Celebrating our LeapFrog Award

On behalf of Senior Leadership, we cannot begin to tell you how excited and PROUD we are that we have been named one of the country’s Top Children’s Hospitals by the LeapFrog Group! I’m still gitty when I think about it.

A few weeks ago, when the e-mail went out to everyone to announce the big news, we told you to watch out for a blog post sharing how we will be celebrating. Well, the Engagement League has come up with a great idea!

First, everyone is getting a Children’s Specialized item of their choice from our online store!

Within the next week, you will receive an e-mail from Megan Muller. The e-mail is going to have a hyperlink and a personalized promo code. This promo code is customized for you and can only be used ONCE. So, please don’t share it (or lose it!).

The hyperlink will take you to an online store we’ve created where you can choose 1 of 4 gift items we’ve designed to celebrate our LeapFrog win! There are some great options for you; I think you’ll have a lot of fun choosing your gift.

Here’s a peak at the items you’ll get to choose from.



A men's short-sleeved or long-sleved t-shirt. Sizes come in S, M, L, XL, or XXL.

 

A women's short-sleeved or long-sleved t-shirt. Sizes come in S, M, L, XL, or XXL.



The best part? You can have it shipped directly to your home!

Ordering your gift online through the hyperlink and with your personalized promo code, is really where you get the benefits. Not only will you get your order quickly and at your convenience, but if you want any of the other items being offered you can order more and pay the difference. The promo code you will be e-mailed will cover the cost and shipping of one item; if you wish to order more, you will be responsible for payment of the extra item and extra shipping.

 

If you are unable to access the store, we will have an order form for you to fill out. Unfortunately, ordering offline will take a bit longer; we can’t process the order until the shop officially closes. So please keep that in mind.

But folks, there’s more!

It’s true that everyone loves branded items, but the true way to celebrate is with food!

After the New Year, Senior Leaders will be visiting our sites with delicious cookies for each of you!!

The date is still TBD – there’s a little thing called schedules that need to be looked at J – but we’ll let you know as soon as everything is finalized.

Once again, thank you – every one of you – for your dedication to our families and our kids. You should be proud of yourself and all of your hard work.

Lessons Learned From My First Job

I am always interested in hearing about people's first jobs. Usually they were when they were kids; they were never glamorous and usually taught some type of life lesson that we still call upon year after year.  I am sure many of you have already heard me speak about this in our State of the State meetings, but my first job was as a waitress.

Jim's Country Diner is now closed but was located on Rt 130 in Windsor, NJ. It was a real diner, diner. You know the one with 200 items on the menu and the typical soup rotation (Monday Yankee Bean, Tuesday Lentil, Wednesday Chicken & Rice, etc).

For $1.09 an hour, the lessons I learned about customer service and immediate feedback were significant. I also learned how to pay attention to non-verbal cues.

For example, when people weren't eating their food and you just knew something didn’t taste right, even if they didn’t tell you. Or how much people appreciated when you remembered what they ordered the last time and asked if they wanted it again (the "regulars" always left bigger tips when their drinks were waiting for them when they came to sit down).

Serving people their food, much like delivering their health care, is a very personal interaction. You learn a lot about people—when they are happy, when they are sad, when they are not feeling well.

And just like with us, they became our family. When a regular didn’t show up, we would be concerned and often find a route to make sure they were ok.

Working at Jim's Country Diner taught me about how hard it is to do manual labor into your 60's. The women who had spent their lives waitressing were exhausted but could not do anything else because they didn’t have a college degree or other skills to fall back on. It was very difficult for them when their bodies gave out; there were also no health benefits and the physical demands of the job always took a toll.

I am convinced that working at Jim's Diner is what pushed me to get my Master's Degree right away. So many of the people who worked there had intended to do this work as an interim before they went to college, but they liked the cash too much and never could find a way to afford to go back.

In the end working as a waitress taught me about hard work, anticipating the customer's needs, how little it would take to "make" someone's day with an act of kindness, and how disrespectful people could be when they treated you as if you weren't valued. Each lesson I hold today and carry with me to try and be a better person and leader. 

How about you? Is there a first job lesson that you would like to share?

Pediatric Primary Care at Mountainside

Children’s Specialized Hospital has offered a Pediatric Practice for well over 20 years. It was originally funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a pilot for a medical home that would treat children with complex medical needs. It is not a separate building, house, or hospital, but instead a way to provide comprehensive primary care to children with special needs and their siblings.

Earlier this year (2014), we recruited Dr. Matt McDonald, Section Chief - Inpatient and Special Needs Pediatrics, to lead a team to turn the “idea” of a medical home initiative into a reality. I’m happy to announce that yesterday, December 10, we officially launched Pediatric Primary Care at Mountainside.

Our Primary Care Practice has been highly praised by the families who have access to the care that we provide. Pediatric Primary Care at Mountainside is special in the way the team cares for children with complex healthcare needs. No other pediatric rehabilitation center across the country is implementing this type of innovative care coordination model.

