 |
|
August 3, 2015
| |
Volume 4, Issue 31
|
|
|
The key to our success at VNA Care Network Foundation is our people and our ability to attract the best people in all the different roles that make up our organization. But, beyond attracting them, we also must have a culture that brings out the best in our people and makes us all feel we are valued and able to do our best. In other words, to be a great organization, we need a great culture.
This spring, VNA Care Network Foundation conducted an all-employee survey to help understand how we all view our current culture and to point the way toward creating the best future culture possible. Nearly 93 percent of our current employees responded to this survey - an extremely high response rate, which perhaps indicates how much we all care about our culture and our organization.
While the results show varying views about the current culture, it is clear that no matter what roles are played in the organization, most of us seem to want to be part of the same kind of culture - a culture that highly values respect, communication, empowerment, professionalism, and innovativeness. Once the survey had been completed, the entire leadership team went to work and has been reviewing the survey results and working on a vision and a set of strategies to achieve this culture. We expect to complete that work by the end of the summer. The strategies will focus on what the organization will be doing to help foster the desired future culture.
Then in the fall begins a very important part of the initiative, whereby every single team within this organization will be directly involved in facilitated working sessions focused on our culture. In these sessions you will be given feedback, not only about the overall organizational survey results, but also the results that came out of your own team. Then your team will be guided through a process for developing plans to enhance your own team's culture. In that way we all will be empowered to share responsibility to create the culture we want.
This is a major initiative, and we hope it will help distinguish VNA Care Network Foundation as an "employer of choice" for Massachusetts. But most important, we hope that this initiative helps make this a place that you want to work and give your best every single day.
You will continue to hear about this initiative as it unfolds; keeping everyone informed and up to speed about this is a first step in moving forward with creating our culture.
I sincerely appreciate all that you do every day and your engagement in this work on the design our future culture.
Best,
MaryAnn
|
| |
 |
SERVICE EXCELLENCE
|
|
|
Service Standard of the Week
Communication Etiquette:
We communicate with respect and courtesy to colleagues and patients. We address patients, families, and customers based on their preference, using Mr., Mrs., Ms. or their preferred name.
|
|
|
You Had Me at Hello!
By Cathy Romeo, Multicultural Services Manager and Service Excellence Champion
"You had me at 'hello'!" is an oft-quoted line from the 1996 movie Jerry Mcguire, and it turns out that there is scientific evidence to back up the importance of introductory communication. Jody Kreiman, a UCLA medical researcher, says that after hearing just a few words of greeting from another, we begin to decide whether to approach and trust or avoid that person! Our Service Standard #4, Communication Etiquette, offers communication guidance to help us establish and maintain positive relationships with our patients, colleagues and other customers. Members of our Cultural Diversity Council applaud our communication guidelines. However, please remember that every encounter with a patient or colleague is cross-cultural, not just those encounters with people who may seem to be from more diverse cultural backgrounds. Here are several suggestions for communicating respectfully:
- On all visits, not just the first, address the patient or any customer formally, using a title and last name instead of a first name. In most cultural perspectives, formality demonstrates respect; on the other hand, informality ("Hi, Mary" or even worse, "Hon" or "Dear") may be perceived as rude disrespect, and most especially if you are younger than the person you are addressing. You will never be wrong to communicate more formally until invited to do otherwise.
- If the patient, family member or other customer asks to be addressed by a first name or in another way, and if the request is appropriate, please comply.
- It would be equally respectful to ask, "Would you or would the patient prefer to be addressed by another title or in another way?" A number of our retired-military patients, for example, appreciated being addressed by their rank (Captain Jackson). One former patient's spouse told us how much she appreciated the deep respect conveyed to her cognitively impaired husband when the hospice team unfailingly addressed him as "Dr. Jones." An African American member of our Diversity Council, originally from Georgia, says that it is music to her ears to be addressed not as "Mrs. Smith," but in the typically Southern way as "Miss Edna." And our Puerto Rican-born Council member tells us that her mother finds comfort in being addressed as "Senora."
