Shoveling the way to safety

My favorite post to share with you all is when we spotlight one of our employees who really shined. Today, I’m sharing a wonderful story about Justina Candelaria (LTC Unit Secretary, Toms River - Stevens Road).

Winter weather is brutal – between the freezing temps and the inches upon inches (or sometimes feet upon feet) of snow – some of us may not be our usual “bubbly” selves.

One of the major storms back at the end of January – you remember, the major blizzard that really wasn’t, but still was pretty bad – Justina really stepped up to make sure everyone was safe.

The snow was starting to pile up, really coming down hard, and Justina knew the area in front of the hospital needed to be shoveled to help our patients and families get into and out of the site safely. Security wasn’t able to leave their spot at the front of the site, so Justina put on her boots and got to work!

She found a shovel and shoveled the entrance to Long Term Care, then salted the area to make sure it would stay as clear as possible. She did this because one of our families from LTC was out in the community with their child and would need to be able to get safely back inside!

This was not technically in Justina’s formal job description, as part of her role at Children’s Specialized Hospital. She wanted to ensure the safety of our patients and visitors and figured out a way to do it.

Thank you, Justina, for anticipating the needs of our patient and their family, as well as staying on top of getting the job done! You are a great team player.

Here’s to hoping the snow is slowing down! How many more days until Spring?

Do you know someone that should be recognized on Access Amy for something they’ve done at Children’s Specialized? I’d love to hear! Share below in the comments or send an e-mail to Megan Muller at memuller@childrens-specialized.org. 

Hope

Hope.

It may be just a four-letter word, but it has so much meaning.

Merriam Webster defines hope as:

• The feeling of wanting something to happen and thinking that it could happen; a feeling that something good will happen or be true
• The chance that something good will happen
• Someone or something that may be able to provide help; someone or something that gives you a reason for hoping

When times are challenging or feel difficult, you may feel as though “hope” is the only thing that you have to hang on to.

On the other side of the spectrum, hope also could signal great excitement that “hope” is the thing that drives you forward – giving you inspiration and not just comfort.

How do you define hope? What are you hopeful for? What is your desire for a certain thing to happen?

Smartphone – what will it think of next!

I recently read a Wall Street Journal article discussing the transformation of the healthcare system with technology.

You may have heard me use the expression that it is my hope that the transformation comes from us, inside the healthcare system. The likelihood that the transformation will come from outside the system is great because we often get caught in the trap of knowing how the process works and find it difficult to imagine how it could be different or better.

I know I have given you this challenge before, but if the sky was the limit, how would you use technology to change healthcare?

For me, my healthcare technology fantasy is related to time.

There are many times that I know something is wrong, but I don’t feel it is “wrong” enough for me to take off from work and make a doctor’s appointment. My doctor is not close by and in order for me to see him, it requires at least a 3-hour block of time between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. during the week. So, unless I am hacking up a lung, I am not taking the time to see him.

I haven’t crossed over yet to the minute clinics, but I am starting I might give it a try. I wish I could e-mail my doctor and tell him my symptoms, or send him a photo of a rash and see if he can diagnose it just by looking at the picture. Then he could help me work through it without having to come in.

It might sound bogus to you now, but over time it’s definitely something that could happen in health care! After all, we use the VGo robots now with some of our patients so our doctors can check on them remotely.

So what is your technology wish?

Scheduling Department prepares for major improvements

We recently shared the great work we are doing through our Operation Excellence efforts. Step by step we are looking at all the moving parts in our organization and finding ways in which we can improve. 

One of the areas that showed remarkable improvements over the last year was in our Scheduling Department. This team has done an outstanding job looking for ways to increase our access for our children to get their much needed services. 

The Scheduling Department did the following in 2014:

• Reduced the answer speed:
• Answer speed in English went from 2:20 minutes to 1:26 minutes
• Answer speed in Spanish went from 7:20 minutes to 2:38 minutes
• Developed a formalized training program for new staff
• Expanded the staff by an additional 2 schedulers
• Implemented rescheduling process for text message cancellations
• Refined the text messaging system
• Re-structured the staff so that they have been given a specific job function

So what’s next for 2015?

