RxTraA publication for the staff of Hartford Hospital

The Quarter Century Club Rocks!

May 23, 2011 Vol. 67 No. 17

Memorial Service for Pam Vecchiarino Please join us for a memorial service honoring Pam on Thursday, May 26 from 2-3 p.m. in the ERC Building/Heublein Hall.

More than 1,100 attended the Quarter Century Club

event held May 13. This festive celebration

recognizes staff who have been with Hartford Hospital for

25 years or more. A special

congratulations to the 80 new inductees.

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The Employees’ Council is happy to invite all Hartford Hospital staff to the annual Employees’ Summer Outing at Lake Compounce in Bris-tol on Saturday, June 4 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

There will be a lunch picnic from noon to 2:30 p.m., fea-turing BBQ chicken, ham-burgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, baked beans, po-tato salad, salad bar, jel-lo and assorted ice cream novelties.

Tickets are $36, and can be purchased in the Auxiliary Store. The price includes parking, entrance to the park, and the picnic. Children age 3 and under do not need a ticket; children ages 4 and up do. Regular park admission without food is $36, plus $8 for parking.

As a special bonus offer, you can get a free pass to return to the park during the 2011 season.

Lake Compounce is located at 271 En-terprise Drive in Bristol. It is the oldest,

cont inuously-operat-ing amusement park in North America, having its genesis more than 165 years ago in 1846.

Among other famous attractions, Lake Com-pounce is home to Boul-der Dash, which has been voted the world’s #1 wooden roller coast-er, as well as Connecti-cut’s largest water park.

The park also features two other roller coast-ers, thrill rides, classic

and kiddie rides, kids shows, street en-tertainment and a dance party.

For directions or more information, visit www.lakecompounce.com.

Experienced RN Open House at Hartford Hospital

Our nurses, working wonders every day.Explore the opportunities at Hartford Hospital

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 • 2-6pm • Hartford Hospital Main LobbyMeet members of our nursing leadership team • On-site tours will be conducted • Drawings for terrific prizes • Refreshments • Parking will be validated for the Medical Office Building Garage

Full-time, part-time and per diem opportunities are available in a variety of areas for RNs with acute care experience.

RSVPHHrecruiting@harthosp.orgWalk-ins are always welcome

For more information on nursing opportunities, please visit:hartfordhospital.org/nursing

80 Seymour StreetHartford, CT 06102-5037

Staff Outing at Lake Compounce June 4; Sponsored by the Employees’ Council

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Ethics or compliance concerns?If you have any business ethics or compliance concerns, please contact your supervisor

or call the Compliance Helpline, a confidential service, at 1-800-431-5572.

Su usted habla Espanol, favor llamar 1-800-297-8592.

During the first six months of this fiscal year, Hartford Hospital spent an average of $50,000 per month on office supplies.

In an effort to reduce office supply ex-penses, the Clinical Quality Value Anal-ysis (CQVA) committee, in conjunction with W.B. Mason, is designing a supply ordering system more in line with our cost containment efforts.

CQVA is a formal process of making de-cisions about buying supplies. By asking end-users to be aware of costs and only slightly adjust their ordering behavior, the hospital will achieve huge savings.

As an example, in the past six months, more than 217 different types of pens were ordered, at costs ranging from 99 cents per dozen up to $39.72 per dozen.

In an effort to reduce these expendi-tures, the CQVA committee has in-structed W.B. Mason to offer reduced selections on certain items, while en-suring that those items are the func-tional equivalent of the more expensive brand name products.

The rollout of the process will be done in stages until all products offered have been evaluated.

The first stage will involve pens, high-lighters, dry erase (white board) mark-ers, and post-it notes.

• Three types of pens – stick, gel and rollerball – will be available. Each will be available in medium or fine point; with a choice of black, blue, or red ink.

Basic stick pens are 75 cents per dozen for medium point, and 99 cents per doz-en for fine point.

Gel pens are $3.99 per dozen for fine point, and $8.24 for medium point.

