News Briefs Around Sentara

— Sentara Life Care Helps Deliver Healthy Eats
Mike Gentry, Sentara corporate vice president, Southside, recently stopped by Sentara Nursing Center – Norfolk, to lend a hand in the preparation of meals for Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia. He assisted Virginia Walls, food service team member, who has worked at Sentara Nursing Center – Norfolk since 1995.

Sentara Life Care coordinates with Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia to provide healthy meals for older adults that are picked up by drivers and delivered to various locations throughout the area.

Additionally, Sentara Life Care Corporation prepares meals through five different sites for delivery to the home bound elderly. More than 850 meals are prepared and delivered each day, Monday through Friday. Sentara operates Mobile Meals of Norfolk and provides office space to Meals of Virginia Beach Inc.

Sentara is also contracted with the Area Agency on Aging at three sites, which deliver meals to the elderly in Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Hampton. Volunteers and Sentara Life Care staff like Virginia Walls, help support these valuable community programs for older adults.

For more information or to volunteer your time to Mobile Meals of Norfolk, call (757) 892-5210 or (757) 892-5211 or read more about Mobile Meals.

Help Sentara Support JT Walk to Benefit Grommet Island Park and ALS Research —
Sentara Healthcare and Optima Health are one of several presenting sponsors for the JT Walk & Beach Party to benefit Grommet Island Park and ALS research on Sunday, October 4 in Virginia Beach. Sentara encourages all employees to get involved, become a team captain, be a walker, spread the news and make a donation! Registration begins at 9 a.m., walk at 11a.m. and a beach party immediately follows.

The JT Walk was created last year by Bruce Thompson, a local developer, in honor of his son Josh Thompson, age 34, who is stricken with ALS, more commonly know as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Proceeds support ALS research and Grommet Island Park, a one of a kind park and playground on the beach that is handicap accessible.

For more information, visit WaveNet, call 1-800-SENTARA, or go directly to the JT Walk Website, click on Join a Team, click on the Sentara/Optima Health team, Select a Team Captain of your choice, then sign-up to become a walker and make a donation. (You do not have to walk to make a donation.) If you’d like to become a team captain, we’ll register for you. Simply provide your contact information to a 1-800 team member and we’ll set you up on the website!

Sentara Prepares for Seasonal and 2009 H1N1 'Swine' Flu
Sentara Healthcare has been preparing for the onset of seasonal and 2009 H1N1 flu viruses by beginning its employee vaccination program a month earlier than usual. Health officials predict an early onset of seasonal flu this year.

Sentara offers flu news or local flu immunization information as it becomes available. If you would like to receive email updates with flu immunization information, simply register here.

Seasonal flu vaccinations began August 31 for employees at Sentara Life Care facilities, which include nursing homes and assisted living villages and senior day programs. Subsequent vaccinations have focused first on clinical employees in the highest-risk operations, including nurseries, neo-natal intensive care units, critical care units, labor and delivery units, and emergency departments. Eventually, all Sentara employees working in clinical facilities will be urged to receive vaccines for the seasonal flu strain.

The H1N1 vaccine is not expected to be available until late-October in a phased distribution beginning with the highest-risk populations, including healthcare workers. We intend to encourage the H1N1 vaccine for employees working in clinical facilities, assuming the vaccine's availability is assured and its reliability and safety meet federal standards. Seasonal flu vaccine involves one injection. H1N1 vaccine will likely require two injections 21 to 28 days apart. Health department officials suggest taking seasonal flu vaccines as early as possible, given the potential for an early start to the flu season this year.

— Sentara Life Care Welcomes Congressman Glenn Nye
Sentara Life Care welcomed Congressman Glenn Nye on Aug. 22 for a tour of Sentara Nursing Center – Windermere in Virginia Beach. Congressman Nye represents Virginia’s 2nd District, which includes the communities of Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore. Bruce Robertson, vice president, Sentara Life Care, and Steve Morrisette, president of the Virginia Health Care Association, met with Congressman Nye to discuss future potential federal cuts in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, as well as the impact of these potential cuts to nursing facilities, services and staffing.

Read about services offered by Sentara Life Care.

Sentara Obici Hospital Wins Education Award
Sentara Obici Hospital has been selected as a regional winner of the 2009 Creating Excellence Award by the Virginia Department of Education, Office of Career and Technical Education. This annual award recognizes exemplary projects that promote excellence in career and technical education.

Suffolk Public Schools and Sentara Obici Hospital have worked in partnership for the past four years to provide students enrolled in the Introduction to Health Occupations course with clinical hands-on and realistic work experiences as they are introduced to the health industry. The hospital has partnered with the school division to offer a Medical Camp for more than 100 high school students. Students spend the school day at the hospital and rotate through a variety of clinical settings that provide a large range of hands-on practical procedures.

Sentara Obici Hospital also supports a HOSA Junior Volunteer Program for Health Occupations Students of America members. Student volunteers work at the hospital after school and on Saturdays. The hospital was recognized at a dinner on Aug. 4 in Richmond.

