A Lifesaving Scramble into Ravaged Haiti
UCH nurse Stephanie Houghton (above) found a "just horrible" world of chaos, disease and homelessness on her February mission to Haiti. She's headed back later this month.
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| Andre Casias of Finance (second from left) and Bruce Hazard (far right) of Purchasing, with hospital consultants Mike Grace (far left) and Phil Summers, are working on a Lawson upgrade scheduled for late May. | |
The Other IT Transformation
It doesn't get the ink that Epic does, but the $2.3 million conversion of Finance, Supply Chain, HR and Payroll applications to a single Lawson software platform should increase efficiency, improve functionality and save the hospital millions over the next decade. Plus: What the "new" Lawson will do.
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Hospital Bottom Line Still Looking Up
Thanks to robust volume and tight expense control, the hospital's financial performance in January exceeded budget expectations. The result: "really fantastic" year-over-year
growth, said CFO Anthony DeFurio.
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Where to Live. How to Pay. What to Do.
There is not one thing in many vulnerable patients' lives that doesn't have to do with their conditions, says one of UCH's under-sung social workers. It's up to these staffers to coordinate most of the things that make it possible to live with a complex disease condition.
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The hospital's Medication Assistance Program specialists. Left to right: Julie Deaver, Julie Youngren, Etta Hadnot and Sandy Alleckson.
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Demand for Rx Help Primed to Increase
The next round of insurance premium increases promises to intensify the hospital's efforts to help uninsured and underinsured patients get essential medications.
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To Fort Collins and Back for a Worthy Cause
UCHers are among the 3,000 cyclists getting ready to ride the annual "Bike MS" fundraiser in June.
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Smoother ride onto campus? 22,000 people per day enter Anschutz from I-225. The result: severe traffic congestion and potential threats to patient safety. UCH, its campus partners and the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority have each kicked in hundreds of thousands to help upgrade the Colfax interchange. But the hunt is on for an additional $30 million to finish the job.
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Getting physicians into Epic Despite general physician "frustration" with today's multiple information systems, many remain "nervous" about the change to a unified medical record. Four physician "champions" are set to spend big chunks of the next three years helping them adjust to the change -- and maybe even love the opportunities it opens.
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Patient sat scores for Food Service nudge upwards Servers have become "room ambassadors." Patients get supervisors' cell phone numbers. Staged meals stay warmer longer. With these and other changes, FNS is trying to keep Press Ganey scoress on the rise. Above: FNS supervisor Phyllis Erickson.
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Purposely mistaken identity Three-year-old UCH rules drastically cut the number of patient identity theft cases here, but now the number of imposter patient investigations is on the rise.
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Inside the Insider Commentary: Change is great, at least for everyone except us -- and people who deliver phone books. Plus: "What You Read" and the latest iPod exchange.
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Patients sing praises for physicians In the weeks leading up to National Doctors Day (March 30), hundreds of patients have testified in writing to the oustanding care provided by physicians practicing at UCH.
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Wish list In frank talks at the Leprino Building last month, COPD patients talked of barriers to care, questions they had for their providers and questions they wished providers would ask them.
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Lights! Camera! Listen! The tough talk from COPD patients (above) will be the centerpiece of new lung disease education that stresses getting providers to listen to the valuable things patients have to say about their illness.
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UCH in the news Gauging the medical marijuana risk; TMI for EMRs; learning to drink responsibly; more. Mentions: Thomas Crowley, George Eisenbarth, John Freed, Michael Kahn, Frank Lisnow, Kari Waterman.
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Around UCH Our regular round-up of goings-on, big and small, in and around the hospital. This issue: Epic holds a Mardi Gras celebration (left); another Epic open forum on the way; a 40-year hospital veteran; more...
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