Often family members can tell us what a patient may hesitate to ask! Asking about a patient's preferences is in itself a demonstration of respect and compassion and may help create communication pathways that will sustain successful relationships.
|
Please share all your notes of praise and recognition with connecter@vnacarenetwork.org
|
|
 |
AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPDATES
|
|
 To all of Atrius Health: As July draws to a close with our new CEO, Dr. Steve Strongwater, poised to join us on August 3rd, I am writing you to tell you what an honor it has been to serve for the past two years - first as the Interim CEO of Harvard Vanguard and most recently as your Transition CEO leading our now completed merger into Atrius Health. I have been fortunate to work with this passionate, creative, and caring group of people who exemplify the very best healthcare has to offer. I am so very proud of our achievement in together creating the new Atrius Health; an innovative, integrated delivery system that has an unmatched potential to consistently raise the bar of clinical care for our deserving patients while seeking ways to also improve the work lives of our physicians and staff. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to making the new Atrius Health happen while also doing an outstanding job of meeting our patients' needs. Atrius Health as a Merger of Values Throughout the merger work and into the launch of the new Atrius Health, I was always cognizant of the underlying organizational values that we were choosing to recognize, preserve, and extend. Without listing them all, the ones that I feel are important to mention as we progress into the coming months and years are: - Empathetic caring for all of our patients
- Clear transparency in our daily work with each other, across all of our sites
- Appreciation for everyone's contribution
- Accountability to each other through the use of formal quality standards and measures, budgets, and management metrics
- Engaged physicians at all levels
Values drive culture; culture drives performance. Above all, let's appreciate and enhance our special, values-driven culture. It is what makes us unique. The Challenging Future There will be the challenges we will need to address in the near future to continue to thrive and to meet our patients' needs. The first challenge is dealing with continued change.......and the increasing pace of change. While we have dramatically transformed ourselves in the last two years, that's only the beginning of what we will need to do to remain successful in the future. We must anticipate change, due to both external and internal forces, and be ready to embrace the innovation it will require in order to improve and enhance the clinical services we provide to our patients. Together, our founding groups have a legacy of innovation that we must build upon for the benefit of our future patients and clinicians. A laser-like focus on the care of our patients will be required. The second challenge requires us to become the best healthcare employer in the Northeast so that we can attract and retain the best clinicians and staff. Developing a fresh approach to the 'work-life' balancing act, while heightening peoples' sense of responsibility and commitment to the organization will be two key areas for immediate work.
The third challenge is to better strike the balance between 'standard work' and local, innovative practices. An organization of our size has to seize the efficiencies of standard work, while recognizing the personal nature of customizing medical care in a region, at a specific site, or for an individual patient. Finally, I emphasize that the challenge of actively and purposefully engaging the clinicians in the organization's governance, management, strategy development, decision-making and policy-setting is crucial to effectively addressing the three challenges above. I strongly believe that Atrius Health is the best-positioned healthcare organization in the Northeast to adapt to medicine's changing environment. We are mission and values driven. Our organizational experience, clinical capacities and intellectual resources represent enormous potential. It is now up to all of us to unlock that potential and continue Atrius Health's transformation to a stronger delivery system that will grow and prosper. I wish you all success in this next chapter, and thank you again for your exemplary and tireless service on my watch. I look forward to seeing many of you and participating in the organization's progress as I resume my clinical practice with the group after an upcoming vacation.
Dan Burnes, MD Transition CEO, Atrius Health
|
|
Dear Atrius Health:
I am thrilled to officially join the Atrius Health family today!
In one of the most intensely competitive and advanced markets in the nation, Atrius Health stands out. You have provided consistent leadership in quality that has forced others out of their comfort zone. You have taught the nation how to provide better care at lower costs. You have embraced innovative payment models when others are just beginning to think about them. You have, in short, led the nation and the region. You have accomplished a lot and have so much to celebrate. Congratulations!
