August 2011 - The Medical Center

~ Communicating Helps Caregivers ~
August 2011
IN THIS EDITION
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Betsy’s Corner
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Workplaces Practices
Regional Conference
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The Medical Center at Franklin
Completes Surgery Expansion
Accomplishments
Caramel Pie Recipe
Spotlight on Ashley Sydnor
Notes from Shared
Governance
NICU Reunion
Don’t Let “Swimmer’s Ear”
Ruin Your Summer
ECHO’s Got Talent
Commonwealth Health Corporation’s
nursing mission is to care for people
and improve the quality of life in
the communities we serve through
our practice, education, research,
innovation, and collaboration.
The $4 million surgery expansion project at The Medical Center at
Franklin is now complete. Renovation
and new construction encompassing
9,700 square feet includes two operating suites, an endoscopy suite, a six-bed
recovery unit and other surgical support
services.
“Enhancing our surgical services
will have a major impact on the delivery
of healthcare in Franklin and Simpson
County,” said Clara Sumner, Chief
Executive Officer of The Medical Center
at Franklin. “Before the expansion,
we were limited on the complexity of
surgeries that could be performed at the
hospital. Now with this new addition,
physicians have a modern facility and
equipment to perform an array of surgical procedures, reducing the need to
refer patients out of Simpson County.”
The new expansion provides a more
spacious and centralized area dedicated
to surgical services and endoscopy.
More complicated surgeries can be
performed due to expanded space in
the surgery suites for large, specialized
equipment.
Earlier this year, general surgeon
William Daniel, M.D. opened a practice
in the Franklin Medical Pavilion on the
hospital campus to expand local access
to general surgery services. John Korba,
M.D., general surgeon with Bluegrass
Surgical Associates in Bowling Green,
practices in Franklin as part of The
Medical Center at Franklin’s Physician
Specialty Clinics. Beyond general surgery, other specialties that comprise the
hospital’s Physician Specialty Clinics
including orthopaedic surgery, urology,
and podiatry will be able to utilize the
new surgical area.
Betsy’s Corner
Betsy Kullman
Chief Nursing Officer
Summer is almost over, so everyone
is dusting off those books, getting ready
to start back for the fall semester, and
rising early to get their children off to
school. With the new semester starting, we will meet with instructors of
the nursing programs to let them know
about the changes that have taken place
in recent months. We have interviewed
and will be hiring several new nurses
who will complete the Associate Degree
program this month. We will be receiving our usual influx of nursing students
beginning in September. Please make
them feel welcome and provide them a
comfortable learning environment on
your units. Several of you will be serving as preceptors to nurses who will be
completing their senior practicum with
us. Please take note of the ones who you
would like to become a part of our team
when they graduate. This is a perfect
time to recruit our future nurses.
Our annual evidence-based
poster presentation will be held in the
Auditorium on September 8 and 9. We
will not have shared governance meetings in September so that everyone can
attend the poster sessions. CEUs will
be offered for attendance at the poster
presentation which can be used for your
license renewal in October.
We will introduce a Pressure Ulcer
Prevention Program through Medline
beginning the first of September. All
nurses and techs will be required to
take a pre-test, complete an education
program and take a post-test. We will
begin using Medline skin care products
at that time. This education has already
been done on 3D, ICU and CRSH and
they are currently using the Medline
products. Implementation of this program will allow us to have consistency
in how we assess wounds and their treatment. Our pressure ulcer incidence has
decreased and we want to keep our trend
line in the downward direction.
Bob Peglow has joined us as the
new Emergency Department Director.
He brings a wealth of experience with
him, so please make him welcome in
our facility. If you haven’t met Bob, stop
by the Emergency Department and say
“hi.”
Marita Hockstedler left us on
August 18 to join her husband in
Georgia where he has taken employment. We wish Marita all the best in her
new life and will miss her greatly. Angie
Hardesty will be serving as the Interim
Clinical Manager for the Cath Lab.
Please congratulate Angie on her new
position when you see her.
Looking ahead, the Clinical Ladder
Recognition Dinner will be held on
Thursday, November 3. All nurses who
have completed or renewed their clinical
ladder will receive an invitation to this
event.
It has been a busy summer and I
greatly appreciate all that everyone has
done to care for our patients and families. Your efforts have made a difference
in our patient outcomes.
Accomplishments
Heather Thompson graduated
with her BSN in May.
Sherri Jackson, RN completed her
BS in Health Science in May.
Carol Moore, night technician at
the Sleep Center, passed her RPSGT
(Registered Polysomnography Tech­
nologist) boards in July.
Barren River Adult Day Care
Center received an Award of
Excellence Certifi­cate for “Excellent
Application” during the annual USDA
Food Program Event in Richmond.
Jacque Woodward, Director of the
Center, would like to give credit to
Food Service, Accounting & Finance
and Marketing for help achieving
this award.
