Document 6568721
Transcription
Document 6568721
Oct.16, 2014 PRACTICING DONNING, DOFFING NOTEWORTHY Recognizing pastoral care Chaplains will be making rounds to offer a blessing of hands during Pastoral Care Week, Oct. 19-25. They provide care for spiritual needs in ways such as helping with sadness and family worries, overcoming fears, talking about death and dying, offering spiritual resources, and finding hope, peace and meaning in life. The Rev. Greg McClain is director of spiritual care services, and the Rev. Kiki Barnes is the clinical chaplain for Johnston Health Hospice and the SECU Hospice House. They get support from the 14 local pastors and clergy persons who serve as chaplain volunteers. These volunteers provide on-call coverage for Johnston Health, Johnston Health Clayton and the SECU Hospice House. Pat a case manager on the back Take time out this week to say thanks to Johnston Health’s Case Management Team. It’s National Case Management Week, and a great time to recognize the important work that case managers do. The 21member team is made up of RN case managers, social work case managers , clinical documentation improvement RN specialists, case management assistant and secretarial support. They provide utilization management, care coordination, length-of-stay management, discharge planning, care transitions, resource management and patient advocacy. Fall Fest on Friday Shop for one-of-a-kind gifts at Fall Fest, which will be from 11 a.m. till 5 p.m. on Friday in the Johnston Medical Mall. Raising breast cancer awareness Johnston Health Clayton will host Ladies Night Out from 5 till 7 p.m. on Oct. 28. The women’s health event will include food, vendors and information about medical services. Celebrating fall, Halloween A costume contest, a free meal for employees and a silent auction of baked goods are on tap for Halloween (Oct. 31) at Johnston Health. All proceeds from the bake sale will go toward the employee emergency fund. Want to help out? Bring your baked goods to the cafeteria from 7 till 9 a.m. The auction will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. Employees will be treated to lunch in the cafeteria from 11 a.m. till 1:30 p.m. (A site in Clayton will be determined.) For night shifts, departments will be called to pick up meals about 7 p.m. Remembering loved ones Johnston Health will hold its annual Community Memorial Service at 3 p.m. on Nov. 2 at the Johnston County Agricultural Center on N.C. 210, west of Smithfield. The service is open to all who have experienced the loss of a loved one. Participants are invited to bring a fabric swatch representing their loved one. These pieces will be sewn into a memorial quilt. LifeLiner is published on the first and third Wednesdays by the Marketing and Community Relations Department Suzette Rodriguez…...writer, editor Emily Bass .……………...social media To submit news items, call 938-7103 or email [email protected]. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Hospital gets ready for PCI Critical care transport vital to cardiac service Brandon Godwin, a nurse in the Smithfield emergency department, helps paramedic student Josh Nichols double-glove during an impromptu training session Tuesday on how to gown up in personal protective equipment. Godwin is helping the ED staff prepare for the prospect of treating a patient with Ebola. Staff practices, prepares for threat of Ebola virus False alarms help ED tweak processes T wo patients who came to the Smithfield emergency department on Wednesday were seen and quickly ruled out as having Ebola. Such false alarms are becoming fairly common in hospital EDs across the country as the public becomes jittery about the threat of the virus. Ronnie Syverson, infection preventionist for Johnston Health, says the two separate cases had one thing in common: Both patients had traveled or been in contact with someone who had traveled outside of the U.S. But neither of those destinations had been to a country affected by the Ebola outbreak, he says. Asking the right questions is key to determining if patients have contracted the virus. “We can’t be fearful. We have to stay focused. We have stick to the facts,” he says. “The risk of contracting the illness here in the U.S. is still very low. We all need to find peace in that.” To aid and educate the staff, Syverson is sharing an Ebola screen, which consists of three pertinent questions for patients. “These are the pieces of the puzzle,” he says. “These are the questions we should be asking.” Have you traveled outside the U.S. to a country affected by the Ebola outbreak within in the last 30 days? Have you come in contact with anyone having symptoms and diagnosed or suspected of having Ebola? Do you have any of the follow symptoms: fever of greater than 101.5, headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, unexplained bleeding or bruising? “If the answer to all three questions is yes, then it’s reasonable to be suspicious,” Syverson says. In the clinical setting, the staff member would then give patient a mask to don and call the ED charge nurse right away. In both cases on Wednesday, Syverson says the ED followed proper procedures and protocols, including isolating the patients and decontaminating EMS responders. “This was good practice,” he says. “It allowed us to identify areas that we need to improve.” Over the past several days, Syverson says a committee of directors and senior staff has been meeting to put together and shape a policy specifically for Ebola. