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CONNECTER
ARCHIVES
Below is this week's issue of the Connecter newsletter, which is required reading for all employees. The next edition will be published on Monday,
April 25, with articles due to connecter@vnacarenetwork.org by Friday, April 22.
KEY DATES THIS WEEK:
  • Tuesday, April 19: VNA Hospice Care Featured on Chronicle
  • Tuesday, April 19: Email Server Maintenance
  • Wednesday, April 20: Medispan Update
IN THIS ISSUE:

SERVICE EXCELLENCE
April 18, 2016
Volume 5, Issue 16
SERVICE EXCELLENCE
SEStandard
Service Standard of the Week:
Service Standard #4: Professional Language

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.

Here are some behaviors that demonstrate standard #4:
  • Convey professionalism by using verbiage that enhances the patient experience. Substitute common words and phrases such as "hi" and "no problem" with "Good morning/afternoon" and "I'd be happy to." 
  • Be careful not to use inappropriate words/phrases like - Hon, Honey, Sweetie, Darling, Girlfriend, etc.
  • Be polite in speech using words like "please" and "thank you."
Huddle Topic Suggestions:
  • Have you experienced situations when a patient's cultural beliefs effected the way you introduced yourself to them?
  • Share a time when it was difficult to be polite and courteous to a patient because of their behavior or that of someone in their home.
  • Some of our patients are hard of hearing. Describe a way you have learned to best handle this when you are speaking with someone who is having difficulty hearing you on the phone.
SEGroup
Service Excellence Champion Group

The Service Excellence Champion group meets monthly to discuss ways to further our organization's commitment to exceptional service excellence.

Key Initiatives Being Worked On:
  • Improving patient experience
  • Town Hall Meetings
  • Streamlining communication methods and tools
  • Huddle strategies
  • Ongoing Service Excellence training
Please contact the Champions listed below if you would like to have an initiative or issue reviewed at the next meeting. Thank you!
  • Ann Bohac
  • Debbie Brown
  • Katie Callahan
  • Jen Casper
  • Simone Charpentier
  • Lori DeRosa
  • Wendy Drake
  • Jill Enwright
  • Kelly Frew
  • Dave Hanley
  • Brielle MacDonald
  • Cheryl Milas
  • Mary Ann O'Connor
  • Adele Pike
  • Lorraine Potter
  • Dave Rose
  • Geri Spina
  • Charlvic Williams
spotlight

Submitted by Jennett Dorey, Clinical Records Manager
 
I wanted to share that the IT and Facilities teams did a very nice job moving our department over on Friday.  Everyone was helpful and courteous and worked like a professional team. Nice job to everyone involved!
 
Submitted by Stephanie Premo, Clinical Services Assistant in the Leominster office
 
I would like to recognize Jeanne Wilson, BSN from the Leominster office for her outstanding commitment to our Team. Over the past few months we have been experiencing staffing issues and Jeanne has outdone herself. She has taken on a case load, covered extra visits and worked extra on the weekends while still doing her day to day responsibilities as Case Coordinator. She takes the time throughout the day to not only make sure that our patients are receiving the best possible care, but she also consistently guides our clinical team and is a valuable resource to our office. Thank you Jeanne for all you do!
 
Submitted by a satisfied patient cared for out of the Needham office
 
Registered Nurses Karen and Hillary and Physical Therapist Jeff were very important clinicians in my post- hospital treatment for a UTI of four days that is leading to a good outcome. I was on the cusp of my 83rd birthday when I was overcome with a severe UTI infection. I realize that this illness compared to other patients - cardiac, oncology or trauma - is not critical.
 
Karen was at my Westwood residence monitoring my vitals and measuring my recovery. This she continued diligently during my post-hospitalization. When Karen was called away suddenly, Hillary, a new RN hire, was assigned to review and approve my discharge from the VNA. Hillary, who had been a long-term LPN to me as a patient was immediately eligible to be on the VNA staff. After an assessment of the patient she even conducted some patient education explaining that HZT, the so-called water pill, can dry out a patient's throat making it vulnerable to infection.
 