I passionately believe we in healthcare can do our best work when we consistently honor our commitment to our patients. Many organizations claim to be patient-centered, but few deliver truly patient-centered care. Atrius Health has established a solid foundation for patient-centered care. I will ensure that we continue to prioritize our patients' needs, embracing both traditional and innovative strategies in these efforts.
The people at Atrius Health stand out. I have had the opportunity to meet many of you, from all across Atrius Health, from Dedham Medical Associates, Granite Medical Group, Harvard Vanguard, VNA Care Network & Hospice and VNAB. Without exception, it is clear you are passionate about what you do and share a common vision of excellence and optimism about the future. Your commitment, focus and energy set a high bar for all of us going forward.
I join Atrius Health with a sense of humility and admiration for what you have already accomplished. I am grateful and extend my sincere appreciation to the Search Committee and to the Atrius Health Board of Trustees for their confidence and support. I commit to working with all of you to make the kind of difference our friends and family expect because we are part of our community.
Together, we will strive to provide distinctive leadership, consistently delivering better care, engaging patients in prevention and wellness and helping to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve, all at lower costs. We will seek creative ways to build an outstanding work environment that allows you to utilize your best skills in service to our patients. Times of change can be stressful, but they create fertile ground to rapidly innovate and deploy new ideas. Your ideas and active participation are critical we evolve our care model to be the best that it can be.
Thank you for this great opportunity. I look forward to meeting you all.
Sincerely,
Steve Strongwater, MD
President & CEO
Atrius Health
|
|
Notes from Your Wellness/Preventative Health Department
By Beverly Salate, Manager of Wellness Services
|
I would like to introduce myself as the new wellness manager.
We will be heading into fall soon. September brings with it the flu season (it is MANDATORY for all employees to receive the vaccine). My hope and goal is that we have much improved compliance with ALL staff receiving a vaccine. We will be offering flu clinics for all staff at multiple times and will communicate these dates via the Connecter.
If you are unsure when your clinic will be, or if you have additional questions, please contact the following representative in your office:
|
- Southborough/Worcester/Leominster-Judy Manning 888-663-3688 x5556 or Claire Jameson 888-663-3688 x5584
- Needham-Bobbi Converse 888-663-3688 x4467
- Danvers/Gloucester-Joan Fitzpatrick 888-663-3688 x1326
- Charlestown/Quincy/Weymouth/Woburn-Danielle Kiley 857-260-0572
- Residences-Bev Salate 888-663-3688 x5603
Remember hand washing/cough etiquette and receiving the flu vaccine are the best ways to avoid the flu!!!
Also, as a side note if you are in the Southborough office, we have a scale which staff can use as healthy living and diet is another way to avoid the flu!
|
|
The VNA Walking Warriors want to invite you to
please Join Our Team Today!
The 2015 Boston Heart Walk
Saturday September 12, 2015 @ 9:00am
DCR's Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade
VNA Care Network Foundation is making a difference by participating once again in the American Heart Association's Annual Heart Walk. I need your help to make our team a success. Are you ready to build healthier lives by joining our team?
It only takes 2 easy steps!
1) Click on the link below to visit the team web page.
2) Click the "Red "Join Team" button and follow the prompts to register.
Once you've joined the team, we'll need your help to reach our team fundraising goal. Don't worry - fundraising is easier than you think. The American Heart Association provides all the tools you need, including your own personal fundraising page. Plus, I'll be here to support and encourage you along the way. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any Heart Walk questions.
Why Heart Walk? Did you know 1 in 3 Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease and that heart disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined? We can change these statistics by joining together to walk and fundraise for Heart Walk.
Help grow our team, please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think will want to walk, raise funds and make a difference in our community. All are welcome; it's the more the merrier, when it comes to our Heart Walk team!
Each registered participant is eligible for an Atrius Heart Walk T-shirt. Please contact me by Monday, August 17th with your order and size information.
