Operation Rescue McVea

Our own Dr. Kristine McVea (BFF) found herself in quite a predicament last Thursday when she was locked in an exam room with a patient and couldn't get out. Edith called me on my cell phone and Don Manion from Seldin and I began trying to free her.

It was quite a job to keep her from panicking but I was able to use my extensive behavioral health training to keep her calm. Edith and Jessica were so upset about the fate of our dear doctor that they barely had time to take out their cell phones and snap countless pictures of this "hilarious" incident.

Ultimately we were able to pry the door open and free Dr. McVea. To her credit, she was in good spirits and had managed to keep the patient from getting upset also. Thanks to Dr. McVea for her sense of humor and to the amateur cell phone journalists for getting these pitures to the blog.

OneWorld Wellness Challenge

I don't think I have really blogged much about the OneWorld Wellness Challenge so far so here it goes. On April 7th we started a 12 week wellness challenge here at OneWorld. The idea of the challenge was hatched and developed by the C&C committee. The purpose of the challenge as written so eloquently by Valerie "Words" Niemeyer is to "support each other in developing lifestyle habits that form us into healthier and happier human beings."

Seventy-two staff members signed up and were broken into 18 4-person teams. Each team member keeps track of his or her physical activities for the week and then turns in (sometimes) their log each Monday. When we started this project we knew that we would be hiring a Wellness and Training coordinator but did not want to wait for that person to be hired to start the program. Teawna Bell has been hired to fill this position and has taken over the administration of the wellness program and is doing a wonderful job.

The Top Ten after week 6 is:
Final Four - 1873
Real Chicks - 1570
Four Fantastic Women - 1565
Part-Timers - 1258
OneWorld Angels - 1216
Team Cass - 1177
Lady Bugs - 1000
Butterflies - 933
Emeralds - 923
Ghost - 898

There will be a meeting this Friday at 12:00 in the first floor conference room to review the program so far and to ask questions and make suggestions for the next wellness challenge. Please plan on attending and sharing your input. There will be sugared drinks provided for those of you on a different team than me. See you there.

EHR Update

I guess that a blog doesn't really work if you only update once a month. Sorry. I have lots of things to share but sometimes this slips by. I will try better.

The Go Live date for the EPM is now July 29th. This will give us time to more thoroughly test the electronic claims process. Cassie from Custom Computing has been working diligently with NextGen staff to ensure that this transition is smooth. Each staff member who has gone through EPM training will have a one on one skills check off with a member of the Samurais. On the EMR front, the Groovy Ninja’s have been meeting weekly for some time and are currently tackling chart pre-load procedures and document types as well as process mapping to make sure that we set up the EMR to be able to accomplish all that we currently do for our patients. Dr. Dethlefs, Michelle Linbo, Tom Oakes, and I spent last week in Dallas learning how to modify the templates in NextGen to better meet our needs. It was a long week with lots of information but it was the best training session that I have ever been to. November is our initial go live date for the EHR side of the software. If we are unable to make that date we will fall back to February.