Probably and ultimately, Jeff, the PT with a doctorate in his discipline, is the most important for greatly supporting recovery for a geriatric of 83. He installed a bed railing to assist my rising to a high bed mattress and a cane with instruction on utilization. These were added to my hospital grant of a walker. I am now counseling with a senior PT at Westwood PT which will result in a better quality of life.
 
Blessings, Richard B.
 
Submitted by Jennifer Wisel on behalf of a happy patient cared for out of the Leominster office
 
A patient on team 17 called to report her high praises of Sheena Miller, RN, Kim Hartwell, PT and Michelle, HHA. She said, "I could not have asked for better care. They made me feel like family and were so sweet. Kim even understood when I got snippy at her." It is all how we make them feel and these three did an excellent job, as they do every day with the patients they serve. I am proud to work with them.
 
Submitted by Jason McAvoy, Tippett home staff nurse
 
I would like to acknowledge the superior triage and support provided by Tracey Johnson the night and weekend triage nurse on the Needham team. Last Sunday night we had a difficult transfer of a patient in distress. Tracey gave us every bit of information, and every tool necessary to successfully take care of the patient. Tracey handles every situation with a sense of calm and ease that makes the families and staff feel that they will be successful under any circumstances. I hear many compliments about Tracey from many different avenues, but I don't remember her being recognized in the connector. Tracey you are a wonderful gift and it is a pleasure for all of us at the houses to have your expertise and support.


Please send your notes of praise and recognition to connecter@vnacarenetwork.org.

SCENES
Scenes from the Street

Share your pictures from the office or the field with us by sending them to connecter@vnacarenetwork.org!



ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPDATES
SCORESurvey
SCORE Survey - Complete Today!

(PLEASE NOTE: this is not the same culture design survey that the VNA sent out last year...please take a few minutes to complete, your input is incredibly valuable!)

Atrius Health has engaged Safe and Reliable Healthcare to conduct our second Safety Culture Survey. The aim of this survey is to understand how you feel about the Safety, Communication, Operational Reliability, and Engagement (SCORE) factors where you work. Your input is extremely important and valuable and will help us understand how to improve the conditions in which you work and the safety and reliability of the care delivered to patients.
 
The survey will run from 4/11/16 to 5/9/16. Reminders and up to date response rates will be included in the Connecter each week during this period. As of last week, the VNA had 195 responses, which is 15% staff participation. Our goal is to get to an 85% response rate for this survey cycle!
 
Please visit https://surveys.safeandreliablecare.com/s/score-atrius/ to take the survey. Select the office that you are assigned to and then the department you associate yourself with. If you have any questions about the survey process do not hesitate to contact Atrius Health Patient Safety & Risk Management at (617) 559-8195 or SafetyCultureSurvey@AtriushHealth.org.


LOS
Length of Service Award Recipients - Worcester Office

Our employees are our greatest asset and best indicator of our success. We are lucky to have so many dedicated employees who commit themselves to our organization and the patients we serve.

With the Worcester office this week, we have completed the recognition and celebration of all our staff celebrating a length of service award year. Congratulations to everyone who has achieved these great milestone anniversaries!

