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July 6, 1999 PULSE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER Open House Offers NBICU Preview Jerald D. King, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics and NBICU medical director (left); Christine St. Andre, UH executive director; architect Tim Thomas, Thomas Peterson Hammond & Associates; and Don Thompson, director of Facilities and Engineering; review construction plans at a recent open house for the hospital's expanded Newborn Intensive Care Unit. The area was previously occupied by the vice president's office. Once construction is complete, the hospital's current NBICU will be renovated, according to project supervisor Eric Jacobson, Facilities and Engineering. You Think Your Phone Rings A Lot? Poison Center Gets 129 Calls A Day People and poison shouldn't mix. When they do, most of the time unintentionally, phones ring at the Utah Poison Control Center ( UPCC). In 1998, staff handled 47,085 calls, an average of 129 calls per day, according to the center's recently released annual report. UPCC is a 24- hour resource for poison information, clinical toxicology consultation and poison prevention intervention. Established in 1971, it is a program of the College of Pharmacy and a cooperative public service of the Utah State Department of Health and the Health Sciences Center. The primary mission of UPCC is to provide 24- hour emergency telephone service to the public and health professionals of Utah in a poisoning emergency, to provide professional and public education and to reduce health- care costs. " Our program was stabilized tremendously in 1998, with the passage by the Utah State Legislature of senate bill 221, which will provide funding by including the UPCC in the 911 telephone surcharge," said Barbara Insley Crouch, Pharm. D., MSPH, director of the center. " We are grateful to state senator David H. Steele, sponsor of the bill, and also to state representative continued on page two Houchins Honored for Volunteer Work John C. Houchins, M. D., instructor and medical director of the Sugar House Health Center, ( second from left) is honored with The Homeless Clinic Medical Student Volunteers Heather Belsey Award. The award was presented by T. Samuel Shomaker, M. D., J. D., senior associate dean, ( left) Steve Granger, MS11I. Brandon Ferney, MSII and Marc Babitz, M. D., associate professor of family and preventive medicine. Houchins was selected by medical students for his work as a faculty advisor at the Fourth Street Clinic. This is the first year the award, named in honor of a second- year student who died last year, has been presented. PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER John P. Burke John Burke, Infectious Diseases Specialist, Named First Holder of Mark Chair John P. Burke, M. D., an expert in infectious diseases and medical informatics, has been named first holder of the Ann G. and Jack Mark Presidential Endowed Chair in Honor of Thomas H. Caine, M. D. Burke is professor of infec-tious diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at LDS Hospital. " Dr. Burke has had a distinguished career in the fields of infectious diseases and medical informatics applications to quality improve-ment, and has garnered an international reputation for the quality and innovation of his work," said Merle A. Sande, M. D., professor and chair of internal medicine. " He is unquestionably a most deserving recipient of this great honor." Burke and his colleagues at LDS Hospital have brought computers to the bedside to provide physicians with effective, real- time decision support to improve quality of care on a daily basis. Burke has written numerous journal articles, reviews and book chapters, and has made nearly 200 presenta-tions in the United States and throughout the world. According to Sande, three journal articles by Burke that have been published in the " New England Journal of Medicine," the " Journal of the American Medical Association" and the " Annals of Internal Medicine" are " among the most influential publications of the decade in the field of quality improvement." Ann and Jack Mark, both deceased, founded M & M Distributing Company, a Salt Lake City business. They established the chair in the internal medicine department in appreciation for care they received from Caine, professor of general internal medicine, and the late Kenneth B. Castleton, M. D. continued from front Melvin Brown and senate minority leader Scott Howell who were instrumental in the bill's passage." Crouch said an eight- member formal board was established upon passage of SB221 to provide fiscal oversight and to ensure that UPCC carries out its mission and meets the needs of the public and the University. Board members are: Patrice Dean, Phar-macy Services; Larry Dew, assistant vice president for health sciences; Trisha Keller, R. N., director, Bureau of Violence and Injury Prevention, Utah State Depart-ment of Health; John Mauger, Ph. D., dean, College of Pharmacy; Douglas Rollins, M. D., Ph. D., interim chair, Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy; Anthony Temple, M. D., executive director, medical affairs, McNeil Consumer Healthcare; Kim Wirthlin, director, health sciences Office of Govern-ment and Institutional Relations; and Jolie Coleman, communications coordinator, University of Utah HealthNetwork. Calls to the UPCC in 1998 originated from all 29 Utah counties. Sixty- four percent of poison exposures reported to the UPCC last year involved children younger than six. Ninety percent of these patients were managed by UPCC specialists over the phone. " Man-agement on- site eliminates the need for poisoned patients to visit their primary health- care providers or to go to a health- care facility, and also reduces health-care costs," Crouch said. The majority of poison exposures, 70 percent, occurred at home, the report shows. The most com-mon substance category involved in exposures in children younger than six was cosmetics and personal care items; in children 6- 12, it was foreign bodies, toys and miscellaneous non- drug items; for individuals 13- 19 years of age, it was analgesics; and in adults, it was bites and stings. UPCC is staffed with registered pharmacists, nurses and physicians with additional training in clinical toxicology. The center's Specialists in Poison Informa-tion undergo a minimum of six weeks training prior to independently answering poison exposure calls. After two years in the center and handling 2,000 poison exposure calls, UPCC staff members are required to sit for the Specialists in Poison Information Proficiency Examination to become certified. Medical and clinical toxicologists are available to physicians and UPCC staff members for consultation at all times. Poison Exposure? Call x l - 2 1 5 1. Summer Driving Tip- If you ride or drive in a car for long hours in the sun, wear long sleeves or use sunscreen on your exposed side. While people