2014 Year in Review - JPS Health Network

NEWS
for our partners in improving health and well-being in Tarrant County
2014 Year in Review
A sample of how JPS is transforming healthcare delivery for the communities we serve
MEDICAL HOME JPS Health Network opened a regional patient and family centered medical home that
provides integrated primary and specialty care in Southeast Tarrant County.
JPS Medical Home Southeast Tarrant provides comprehensive services in one location — acute, chronic, urgent,
preventive, case management, behavioral health, specialty care, imaging, lab, women’s health, oral health,
social work, clinical pharmacy, dietary and outpatient pharmacy.
For appointments, call the new JPS Help Line at 817-702-1100. In addition to providing easy phone access for
scheduling appointments, the Help Line offers free nurse advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/jps-medical-home-southeast-tarrant
TOBACCO FREE All JPS Health Network properties are now tobacco free, with a new policy in
place that prohibits all tobacco products and electronic cigarettes in and around all buildings,
including parking garages.
Preparing for the transition, JPS offered smoking cessation counseling and free nicotine
replacement products to employees. The new policy is effective January 1, 2015.
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/sites/default/files/great_american_smokeout_press_release_111914.pdf
PALLIATIVE CARE Phoebe the comfort dog has joined the Palliative Care team,
helping JPS patients with severe, chronic and irreversible illness improve their quality
of life.
Joining a growing number of U.S. hospitals, JPS went house-wide with palliative care
in March, making it available to patients everywhere but the Emergency Department.
The team has seen more than 500 patients.
The Palliative Care team, led by program director DiAnn Young and medical director
Dr. Matt Rios, concentrates on pain and symptom management, spiritual support,
psychosocial support, family support and advanced care planning, helping patients
and their families make decisions about the future that align with their values and
maximize quality of life. http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/delivering-palliative-care
ASTHMA CONTROL A team of JPS community health workers is making home
visits, assessing for and eliminating environmental asthma triggers. The program,
based at the 19 school-based health centers, can advise families on everything
from mold clean-up and furnace filter replacement to pollen-blocking bedding and
housecleaning.
The asthma DSRIP project, funded by the state’s Medicaid 1115 waiver, also provides
intensive education on controlling asthma in children, designed to improve population
health and reduce preventable emergency room visits and hospital readmissions.
ECONOMIC DRIVER JPS Health Network generates nearly $1.7 billion in economic activity and supports more
than 12,500 jobs that pay more than $750 million in wages and benefits to Tarrant County residents annually,
according to an economic analysis of Fort Worth’s Hospital District prepared for Fort Worth South, Inc.
“Being a driver of economic activity and serving the region’s healthcare needs solidifies the importance of JPS to
the community,” write the authors, researchers at the Center for Economic Development and Research at the
University of North Texas. http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/economic-driver
INJURY AND ALCOHOL Up to half of all trauma patients are drunk when they’re
injured, which is why the American College of Surgeons requires Level I trauma
centers to assess for substance abuse and refer for treatment. Many hospitals use
SBIRT — Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment. JPS went further,
assigning SBIRT to chaplains, who have offered counseling and follow-up visits at 3
months, 6 months and 12 months post-discharge.
“Patients inherently trust chaplains, and chaplains are trained to listen and guide our patients,” writes Tiffany
Overton, trauma research coordinator at JPS, in an article published online in the Journal of Emergency Nursing.
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/alcohol-and-injury
BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT Five new lactation consultants are on
board at JPS, adding breastfeeding support to the line-up of outpatient
services for new moms.
The lactation consultants will be backed up by six new community care
partners, who will make home visits, helping new moms navigate around
potential breastfeeding deterrents. The new Community Lactation Team
is a DSRIP project, federally funded by the state’s Medicaid 1115 Waiver to
improve healthcare delivery and population health.
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/celebrating-breastfeeding
BLOOD DONORS Thanks to 258 altruistic donors, JPS provided more lifesaving blood products in 2014 than
any other hospital in Fort Worth, according to Carter BloodCare. JPS donors ran away with the lead in July,
breaking a JPS record for blood donated in a single drive.
An incentive program offers small gift cards and merchandise for donors who collect points, but redemption is
low, said Carter BloodCare’s Michael Buss. JPS donors aren’t looking for rewards; they’re looking to contribute.
“I wish all the hospitals were like JPS,” said Buss.
CLINICAL PHARMACY 24/7 Twenty-six hospital pharmacists are
now board certified, up from none less than three years ago. Most
recently, Brent Fox, a recent JPS recruit (and well-known expert on
snake venom,) became a board certified nutrition support pharmacist.
“There are fewer than 600 BCNSPs in the world, and now JPS has two,”
said Christy Johnson, manager of inpatient Clinical Pharmacy.
Fox is among 19 clinical pharmacists to join JPS since 2012, bringing
a new dimension to patient care. Clinical pharmacists don’t work in
pharmacies. Residency trained after pharmacy school, they are on the floor with doctors and nurses, seeing
patients and ensuring optimal drug therapy. They are being integrated throughout John Peter Smith Hospital,
and now provide 24/7 clinical pharmacy coverage. http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/growing-wall-fame
CONSTRUCTION A two-story expansion of the Patient Care Pavilion is under way, ushering in expanded imaging
capability and dedicated operating room space expected to elevate care for heart and stroke patients at JPS.
The $19 million project will fill the existing space between the Pavilion and the parking garage to the east,
adding more than 32,000 square feet. Catheterization labs will move from the Outpatient Care building across
Main Street, making them closer to the Emergency Department and decreasing travel time for patients brought
to the ER with blocked blood vessels.