Rollerball pens are $9.67 per dozen for fine or medium point.

• Two types of highlighters will be of-fered: a small pocket style, and a larger type. Both styles will be available in yel-low, blue, or pink.

Pocket style highlighters are $2.59 per dozen in yellow, and $5.99 per dozen in green, blue, or pink.

Large highlighters are $2.73 per dozen in yellow, and $6.24 in blue or pink.

• One type of dry erase marker will be available, in black, blue, red, and green. They are $5.99 per dozen.

• “Post-it” notes will be available in yel-low only, in small, medium, and large. Small (1.5” x 2”) are 91 cents per dozen; medium (3” x 3”) are $1.95 per dozen, and large (3” x 5”) are $2.97 per dozen.

The CQVA team highly encourages all Hartford Hospital staff to use the low-est cost pens and other supplies to max-imize the savings for the hospital.

Once this standardization process is fully implemented, the team projects annual savings of 10% to 15%.

Everyone’s cooperation will be required for this initiative to succeed. Questions should be directed to the CQVA team members: Roland Wang, James Baio, or Peter Nagel.

Hartford Hospital Works With W.B. Mason To Achieve Cost Savings on Office Supplies

Happening at Hartford HospitalIncident Command System Training TuesdayThe second of two Hospital Incident Command System training classes will be held Tuesday, May 24. The “Ap-plying the Incident Command Sys-tem to Health Care Organizations” course fulfills the Joint Commission and Connecticut Department of Pub-lic Health accreditation requirements. For registration information, e-mail CEMP-training@harthosp.org.

Info Meeting Wednesday About Weight Watchers at Work ProgramAn informational meeting about Weight Watchers at Work will be held Wednes-day, May 25 from 11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. in Dining Rooms B and C. Two options are available: 12 weeks for $152 (2 pay-ments of $76), or 17 weeks for $197 (3 payments of $65.66). The cost in-cludes the use of Weight Watchers on-line etools. A minimum of 15 people are needed for program to be offered here. For more information, contact Ron Jam-bard, 860-545-4293.

“Caring for the Patient with Heart Failure” in Newington TuesdayThis free educational series for RNs and LPNs will look at pathophysiology and nursing assessment, pharmacology, nu-trition, activity, nursing interventions with case studies, palliative care, patient education concepts and safe transition across the continuum. Session I will be Tuesday, May 24, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.; and session II will be Wednesday, June 8, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Classes will be held in the Curtis Professional Building Am-phitheater (second floor), at the Newing-ton Campus. Registration is required. For more information and to register online, go to www.harthosp.org/CPHF. Spon-sored by the HH Community of Care CHF Collaborative.

Sell Your Gold ThursdayBecker’s Jewelry will be onsite buying gold, silver and diamonds Thursday, May 26, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at The Auxiliary Store. For more information call the store at 860-545-2155 or e-mail dtjohnson@har-thosp.org.

Depression Clinical Trial Seeking ParticipantsHave you been diagnosed with major de-pression which has not improved with your current medication? We are enroll-ing patients for a research trial to assess whether an investigational combination drug may be useful, safe, and well toler-ated for the treatment of major depres-sion. You may be able to participate if you are between 18-65 and have a current diagnosis of major depressive disorder that has not improved with treatment. Participants will receive study-related care, exams and medication at no cost. For more information, please contact Dr. John Goethe, IOL, 860-545-7502.

Pledge to the Employee Giving CampaignThe Employees Giving Campaign Raf-fle will be held Monday-Friday during May. The earlier you pledge, the great-er the opportunity to win, because your name will be included in ALL the draw-ings from your date of entry. Look on the intranet under “Employee services” for a complete list of raffle prizes.

Join the Hartford Hospital team - Kick Rocks Cancer!

Relay for Life - June 4-5 Northwest Catholic High School, West Hartford

Opening ceremonies Saturday at 1 p.m.

Team Captain Rachel Opito, Cancer Clinical Research Office,

860-545-5363 or ropito@harthosp.org