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Caring for patients in hospice can cover a wide range of emotional events. Sometimes, they can even be celebrations. Case in point – Kris Prahl, a Patient Care Tech on our Lutheran Hospice team in Wheat Ridge, CO, learned that one of her patients was having a birthday soon – her 101st! Kris crafted a huge birthday card and asked many of her colleagues to sign it with birthday wishes. She bought a pint of the patient’s favorite ice cream – chocolate chip cookie dough. Here’s what happened next, according to Kris: “When I went for my visit on Friday the 18th and brought in the card, her eyes just lit up and got so big, she just about started to cry. She was very thankful for the card and the ice cream. She even said that this was the best birthday she ever had.” Thank you, Kris, for making this patient feel special, for showing her kindness all day, every day, and for living our core values!
Happy National Clinical Nurse Specialist Recognition Week! We want to take this opportunity to recognize and celebrate the invaluable contributions our Clinical Nurse Specialists bring to Intermountain. Thank you for all you do to improve patient outcomes and advance the nursing profession!
It's not too late to join us for our upcoming Primary Children's Hospital Miller Campus hiring event! Date: Wednesday, September 6th, 2023 Time: 1pm - 5pm MT Location: Amber Room at Thanksgiving Point (inside the Museum of Ancient Life), 2929 N Thanksgiving Way, Lehi, UT 84043 We currently have open positions in the following areas: Child Life, Environmental Services/Housekeeping, Food Services, Imaging, Medical Assistants, Patient Care Techs, Pharmacy, Registered Nurses, Respiratory Therapy, Security, and Supply Chain. We hope to see you there!
On the evening of Aug. 3, Alta View Hospital was hit by a severe thunderstorm that triggered flooding on all three floors of the care site and caused the neighboring city of Draper to declare a state of emergency. Summer Jones, the nursing house supervisor, jumped into action and began to triage the situation. Summer followed her training and called Janet Hintze, Alta View’s chief nursing officer, the administrator on call, who soon became the incident command officer during the emergency. When Janet arrived at the hospital, it was immediately clear that patients might need to be moved. Every unit in the hospital was affected directly or indirectly by the flood. Facility manager Ben Scholes coordinated with teams from other hospitals, and with Intermountain’s system emergency response team, to get systems up and running quickly. The environmental services team worked overnight to clean the actual labor and delivery rooms so that they could be re-opened as quickly as possible (on the first day back in service, the L&D team saw a full load of patients, including a C-section.) Janet said the positive attitude shown by caregivers helped make the ordeal easier for patients, and for the caregivers themselves. The womens’ center team had the good humor to create onesies for the new moms involved that read, “Born during the Alta View flood of August 2023.” One family member of a patient even remarked that it was “kind of cool” to deliver during a disaster scenario.
St. Mary's Medical Center in Grand Junction, CO, now part of Intermountain Health, now employs three full-time and two part-time K-9 teams which include a dog and a handler. The dogs and their handlers undergo formal training for months before starting at the hospital. Unlike traditional police dogs, in addition to security, they also are trained to be approachable and provide comfort to patients and staff. “Their main job when they come to work is to patrol and be seen. That visibility is the number one value of the program and the deterrence that it provides. But they are also used to provide comfort to our associates after they’ve worked a difficult case or even to ease a patient who might be experiencing anxiety from being in the hospital,” said Susan Bourgeois, interim director of Public Safety and Security in the Peaks Region of Intermountain Health. Healthcare settings can be a stressful environment, and workers across the country are increasingly seeing patients and visitors act out. As a result, healthcare workers are at an increased risk of experiencing verbal threats or physical attacks. St. May’s K-9 team provides a visual deterrent to these behaviors and can help deescalate potential harmful situations, and according to Bourgeois, since implementing the K-9 program St. Mary’s has seen a reduction in workplace violence injuries by 50%.
Recognizing the power of collaboration and the local community, Mind Springs and Intermountain Health have agreed on a third-party management contract to support West Springs Hospital's operational oversight in Grand Junction, CO. By pulling together the knowledge, skills, and resources of two hospitals, the contract aims to create a more comprehensive and efficient approach to addressing the conditional license requirement for West Springs Hospital by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) in June. “Mind Springs is an essential part of the healthcare continuum, and we were happy to help support them when they approached St. Mary’s. It’s vital that the community step up to offer support at this time,” said President Bryan Johnson, St. Mary’s Medical Center. “Intermountain Health has strong behavioral health expertise in-house that we will tap into for this work.”
Melissa, a medical assistant III and kidney/pancreas assistant who has been at Intermountain Medical Center for 11 years, was headed to lunch in a separate building when she noticed a person who seemed to be struggling. Melissa offered to grab a wheelchair for the man, and when she returned with one, asked if she could help him get to his cardiology appointment. She explained to him that there is more than one cardiology office on IMC’s large campus, and helped him locate the correct clinic. Once they arrived at the clinic, Melissa helped the man check in, only to find that he was 18 minutes late for his appointment, and that he might not be seen. Eventually Melissa negotiated for the man to be seen, and asked if someone could help him to his car afterwards. When told that that was not an option, Melissa left her telephone number with the patient and instructed him to call her when the appointment ended. “It felt great,” Melissa said. “You don’t realize how much a small effort can help someone get thru their day. It was a good feeling to be able to help him as much as I did.” “Melissa is an amazing caregiver who keeps our kidney clinic running smoothly,” said organ transplant coordinator Wendy Stapley. “She handles multiple providers and dozens of patients in a day and somehow keeps everyone happy and informed. She is loved by her patients and staff alike. Everyone wishes they had a Melissa working with them.”
Hear from Dave, Respiratory Therapy Manager, on why he decided to join our Primary Children's Hospital team in Salt Lake City, UT. #videooftheweek #primarychildrenshospital #joinourteam #nowhiring
We're proud to announce the extension of our partnership as the Official Healthcare Partner for U.S. Ski & Snowboard through 2027! “Our partnership with U.S. Ski & Snowboard furthers Intermountain Health’s mission of helping people live the healthiest lives possible,” said Rob Allen, Intermountain Health President and CEO. “The freestyle event, Certified Center of Excellence Program, and the medical experts on the Performance Medical Team all underscore our joint commitment to health and the highest standard of excellence in care for athletes and our communities.”
Healthcare is centered around caregiver-patient relationships where success can be measured in part by trust, and an important group of individuals in Nevada are helping to establish trust in healthcare for underrepresented populations across the Las Vegas Valley: Community Health Workers. Last fall, Intermountain received a 2022 Community Health Training Award, awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration. This award was part of the American Rescue Plan and amounted to $225.5 million distributed among 83 recipients around the country. Intermountain Health received nearly $1.85 million over a three-year period and was the only organization in Nevada to be awarded with these funds for a community health worker apprenticeship. The money will serve people in Clark, Nye, Esmeralda, and Lincoln counties and allows Intermountain Health to train a total of 150 community health workers over a three-year period. After year one, the Nevada Community Health Worker’s Association has trained a total of 40 Community Health Workers. These CHWs currently work at organizations such as the National Association of Mental Illness, Immunize Nevada, Nye Communities Coalition, The Center, UNLV School of Public Health, and more. If you are interested in signing up for this program, please visit the Community Health Workers Association’s website at www.nvchwa.org and fill out the survey to apply for the grant.
