www.queens.org

The Queen’s Health Systems is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit corporation

RETIREMENT WORKSHOPS at QMC-Punchbowl are wrapping up. A Smart Start to Social Security will be held on Thursdays, September 10 and 17 from 12:00 - 1:00 pm in the Queen’s Confer-ence Center room 203. Register online at http://eww.queens.org/hr/registration/retirement.asp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .NURSING SCHOLARSHIP applications are due September 21. The Ruth E. Black Nursing Scholarship will award three $2,000 scholarships to QHS/QMC em-ployees who are currently enrolled in an accredited school of nursing program leading to a BSN degree. The Barbara Wei Lau Nursing Scholarship will award one $500 scholarship to a QHS/QMC employee or volunteer currently enrolled

for protecting valuables for moving, liners for pet cages, drop cloths for painting, car upholstery protection after surfing, swimming, running, etc. Help give the blue wraps another purpose before add-ing to the landfill.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .NEXT DAY MAMMOGRAM screening appointments for QHS employees may be available (space permitting) at the Women’s Health Center on Wednesday and Friday mornings between 7:30 am and 10:00 am. Call 691-7555 one day pri-or to schedule an appointment. Be pre-pared to pre-register at the time of your call by having your insurance information available, as well as the date and loca-tion of your last screening mammogram. Walk-ins will not be accepted.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .HEALING TOUCH/REIKI for employees is available on Mondays and Fridays (ex-cept on holidays) from 3:00 to 4:30 pm in the QET 7 Ewa conference room. Make an appointment by callling 691-7146.

The Queen’s Health Systems consists of The

Queen’s Medical Center, The Queen’s Medical

Center – West O’ahu, The Queen’s Health Care

Centers, Queen Emma Land Company, Queen’s

Development Corporation, Queen’s Insurance

Exchange, Inc., Molokai General Hospital and

North Hawai‘i Community Hospital, and has

ownership interests in CareResource Hawai‘i,

The Queen’s Print Connection is pub-lished by Creative Services. If you have news or wish to opine, call 691-7532 or email jkimura@queens.org. The news deadline is Monday prior to publication.

QHS/QMC Pres. . . . . . . .Art Ushijima

Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Keala Peters

Editor/Writer . . . . . . . . . .Jason Kimura

Assist. Ed./Writer . . . . . Glee Stormont

4

PATTI GARRETT, JD, QHS Corporate Counsel, was stunned to be named the winner of the FY2014-15 Founders Award. She has been a staff attorney at QHS since January 2009 and focused mainly on contract matters. With the ad-dition of North Hawai’i Community Hos-pital (NHCH) and QMC-West O’ahu to the QHS ‘ohana, Patti took on more re-sponsibilities and a significant increase in work load.

She especially devoted a lot of time to NHCH issues, working hard with the medical staff leadership and entirely re-vising the Medical Staff Bylaws, a critical step in improving the medical staff gover-nance. In a very short time, Patti became a trusted advisor to NHCH’s Medical Ex-ecutive Committee (MEC).

She has also provided tremendous support to the Queen’s MEC and is re-lied upon to assist with numerous Medi-cal Staff matters. Patti provides solid and timely advice on many issues, including physician fair hearings and is a trusted problem solver for many departments throughout the entire QHS organization.

Becoming a lawyer was actually her father’s idea, Patti wanted to become a speech pathologist. “Maybe he saw something in me that I didn’t,” she con-sidered. After hearing dad’s voice whis-pering in her head for many years, Patti finally took a few political science courses and found a new passion. Blessed by ter-rific professors, Patti flourished and grad-uated from law school. Her first job was in the legal department at Kaiser Per-manente and she’s been in health care ever since. “Maybe it was a way to have both, social service and law combined,” she mused.