In order for this program to be successful and approved by the National Committee for Quality Assurance – we “must pass” the six required elements:

1. Access during office hours
2. Use data for population management
3. Care management
4. Support self-care process
5. Referral tracking and follow-up
6. Implement continuous quality improvement

Pediatric Primary Care will offer same-day appointments, a web portal that provides better access to the patient’s medical information, the ability to handle more aspects of care remotely, and regular follow-ups.

We are examining ways to use technology more efficiently; to better support our families, and go beyond the service of primary care and service as the care coordination of ALL of the care needed by the child and family. This means linking all of the various clinicians (regardless of whether they are at Children’s Specialized or not) and share information to manage the whole child in one database that is actively managed by a care management team.

So many times our kids have to repeat tests, and because there is often so much to communicate about what is going on in the health of the whole child, things can be missed. 

Folks, this is BIG. This service is going to help us set the bar nationally in caring for children with special and complex medical needs. Teamwork is the most critical part of transforming our current practice and making it successful for our patients and families. It is a huge undertaking – to envision this program, then to build it both from a technology and clinical skill set.

Thank you to Dr. Matt McDonald and entire team who has made this happen.

Adding this service to our care is important to our families. It allows them to be certain that their children are receiving the best care. We are excited to offer this service at Mountainside now, with the intention of rolling out the program to additional sites shortly after. 

For more information visit http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/.

For detailed information on recognition visit http://www.ncqa.org.

Ensuring a child can be transported safely after tragedy hits

Natalia Gonzalez is a research assistant who works in the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program at our Fanwood site. As part of her responsibilities, she meets with parents to review the study, obtain consent, score measures, and maintain the database that we need to comply with our grant. In addition, she is frequently asked by the ABA team to help interpret with the many Spanish-speaking families we serve. 

The families at Children’s Specialized often seek her out directly, as they recognize her caring and support; which is probably why one of the families living in Toms River confided in her when they informed her of an unfortunate accident where they lost their car in a fire. Lost in the car fire was the child's specialized car seat. Without the car seat, the family could not get their child to therapy sessions safely. 

When Natalia heard of this incident, she knew she wanted to help them. Having a child with special needs, the family needed a special car seat to ensure their child was safe when in a car. With one phone call, the wonderful community of Children’s Specialized Hospital stepped in and our team in LTC Toms River—Dalthea Beavers, Carolyn Romond, Bobbi Jo Pansier, and of course Natalia—arranged to ensure that the family not only had the car seat, but also that it worked properly, was installed correctly, and the family knew how to use it. 

Because of the dedication from this team, the family got the equipment they needed to ensure their child would be transported safely. 

We pride ourselves around wrapping ourselves around the family and ensuring that all of their needs are met to the best of our capability. This is another example of those long arms and warm hearts. Great job team!

We will continue to spotlight stories of how you are living our vision, mission, and values with a specific focus on teamwork. Please share your stories with me and you may see them in a future blog post!

Patient Portal Empowers Families

One item that is a continuous source of frustration with our families is the inability to easily access their children’s medical information. From requesting reports or copies of their medical records to getting copies of test results, we know it is an area in which we can do better.

Our Strategic Improvement and IT Departments have been working tirelessly to provide a way for our parents to digitally access to their children’s information. And we’re excited to announce the launch of the My Children’s Specialized Patient & Family Portal. I’m happy to announce that the portal is live as of today!

This valuable tool was built in collaboration with our families and staff as a way to empower them to be able to continue to successfully manage their child's health care.

This patient portal tool is great. It will not only offer secure online access to the patient’s medical records, but it will also allow the families to review and pay their bills online.

Over time, we hope to introduce a feature to allow families to schedule appointments! This is a very exciting time to be able to meet the families’ demands in this way.

The team has worked diligently to ensure that this tool abides by current laws on what parents can and cannot see. Families will be able to:

• View their child’s physician and therapy reports, including discharge summaries and progress notes
• View information regarding their visits, including evaluations and discharge summaries
• View upcoming appointment dates and times as well as set appointment reminders and request cancellations of appointments
• View medications and allergy information
• View billing statements and pay bills online
• Share their health record with other healthcare providers or individuals in various formats, including e-mail and downloading capabilities

Although this solution will solve an issue for our families, it may cause unintended consequences that we will have to address.

For example, the notes that are put in the medical record –how we word things about their child's progress and whether or not we are putting things in the record that we haven't communicated to the family directly – will now be open for the family to view.

For some, this may cause concern. Perhaps you wrote something that was not communicated, or worded something in a way that could be misunderstood. We will work through these issues together. We need to ensure that we continually remind ourselves that we are responding to families’ needs and will ultimately improve the information flow and the patient experience.

This is a very exciting step in how we provide care and information to our families; it will help to minimize the amount of administrative tasks that employees are responsible for, allowing them to assist families in other ways. I wanted to make sure you knew both that this was coming to fruition and the “why” behind initiative and why it is so important or our families.