Follow This Link to visit our team web page and help with the efforts to support American Heart Association - Boston, MA
We would like to thank you in advance for your participation!
Cyndi Anderson
HR Administrative Assistant
(508) 751-6806
Fax: (508) 373-7598
canderson@vnacarenetwork.org
|
| |
 |
CLINICAL SERVICES
|
|
Clinical Services Announcements and Updates
|
Not Taken Under Care Process in Encore
By Christine Day, Clinical Application Specialist
The "Not Taken Under Care" process (NTUC) in Encore has been rewritten with the goal of standardizing it in all offices. It will be distributed by managers to CSA staff and all who need it. You might see a slight change from your present process.
For example:
Clinicians: Document the reason for an NTUC in a Document Communication note.
CSA's: End date clinicians instead of deleting history in Assignments.
Questions can be directed to your Clinical Manager.
Back to Top
|
|
| |
 |
FUND DEVELOPMENT
|
|
|
New England Coffee Donates Over $5,500 to VNA Hospice Care
|
New England Coffee's 23rd annual Charity Golf Classic at the Andover Country Club once again supported VNA Hospice Care and Rosie's Place. The Malden company donated over $5,500 from the tournament to VNA Hospice Care.
Meaghan Gangi, development associate, represented VNA Hospice Care in planning the event. She's pictured (from left) with Katie Amoro of Rosie's Place, and Michael McManama of New England Coffee.
|
VNA Hospice Care, VNA of Boston, and VNA Care Network offer businesses numerous charitable giving opportunities, including sponsorship of our upcoming fall benefits. If you know of a business that may want to support our mission, please contact Jane Woodbury, vice president of fund development, at 888-663-3688, ext. 1360 or jwoodbury@vnacarenetwork.org.
|
| |
 |
HUMAN RESOURCES
|
|
Employee Referral Bonus up to $5,000!
Employee referrals are often the most successful way for us to find the best candidates for open positions. Demand for physical therapists and nurses continues to be issue throughout the industry and the VNA is no exception.
In order to attract and retain new RNs and PTs, we are offering an employee referral bonus of up to $5,000!!! Certain conditions apply and the bonus will be paid in equal installments to eligible employees at the new recruits three and six month anniversaries.
Please contact Cheryl Milas at cmilas@vnacarenetwork.org or Debbie Brown at dbrown@vnab.org for more information.
|
|
Job Postings - VNA of Boston and VNA Hospice Care
To learn more about career opportunities listed in the links above, contact Debbie Brown, Human Resources Manager at dbrown@vnab.org.
|
|
Job Postings - VNA Care Network and VNA Hospice Care
To learn more about career opportunities, contact a human resources representative:
|
|
Employee Advisory Team Suggestions
To suggest an area of focus to the Employee Advisory Team (EAT), please email your suggestion to EATSuggestionbox@vnab.org. Suggestions can include ideas to improve current processes and procedures, remove redundancies, or even to provide feedback on something you think is/is not working. Please feel free to discuss any issues that you would like brought to EAT with the following members of the committee:
- Kelly Frew
- Mary Helen Mahoney
- Susan Marlin Procter
- Annemarie Martin
- Mary McCarthy
- Ilona O'Connor
- Mae Powers
- Maria Rodrigues
- David Rose
- Chris Schultz
- Danny Yan
EAT is also on the lookout for new members. If you're interested in participating, or for more information on what EAT is all about, please reach out to any of the members listed above. Meetings are held monthly and alternate between the Charlestown and Braintree offices.
|
| |
 |
QUALITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT
|
|
|
Safety Event Reporting System (SERS) Update
By Donna Peters, Director of Quality Assurance and Risk Management
Wow! What a great turn out so far in our SERS training sessions...thank you so much to all of those who attended and are making such a great effort to get the education necessary to report our events electronically. Since the first few sessions many staff, field and office have been entering events into SERS.....this is making our tracking and trending so much more efficient, and provides us with objective data to make informed decisions around best practice and agency improvements.