Patti is now all about Queen’s. “I feel

Vol. 24 • No.  37 • Sept. 7, 2015

so undeserving of this award,” she said earnestly. “I am in awe of what people do here everyday- the people who work throughout this organization, not just the providers, but all of the support people as well. I feel so grateful to get to work with people who inspire me everyday. I don’t think I would see that, be that inspired if I wasn’t in health care.”

Patti is also the mother of three chil-dren, who range from still in elementary school to already out of college. “It’s kind of crazy, but it’s fun,” she laughed. Asked what else she does for kicks, she braced for the reaction and said, “I box.” Yep, one-two punch, gloves and all. “It’s so fun,” she gushed. “And I think it really helps me stay balanced.” Patti first took up the hobby years ago to get back into shape after hav-ing a baby. “Then I got hooked! It’s very empowering. I would definitely recom-mend it. I think it’s important for women es-pecially to find ways to keep our minds and our bodies strong,” she concluded.

QMC Punchbowl:Friday, September 11, 11:30am–  1:00pm Harkness Courtyard Punchbowl physicians and staff are also invited to take the pledge in these addi-tional ways:Roving Carts: Sept. 11, eve & night shiftsHarkness Kiosk: Sept. 14 & 15, 11am - 1pm.Or schedule a time for your unit to take the pledge together by contacting KimHolliday at kholliday@queens.org.

QMC West O‘ahu:Wednesday,  September  23,  12–1:30pm North Hawai‘i Community Hospital:Friday, September 25, 2:30–3:30pmCareResource Hawai‘i (Kona):Friday, September 25, 12–1:30pmDiagnostic Lab Services (Halawa):Tuesday, September 29, 11am–1pmCareResource Hawai‘i (O‘ahu):Wednesday, September 30, 3–4pmMolokai General Hospital:date coming soonQueen’s Health Care Centers:date coming soon

Patients First Promise Events

In the Footsteps of the Founders

September 2015

In acknowledgment of many years of continued service, the Queen’s ‘ohana congratulates those who are mark-ing an anniversary. Mahalo to all for your dedicated ser-vice. Employees work at QMC Honolulu unless noted.

5 yearsErmalyn AbinosaDwayne BatadAnja BateyJulius Dela PenaJaimie Delos Reyes, MGHMelissa DieterIkaika FuataLorraine HinagaJeffrey KeckLauren KimLisa KimNicholas LaniauskasWhitney Limm, QHSHolly-Jill LugoScotty OkuraEric PalacolAndros Perez-ChiJonathan RodriguezScott ShimoteShugi Zheng

10 yearsJoelle CabiaraVangie CaraangJohn CleghornIra GreeneKara KoenigsJocelyn KuniyoshiPatricia LentzQueenie LuaaoCindy MaserYukari NakatsujiJanette OyakawaMalia RamirezSherrie-Lynn Watai

15 yearsEilleen Ruth Delos SantosWilfred HeeLynette HigaFritzie IgnoAlmanette Kealoha

Lorene Kim, QEFJason MashinoJoy NittaMichael PachecoAntonio ReyesWendy RogersLianne SoDavid Wadsworth

20 yearsJoyce ArevaloBrian BianchinNaomi CopelandCatherine FernandezDeborah HipolitoAlyson KauSharon TamashiroDavid Valentini

25 yearsTeodorico BasaRogelio CortezKari DeludeLynette Hamada

Selina MillarJune SaruwatariAnnabelle TabayoyongEmily Walker

30 yearsDiane Kuulei FowlerSharon GaboyaRobert MochizukiGary Sonan, Jr.