What Work–Life Balance?

I receive many requests to speak about women and leadership. Unfortunately, the female CEO is still considered pretty rare, hence the number of requests. Invariably the issue of work–life balance comes up.

Interestingly in all of the books I have read and courses I have gone to, unless a woman is the speaker or author, the issue of work–life balance does not come up. They do address the issue of what kind of father or husband you want to be, but the "pressure" to be "balanced" does not have the same emphasis.  

I make this observation because here is my "secret" on work–life balance—there isn't any.

I am not saying you shouldn't strive for work–life balance or you shouldn't look for opportunities to minimize the stress in your life, but what I have seen more than anything is that it is the self-imposed rules and expectations that women place on themselves that cause the internal turmoil.

No, I am not blaming the victim here, but in examining the times in my life when I feel completely off balance and out of control, it is because I think that I should be able to "do it all." It’s not due to expectations that others put on me, but that I have things I have taken on myself.

I have an idea of what is expected of me and when I fall short of that—oh Nellie—the wheels come off the bus!

Have you seen the movie Groundhog’s Day? Where Bill Murray gets up and does the same thing day after day and nothing ever changes?

Some days I feel like that, or the gerbil on wheel that just keeps running but never actually gets anywhere.

One of the big revelations about turning 50 is that the world isn't going to come to an end if I miss one event, turn down one speech, or miss the annual shopping trip with my friends. Yes, I would like to be able to do all those things, but what really matters is being true to yourself. Take time to exercise, eat right, recharge, and be authentic in your relationships at home and at work. 

One of our Service Excellence Standards refers to being kind. The older I get the more important it becomes to extend kindness and take joy in the kindness that is extended to you.

The other "secret" is being kind to yourself. It will force balance and allow you to examine what really matters. Live purposefully, and be kind—the balance will come when you stop trying to prove yourself to everyone else and yourself. 

My Pie Secrets Revealed!

Let’s talk food. We’re approaching the holiday season and I know many of us can’t wait to try all the delicious dishes that will fill the tables.

Whenever I go to do a dinner party, my friends always ask me to bring a pie. See pie is my thing. It isn't something that most people make often, but when you show up at a gathering with a homemade pie it’s always a huge hit.

Fruit pies are my pies of choice. There are two very important "tips" that have been passed down in our family to ensure you have a great pie.

One I know came from my Great Aunt Doris. She was Portuguese with a warm heart, but she didn't ever have patience for nonsense. Her pie secret was touch the dough as little as possible or the crust gets hard.

The second for any fruit pies is to add a touch of nutmeg, whenever you are using cinnamon. The flavors go really well together. 

Below are some of the winning recipes from our 2012 pie competition. Do you have a favorite pie or a special recipe addition that you might be willing to share?

*Note: If you click on the image, it'll enlarge :)

Counting your blessings

When I was a little girl, I didn’t have my heart set on any one profession. Some children will say “I want to be a fireman” or “I want to be a teacher!” I didn’t know what I wanted to be.

Having the ability to help others solve problems and lead a better life was always my main driver, even if I couldn’t articulate it as a child the way I would actually do that.

As I write this blog from my desk, I am humbled at the chance to work with each of you and to be able to help so many children in New Jersey. It’s more than I ever imagined I could be a part of as a child thinking what I wanted to do when I grew up.

The question I often wonder is “How could I ever repay all of the blessings I have been given?”

We are approaching the Thanksgiving Holiday. It is certainly the time to reflect on that, but also to take stock on how you live that thanks every day. Whether it is helping someone lost in the parking deck in New Brunswick or collecting food for the soup kitchen that my church supports, I try to look for ways to demonstrate that I am well aware of the blessings I have in my life.

Many of the new families coming to our sites are afraid and unsure. But you immediately look to alleviate that fear and find ways to wrap ourselves around them; help them see what is positive about being at Children’s Specialized Hospital, not only the bad.

This time of year is also a reminder about the importance of our Children’s Specialized family and our own family for love and strength.

Are there ways you count your blessings? Maybe saying thank you to a friend in a special way? Sending a card to someone you haven’t spoken to in a while? Something else that you may want to share?

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you for letting me count on each of you and the chance to work side by side as one of the greatest blessings of my life.  

A heartbreaking poem to personalize Ebola

60 Minutes recently interviewed the care team who treated Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola; he died from the virus in Texas. The poem below was written by one of the nurses who cared for him.

When there is so much swirling about this virus, I thought that this was a great first-person account of what it was like to care for this man. It is another reminder of the special tasks we are asked to do as healthcare professionals, most of them that can never be understood by the media or those who haven’t been given this responsibility or gift. 

Let me know if after reading this, it altered your opinion of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital or the people who cared for him.

A message to you

Inspired by the Texas Health Resources* Family

You came to us sick, frightened, confused

What happened next became international news.

We saw you so ill, with everything to lose

Our goal was to help you because that’s what we do.

