1. health and fitness

April 1, 2015
A FOUR LETTER WORD
NOTEWORTHY
Good Friday schedule
Department
April 3
*Admnstratn
closed
Amb Imaging
closed
Business
closed
Cardio Strs Lab
closed
Cardioplmry rehab
closed
Case Mgt
open
Cath Lab
closed
Comm Wide
closed
Compliance
closed
Copy Center
closed
Early Learning
closed
Education
closed
Emp Health
closed
Emp/OP Pharmacy
closed
Endoscopy
EO
Engineering
closed/24 CC
Finance
closed
Food Services (S&C) open
Gift Shop
closed
*HealthQuest
open
HIM
closed
HmCr & Hspce
closed/24 CC
HR
closed
JMA offices
closed
Lab (outpt)
closed
MIS
closed/24 CC
Med Onc (S&C)
closed
*Rad Onc(S&C)
closed
Med Staff Off
closed
OR
EO
Physcl Thrpy (OP)
closed
Project Access
closed
Quality
closed
QuikMed
closed
Radiology(S&C)
EO
Registration
Outpatient:
closed
ED:
open
Resource Mgt
closed
SameDay(S&C)
closed
Special Procds
EO
Spch Thrpy
coverage till 3 p.m.
*Spiritual Care
closed
Wound Center
closed
(EO) Emergencies only
(24 CC) 24-hour call coverage during closing
*An on-call administrator can be reached through
the switchboard operator
*To reach radiation oncology for emergencies,
call 919-713-1502
*Spiritual Care will use volunteer chaplains for
emergency coverage. (Ask the switchboard operator to call the on-call chaplain if needed.)
*HealthQuest will be closed Easter Sunday
Blood Drive April 23
The American Red Cross will hold a blood
drive at Johnston Health from noon till 4:30
p.m. on April 23. For an appointment to donate blood, go to www.redcrossblood.org
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Coordinator
has roles
in two areas
Brilhart says move to a
small system a good fit
A word that doesn't work
During a recent Monday morning rally, CEO Chuck Elliott uses a game
wheel to have employees spell the contraction, “can’t.” He was emphasizing a Carolina Care lesson on using words that work, or in this case,
one particular word that doesn’t work. Elliott said employees should always strive to find a positive response to requests from co-workers and
patients. For example, if a patient asks for pain medication well before
the next dose is due. Rather than saying “I can’t,” offer to say what you
can do, such as offering to reposition the patient or to speak with the
patient’s doctor, Elliott said.
Patient thanks secretary by donating to Angel Fund
D
onna Pautke was a claims adjuster
with GEICO, and 16 months away
from retirement, when she
switched careers.
At the time, she and her husband were
living in Fredericksburg, Va., when her
father suddenly needed hospice care in
Florida. He was hospitalized at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, and was refusing to
let hospice nurses do anything but give him
medications.
So when Pautke arrived, the nurses taught
her how to care for her father in the hospital. And that’s what she did for him during
those last four weeks of his life.
Pautke says the experience so inspired
her that she decided to take classes to become a nursing assistant. And when her
husband’s job brought them to this part of
North Carolina last year, Pautke took the
job in November as a unit secretary on Two
East.
“I love the people and the interaction,”
she says.
On a day at work, Pautke answered a
patient’s call bell. Joyce Gregory was giving herself a sponge bath and needed help
reaching her back.
Pautke jumped right in to assist and offered to apply some soothing cream. She
also fetched a smaller hospital gown that
better fit Gregory’s small frame.
It turned out to be the right touch at just
the right time, and Gregory was so grateful
that she asked how she could repay the
At left and right, Two East manager Laura Woodard and COO
Ruth Marler congratulate Donna
Pautke for being acknowledged by
a grateful patient.
secretary for her kind deeds. It led to her
making a contribution to the Angel Fund in
appreciation of Pautke’s care.
“It was a nice surprise,” Pautke said.
Alison Drain, director of the Johnston
Health Foundation, says the Grateful Patient & Family program is a wonderful way
for patients to express appreciation for
their care. Rather than buying flowers or
food, giving a gift to one of the foundation’s programs can have a lasting effect,
she says.