• Expansion of staff by an addition of 2.5 schedulers
• Expansion of bilingual Spanish staff
• Build a scheduling dashboard to manage the department and ensure scheduling and rescheduling is completed in a timely fashion
• Automate the text messaging cancellations so they no longer need to be completed manually

Great job guys! We know that these efforts along with the other efficiency will help us reduce the current 66 days wait time to see a developmental pediatrician!

Stay tuned for a future blog post where we will go into greater detail about some of the projects from the Scheduling Department when they are completed. 

Is your department making big movements? Do you have a big project for 2015? Let us know in the comments below and you could be featured in an upcoming blog post!

Operation Our Town brings a little “home” to our troops over seas

We always support both our families and community members' needs throughout our community. When you look at your church, synagogue or other organizations you may be involved in, it may seem like the same people are giving so much of their time. 

There is an old adage that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. I think those 20% all work at Children’s Specialized Hospital! 

Katie Grogan (Nursing LTC, TR 94 Stevens) volunteers her time – along with her mother – to an organization called Operation Our Town. They collect contributions of necessities and then send to the troops with a note and maybe even a card from our kids. Providing random acts of kindness to people they may never meet! 

Making the decision to join the United States military services is noble. Our service men and women voluntarily defend our freedom, as well as fight for peace in other areas of the world. Regardless of where they are stationed, it’s our civic duty to ensure they receive the support and respect they deserve. 

Think of how excited you are when you are headed home after a long day of work, a business trip, or a vacation. You probably can’t wait to throw off your shoes, flip on your favorite channel, and pour yourself your favorite beverage. 

When our troops are stationed in other countries, they are away from their friends and family for what could be a very long period of time. They don’t have the luxuries they had while home—the simple “pleasures” such as candy, games, sometimes even toiletries.

This is similar to the children who come to our inpatient hospital. Some of our kids stay with us for a handful of days and others stay with us for weeks to months. They pack items from home to make them feel more comfortable during their stay and pass the time, but it’s difficult for them to not be in their “home” environment. 

The boxes of goodies put together by Katie and Operation Out Town are sure to put a smile on the face of our service men and women who are missing their homes. Much like we put a smile on the faces of our kids when we provide fun activities and events for them!

Operation Our Town absorbs the cost to ship the packages. So, they graciously accept monetary donations to help offset the cost of shipping. 

If you’d like to volunteer your time with Operation Our Town or make a donation of food, toiletries, or assistance for shipping, please send an e-mail to Katie Grogan at KGrogan@childrens-specialized.org.  

Thank you, Katie, for everything you to do bring a smile to the faces of our troops!

Do you volunteer your time with a community organization? Let us know in the comments below and you may be showcased in an upcoming blog post!

What are your intentions for 2015?

Can you believe it? The New Year is officially here and we are nearly through January already! If you’re like most people, you started off the New Year with a resolution – a promise to change a behavior or add a behavior in the New Year.

You’ve had about 3 full weeks to work on your New Year’s resolution. So, how’s it going so far? Have you stuck to your plan, or did you become distracted? 

Don’t feel discouraged. Instead, look at your resolution in a different way. Trish West-Low (PT – Toms River) once told me that we shouldn’t be thinking about resolutions which could be easily abandoned, but instead focus on intentions because if we get derailed, we can always refocus and reassert our intention.

Now, that’s really something isn’t it? An intention does not seem to carry the same weight if you end up not following through with your resolution.

Intentions are best set when they are within reach—something you can see and touch; something you can create an action plan for. 

Perhaps your intention for the New Year is to become healthier. To help you set your intention, you should think of a personal memory of when you felt your best and focus on getting back to that feeling. In order to get there, you need to have a plan. It’s not going to happen overnight, but as long as you are moving in the right direction and focusing on the route it takes to get there, your intention can be fulfilled.

Many of you have already heard about my morning routine. For the last 14 years at 4:30 a.m. Monday through Friday I have met my now 85-year-old father at the home I grew up in. We chat about 15 to 20 minutes, just to catch up, and then in separate cars we head to the gym to get our sweat on!

The gym opens at 5 a.m., and the group that is dedicated enough to work out that early is not very large – maybe around 20 people or so. Many people make a New Year’s resolution that focuses on health and fitness—losing a certain amount of weight, focusing on moving more and eating better, or what have you. So, we’ve seen our small group of morning gym go-ers really increase.