From the
kitchen of
Paula DeVore, RN
Caramel Pie
2 (14 ounce) cans sweetened
condensed milk
1 (9 inch) prepared graham
cracker crust
1 (12 ounce) container frozen
whipped topping, thawed
1. In a large pot, place the cans of
sweetened condensed milk with the
labels taken off and cover with water.
Cook on high until water comes to a
boil, then turn on medium/high for 2
hours, only adding water to keep the
cans covered. Be sure to keep the
cans covered the entire time.
2. Carefully open cans and pour into
pie shell. Cool pie in refrigerator.
When completely cooled, top with
frozen whipped topping.
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Spotlight on....
Notes from Shared Governance
by Kathleen Riley, BSN, RN, MA, NE-BC
Ashley Sydnor
Ashley Sydnor can be found
in Surgery answering phones,
scheduling surgeries, performing
various unit clerk duties, and
simply offering a genuine smile.
“She is a pleasure to work with,”
says co-worker Melanie Renfrow,
RN. “She makes us laugh, and she
helps make a chaotic day a little
more tolerable.”
Ashley came to CHC in 2008.
She has since graduated from
WKU and is now pursuing her
CPC degree. “I am the first of my
brothers and sisters to graduate
college,” she says. “I wanted to
show my appreciation to my
parents for all they have done for
me by continuing my education.”
Ashley enjoys every day
at work. “I always try to find
something positive in every day,
and I usually try to find a way to
make people smile. I really like
what I do and that is, in part, due
to my wonderful co-workers. It
can get crazy around here, but
the nurses try to help me and we
all work together to get the job
done.”
Thank you, Ashley, for your
commitment to CHC!
Paula DeVore, RN
Standards and Practice
Immediate Action Results continue to be a focus of discussion for this council. Mark
Hanson reported that the sub-committee met to review our process compared with
other Meditech hospitals. The issue was to be addressed with the Interdisciplinary
Committee later that week.
Bill Singletary, Director of Care Coordination, provided the results of the ongoing stroke initiative. He shared that a concern of the surveyor in our recent stroke
Certification Survey was the difficulty with accessing clinical data through Meditech.
To address the need for enhanced training for nursing staff, Clinical Informatics will
be scheduling classes in the near future. Another area of concern was that stroke
education for patients needed to be more individualized and specific to the particular
patient’s condition.
The Interdisciplinary Education Record has been recently revised to include more
options for education and provides an easier access to determine what teaching has
already been done.
Beth Gilbert, RN, Infection Prevention, presented information on several aspects
of infection prevention teaching. Pre-operative teaching for prevention of surgical
site infections is available in Krames and must be documented prior to Surgery. This
is continually monitored and has shown significant improvement. Also, MDRO education must be documented with each hospitalization for patients with a multi-drug
resistant organism. The central line bundle requires that before a central line is inserted, a central line insertion checklist must be completed. For example, prior to sending
a patient to Radiology for a PICC line, obtain the central line education teaching from
Krames and review with the patient and/or family. This teaching is then documented
in the Interdisciplinary Record in the computer.
Betsy Kullman, CNO, presented the new process for Restraint review. Restraint
utilization will now be monitored and evaluated on a concurrent basis, not retrospectively. A form has been developed to use in auditing each incident of restraint usage.
This form can be accessed via FormFast under “Universal Forms” and will also print
out with the restraint care plan. Clinical managers will instruct their respective staff
members on this process.
Mark Hanson, Director of Clinical Informatics, announced that he and his team
are working on a total revision Nursing Care Planning. Since this involves a major
change in our current process, classes will be scheduled for all nurses who develop
care plans. This will be an excellent opportunity to improve our current system and
make nursing care plans more relevant and meaningful to patient care.
Recruitment, Retention, & Recognition
Brigitte Patterson, Human Resources Business Partner, discussed the Employee
Engagement Initiative and our corporate goal of achieving the 75 percentile for
employee engagement by 2013. Some nursing units and departments have already
achieved this goal, and many others are not far behind. Everyone is encouraged
and expected to participate in this initiative and work toward the goal set for our
corporation. It is everyone’s responsibility to be familiar with their unit’s employee
engagement plan and to know what is expected of them in accomplishing the goals.
Plans were discussed for this year’s Thanksgiving Food Drive. This is a corporate-wide initiative that the RR&R Council oversees. The donated food is given to the
local Salvation Army to help provide Thanksgiving dinners to those less fortunate.
If every employee brought in one can of food, we could easily meet a goal of 3,000
cans!
Research Council
On August 30, the last session will be offered for assistance with this year’s
Evidence-based Poster Presentations. Contact Carolyn Burton for more information.
Continued on page 4
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Notes from Shared Governance, continued
The posters will be displayed in the Auditorium on September 8 and 9. Abstracts
should be submitted to Teresa Stidham by August 29, and all posters should be in
Nursing Administration by the afternoon of September 5.
