Expo, 9/10-12 at the NBC. For more info, call
429-5436 or e-mail cilovino@queens.org.
Oahu SPCA: Support the no kill animal shelter through Foodland/Sack-N-Save’s Give
Aloha matching donation prog. Show your
Maika‘i Card and donate to Oahu SPCA,
code #78487, at checkout from Sept. 1-30.
Placing an ad: Queen’s employees only. Include
name, phone and Employee ID number. Mail
to Creative Services—Print Connection, fax to
547-4002 or e-mail to jkimura@queens.org by
Wednesday. The Print Connection reserves the
right to edit or refuse any ad. The Print Connection
does not make any warranty about the fitness of
any product or service listed in Q-Mart.
Weekly
The Queen’s Print Connection is published
by Creative Services. If you have news or
wish to opine, call us at 537-7532 or e-mail
jkimura@queens.org. News deadline is the
Monday prior to publication.
QHS/QMC President. . . . . Art Ushijima
Publisher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roy Cameron
Editor/Writer. . . . . . . . . . . . Jason Kimura
Assist. Ed./Writer. . . . . . Glee Stormont
www.queens.org
The Queen’s Medical Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
Please recycle