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sends out new information daily, the committee makes changes. “It’s a living, breathing document,” he adds. When it’s complete sometime next week, the committee will post it on Quicklinks. Among other things, the ED staff has been practicing donning and doffing personal protective equipment. Outside the hospital, Syverson meets on Mondays with representatives from Johnston County agencies: EMS, the office of emergency management, the 911 emergency call center and the health department. They also listen in to the daily teleconferences from the CDC. “We’re doing everything we can to prepare,” he says. “We’re keeping each other informed, and we’re working and planning together.” Want to learn more about Ebola? Check out the websites for the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control to get up-to-date and factual information. We wish her well Volunteers, physicians and staff are invited to a reception honoring Linda Allen, chief nursing officer for Johnston Health, who is retiring after having worked with the hospital for more than 30 years. The reception is from 2 till 4 p.m. on Oct. 29 in the cafeteria. The addition of a critical-care transport service at Johnston Health is the latest step in getting ready for interventional cardiology procedures, including stenting, set to begin in January. Rex Critical Care Transport is opening a hub here in Smithfield, and it will begin aroundthe-clock service on Monday. The transport team will have its quarters along the hallway behind the emergency department and will park its ambulance near the bay. Last month, Johnston County Commissioners approved a franchise for the critical-care transport service. From its base at the hospital, the ambulance will respond to calls also from hospitals in neighboring counties. “It’s a traveling ICU unit,” says Tracey Carson, who is the administrative director overseeing the interventional cardiology program. “It has all the tools, including a ventilator, to get critically ill patients safely to a hospital that can offer more specialized care.” When Johnston Health begins its interventional cardiology program, Carson says Rex Critical Care will provide a second, dedicated ambulance. On procedure days, the ambulance will park at the Women’s Pavilion entrance, which is closest to the cath lab. Also, Carson says Johnston Health has an agreement with Rex Hospital to treat those patients who may need open-heart surgery. A requirement of the program is that the hospital must transport those patients, from the cath lab to the hospital offering open-heart surgery, within 90 minutes. Drs. Willis Woo and Matthew Hook, interventional cardiologists with N.C. Heart & Vascular, will perform the procedures. These will be done in the existing cath lab until the hospital gets state approval to build a larger lab. An architect is now preparing the drawings for a shell space next to the ED. If all goes as planned, the new lab could be ready by May. Following the procedures, specially trained staff will care for the patients in designated cardiac-observations rooms on the bridge of second floor (formerly 2 East). These rooms will have telemetry so that staff at the bedside, at the nursing station around the corner, and in the ICU can all see the patients heart monitors. Carson says the cath lab staff has been training since August with their peers at Rex. To get the lab ready, the hospital has purchased an intravascular ultra sound system. Using catheters, physicians can get images of diseased blood vessels from inside the artery. It provides detailed and accurate measurements of the vessel and areas of plaque. Also significant, directors of the Johnston Health board approved the interventional cardiology program at their September meeting. Meet the critical care teams You’re invited to meet the Rex Critical Care Transport team during a gathering at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 at the Smithfield emergency department’s ambulance bay. In addition, UNC Air Care will be on the helipad, weather permitting, to offer a peek inside its helicopter. All who come to the meet-and-greet event will be eligible to enter a drawing for two floorseat tickets to the N.C. State vs. South Florida basketball game on Nov. 23 at PNC Arena. Take time to come out and welcome these critical-care transport teams, whose services will enhance the care and treatment of our patients here in Smithfield and Clayton.