Board approves an employee bonus Strong financial, clinical and patient satisfaction performances during a very challenging fiscal year triggered a fourth-straight incentive plan payout. The checks will be deposited Sept. 16. >>More
 

Health insurance confusion for UCHers flares This month came alarming but inaccurate letters that Anthem had terminated coverage. The letters followed snafus like incorrect insurance cards and improperly processed claims. The problems that have plagued the new fiscal year's Anthem UA Net medical benefit plan are reportedly solved, but the ringing phones in HR indicate confusion lingers. >>More

The fuse burns short on the biggest Epic Big Bang The gears are turning, the vehicle is on the launch pad, and hundreds of experts have been imported to fire up the biggest "big bang" of the three-year Epic launch as inpatient units go live on Sept. 3. But one mammoth master database remains "at risk." Right: Kemi Adeyemi (left) and Juliet Callander have plunged deeply into the "SER Master File." >>More
 

Heavy lifting at the Cancer Pavilion

Nearly 2,000 tons of concrete, steel and more are going up around a muscular new tumor-killing linear accelerator - designed to direct pinpoint radiation beams at cancerous tissue deep within the human body - at the Cancer Pavilion expansion. Left: Lead Physicist Moyed Miften, PhD, and colleagues painstakingly calculated the types and amounts of material required to ensure the vault shields people from harmful radiation and complies with governmental regs.  >>More

"Fundamental, gigantic progress" for certain cancer patients. After a new FDA approval, a big year for drugs combating late-stage melanoma is about to get even bigger, the hospital's skin-cancer specialists say. Melanoma research director Rene Gonzalez, MD (right), calls the approval "game-changing." >>More
 

"It was pure chaos" In This Hospital Life: For most of us, the approach of the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack is a solemn occasion. For COO John Harney (left), then at nearby NYU Medical Center, it's also the anniversary of three heart-wrenching days of wild, crisis health care, people lined up on the sidewalk bearing loved ones' DNA samples, and grief in the conference rooms. Plus, "What You Read" and some Final Words, of course,  about pork rinds.  >>More 

Turning a "rapidly fatal" condition into a controllable one Three decades ago, many pulmonary arterial hypertension patients could hope to live only for a few years after diagnosis. Today, they can choose from several therapies, and "anticipate a brighter future." The university's Pulmonary Hypertension Center (staff pictured right) and the hospital's Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic have played important roles in that progress. >>More
 

Battling a life changing disease Sidebar: The hospital's own Jennie Heineman is finding dealing with often-unrecognized pulmonary hypertension requires a daily chore of medications and dealing with side effects. She's now a strong advocate for research that could help others with the condition. Left: Heineman with her life-saving catheter that delivers medication around the clock. >>More 

Code fur!   Soon, therapy dogs will start coming around to comfort the worried in the surgical waiting room, thanks to a PACU nurse initiative. Right: Caitee, with handler Carolyn Corbett, is one of a cadre of dogs who provide "animal-assisted therapy" to patients around the hospital. >>More

Around UCH Our regular round-up of goings-on, big and small, in and around the hospital. This issue: Bonus party (left); parting the curtain; hospital readies another round of butt crushing; rolling out the carpet for new docs; more...  >>More 

After two years of preparation, AF Williams recently earned Level 3 recognition from the NCQA as a patient-centered medical home. But the clinic's efforts to reshape the way it delivers care have only begun.

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