35 years Marilyn BellCarol ChunAngel Lau

40 years Susan Yokoyama

45 years Rosalita Cabalteja

in an accredited school of nursing pro-gram. For an application or more infor-mation, contact rlatimer@queens.org or call 691-5175.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .SAVE THE DATE for the Evidence-Based Care of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries. The conference will be held on Saturday, February 20, 2016 at the Queen’s Con-ference Center. For more information, including details about guest speakers James S. Harrop MD, FACS, and Alex-ander R. Vaccaro, MD, PhD, contact the CME office at 691-7009 or by email at cme@queens.org.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .FIDELITY WORKPLACE Planning and Guidance Consultant Keith Wallace would love to help you with your indi-vidual planning needs. Call: 1-800-642-7131 or visit www.fidelity.com/atwork/reservations.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .BLUE WRAPS are available from the Main OR front desk (691-4386). These are clean wraps with many uses such as

Want to Take the Patients First Pledge? Join Us...

Patients First reaffirms our commit-ment to provide safe, high quality care to patients. Now Patients First becomes a promise to our patients. Pledge Events will be held through-out the Queen’s Health Systems. You are invited to join us at the first spe-cial event as QHS/QMC President Art Ushijima leads physicians, managers and staff in taking the Pledge together.Service

A W A R D S

2 3

Putting Patients First Takes Team Effort on P7

Vincent Nip, MD and Mike Morimoto, RN

THE QUEEN’S HEALTH SYSTEMS Awards of Excellence for managers/di-rectors for the final quarter of FY2014-15 were announced on Thursday, August 20. The Awards serve to acknowledge the contributions of managers and direc-tors who have been selected by the Sys-tem Leadership Council based on “Qual-ity and Performance, Creativity and Inno-vation, or Organizational/Departmental Accomplishments and Positive Returns, and Demonstration of Outstanding Cus-tomer Service.” The awardees are:

Gary Dias, Director, Security & Safe-ty Services. Gary has worked at Queen’s for 17 years.“Gary is someone who al-ways puts Queen’s first,” endorsed his nominator. Gary has provided valuable knowledge for safety and security train-ing not only at Queen’s, but throughout the community at other hospitals as well as the University of Hawai’i.

Michele Hadano, RN, Director, Sur-gical Units & Ortho Services. Michelle has been a nurse at Queen’s for 31 years and in the words of her nomination, “is

an exceptional, lifelong employee.” Be-sides being a dedicated and caring men-tor to new nurse managers, Michelle is instrumental in the success of the CLABSI (Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infection) reduction Performance Improvement (PI) project.

Jennifer Kimbell, Manager, Oncolo-gy Support Services. A relative “newbie,” with just shy of eight years of service, Jennifer nonetheless has had an impact at Queen’s. As an experienced grant writer, Jennifer was instrumental in ac-quiring grants for QMC from the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Hawai’i Community Foundation and the NIC Clinical Oncol-

ogy Research Program. She also assisted in efforts leading to Queen’s receiving the Commission on Cancer Gold Level Accreditation Award and the Outstand-ing Achievement Award in 2015.

Terri Naauao, Manager I, Commer-cial Real Estate, Queen Emma Land, has worked for QHS for the past 20 years. Terri oversees operations 24/7 for all four Phy-sicians Office Buildings. She has success-fully enhanced relationships with physician tenants, initiated the POB newsletter and changed operational procedures mak-ing Queen’s less susceptible to violating the Stark Law and Anti-Kick Back Laws.

QHS Excellence in Management Recognized

Need for Neuroscience Prompts ICU Bed Expansion

Gary Dias Michele Hadano Jennifer Kimbell Terri Naauao

CHANGE TAKES TIME AND EFFORT. This story begins in 1997 when Mike Morimoto, Nurse Manager on Pauahi 7, first noticed that Vincent Nip, MD, was frustrated when his attempts to voice patient care concerns to staff were mis-interpreted. Mike began rounding with Dr. Nip, discussing cases and looking at expected outcomes, and saw how pas-sionate he was about patient care.

Mike recalled lessons from the book “Hardwiring Excellence” by Quint Stud-er, given to him when he first became a manager, and now a foundation of his management career. “One of the take-aways Studer mentions is that physicians should be one of my customers along with patients, nurses and the organiza-tion,” he explained. “I noticed there were several studies on how the physician-nurse relationship can adversely affect patient care and that The Joint Commis-sion (2007) report mentioned 70% of medical errors were related to communi-cation. This was my case for action and I began sharing this information with some of my unit leaders and developing a plan to minimize errors.”

