Update for Week ending
July 18, 2009
Board Meeting Packets. The Board meeting packets were sent out to each member. The meeting materials include the Board packet (grey booklet) and the Operational Updates (black booklet). The packets include all of our quarterly operational updates for the Board meeting.
Customer Service. Our new customer service improvement effort is under way with the manager and staff training described in the July 4th update. The manager program includes an overview and tools that can be shared with staff on an ongoing basis. Nearly half of all supervisors were able to attend the first trainings that took place July 8th and 10th. Additional training will be held in mid-August.
Laboratory Excellence Award. We recently announced the successful survey of our Laboratory at the Ethel Lund Medical Center. As a result of that survey, we also received a COLA Laboratory Excellence Award. COLA is a clinical laboratory accreditation organization. This award is given to labs that “are found to be compliant with all COLA essential and required criteria at the time of their on-site survey. In addition, award recipients must have demonstrated successful proficiency testing for the prior three testing events and have no valid complaints against the laboratory.” Again, congratulations to our staff for their dedication to quality health care.
WISE Families Presents at National Conference. Our WISE Families program was one of two programs to present during a breakout session at the Indian Health Service Health Summit. Pam Sloper and Nancy Knapp reported that our session was very well attended. Our WISE Families program offers traditional knowledge activities to promote healthy lifestyles in Klukwan, Haines, and Wrangell.
Community Resource Program to Visit Petersburg and Wrangell. Staff from our Community Resource Program department will be visiting Petersburg and Wrangell this week. Karen Fredrickson and Suzanne Portello will be in both communities to provide support to our referral coordinators, patients, and contract providers.
Dr. Grasmeder to Visit Petersburg & Wrangell. Dr. Marty Grasmeder will be in Petersburg and Wrangell this week. In addition to joining our Community Resource department as our Medical Director for these communities, he will be seeing pediatric patients in Wrangell.
Tribal Health System Selects ALERT. We received news from our Systems Transformation project manager that Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation signed with ALERT for their electronic health record (EHR). Tuba City is in Northwestern Arizona on the Colorado Plateau. SEARHC is also using ALERT as an EHR. We believe this is good news as more Tribal Health Organizations having the same data needs select a similar provider.
Short-Term Housing Transportation. The Short-Term Housing van has arrived! The service will be a major improvement for our guests at our Short-Term Housing Facility in Sitka. We also expect some cost savings due to the reduction in need for taxi vouchers. We anticipate being able to run the van for most inbound and outbound flights and ferries, with a few exceptions, as we are using existing staffing to operate the van. We expect to begin the service no later than August 1st.
Just a reminder. . . SEARHC frequently brings in traveling medical specialists to hold specialty clinics at our various facilities. Please click here to view our upcoming specialty clinic schedules.
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