Sentara Bayside Hospital/Sentara Princess Anne Promote Safety —
Sentara Bayside Hospital/Sentara Princess Anne Education Department sponsored safety fairs for employees in June at both facilities. The events were designed to promote the Sentara “Culture of Safety” for employees.

Judy Hinch, Sentara Employee Safety Specialist, Occupational Health Services, displays a specially designed mask for healthcare workers, called N-95 respirator, along with safety information.

Pictured from (L-R) in the lab are: (back row) Dr. Craig Goodmurphy, PhD, associate professor EVMS Gross Anatomy Lab, Marion Fernandez, Cyndie Doherty, Dianna Turner, and Sharon Harris; (front row) Zi Hunt, RN, S.A.W. coach; and Tasha Chapman. Other recent graduates not pictured include: Lillian Purvis and Leri Turner.

—    School at Work Students Take Field Trip
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital School at Work (S.A.W.) students took a field trip to the Gross Anatomy Lab at EVMS before graduating in June from the program.

School at Work (S.A.W.) is an 8-month entry level program for employees who would like to become an entry level healthcare professional.

                    Marion Swaim

Sentara Employee Receives National Peer Award     —
Marion Swaim, vice president for health information services, Sentara Healthcare, is sole national winner of the 2009 Triumph Award for e-HIM from the American Health Information Management Association for her work on Sentara eCare® and her leadership in advancing electronic medical records.

Swaim works with the entire Sentara system in our continued efforts to make health information patient-centered, comprehensive, accessible and credible. Congratulations on this prestigious accomplishment.

John Horn, LPN

Sentara Employee Renamed to Virginia Board of Nursing —
John Horn, LPN, Cardiac Care Unit, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital-Sentara Heart Hospital, has been reappointed to the Virginia Board of Nursing by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine for a second four-year term.

Horn travels to Richmond three days each month to serve and dedicate his time to the state of Virginia. He currently serves on the Virginia Discipline Committee. His commitment to patients, the nursing profession and the state of Virginia are greatly appreciated. Congratulations to an outstanding Member of the Team.

Sentara Employee Receives 2009 Clinical Associate Award
Candi Mansfield, RN, RCIS, team coordinator for the Endovascular Lab at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital has received the 2009 clinical associate award by the Association of Vascular Interventional Radiology. She was featured in the summer issue of the Interventional Informer. Mansfield is currently working with the main operating room at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in preparation for the coming Hybrid OR.

(L-R) Doug Thompson, Dave Bernd, Thomas Thames, MD, and Nancy Gruenwald accept the award on behalf of Sentara, from Ben Skyles and John Grotting of Ascent Healthcare Solutions.

— Sentara Receives Award for ‘Green’ Program
Ascent Healthcare Solutions recently presented Sentara with their Gold-level ‘Healthy Hospital Award’ for keeping 53,000 pounds of waste out of landfills through remanufacturing of single-use surgical devices. This is a proven, FDA-approved process in health care and Sentara has saved just over $1 million through safe and sterile reprocessing.

Ascent works with some of the biggest health care systems and purchasing groups in the United States. A special thanks to the surgeons and operating teams at Sentara for their efforts in efficiency and conservation.

Sentara Leigh Hospital Achieves Stage Six Designation
Sentara Leigh Hospital has been designated as a Stage 6 hospital by the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption Model. Only 2 percent of the hospitals are at level 6 or 7 which reflect the highest level of integration. The key components of the designation are to recognize hospitals/systems, which have integrated EMR, CPOE adoption, and other key support systems in place.

(L-R) Brian Flowers, Brenda Maftoum, Debbie Moore and Audrey Douglas-Cooke gear up to ride.

This distinction honors Sentara Leigh Hospital’s accomplishments to implement technology solutions that have the ability to improve patient safety and quality of care. There are only two level seven systems in the country, including Kaiser Permanente Health Foundation in California and Northshore University Health System in Evanston, Illinois.

Ride For Your Heart Benefits American Heart Association —
Sentara Heart sponsored "Ride for Your Heart" event on August 2 with 139 participants. The event included a motorcycle ride that went from Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital to Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk and ended with an after ride party and fundraiser at Knuckleheads Roadhouse in Virginia Beach. More than $3,000 was raised for the American Heart Association.

Read more about Heart Services at Sentara.

"Fully Meet Two Leaps" Award for Sentara Leigh Hospital
Sentara Leigh Hospital was recognized by The Virginia Business Coalition on Health (VBCH). VBCH, a non-profit organization and member of the National Coalition on Health, is a Leapfrog Regional Rollout Leader and publicly reports hospital quality and patient safety data. Sentara Leigh Hospital fully met the two Leaps from the 2008 Leapfrog Hospital Survey as follows: (1) Appropriate ICU Physician Staffing and (2) Steps to Reduce Harm (met all safety practices).