GOLD STANDARD JPS is now accredited in nuclear cardiology following
rigorous inspection and case review by the Intersocietal Accreditation
Commission. “Accreditation by the IAC means that the John Peter Smith
Cardiac/Nuclear Medicine Department has undergone a thorough review of
its operational and technical components by a panel of experts,” the IAC said.
Nuclear imaging procedures are used to examine blood flow to the heart,
look for damaged heart muscle and evaluate how well the heart is pumping.
The three-year accreditation applies to nuclear imaging at both the Cardiac Diagnostic Clinic at JPOC and the
main hospital in Fort Worth. Cardiologist Paul Bhella, MD, is director of Cardiac Imaging.
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/gold-standard
TOP-RANKED RESIDENCY The Family Medicine Residency at JPS Health Network is among the top three
in the nation, according to a first-of-its-kind nationwide evaluation of medical residencies by Doximity and U.S.
News & World Report.
The 2014 Residency Program Rankings were compiled from nominations submitted by more than 50,000
board-certified physicians and combined with data such as the pass rate on board exams and the percentage of
graduates who go on to pursue subspecialties.
The Family Medicine Residency at JPS is the largest in the country, with 73 residents.
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/residency-ranking
FIRST IN FORT WORTH Never heard of an RPhS? Could be that’s
because there’s only one in Fort Worth — Wayne Steppy, radiology
tech II in JPS Cardiac Diagnostics. Steppy is one of only 13 people in
Texas, and the first in Fort Worth, to earn the registered phlebology
sonographer (RPhS) credential.
Registered Phlebology Sonographer is a specialization that’s
developed over the last 20 years, along with the advanced imaging
techniques used in ultrasound-guided therapy for varicose veins and
venous hypertension, which can cause leg ulceration.
Steppy has been an ultrasound tech for 12 years, since giving up life on the road as the steel guitar player in the
band Del Rio, and has worked at JPS for all but four of them. http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/first-fort-worth
HELP LINE JPS has a new Help Line, intended to improve access to healthcare by making it easier to navigate the
network. Patients can call 817-702-1100 to make an appointment at any JPS Health Network location.
By calling the Help Line, patients also can access nurse advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Nurse advisors
can help patients determine which level of service is appropriate for their immediate concern, potentially
reducing unnecessary emergency room visits.
NEW INTERNS Fresh from rigorous Advanced Trauma Life Support training, 63
newly minted physicians hit the floor to begin residencies at JPS. Among them:
A gas drilling exec whose physician father also trained at JPS, an Arkansan from
a town of just 26 and at least two couples.
More than a third of the new residents (referred to as interns during the first year
of residency) belong to the JPS Family Medicine residency, the largest Family
Medicine residency in the country. Of the 22 Family Medicine residents, 12 are
male, 10 are female. They come from 14 medical schools in eight states. Eleven
are Texans, with the rest coming from California, Illinois, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi and Kansas.
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/welcome-new-interns
PREVENTING FALLS A patient safety initiative focused on falls is on track to save more than $500,000 a year,
but more important to members of the JPS fall prevention team are the patients leaving the hospital with their
quality of life intact.
“A fall can forever change your life, especially if you are older,” said nurse Elisabeth Rodgers, leader of the fall
prevention DSRIP project, a five-year initiative supported by $1.3 million in federal healthcare improvement
funds. “We want all patients to be able to return to life as they knew it before they had to be in the hospital.”
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/preventing-falls
FIRST CLASS The inaugural class of Emergency Medicine residents at JPS has graduated, but only a few are
saying good-bye to the Lone Star State. Five will remain familiar faces at John Peter Smith Hospital.
“All of us on the faculty and staffs of the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Medical Residency Program
are very proud of the inaugural graduating class,” said Rick Robinson, MD, then-chairman and residency program
director. “Five of the graduates will remain in the Metroplex to serve the citizens of Tarrant County and continue
their hands on involvement with building a world class training program for future emergency physicians.”
http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/first-class
SURVIVING SEPSIS A frontal assault on sepsis at JPS has cut the mortality rate in half, saved 38 people who
otherwise would likely have died and reduced the length of stay for sepsis patients, saving nearly $1.2 million in
three years. A sepsis patient brought to JPS today is twice as likely to survive as in 2011, before the sepsis DSRIP
project got under way with targeted federal healthcare-improvement funds.
Sepsis, better-known as bloodstream infection, is the leading cause of death for hospitalized patients and is
the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. A single episode of sepsis during a person’s lifetime cuts overall life
expectancy by five years. http://www.jpshealthnet.org/news/code-sepsis
HAND TRANSPLANT Hand transplant recipient Ronnie Thurman shared his
progress with some of those who made it possible. Thurman and the parents of
his hand donor, Rob and Janis Heidemann of Keller, shared their stories with area
journalists during National Donate Life Month events at JPS.
Thurman’s hand transplant has allowed him to work independently again on
his family farm in Indiana and resume his favorite hobby — golf. His visit to Fort
Worth included a round of golf at the Colonial Golf Club with Rob Heidemann,
JPS trauma surgeon Dr. Mark Tellez, and Danny Jensen of the University of North
Texas Health Science Center. http://www.jpshealthnet.org/sites/default/files/
hand_transplant_first_media_alert_031714.pdf
For news and events from JPS Health Network, visit http://www.jpshealthnet.org/about_jps/news_events