Worcester Office

Carol Grubinskas
40 Years
Mary Perry
35 Years
Annette Benoit
30 Years
Jo-Anne Bruyere
30 Years
Diane Gerber
30 Years
Candyce Geshelin
30 Years
Mary Antanavica
25 Years
Glenna Barrows
25 Years
Ann-Marie Clue-Melville
25 Years
Maryellen Halloran
25 Years
Patricia Hare
25 Years
Linda Korczynski
25 Years
Marcia Prince
25 Years
Julie Radzicki
25 Years
David Rose
25 Years
Donna Sutherland
25 Years
Kelli Boyns
20 Years
Jennifer Falardeau
20 Years
Sandra Hinson
20 Years
Kathleen Palmer
20 Years
Barbara Ranieri
20 Years
Karen Bercume
15 Years
Lisa Bowen
15 Years
Jennefer Doiron-Schiavone
15 Years
Susan Drapeau
15 Years
Denise Dunn
15 Years
Ellen Elliott
15 Years
Beverly Galvin
15 Years
Deborah Jachimczyk
15 Years
Tracy Johnson
15 Years
Sharon Katz
15 Years
Wendy Kokernak
15 Years
Gretchen Kossack
15 Years
Cheryl Milas
15 Years
Lisa Moore
15 Years
Terri Podgorni
15 Years
Shamala Rao
15 Years
Joan Shanahan
15 Years
Mary Sjoblad
15 Years
Sara Soojian
15 Years
Laura Strom
15 Years
Susan Walker
15 Years
Carrie Lee Bergman
10 Years
Karen Binette
10 Years
Keri Charpentier
10 Years
Mary Gallant
10 Years
Ellen Gleason
10 Years
Nicole Hamm
10 Years
Cathryn Morrell
10 Years
Donna Muscente
10 Years
Virginia Olney
10 Years
Johan Ayala
5 Years
Elizabeth Beamenderfer
5 Years
Chrystine Bernard-Amoah
5 Years
Holly Biedrzycki
5 Years
Kristen Carbonneau
5 Years
Theresa Chagnon
5 Years
Patricia Fennell-Petty
5 Years
Erica Friend
5 Years
Michael Hoadley
5 Years
Kozeta Jano
5 Years
Leah Johnson
5 Years
Diane Martin
5 Years
Tamara Mavroides
5 Years
Daisy Medina
5 Years
Patricia Milott
5 Years
Jill Robichaud
5 Years
Nancy Small
5 Years

Chronicle
Hospice Featured on Chronicle

Tune in to Chronicle tomorrow, Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. to see VNA Hospice Care featured in their segment "Let's Talk About Death."


GardenChildren's Garden Child Care Openings and Special Offer for Staff

The Children's Garden Child Care Center, located at our Worcester office, has served our staff and families living and working in Central Massachusetts for over 25 years.
 
The Center currently has part-time openings (two or three days a week) available for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
 
If you are planning ahead for the summer and fall, Children's Garden can help with caring for your little ones.
 
New for this summer: We are offering a limited number of slots for any child who has just completed kindergarten to come and have fun with us! We have a camp-like atmosphere with lots of water play, arts and crafts, and outside play. These full- and part-time slots will be available on a first come basis.
 
Fall 2016 registration is open now for both full- and part-time openings. We are offering ½ off the first week's tuition to any employee enrolling their child before Aug. 1, 2016. We also offer a sibling discount.
 
For more information or to enroll your child/children, call Pat Hare at 508-751-6985 or email phare@vnacarenetwork.org. 


CLINICAL APPLICATIONS
Medispan
Encore Medispan Update for Encore/Delta Users
By Christine Day Clinical Application Specialist
 
Attention Encore Users:
On Wednesday April 20, a Medispan update will be placed on the server at 2 p.m.
 
Please remember that this file will get picked up by your laptop with its first laptop sync after that time. It takes about 30 minutes to process onto your laptop. Please setup for your usual overnight communication Wednesday evening so that you will pick up the Medispan file overnight avoiding a potentially lengthy communication in the morning.
 
For questions, please contact Christine Day at 617-886-6453 or cday2@vnab.org.


CLINICAL SERVICES
Behavioral
Behavioral Health Update
By Molly Lukason, Behavioral Health Program Manager
 
When might you call on the behavioral health team?
 