Mark your calendars! On November 11, WKU will once again sponsor “Research
Day” at the First Christian Church on State Street. The time for this event will be announced at a later date.
Sundy Dotson, RN on 3D, graciously agreed to present the research article at the
October meeting.
Nursing Quality Improvement
Amber Herman, Clinical Manager of Labor & Delivery, Post Partum, Nursery and
NICU, presented the Performance Improvement data for Post Partum. Among their
various PI initiatives are IAR compliance, Hand Hygiene monitoring, and TDAP for
parents (tetanus, diphtheria, & pertussis).
Betsy Kullman, CNO, discussed the importance of having all performance improvement activities monitored on a concurrent instead of a retrospective basis. This
will provide more immediate feedback to the staff regarding their compliance with,
and performance on, both unit specific and hospital-wide indicators. Currently, the
reporting for some indicators is still several months behind, which hinders our ability
to address problems in a timely manner.
Clinical Informatics
Mark Hanson informed the Committee that in the near future Krames will be replaced with another system that more effectively interfaces with Meditech. This will
enable education material to be printed directly from Meditech rather than going
into a different system. He also discussed the upcoming revision to the nursing care
planning process and the classes that will be provided. As part of the revised process,
information entered on the admission and shift assessments will trigger potential
problems for the care plan. Then those identified problems will be added to the care
plan and reviewed on a daily basis.
Nursing Development Council
There is a new training program, Pressure Ulcer Prevention Program (PUPP), that
will soon be available for nursing staff. This program is going hospital-wide in
September and will be required for all RNs, LPNs, and CNAs. This education program will be outside of the NetLearning system and will require participants to obtain
a separate password. This program is very comprehensive and, upon completion,
nurses will be awarded CEUs.
Reminder! Nursing competencies must be completed by November 1 this year.
More information about the unit-based competencies will be available soon.
“Buds to Blossoms”
Reunion planned for former NICU patients
Sunday, September 11
1 to 3 p.m.
The Medical Center Auditorium
Each September, The Medical Center hosts the NICU Reunion to reunite former
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) patients and their families with hospital staff who
were such an important part of their child’s care while at The Medical Center. The
afternoon will be filled with food, games, fun and fellowship. For more information,
call The Medical Center NICU at 270-796-2144.
Kentucky Lake Region
Association of Occupational
Health Nurses
presents
Work Place Practices
2011
Fifth Annual Regional Conference
September 30, 2011
8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
The Medical Center
Auditorium
This course is targeted at Safety and
Occupational Health Practitioners,
Nurses, Health Educators, Human
Resources, Professionals, Management
and anyone managing employee
health and safety issues.
Topics will include:
• Prescription drug abuse
• Generational issues
• Avoiding conflict in the workplace
• Worksite wellness programs
• An overview of bariatric medicine
Cost:
Members: $40.00
Non-members: $45.00
Please contact
Mandy Thurman at thuram@chc.net
for further information or to register.
Application for nursing CEUs is pending.
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Don’t let “swimmer’s
ear” ruin your summer
Otitis externa or “swimmer’s
ear” is a very common problem that
can be debilitating. Otitis externa
is most commonly caused by in­
fection (usually bacterial, although
occasionally fungal), but it can also
be associated with common skin
problems such as excema or psora­
sis. The external ear canal is a warm,
dark area that can be prone to
trapping moisture. This creates the
perfect environment for a problem.
Commonly, discomfort (often
severe) is the primary presenting
symptom, while some patients may
also experience swelling, redness,
or drainage. Excessive moisture
and trauma are the two most com­
mon causes of otitis externa, and
avoidance of these things is the cor­
nerstone of prevention. Our bodies
have some built in defense mecha­
nisms, notably cerumen (wax). Wax
is protective to the external ear
canal, but could also be harmful if
it is excessive and traps moisture.
Cotton swabs and other foreign ob­
jects in the ear are a big “no no” and
should be avoided. If your ears itch,
medical help can be sought. Drops
of alcohol in the ear can actually
make the ears too dry, and should
be avoided as well. Prophylactic
measures such as drying the ears
with a hair dryer after swimming
and avoiding manipulation of the
external auditory canal may help
prevent occurrence.
Swimmer’s ear can be evaluated
and treated by an otolaryngolo­
gist or your primary care provider.
Treatment centers around the acute
episode, treated commonly with
antibiotic ear drops and/or oral an­
tibiotics. Prevention of recurrence is
also important to discuss with your
healthcare provider.
ECHO RHCKSTARS !
Auditions for ECHO’s Got Talent begin September 2. We’re looking
for all types of entertainers, including comics, singers, jugglers, dancers
and impersonators. To schedule an audition, or submit a recording or
video, email Kathy Smith at KASmith@chc.net.
ECHO’s Got Talent is the kick-off event for the ECHO (Employees
Contributing to Help Others) campaign and is sanctioned by CHC. To
learn more, visit CommonwealthHealthFoundation.org.
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