And yet, year after year, after just a few short weeks we see that number start to decrease again.  

Now, I’m not one of those regulars at the gym who complain about the “resolution starters” who start coming just because it’s a new year. Instead, I commend them! After all, everyone has to start somewhere.

If each of the new faces I see at the gym set an intention on January 1 instead of stating a resolution, they’d look at their goal in a different way. They’d plan what they need to do in order to reach that goal and be successful.

So this year, the intention I am working towards is to be a better person than I was yesterday. Some days it is harder to measure, but I am purposefully working every day on this effort.

Our intentions at Children’s Specialized Hospital are articulated in our vision to create a world where every child has a chance to reach their intentions – their best self. We know we are a big part of helping them take that first step, say their first word, or connect in a way you could only dream about.

That is what we do each and every day. We are working towards that vision – one step at a time.

What vision are you stepping into to? What do you wish for in this New Year, and how will you get there? I would love to hear what your intentions are for 2015! 

Skipping the line with the new tablet registration

In a perfect world, our patients and families wouldn’t have any wait time before their appointment. After receiving some feedback from patients and families, as well as observation from staff, about the registration process—we knew we had to figure out a solution to a very long registration process.

Drumroll please…

On December 15, 2014 our Mountainside outpatient center rolled out a new tablet registration process! And so far, the feedback has been terrific!

Here’s how it works—a patient comes in to register for their first appointment, we need to scan them in or double check their documentation before “clearing” them. We would work with this patient to clear all of their documentation before moving on to the next patient family – who is probably here for their weekly therapy visit.

So, if the next patient in line has already had their paperwork checked and is considered a “clean registration,” they’d still need to wait until we complete the registration for the first patient.

You can see the issue here.

This new tablet registration streamlines the whole process and decreases wait time. Now, each patient will receive a card that will allow them to check themselves in at the self-service kiosk. How cool is that?!

Let me explain.

Greeters wait in the lobby in Mountainside for patients to arrive. The greeter can see the patient’s appointment time as well as if there is any documentation that they need copies of or signatures for.

Each patient gets a card like the one below. This card allows them to breeze through the registration process with just a swipe! If there is any missing documentation, the system will alert the family (if using the self-service registration) or the employee that something needs to be completed.

The bonus? They get two cards – so if there are two caretakers who swap appointments they won’t need to worry about sharing a card – and the card can be used at any of our locations.

This new registration process is incredibly beneficial on many levels.

First, by allowing patients whose documents are up to date move quicker through the registration process, their wait time is decreased significantly, allowing for an improved patient experience. In addition, because each “clean registration” receives a card, families are able to check themselves in for their appointment and avoid waiting in line!

As any project that we begin, we need to ensure that the end goal is aligned with our corporate goals. As an organization, we have set a growth goal of opening 1-2 sites each year. With the addition of this tablet registration process, we decrease wait time but also increase the amount of patients we are able to see. With more patients, we are able to look into more sites!

And lastly, consistency is key! The tablet registration will help to streamline the registration process and create more consistency at all of our sites. Since the goal is to have a “clean registration” for each patient, the documentation process will be much smoother on the back-end as well. For example, Finance will be able to collect the necessary information for insurance claims, since each greeter will be ensuring all documentation is updated and in the system before the patient proceeds.

This project was a huge undertaking, and took a cross-departmental team of motivated folks to complete. I have to give major kudos to Darlene Carr, Jana Prokop, Carrie Snyder, Lindsey Marabella, Nicole Assante, Tamisha Bourne, Jessica Hall, Donna Provenzano, Chuck Chianese, Linda Waddell, Haig Minassian, and Taaliba Warden for working through weekly 2-hour meetings, and testing. Kudos to Patient Access, Strategic Improvement, and IT for all of their hard work in making sure the table registration went off without a hitch.

And lastly, cheers to the Registration Staff at Mountainside for being our pilot site to launch the table registration. They have been continuing to provide input to the team on modifications, and helped us to get into a better situation to launch this system to our other sites.

By Spring we hope to implement tablet registration in two other sites – Newark & Hamilton – with a goal of using the system in at least 85 percent of our sites by the end of 2015.