rarely get sunburned in a car, low-level skin damage does occur on the side of the body exposed to sunlight through a window. Don't forget your face and ears when applying sunscreen. - Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah NBICU and Pulmonary Services Honored for Departmental Excellence Staff from the Newborn Intensive Care Unit and Pulmonary Services are being honored this summer with separate catered events for winning this year's Excellence Through U department quality awards. Each department also has received $ 2,500 in reward and recognition funds. To be considered for the award ( presented every spring), departments must complete a 13- page nomination form. Nominees are then evaluated by a survey team during a site visit. Judging is based on the national Malcolm Baldrige Health Care Criteria which includes: leadership; strategic planning; focus on patients, other customers and markets; information and analysis; staff focus; process management; and organizational performance results. Here are some highlights from each department's nomination form. Newborn Intensive Care Unit Sandra McAtee, R. N., manager Accomplishments in the last year include: • Developing a database to track adverse reactions. • Utilizing a FOCUS PDCA model for unplanned extubations, syringe labeling, oximeter alarms and breast milk exposure. • Employee participation in a variety of community outreach activities and the unit's nomination for a " Touched By An Angel" award. • Achieving one of the hospital's highest employee retention rates. • Staff involvement in a variety of national organizations, including 20 nurses receiving national certification in neonatal nursing. • Introducing care repair kits as a means of service recovery ( blameless apology). Pulmonary Services Jim Behnke, manager The department consists of Respiratory Care, the Arterial Blood Gas Lab, Pulmonary, Diagnostics and Research, Pulmonary Rehab, and Cystic Fibrosis. Accomplishments in the last year include: • Providing 500 grade school children with information about the dangers of smoking. • Establishing quarterly meetings between individual staff members and management to enhance communication and improve goal achievement. • Changing scheduling practices to improve patient satisfaction and quality of care. • Working with Health Information to reduce the number of medical records in which respiratory care documentation is missing. • The department's reward and recognition program being expanded to allow managers to recognize staff in a timely manner. • Developing and implementing a plan to help reduce the number of missed treatments. Hibbs Appointed Distinguished Professor John B. Hibbs Jr., M. D., professor of internal medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, has been appointed Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine. The rank is reserved for faculty whose achieve-ments exemplify the highest goals of scholarship and teaching as recognized by colleagues and students. Hibbs is nationally recognized for his contributions to the understanding of physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms in a variety of organ systems where the synthesis of nitric oxide is known to have a biological role, according to Merle A. Sande, M. D., professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. His research provided the first precise biochemical character-ization of the reaction that produces nitric oxide in mammalian cells. His work also has shaped scientific thinking about innate host resistance to intracellular microbial pathogens and cell- mediate immunity. A former Nobel Prize nominee, Hibbs joined the U faculty in 1971. John B. Hibbs Jr. Support UH Teams at Corporate Games Employees are encouraged to show their support for colleagues representing the hospital in this year's Salt Lake County Summer Corporate Games. Hospital teams will compete in the following events: tennis, this Wednesday at 8: 30 p. m. at Liberty Park; basketball, this Thursday at 6: 30 p. m. at the Franklin Covey- Madison building ( 2200 West 2495 South); 5K run, this Saturday at 7 a. m. at Liberty Park followed at 8 a. m. by the walk race; team fishing, July 17 at 6 p. m. at Strawberry Reservoir; indoor sports climbing, July 19 at 5: 30 p. m. at the Rockreation Sport Climbing Center ( 2074 East 3900 South). Tickets are available for the games' closing ceremony on Saturday, July 31 at Raging Waters. Tickets are $ 8.25, $ 15 with a catered meal ( junior admission is $ 6.25, $ 13 with the meal): The park opens at 10: 30 a. m. and closes at 7: 30 p. m. The finals for the Softball, tug- of- war and volleyball competitions will be held between 11 a. m.- 4 p. m. For more information, contact Wendy Bailey, x5- 5932. Occupational and Environmental Health Program Receives Funding The Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health ( RMCOEH) at the University of Utah has been awarded $ 614,000 from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ( NIOSH) to support its role as one of 15 NIOSH education and research centers in the country. The center is part of the medical school's Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. " This award reflects the national and international recognition of the center's extensive contributions to worker health and safety," said Royce Moser, Jr., M. D., M. P. H., professor of family and preventive medicine and director of the center. " Worker injury and illness cost U. S. businesses more than $ 1.25 trillion a year. The center's work to prevent such problems contrib-utes to increased productivity and the competitiveness of U. S. industry." RMCOEH offers graduate education programs for students through the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, and the colleges of engineering and nursing. It also provides continuing education to more than 2,000 professionals a year. The center conducts a variety of research programs funded by NIOSH, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and other government agencies. It also is involved in research funded by the Ford Motor Com-pany and United Auto Workers designed to prevent and reduce workplace injuries. Child Development Center Accepting Applications for Fall Enrollment University Hospital's Child Development Center is accepting applications for fall enrollment for all class-rooms, infants through age four. For more information, contact Mary- Martha Dalgliesh, center director, x5- 6710. Report suspicious persons inside andous'uit of the Health Sciences Center. Call security, x 1- 2295. Pulse is going on vacation next week. Watch for the next issue the week of July 19. Bike Locker Correction: The June 29 issue of Pulse mistakenly reported that bike lockers at the Health Sciences Center are available for free. The lockers require a yearly $ 50 fee and are renewed every July. There currently is a waiting list for the lockers. To be added to the list, contact Sandi Cameron, xl- 2837. |