Alone in a dark ICU room

We fought for your life, our team and you.

We cared for you kindly

No matter our fear

You thanked us each time that we came near.

As each day pressed on, you fought so hard

To beat the virus that dealt every card.

No matter how sick or contagious you were

We held your hand, wiped your tears, and continued our care.

Your family was close, but only in spirit

They couldn't come in; we just couldn't risk it.

Then the day came we saw you in there

We wiped tears from your eyes, knowing the end was drawing near.

Then it was time, but we never gave up

Until the good lord told us he had taken you up.

Our dear Mr. Duncan, the man that we knew

Though you lost the fight, we never gave up on you.

All of us here; at Presby and beyond

Lift our hats off to you, now that you’re gone.

You touched us in ways that no one will know

*Texas Health Resources is the company that owns Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

A girl can never have too many shoes. What’s your weakness?

Do you have a guilty pleasure or collect something you really enjoy? Something that you believe, if compared to others, you would have way more of or feel more strongly about?

 

Well, mine is shoes. I think it may be genetic; my mother has a thing for shoes too.

For me, it’s not just any shoes – my collection is filled with three specific types of shoes.

I have shoes for work – high heels, usually with a 3-inch heel (or higher when I was younger) and many different colors and patterns. On the weekends I wear mules – I love sliding them on without a struggle.Finally, all summer long I’m trotting out in my sandals; usually a flip flop, but with more heft to it.

I am generally pretty conservative in my choice of clothing due to both my personal style and what I think my role as CEO requires. Being able to throw on a pair of high heels allows me to add a little splash of my personality.

So, how about you? What is your “thing” and how do you share it with the world? 

Your benefits questions answered

Thank you everyone who posted questions or shared personal stories on yesterday’s blog post.  It’s important that we have this dialog to ensure everyone has the most accurate information. 

This post will answer each of the questions posted on yesterday’s blog post.

What is self-insured plan? What does that mean to the subscriber over all?

Rather than paying the insurance company to pay out healthcare claims, we pay them ourselves. It doesn’t affect you as the subscriber; it’s simply the method we use to pay for claims.

How much of my insurance is being paid by Children's verses the amount that is the employee? Percentage wise?

We can only share the percentages for 2014, as the 2015 percentages have not yet been calculated. The hospital pays between 77% and 95% of the insurance. The percentage will vary depending on which tier you fall in and which plan you are subscribing to.

General question - Why do many companies like ours opt for self-insured plans vs. fully insured? What are the pros/cons for this decision?

Large employers use a self-insured plan when their premiums go up very high; they evaluate whether it is more beneficial to pay their claims directly and purchase stop loss insurance, or continue to pay the premium and allow the insurance carrier to pay the healthcare claims.

The pro is that by being self-insured, we manage our own risk. We don’t have to pay extra for the insurance company to pay our claims; in essence we are saving about 20% of the cost. The con is we can’t estimate the amount of claims we will be responsible for; however, we purchase insurance to protect us.

Is there a yearly benefit maximum for prescriptions?

On page 11 of the 2015 Benefits Guide you’ll see more details about our Express Scripts Prescription Drug Plan. This page states that there is an out-of-pocket maximum of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families. Once a member/family has paid for scripts up to the out-of-pocket maximum associated with their plan within a calendar year, scripts will be covered 100% for the remainder of that calendar year.

Can the FSO maximum be raised? I exhausted my FSO account by June, having requested the maximum deduction ($2,500).

I think you meant to ask about the FSA maximum. The FSA maximum is set by the IRS, that’s not something Children’s Specialized or QualCare has a say in. Unfortunately it cannot be raised and the maximum deduction remains $2,500.

If the Core Plan does not cover vision, do you offer a separate vision plan that covers annual exams and glasses/contacts?

Vision coverage is included in the Plus plan. We offer Vision Service Plan (VSP) for all of our employees enrolled in the Core plan. For more details on the coverage offered with VSP, please see page 13 in the 2015 Benefits Guide. To see the payroll contributions, please see page 18 of the 2015 Benefits Guide.

As the above person asked I have a child with vision issues and we see the doctor a few times a year and she may need some procedures done. Are you telling me that VSP does not cover that so switching to the Core plan would not be in my best interest after all even if the doctor is listed on that QualCare website?

The VSP insurance must be purchased separate if you are enrolled in the Core plan. Eye exams are covered in both the Core and Plus plan. To see the payroll contributions, please see page 18 of the 2015 BenefitsGuide.

What would happen if you choose to leave your employment and want to purchase cobra. Would the costs of the 2 plans be significantly different?

COBRA insurance allows you to keep your health insurance for a certain amount of time after you resign from your position at Children’s Specialized Hospital. Since you’d no longer be considered an employee at Children’s Specialized, we are not required to subsidize your payments; therefore, you’d be responsible for the complete cost on your own. If you enroll in Cobra, you’d keep whichever plan you’re enrolled in (Core or Plus) and have an additional fee for COBRA.  