On Monday, Drain presented Pautke with
a pin and read aloud a story that illustrated
how small kindnesses can make a difference.
Drain has distributed cards about the
program throughout the hospital. If you
would like more information, call Drain at
extension 7169 or write a message to her at
[email protected].
New scrubs for ORs will be distributed April 8
Johnston Health has purchased royal blue
scrubs for surgeons and the operating room
staffs in Smithfield and Clayton, and will
be using a new laundry service to fold and
package the garments.
The changes are a result of a week-long
Lean rapid improvement event in February
during which a team looked at how to get a
better handle on scrubs. Among other
things, there were no processes in place to
keep track of the scrubs.
The rest of the hospital’s dirty laundry,
including bed sheets, towels and hospital
gowns, will continue to be cleaned by the
inmates at Sampson Correctional Institute
under a state contract that’s been in place
since the 1970s.
When the linens arrive from the prison
laundry, they have to be sorted, folded and
stacked. However, the new laundry service
will fold and sort the scrubs by size and
insert them in plastic so that the OR staff
can easily find their sizes. Also notable,
access to the scrub storage room in the OR
will be limited only to surgeons and the OR
staff, says Lean director Jessica Springer.
Also notable, the OR staff will be able to
wear their personal cotton hats. Until now,
they had been wearing disposable bouffant
hair nets. The caps will also be laundered
by the new service.
Unlike the scrubs that nurses wear on the
floors, the scrubs worn in the OR must be
sterile. Both laundry services have the ability to wash the laundry in temperatures hot
enough to kill pathogens, Springer says.
The new scrubs will be distributed April
8.
Staff outside the OR who get their scrubs
soiled during the work day can get a pair of
hospital-issued scrubs from the linen room,
which will keep a few sets on hand,
Springer added.
Members of the RIE team were Kyle
McDermott, Lynn King, Sabrina Davis,
Jackie Stevens and Dana Davis.
Brandon Brilhart is a former firefighter, paramedic
and successful business
owner who’s well-versed in
Lean. He’s skilled in mixed
martial arts, too, and outside
of work, is a cutman for the
Bellator MMA fights feaBrandon
tured on Spike TV.
Brilhart
In his spare time, he enjoys
scuba diving among the wrecks and reefs in
Roatan, Honduras. At home, he likes playing with his two boxers, which he recently
adopted after being part of a boxer rescue
group.
So what brought someone with such
worldly interests to Johnston Health?
Brilhart, who grew up in Westminster,
Md., and spent the last 17 years in Charlotte, says smaller is not such a bad thing.
“You don’t get swallowed up. You get to
work more closely with people,” he says.
And he thinks he’s found just the right fit
as Johnston Health’s coordinator for Lean
and emergency preparedness—areas led
respectively by director Jessica Springer
and vice president of support services Kyle
McDermott.
Before joining Johnston Health, Brilhart
was at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte where he worked on supply chain and
process improvement—much of it toward
his master’s degree in health care administration and a black belt certification in
Lean Six Sigma. Earlier, he was a patient
transporter with the hospital’s critical care
ground and helicopter crews.
After earning a business degree from
Gardner-Webb, Brilhart worked as a firefighter and paramedic, which led to an
interest in fire investigations. He eventually
opened a property casualty insurance
agency in Charlotte. After seven years, he
sold the business and decided to return to
the medical field.
With his master’s complete, he wanted to
work in an administrative role focusing on
process improvements for hospitals. He
found that opportunity at Johnston Health,
he says.
Brilhart says he feels equally passionate
about emergency preparedness. In that role,
he’ll look at different training opportunities, drills and exercises to prepare Johnston Health for disasters.
In Lean, he enjoys working on processes
to eliminate unnecessary steps and waste—
all toward becoming more efficient and
effective. “People think it’s about eliminating jobs, but it’s just the opposite. It’s
about utilizing resources more effectively.”
Junior Volunteers are OTW
Applications for the junior volunteers
program are now being accepted through
May 1. Departments may submit their requests for the helpers now through April
10. Request forms are available from Farrah Nguyen. Volunteer applications may be
downloaded from the website.
Get your butterfly on!
Patient Family Experience Week
April 27 — May 1