As we continue over the next week to offer sessions, please continue to make every attempt to attend. Once the first round of education is complete, there will be an assessment of where the continued needs arise. Many offices are doing train the trainer from staff who are confident in the data entry....if you are entering without a problem and did not attend the formal training, that is fine...please send your name along to Donna Peters so you do not get on a delinquent attendance list.
As the events are coming in there seems to be many reports of patient falls, this will be one of the first areas that rehab will be evaluating as a process improvement for best practice to insure our patients are safe in the home. There have also been reports on missing consents which again leads to improve practice changes as we need to have a consent for care in order to care for our patients. The information technology section is also getting some feedback regarding IT issues, downtime and barriers to care related to laptop/iPad/etc, the IT team is reviewing and looking at potential trends and opportunities for improvement as needed.
The rollout has been a huge success, everyone has been actively engaged and using the system to its fullest potential.
There have been some suggestions for new categories for event reporting that we are entering into the system, the most recent was a translation barrier event when family or caregiver interprets a different message to the patient...that is why the use of translation services is so important.
Enjoy the summer as we are approaching August, and be alert to continued news updates around the SERS initiative.
|
|
Does Your Patient Have Functional Vision?
By Marilyn Bowden, PCM Danvers and Carol Morris, PCM Quincy
|
Ms. M. has severe kyphosis with limited neck mobility.
Despite these issues she can read her medication labels and her Boston Globe.
She does have trouble seeing objects, especially her kitten, in her essential pathways in her home.
How would you score the following?
(M1200) Vision (with corrective lenses if the patient usually wears them):
|  |
- 0 - Normal vision: sees adequately in most situations; can see medication labels, newsprint.
- 1 - Partially impaired: cannot see medication labels or newsprint, but can see obstacles in path, and the surrounding layout; can count fingers at arm's length.
- 2 - Severely impaired: cannot locate objects without hearing or touching them, or patient nonresponsive.
The answer would be #2- Severely impaired.
Per recent CMS guidance in the July 2015 CMS Q&As:
When selecting the correct response for M1200 Vision, the clinician is assessing the patient's functional vision, not conducting a formal vision acuity screen or distance vision exam to determine if the patient has 20/20 vision. Therefore physical deficits or impairments that limit the patient's ability to use their existing vision in a functional way would be considered. If physical deficit/impairments (like limited neck range of motion) prevent a patient from seeing objects in his path, affecting safe function in his environment, M1200 should be 2 - severely impaired vision.
|
Important Coding Update for Encore Users
By Maria Dunn, Patient Care Program Manager
Our certified coders and referral center are dual coding using both ICD-9 and ICD-10. Any certification period ending 10/1 or after requires this and Encore has made a change to accommodate this new regulation.
Please continue to leave the coding to these departments with the exception of M1010-Inpatient Dx and M1016-Dx Requiring Medical or Treatment Regimen Change Within Past 14 Days (examples shown below) where you will continue to enter the ONE ICD-9 code only chosen from your F2 Lookup. Please do not attempt to code in ICD-10 OR use any codes not in the lookup.
As we get closer to October 1st you will be provided with further instructions.
Bottom line, there is no change at this time to how you are coding your patient's diagnoses in Encore.
If you have any questions, please contact Kerry Leo at 508-756-7176 X6828. Kerry is your Encore Support Clinical Applications Assistant.
|
|
QI SUPPORT
| |
Covering Office
|
Name
|
Email
|
Office Phone
|
Position
| |
All VNAB
|
Hughes, Kim
|
kcao@vnab.org
|
617-886-6501 x5419
|
QI Support Coordinator
| |
All VNACN
|
Schultz, Chris
|
cschultz@vnab.org
|
617-886-6501 x6527
|
QI Support Coordinator
| |
All VNACN
|
Rao, Shamala
|
srao@vnacarenetwork.org
|
508-756-7176 x6876
|
QI Nurse
|
|
|
|
|
|