Hot Topic - Benefits

It’s no secret; the employee deductions for our QualCare Plus plan will be increasing dramatically for 2015. We have developed this blog post to help you better understand the differences and similarities between both plans that we offer through Children’s Specialized Hospital. Below you will see some of the common questions regarding our benefits for 2015.

How come QualCare raised the rate?

This is a very popular question. We purchase access to the QualCare network each year. This means we are able to use their network of doctors and get the discounted rates that they are contracted with those doctors. However, we (Children’s Specialized Hospital) are self-insured and pay dollar for dollar for the cost of care for our employees. QualCare is not responsible for the increase in cost. The increase is beyond our control and driven by the overall increase in the cost of health care. We continue to work with QualCare to offer two great plans for you to choose from, to give you an option that best meets the needs of your family.

Why is only the Plus plan increasing?

The vast majority of the costs reside in the Plus plan, and therefore all of our increased costs have been pushed to the Plus plan in order to keep the Core plan – a very rich plan – at an affordable rate. The Plus plan is considered a “buy-up plan” – you pay a higher rate for the peace of mind that you are paying now in case you want to limit your out-of-pocket expenses at time of service. Regardless of if you need to use the benefits provided by the Plus plan, you are paying for them with each pay check.

Why are you suggesting we all chose the Core Plan?

We are not trying to “bully” anyone with this recent increase, as suggested in a recent question submitted through our Intranet forum. In fact, many organizations offer only one benefits plan to their employees. We are giving you the option of two plans that offer essentially the same coverage, and helping you make the best decision for you and your family. The only benefit covered in the Plus plan that is not covered in the Core plan is vision. All other benefits covered in the Plus plan are covered in the Core plan.

False: The doctors between the two plans are different.

One of the common misconceptions I’ve heard is that your doctor won’t be covered if you switch plans. That’s incorrect. You can visit the same doctors regardless of if you are in the Core or the Plus plan. As long as your doctor accepts QualCare POS insurance, your doctor is considered in-network.

If you choose to visit a doctor who is out-of-network, you have the same out-of-network benefits between the two plans and are responsible for the same out-of-pocket maximum. The only difference between the Core and Plus plan in regards to out-of-network doctors is you are required to pay 10% more of your coinsurance fees if you are in the Core plan than if you are in the Plus plan. Just 10% more! In the grand scheme of things, that difference is minor compared to your total expense throughout the year.

Let’s break it down

*This comparison compares both plans for an employee who makes less than $30,000 per year and is enrolled in an individual plan who only visits an in-network provider.

	QualCare Core Plan	QualCare Plus Plan
Deductions in each paycheck	$15.52	$125.70
Deductible	$500	None
Coinsurance	Plan pays 80%	Plan pays 100%
Out-of-pocket max	$2,000	$2,000
Copay	$15 PCP $15 Specialist	$15 PCP $15 Specialist

Some key terms you’ll need to know while we go over this chart are:

• Deductible: Amount a member pays for care before the plan begins to cover expenses
• Copay: Member cost for routine services
• Coinsurance: The percentage of costs a member must pay for care after the deductible has been met.
• Out-of-Pocket Maximum: The absolute maximum amount you’ll pay annually. Your medical copays, deductible and coinsurance responsibilities will accumulate toward the plan’s out-of-pocket maximum.

If you are in the core plan:

• You’re contributions to your benefits over the entire 2015 year will be: $403.50
• In order for your insurance to begin paying for 80% of the services you need (coinsurance), you are required to pay $500 yourself (deductible)
• In order for your insurance to pay 100% of the services you need, you must first pay $2,000 out of pocket (out-of-pocket max)
• This includes all copays, deductible, and coinsurance responsibilities
• The total amount that you’d have to pay throughout the year (your out-of-pocket max [including your copays] + your contributions) before every doctor’s visit and service is covered 100% would be $2,403.50

If you are in the Plus plan:

• You’re contributions to your benefits over the entire 2015 year will be: $3,268.20
• You do not need to meet a deductible for your insurance to begin paying 100% of the services you need (not inclusive of copays)
• In order for your insurance to pay 100% of your services (in this case, your copays only), you must first pay $2,000 out of pocket (out-of-pocket max)
• This means you are responsible for $2,000 in copays before they are paid for by your insurance
• The total amount that you’d have to pay throughout the year (your out-of-pocket max [in this plan, only your copays] + your contributions) before every doctors visit would be covered 100% would be $5,268.20

We refer to the Plus plan as our “buy-up” plan. It gives you the peace of mind knowing that you have a set fee that comes out of each paycheck, and the only thing you’ll be responsible for should you ever have any unexpected healthcare need is your copay (as long as you stay in network).

The Core plan is referred to our basic plan, but is still a very rich plan – it is more affordable, but still offers great coverage. The Core plan requires you to plan yourself, do some of the guess work on your own. You’ll have to reach a certain amount of expenses from your own pocket before you have the luxury of leaving the guesswork to the insurance company.

