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Showing posts from October, 2017

Fall Town Halls: Investing In MHRI


Thank you to all who were able to join us at a town hall! With so much going on in our business lives, it’s nice to be able to take some time and touch base on the progress we are making as a whole.

Each town hall, we try to include a safety moment that reflects MHRI as a whole. It was great to be able to open our town halls recognizing the great work of some of our associates. The following HeRO Awards were presented at the town halls. Thank you all for your commitment to HRO and patient safety, no matter your role at MedStar.

  • HeRO Good Catch Award: Ron M. Migues
  • Safety Coach HeRO Award: Rachel Campbell, RN
  • HeRO Non-clinical Award: Sarah Wright-Gaul
  • Nursing HeRO Award: Jean Flack, RN
  • Team HeRO Good Catch Award: Research Development, Planning, and Communications
Mary Anne Hinkson and Allison Keuthen were on hand to present the status of OnCore implementation and why it is so important to our associates. Thanks to those associates who shared why OnCore is helping them with their day-to-day. I was pleased to share the progress we are making in implementing a clinical pharmacy system and a new IRB program. These investments in our IT infrastructure may not affect your role specifically, but they will allow for MHRI associates to run more smoothly and efficiently.
Across the system, the first two weeks of October are the Power to Heal campaign. Thank you to all of you who have donated and thank you ALL for being ambassadors of research. We were joined by Dr. Avi Giladi and Dr. Jessica Galagarra, who shared the impact of the New Investigator fund on their research.
There were lots of updates, so be sure to check for the email that went out from Eva Hochberger for the details on the following items: CMS training, open enrollment, year-end celebrations, and flu shots.
If you have any additional questions or feedback, please contact me or use the 2-Way Communication feature on StarPort. We look forward to seeing you all in the spring!



  



Sharing the Power to Heal


At UTC, we are joining in the larger MedStar initiative to create a gratitude banner. Associates have been sharing what they are grateful for over the past few weeks and it’s clear that there is an underlying theme: associates are grateful for their fellow associates.

  


Many of the messages on the banner highlight the great team of associates at MHRI, from those who see patients every day to those who support those teams. For the first time this year, during our associate giving campaign, you are now able to donate in honor of another associate. Please take some time this week to make an impact on the future of research and share your gratitude with a fellow associate.
Visit MedStarResearch.org/InspireHealing to make your donation today.
If you'd like to hear about the impact of the New Investigator fund, which is supported by the Power to Heal campagin, take a moment to hear from a 2016 fund recipient, Dr. Avi Giladi, research director of the Curtis National Hand  Center at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital.


Awarding a HeRO

Guest Blogger: Colleen A. Kelly, CCRC, CIM
Manager, Clinical Trials
Baltimore Cardiology



Joan Bardsley, MBA, RN, CDE, FAADE, Assistant VP Special Projects, presented Rachel Campbell, RN, Baltimore Cardiology Research Nurse Coordinator, with the MHRI Safety Coach HeRO Award at the MHRI Town Hall meeting.

Rachel has demonstrated exemplary commitment as the MHRI, Baltimore Cardiology Safety Coach. She is vigilant in recognizing potential safety catches and uses the HRO principles on a daily basis.  She consistently reports her safety observations every week and provides timely feedback.

In January 2017, Rachel reported a Safety Coach observation which featured her co-worker’s (Judith Raqueno, RN, BSN, Research Nurse and Heart Valve/TAVR Study Coordinator) observation.  They determined that there was a discrepancy in a subject’s final catheterization report and brought it to the attention of the Principal Investigator. The discrepancy was determined to be a dictation error and, as a result, all clinical and study documentation was immediately corrected.



The Good Catch was featured by Seth Krevat, MD and disseminated to thousands of MedStar associates across the MS system.

In addition, Rachel is an experienced Research Nurse Coordinator who cares deeply for each of her research patients and their families.

We are grateful to Rachel for her dedication to the MedStar HRO principles!




Note from Neil: In addition to Rachel, the following MHRI associates were also presented with HeRO Awards at the Fall town halls. Thank you all for your continued commitment to patient safety!
  • HeRO Good Catch Award: Ron M. Migues
  • HeRO Non-clinical Award: Sarah Wright-Gaul
  • Nursing HeRO Award: Jean Flack, RN
  • Team HeRO Good Catch Award: Research Development, Planning and Communications

Boss's Day


Who knew!  Since when did someone make up 'Boss's Day'?