Mike added his staff to rounds with Dr. Nip, including the off going and on-coming nurses to discuss each case at the bedside. This was met with some reservations from those who felt Dr. Nip (and his patients) should be treated the

same as everyone else. “I reiterated that our focus of patient safety and develop-ing a collaborative relationship with our physicians was crucial to positive out-comes,” Mike said. “Then, we saw a re-duction in errors and nurses began to respond to Dr. Nip in a different light. Dr. Nip’s approach changed too, and he be-gan to spend time teaching rather than correcting.”

Throughout this process, Mike shared Studer’s push for more positive com-ments, at a 5:1 ratio of positive to nega-tive, and even reminded Dr. Nip every time this did not happen.

The results were, less errors, a stron-ger physician-nurse relationship and a collaboration of pushing for excellence. The success then spread to every phy-sician who enters the unit. Whenever a physician arrives, they are greeted by someone and asked if they would like a nurse to round with them. The nurse is also made aware in case there are ques-tions they may need to ask. This has minimized phone calls to physicians after leaving the unit and provided nurses and physicians a chance to communicate in person, to connect and build a relation-ship that promotes diligence towards achieving good outcomes.

“Dr. Nip pushed to have nursing par-ticipate in the medical care rather than to simply be the messenger of informa-

tion,” Mike explained. “Because of this, we have begun to challenge nursing on Pauahi 7, pushing for more education, pursuit of certifications, and higher de-grees. We are in the process of creating a library of medical resources and staff case presentations to build critical think-ing and knowledge base. These were ideas Dr. Nip proposed years ago that are coming to fruition to honor his passion for excellence. And we’ve done it all because we truly believe in putting patients first.”

How is your unit doing? Accept the challenge to work on ways to improve communication as One Team striving for excellence, always with Patients First in mind.

RECENTLY, THE REV. WILLIAM KAINA was at the Neuroscience Unit on QET 5 to bless a brand new construction project to expand the number of Neuroscience ICU beds. Citing the positive things Queen’s does for the community, he quoted Prov-erbs 24:3, which says that “by wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”

Initially, six rooms will be upgraded

to ICU capabilities, with potentially three more to come if the patient population merits it. If all nine beds are built, the Neu-roscience ICU will have a capacity of 17 ICU patients on QET 4 and QET 5. “The need for neurology is high,” said Cherylee Chang, MD, Medical Director of the Neu-roscience Institute (NSI). She noted the new ICU rooms are coming just a year be-fore the NSI’s 20th anniversary. An on-call room will also be added. Dr. Chang also

NSICU Phone Number Changes

The NSICU expansion project is sched-uled to be completed by September 28. Upon completion, 691-7255 (x7255) will be retired and replaced with the following:

• QET 5 Ewa (secretary desk): 691-5423

• QET 5 DH (secretary desk): 691-5425

L-R: Lissa Rodrigues, Brenda Ana, RN, Cherylee Chang, MD, Rev. William Kaina, Kawehi Kauhola, RN, Nancy Chun, Leilani Nutt, RN, Heather Wong, RN, Christine Davis, and Mike Yamamoto.

praised all the people involved in mak-ing the ICU expansion possible—including nurses, doctors, pharmacists, Biomed, IT, Design Construction, Business Office, and others—and marveled at the sheer amount of manpower a project like this takes.

Rev. Kaina concluded by offering three words that will make the expansion successful: lokahi, or unity, in the spirit of which all caregivers must work; laulima, or cooperation, how every healing hand must grow and work; and kuleana, or ownership, meaning that everyone must not only posses, but be responsible for what they own.

The staff of Pauahi 7 who have put Patients First in action.