When a patient:
  • Verbalizes feeling "down" or "blue"
  • Struggles with pain management or a new diagnosis
  • Struggles with loss, grief and the "way my life used to be"
  • Has a lack or decrease in motivation or energy
  • Presents with soiled clothing or a disheveled appearance and verbalizes impatience with caring for themselves
  • Refuses to take medications
  • Verbalizes difficulty in sleeping or wakes frequently throughout the night
  • Verbalizes anxiety about: making decisions, about the future, about the past
  • Has family issues and relationship concerns
  • Asks for help in working through negative thoughts or emotions
  • Desires an alternative way to think about their life and current environment
  • Has anxiety and/or depression that interferes in their ability or desire to move on to a more healthy way of thinking and living
Just some quick tips when making a referral:
* We are able to accept Medicare or Medicaid

* McKesson referrals: Please put referral in via McKesson
*Encore Referrals: Please call Molly or email Molly the patient's name and MRN
 
Have questions about the program or a possible patient that you want to discuss further? Please contact Molly at 774-502-5545 or mlukason@vnacarenetwork.org.


FUND DEVELOPMENT
SpringEvents
Spring Events Support Home Health and Hospice

We hope to see you and your family at one of our upcoming fundraisers to support home health and hospice care.
 
April 24: Gloucester Pride Stride begins and ends at Stage Fort Park. The event supports numerous nonprofits serving Gloucester. Visit the Gloucester Pride Stride website for info and registration form: www.gloucesterpridestride.com/

April 30: 22nd annual Winchester Dine-Around, Auction, and Casino Night will be held at the Winchester Country Club from 6:30 p.m. to midnight. Tickets are $150 per person and include 500 casino chips.  Call Meaghan Gangi, development associate, at 781-569-2820 or visit vnacarenetwork.ejoinme.org/dinearound.
 
May 7: The fourth annual North Shore Spring Fling will be hosted by John Archer at his 10 North St., Danvers, home beginning at 7 p.m. The evening features live music, dance demonstrations, and more. Tickets are $50 per person. Call Beth Sobezenski, development assistant, at 888-663-3688, ext. 1361 or visit vnacarenetwork.ejoinme.org/NorthShore.
 
May 9: New England Coffee's 24th annual Charity Golf Classic at Andover Country Club will benefit VNA Hospice Care and Rosie's Place. Registration for one golfer is $250 and includes breakfast and lunch. More information and registration: www.newenglandcoffee.com/golf-tournament/


HUMAN RESOURCES
BONUS
Employee New Hire Referral Bonus Program

The new hire referral bonus program includes employee referrals for RNs, LPNs, PTs, PTAs, OTs, COTAs, and SLPs. If you would like to refer a friend, family member, or colleague, please inform the appropriate Human Resources Representative at your location prior to the applicant coming in for an interview. Please note, when two or more employees refer the same applicant, the referral bonus will be split equally amongst the employees.

Referral bonuses are paid out after the referred employee's three and six month anniversary, as long as they are in a paid status at those intervals.

Please contact Cheryl Milas at cmilas@vnacarenetwork.org or Debbie Brown at dbrown@vnab.org for more information.

JOBS
Job Postings - VNAB and VNAHC
Job Postings - VNACN and VNAHC
To learn more about career opportunities, contact a human resources representative:
EAT
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:
  • Liz Bourne
  • Ray Brackett
  • Linda Britt
  • Kim Dio
  • Kelly Frew
  • Mary Helen Mahoney
  • Susan Marlin Procter
  • Mary McCarthy
  • Ilona O'Connor
  • Mary Ann O'Connor
  • Mae Powers
  • David Rose
  • Danny Yang
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 in the Charlestown office.
 

INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Email
Email Server Maintenance - Tuesday Night 4/19

IT will be performing maintenance to our email server in preparation for the new brand roll out of VNA Care, which will allow everyone in the organization to share the same email address. The new email format will be firstname_lastname@vnacare.org. More information on this exciting development will be shared in the coming weeks. Please do not begin using or sharing this new email format until you receive further instructions as they will not be working immediately following Tuesday's maintenance.