So, you can imagine how surprised I was this morning to see a new plant and a fancy balloon in my office! Karen Wade was also the recipient of a great balloon for Boss’s Day today.  Thank you to such a great team - you made my day!


The Ultimate Fan

Late last night, as thousands of devastated fans left Nationals Stadium after a hard fought, but ultimately futile fight to stay in the playoffs, there was at least one MHRI associate celebrating her Cub's victory.  All right Michelle, good thing you are so beloved at work!


Contributing to Advance Health. It all Contributes to The Power to Heal.


On Monday, Oct. 2, MedStar Health launched the 2017 Power to Heal Campaign: Gratitude has the Power to Heal. This initiative, which runs through Friday, Oct. 20, invites you to further your positive impact on patient experience at MedStar Health Research Institute.



Guest Blogger: Kristi Rasmussen, CFRE
Director of Philanthropy
MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital and Research at MedStar Health

In the simplest definition, the Greek word “philanthropy” means the love of humankind. Across MedStar Health, gratitude and philanthropy go hand in hand - a natural extension of the caring and compassionate work we do every day at MedStar Health. Philanthropy is the result of the desire to do more…to make a positive impact on the lives of others from the gratitude we feel.

We celebrate our growing culture of gratitude by creating awareness about philanthropy and how it can be meaningful to our patients and families. Research shows that expressing gratitude can make people feel more positive and happy - and can deepen our relationships with one another. The great research taking place at MedStar Health improves patient safety, patient outcomes, patient care; therefore impacting the overall patient experience.  Gratitude for research is growing, and our patients and their families  want to be engaged with important people doing important work.

We are grateful to everyone who participated in last year’s Power to Heal Campaign by supporting research at MedStar Health.  Your gifts helped to establish the careers of five new investigators who advanced the health for patients resulting in better outcomes, patient safety, and quality. Research from these investigators included:
  • Mitigate physician and nurse error in the emergency room; ultimately improving patient safety and quality
  • Provide a body of evidence on significant research on transplant recipients, which will ultimately improve transplant outcomes
  • Evaluate payment reform on patient care and quality which could impact healthcare policy going forward
Learn more about the campaign
and download the flyer here.

Again, this year, commitments designated to Research at MedStar Health will support the New Investigator’s Grant Fund. Five new investigators will be selected.  I encourage you to join me during the three-week campaign and discover your Power to Heal. Remember – every level of participation is valued; it’s about choosing to invest and choosing to make a difference.


Visit MedStarResearch.org/InspireHealing to learn more and chose to make a difference.


Our Power to Heal Together

Below is my monthly message for the October2017 edition of the MHRI newsletter, Focus. You can view Focus online at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.

Friends and Colleagues,

Last week, an MHRI Board member from Houston shared his personal experience and his hospital’s response in the days following Hurricane Harvey as the safety moment.

“All of a sudden, there were just two types of people: Those that needed help and those that were providing help.”
What a statement. I suspect a similar thing is also happening right now in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Mexico.

From the Wall Street Journal
Last month, I wrote about confronting challenges together. To me, the key part of that is “together”. Together we can do much more than we can as individuals. During a natural disaster, that concept becomes eminently obvious. However, this concept should not be forgotten in our day-to-day activities.

The MedStar Power to Heal philanthropy campaign is an opportunity for us to do something together that none of us can do alone. This campaign, which runs through Friday, Oct. 20, encourages associates, clinicians and those in our broader MedStar community to come together and collectively help strengthen our future. If you decide to select “Research at MedStar” then your donation will go towards the “New Investigator Grant” fund. These grants supports scientific research by new MedStar investigators so they can launch their academic career at MedStar, get pilot data and better position themselves to become an independent investigator competitive for external grants.

With last year’s donations, we were able to fund five new investigators in research ranging from transplantation to breast cancer and from emergency medicine to neonatal stress. In fact, one of our new investigator grant recipients used the pilot data and already successfully secured his first R01 NIH grant!

Please take a moment to read how YOU have made a difference and consider giving once again to the Giving: The Power to Heal campaign by visiting MedStarResearch.org/InspireHealing and selecting “Research at MedStar” in the drop-down menu.

Research is a team sport. Yes, that certainly includes the investigators, coordinators and others on the MHRI research and administrative team. I feel it is a gift to work with such dedicated and talented people. Now it is time for you to receive that same gift and join the research team by giving. We all understand the value of advancing health through research and want you to ‘jump on board’ and join the team by visiting
MedStarResearch.org/InspireHealing today….. and thank you!


Neil


Read Focus at MedStarResearch.org/FOCUS.