In fact, we offer a program called Flexible Spending Account that helps you to plan for those unplanned expenses.

If you look at the information I just shared with you and take advantage of the Benefits Calculator that was e-mailed to you, you’ll see that you can in fact save money versus having an increase in your costs.

The Children’s Specialized Hospital open enrollment period will run from November 9 through November 19. If you have any questions about your benefits, please call Victor Vena at x5497 or Dana Pettiford at x5560.

Amy B. Mansue President & CEO

Warren Moore Executive Vice President & COO

Dr. Oz (the superhero) visit Children’s Specialized

On Monday, October 27, Dr Mehmet Oz dressed up like Superman and joined our special super hero window washers to surprise the kids at our New Brunswick location. They were all a huge hit! The smiles on the kids’ faces were priceless!

He was so great with the kids, as you’ll see in the video clip below. We were featured on his show yesterday, November 4. Dr. Oz’s objective was to share the importance of having fun in medicine and the kids certainly had a great time! What’s more important is that he featured all of the great work you all do and the tremendous efforts you all go to ensure our kids have fun while in the hospital.

Thanks again to all involved that helped make this happen, we’ve shared this clip on our social media pages. When you get a chance, please share the post within your social media circles to help us increase our outreach.

Get out there and vote!

Today is election day and every member of our House of Representatives and one of our US senators is up for re-election; there are a variety of local races too.

In New Jersey, unless there is a presidential election, only one third of eligible voters actually go to the polls. That means roughly 30 percent of New Jersey residents select who will represent us in Congress. Kind of an alarming statistic, don’t you think?

Now, if these 30 percent of voters think like you, then I bet you’d be content, but for the residents who may hold different views than you, by not voting you have given up your right to be at the table.

You may have already heard this, but in my first job out of college I worked in Washington, DC for Congressman Jim Florio. There, even at the age of 23, I learned first-hand just how important that single vote and your voice is. People would come in all day long to discuss changes or support for the issues they were passionate about, just like I do when we go down to Washington with our families!

Even more, what I saw during my time in Washington was very few people taking the time to weigh-in on an issue or write to their elected officials directly!

The constitution is set up so we can all participate, free of charge, and vote each November. It is your chance to ensure that someone who thinks like you represents your voice in Congress. Voting can’t guarantee that your candidate will win the election, but it does mean that at least you were heard.

I have included a list from the League of Women Voters of candidates’ positions. The group is a non-partisan group – they can’t endorse anyone, but they share the responses from candidates to questions  that were asked.

If you are not sure who your elected official is, this tool allows you to submit your address and find out! Also, click here to find your voting location.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. Please take the time to vote – for yourself and our kids.

Help Our Families By Sharing This Resource

A few weeks ago you received an e-mail from me sharing our effort to assist families choose the best insurance exchange for their child with special needs. Choosing an insurance plan is a daunting task, even more so for a parent with a child that requires multiple specialists, dozens of therapy visits and expensive adaptive equipment. And, with these new private or public exchanges, it’s a whole new ball game.

We worked with our Family Faculty, Family Advisory Committee, and a consultant to help us create an online tool that our families could use to assist them in making this important decision. With six easy steps, a comprehensive explanation, glossary of terms, printable forms, and personal stories from families that have learned from their own experiences – we have seen tremendous traffic to this site! 

In just about a month since we launched this tool, we have had over 3,000 visitors to the website. That’s just incredible, and really shows you how useful this tool is.

We have asked SPAN and other advocacy groups to share it with their constituents. The NJ Hospital Association has shared it with their members and NJBIZ did an article about the tool when we unveiled it. The Star Ledger has posted a story online, as well as in the paper yesterday.

New this week is a video that helps explain every aspect of the site, the key features, and why this is so important.

What I need is your help. You are the most trusted person in our families’ lives because you are an advocate for their children. Please help raise the awareness about this insurance tool; a few e-mails to contacts, a share on Facebook could go a long way to ensuring the children we treat have the best possible insurance coverage to reach their fullest potential.

Have you started the discussion with the families you treat about its benefit?

What should we discuss in our employee meetings?

Next week I start my twice-a-year employee meetings. This is an opportunity to open that line of communication with our senior leadership team and for us to really listen to what’s on your mind — your praises, your concerns, questions, and you all know how much I like a good rumor.

There are of course important topics we need to discuss – topics that are important for you to be aware of – to make these meetings truly beneficial for you, but we want to know what you want to talk about.

Is there something you heard through the grapevine that you’re curious about? A topic that you’ve wanted to discuss for some time now, but haven’t been given the opportunity? We want to know!

This blog has and always will be a vehicle for you to share your meeting input with me – and you can use your name or ask a question anonymously.

Please submit your questions or topics you want us to discuss during our employee meetings. We will do our best to include as many questions/topics as time allows.

Thank you in advance for all of your meeting input and efforts to improve our process. 