This maintenance will commence at 8:30 PM and should be completed by 9:00 PM. There may be a short period of time during this when the mail will not be available from iPhones, iPads, or the Outlook Web application. Otherwise there should not be any difference experienced during this time. Please see your local IT representative with any questions or concerns.

MIS
IT Department On-Call Staff for Week of 4/18/16

For Encore issues including communications, Encore laptops, WebVPN and general technology
  • Through Friday, April 22, 11:59 PM - John Severin (781) 775-7982
  • Beginning Saturday, April 23, 12:00 AM - Gary Weller (774) 239-6064
For McKesson issues including iPads and laptops and general technology (support is provided weekdays 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, weekends and holidays 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM)
  • Through Tuesday, April 19, 10:00 PM - Jose' Parra (617) 913-3003
  • Beginning Wednesday, April 20, 6:00 PM - Carol McDonald (617) 913-3003
 
QUALITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT
WorcesterQI
Accessing Worcester QI Staff During Construction

During construction, you may access QI Staff in the Worcester office via phone or email. For Patient Care Manager Chris Gill or the QI Nurse Shamala Rao please use the contact information below.
 
For any OASIS other than SOCs requiring coding and/or OASIS review (i.e. recerts, ROCs)
Your OASIS review/coding request will be completed within 1-2 business days!
 
QUESTIONS?
  • Encore related questions:
    • Call Kerry Leo in Encore Support at x6828
  • QI, Coding or OASIS Review questions:
    • Contact your Patient Care Manager below
Probe
CMS Probe and Educate
By Donna Peters, Director of Quality Assurance & Risk Management
 
CMS is implementing a Probe and Educate medical review strategy to assess and promote provider understanding and compliance with the Medicare home health eligibility requirements. CMS is issuing guidance to Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) about how to select home health claims for review during the "Probe and Educate" program for home health episodes.
 
CMS will direct Home Health MACs to select a sample of five claims for pre-payment review from each HHA within their jurisdiction. When conducting the Probe and Educate review the HHA will be evaluated for compliance with:
  • Certification for HH services
  • F2F
  • Coding
  • Medical necessity
  • Medicare coverage and payment criteria
To date VNA Care has not received any ADR's relative to this Probe. We will continue to assess and evaluate to ensure that we are in compliance with our Medicare regulations under CMS guidance.


PATIENT CARE MANAGERS
Name
Email
Cell
Position
Covering Office
Bowden, Marilyn
774-502-7478
Patient Care Manager
Danvers and
Gloucester
Dunn, Maria
508-688-2449
Patient Care Program Manager
SS02 Southborough
Gardner, Elaine
617-680-1105
Patient Care Manager
Charlestown
Gill, Christine
774-502-5725
Patient Care Manager
Worcester
Mihalick, Kyra
617-913-6823
Patient Care Manager
VNAB Therapy
Morris, Carol
617-913-3006
Patient Care Program Manager
Quincy
Saxena, Surabhi
774-463-7336
Patient Care Manager
Leominster & SS55 Southborough
Vitello, Maura
774-502-7475
Patient Care Manager
Needham

QI SUPPORT
Covering Office
Name
Email
Office Phone
Position
All VNAB
Hughes, Kim
617-886-6501 x5419
QI Support Coordinator
All VNACN
Schultz, Chris
617-886-6501 x6527
QI Support Coordinator
All VNACN
Rao, Shamala
508-756-7176 x6876
QI Nurse




VNA HOSPICE CARE
WorcesterService

April 18, 2016
The Connecter
Volume 5, Issue 16
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Confidentiality Notice: The Connecter newsletter is an internal communication intended only for employees of VNA Care Network Foundation and Atrius Health. Information contained within this newsletter includes confidential, proprietary, and privileged content. Unauthorized forwarding, printing, copying, distribution, and/or negligent handling is strictly prohibited and could result in disciplinary action.