Technology allows our Docs to make house calls

You have heard me tell you that technology is revolutionizing how we will provide health care to our children. Children’s Specialized Hospital is fortunate to be the first pediatric rehabilitation hospital in the country to offer the telemedicine robot, VGo.

What is VGo? It’s a robot. A robot that uses HIPPA-secure technology to provide two-way video, audio and motor driven action. This is SO COOL! Thank you to Dr. Haines for being the driving force behind bringing VGo to our patients. 

Currently we are using VGo in two ways.We use VGo on our inpatient units where our doctors can sign on from their home computer and drive VGo around the unit to check in on patients and answer parent’s questions without physically being in the hospital.So Dr. Fantasia can sign on from her home computer without coming into the hospital.Talk about improving the patient experience – having a doctor available 24/7!

Now this is really great; we are currently sending home a VGo, with some of our infants and their parents, for the first week. For many of these patients this is their first time outside of a hospital setting and having access to the medical team that has helped them through what is probably one of the most challenging times in their lives is priceless. 

Dr. Burke and her team will schedule appointments to check in on the patient; with the home health nurse too. In a few cases, Dr. Burke has been able to avoid ED visits and readmissions because of these check-ins.One time, a baby’s trach came out during the visit and she was able to successfully talk the parent/nurse into reinserting it. 

Currently, we have two VGo robots in our New Brunswick site, as well as one at each of our LTC centers. But we hope to add more VGo robots to our inventory and help improve access to pediatric specialists and outpatient care to children living in medically underserved communities. 

Special thanks to Drs. Haines and Burke for being true champions of VGo and for embracing this new technology to its fullest. Thank you too to our facilities team who go to the ends of NJ to deliver our VGos, and bring them home. 

In the short time that we’ve been able to use these devices, VGo has offered endless opportunities to help our children in a way that we never thought was possible. Not only can our physicians check in on their patients at any point in the day from wherever they are, but we are now able to have our physicians consult with one another across our sites, right at the patient’s bed side by just dialing into the system from a computer or iPad.

We strive to help every child live in a world where they have every opportunity to reach their goals. Advances in technology, such as this, make it possible to save more lives and help our kids reach new heights.

I am excited to see the other opportunities the VGo system – or any other new form of technology – offers the children at Children’s Specialized Hospital.

Have you used the VGo system yet, or used any other form of telemedicine to help improve patient care? Do you have any idea on how we can use our VGos? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Elevating the Patient Experience

This week, the Family Advisory Council is going to serve as our testers for the new patient portal. I will post about the patient portal on this blog when we are closer to “going live,” but I wanted to dedicate this post to the team that has been working on this effort.

Chuck Chianese (VP, Operations & Chief Performance Officer) has led the group which includes Darlene Carr (Applications Manager/NB), Pat DeMartino (Chief Information Officer), Janice Kelly (Director of Marketing/Mtnside), Haig Minassian (Systems Analyst/NB), Pat Newsome (Director of Patient Accounting/Fanwood), Jana Prokop (Sr. Strategic Improvement Systems Analyst/TR), Donna Provenzano (Director of Family Centered Care/NB), Carrie Snyder (Family Faculty [PD]/NB), and Linda Waddell (Family Faculty [PD]/Mtnside).

So much of what drove the content of this portal came directly from feedback from our families. We wanted a way to respond directly to their concerns and their struggles in regards to the interactions with our hospital. Items such as  making the bills more understandable, being able to print the evaluations rather than calling HIMS for copies, being able to cancel appointments online, and eventually being able to schedule themselves!

The tasks the families will be able to complete in the patient portal will save them time as well as our staff who have to trouble shoot these issues.

There may be bumps in the road as we roll this program out in its entirety, but I am so very proud of the partnership and teamwork that has gone into this effort. 

A negative perception turned to a raving review

A few years ago, a family member of one of our inpatients published a blog about their experience at one of our locations and their negative perceptions of Children’s Specialized Hospital.

People who had come across the post via social media were commenting on the post and sharing it; some were responding sympathetically while others were making assumptions about our hospital and the services we provide.

After discussing a plan of action with a team of folks, I posted a comment on their blog post apologizing for their negative experience and offering to make myself immediately available to resolve any of their concerns.

In a conversation with the family, they provided us with some suggestions on what we could improve upon to avoid this situation in the future, one of which was more training around communication.

When I went to find the blog post it had been deleted, but you can imagine the impact it had on those who provided care to this child and their family. We continued to provide amazing care to the child and worked diligently to ensure our hurt was not placed on the child in any way. We had an obligation to the child to do our best, as we always do.

Fast forward 7 years, I receive an e-mail from Pat O’Hanlon, of our Family Faculty, to share that she saw the family in New Brunswick for an outpatient session. While the child was being seen, Mom was raving about how wonderful the care is that she is receiving. You can imagine the excitement in Pat’s e-mail when she told me this. It was such a positive conversation coming from a family that had previously had such a negative experience.

We listened to the suggestions for improvement that all our families shared with us and incorporated them into our Service Excellence Training, a philosophy to engage and empower every staff member to consistently deliver an exceptional experience with every interaction.

Two of our Service Excellence Standards are, “I will follow through to make sure that questions and concerns are addressed and results are communicated” and “I resolve concerns respectfully and directly with the person involved.”

By listening to the concerns from this family and addressing them we were able to provide continued care for the child, build a relationship with the patient and the family, and change their perception of Children’s Specialized.

This example is just one of the many that make us different. Great work to all who was involved.

Do you have any examples of how you practiced service recovery and changed a parent’s experience and perception of Children’s Specialized?

Halloween Fun at Children’s Specialized Hospital: A tradition!

Halloween at Children’s Specialized Hospital is truly our biggest holiday of the year. Each of our sites celebrates the holiday in a different way.

For example, our Children’s Specialized team in Toms River takes the children (weather permitting) to a community across the street to trick-or-treat. In both Mountainside and New Brunswick, the children are taken through the hospital to trick-or-treat with the staff.

These efforts take a HUGE amount of work soliciting costumes for all the kids, matching the costumes with the right child, getting each child dressed, and then of course the trick-or-treating. So many wonderful things come together during Halloween; employees coming together to add fun and joy to the lives of children, involving volunteers in the activities, and of course the fun of the costumes. 

We never forget to have FUN at work on Halloween as our staff dresses up each year. Some departments dress up together – I’ve seen minions, the Wizard of Oz, superheroes, fairies, and a few years ago Trish West-Low even dressed up as me! It was hysterical! 

So as we gear up for this holiday, I want to thank you for all you do each and every day for our kids. I look forward to seeing all of the children in their costumes (and yours too of course)!

Please be sure to share your pictures to Megan Muller (memuller@childrens-specialized.org) and we will compile them to share internally and on social media.

This was my FIRST Halloween at Children's Specialized!

Happy Halloween!

Local mom proves we have work to do

There has been a local story in Westfield that has gone viral and gotten a lot of media attention. It involves a young boy with Down syndrome and a local, popular gymnastics studio. 

A mother from Cranford reached out to the gymnastics studio to host her son’s fifth birthday party. After successfully reserving the date for the party, mom went to the location to process the contract paperwork and leave the deposit for the party. 

In reading over the contract for the party reservation, she noticed the document stated “no special needs children will be accommodated or can participate.” In further investigating, she learned the reason for this exclusion was because the owner did not have anyone on staff appropriately credentialed in caring for children with special needs; the insurance company wouldn’t write the insurance. 

The mother was outraged, angry, shocked.   

The business decision was made that the expense of having someone with that expertise was not affordable in this business. And while you may be outraged about that, I want to ask you, to hold that thought for a moment, while I tell you the rest of this story. 

We work so hard to show children with special needs that they can accomplish anything, with accommodations, discouraging them from accepting defeat and encouraging them to continue to work hard. 

On any given day, Children’s Specialized also offers services and resources to all families of children with special needs, including how to have fun at community activities. For example, the Kohl’s Autism Awareness Hub is a tremendous source of information, not only for children with autism and their families, but the information can pertain to any child with special needs and their family.

Within The Hub, families can visit resources such as Make Friends With Autism, Friends Like You. Friends Like Me., Autism and Safety, and Real Life Tips. Each section contains fact and tip sheets, educational videos, workbooks, and more to share information about autism and how to understand a child with autism and their needs.

More specifically, The Hub links to a Recreation Center on its map where professionals, service providers, and members of the community can find valuable information on how to graciously accept and support children with special needs into their programs, businesses, recreational activities, and more. Although our Kohl’s Hub focuses primarily on children with autism, this information can very easily be translated into any special needs situation. 

The power of social media is astounding. This mom shared her disappointment on the gymnastic studio’s Facebook page and nearly immediately her post caught attention. She said at least eight other people shared with her that they too were denied access to the gym for the same reason. 

Since her story was shared, the mom has been notified by the owner of the gymnastic studio to update her on their plan of action to better accommodate children with special needs. The company has since made a business decision to hire an individual with expertise in working with children with special needs to educate the staff – fixing the issue on staff training – and will be changing their policy moving forward.   

And I'm happy to say that with the generosity of over a dozen community businesses, this little boy had a wonderful birthday, surrounded by family and friends. A birthday worth remembering.

In hearing this story it made me ask myself a question about our “business” decisions. How many times do we turn kids away because we don’t treat “those” kids with severe mental health issues or suicidal tendencies? We have said, “We don’t have the expertise and we need to ensure that kids who need that type of care get to people most expert in delivering that care.” 

That is the same thing the owner of the gymnastics studio said. And just like that studio owner, we are doing what we think is the right thing, to ensure that children get to the right level of care. But these are not easy decisions. The public pressure made this business owner make other decisions. 

As I thought about this, I wondered what we would do if the tables were turned. I would love to hear your thoughts on how we should ponder these decisions.