RxTraA publication for the staff of Hartford Hospital June 25, 2012 Vol. 68 No. 23

Twenty years after the first affiliation was signed, Hartford Hospital renewed its agreement with its sister hospi-tal in China, QiLu Hospital and Shan-dong Medical University. A delegation from the Chinese hospital visited here on June 25. Over the past two decades, more than 200 physicians from the Chi-nese institution have trained in Hart-ford, learning skills that they brought back to China.

“This is a very special relationship that we began 20 years ago,” said Dr. Xin-gang Li, QiLu Hospital’s president. “I did my fellowship at Hartford Hospital and spent two years here. Many other doc-tors trained here. We have become the backbone of our fields in China. This is my first visit as president of the hos-pital, and Hartford Hospital is where I wanted to be.”

“It’s a great honor to think what we be-gan years ago is still so strong and help-ing to bring medical skills to our sister hospital in China,” said Hartford Hospital president and CEO Jeffrey Flaks. “We are thrilled to have a world-class, academ-ic institution that helps further the field of medicine not just here in the state of Connecticut, but across the globe.”

Hartford Hospital’s relationship with Qilu Hospital began in April of 1992. Dozens of scholars from Qilu having been mentored by Hartford Hospital’s physician faculty and participated in re-search projects.

In turn, Hartford Hospital has learned about the culture and medicine of Chi-na from the visiting scholars.

Qilu Hospital is a 1,310 bed teaching hospital that provides more than 1 mil-lion outpatient visits and has 25,000 discharges and 12,000 surgical cases an-nually. Shandong University is one of the largest and oldest comprehensive universities in China, with more than 40,000 students, 3,000 professors, and 74 doctoral programs.

Chinese Delegation Renews Affiliation With HH

It is with great sadness that we announce that Security Officer David Livingston passed away Thursday evening (June 21) at his home. We were privileged to have David as a colleague and friend for 27 years. Our deepest condolences go out to his son, Dan-iel Livingston, and his many friends.

David’s death leaves us saddened, but the mark he left here at Hartford Hospital will not be forgotten. He was quintessential member of the Security Department, as-signed to the gate house at the Institute of Living. He joined the IOL in 1985, and Hart-ford Hospital in 1994.

David was an incredibly caring, cheerful man who consistently made all who entered the In-stitute of Living feel like he was looking out for them. He was awarded the Linda J. Stacy Award for Service Excellence at the Institute of Living in 1997, and was named Hartford Hos-pital Employee of the Year in 2003.

Prior to joining the Institute of Living, David retired from the New Britain Fire Department.

David will be greatly missed by his coworkers and the many friends he has made over the years.

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Jefferson House Director Wins ACHCA

Leadership AwardAlan Laites, director of the Jef-ferson House in Newington, is a 2012 recipient of the Facili-ty Leadership Award from the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA).

The award recognizes organi-zational leadership provided in the achievement of designat-ed dimensions of quality, and is based on three years of skilled nursing facility survey data.

Jefferson House, a department of Hartford Hospital, has been providing excellent long-term care and rehabilitation services to seniors in the greater Hartford area for more than 120 years.

The ACHCA, which believes that facility excellence is a reflec-tion of leadership excellence, is the only professional associa-tion devoted solely to meeting the professional needs of long-term care administrators and executives.

Hartford Hospital Staff Members Mourn Passing of Security Officer David Livingston; 27-Year Veteran

Ruth Amador, RN on C12, was awarded a $5,000 nursing scholarship at the annual banquet of the Alumnae Association of The Hartford Hospital School of Nursing on June 3 at The Cromwell Crowne Plaza.

Ruth has worked on C12 since 2006 and also works as a public health nurse at

UMass Wing Memorial Hospital. She is working on her M.S.N. at Elms College in Chicopee, MA.

The banquet was attended by 200 alum-nae members. Dr. Robert Gallagher spoke on advancements in cardio-thoracic sur-gery at the meeting.

Ruth Amador, RN on C12, Awarded Hartford Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association Scholarship

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Compliance Questions or

Concerns?

If you need to obtain information

about compliance issues or raise

concerns regarding internal and

regulatory practices or policies,

please contact your supervisor or

call the ComplianceLine, a

confidential and toll-free service, at

1-855-HHC-OCAPor online at

HHC.OCAPComplianceLine.com

On behalf of Hartford Hospi-tal’s Young Leaders Advisory Council and LIFE STAR, thank you to everyone who support-ed Flight Night. More than 100 people attended and we raised nearly $3,000 for LIFE STAR. Proceeds from this event will support Connecticut’s only air ambulance service in trans-porting our area’s most criti-cally ill patients. Visit http://giving.harthosp.org/flightnight to view pictures from this event.

“Flight Night” Earns $3,000 To Benefit LIFE STAR

Elections for chair and chair-elect of the Employees’ Council will be held at the Council meeting on Tuesday, July 10. This meeting is open only to department repre-sentatives to the Council.

If ratified by the Council, Rick Zizza-mia, a desktop support analyst in In-formation Technology Services, will be-come chair in September, and Evette Martinez, medical administrative as-sociate at Women’s Ambulatory Health Services, will become chair-elect.

Zizzamia has worked at Hartford Hos-pital for almost 13 years, and is an ac-tive member of the Employee Council and its Executive Board.

He is a musician and song writer, and has performed at and participated in many benefit concerts and events for the American Cancer Society, United Way and Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Martinez has worked at the hospital for three and a half years, and is an active member of the Employee Council and its Executive Board. She is chair of the Recreation Committee, which provides employees with a variety of discounted tickets for events.

She is a volunteer for the Nurturing Connections Program, which links new

parents to volunteers who provide ed-ucation and support. Martinez started the “Coupons For The Troops” program at the hospital, which collects recent-ly expired coupons that can be used by U.S. troops at foreign bases.

Martinez is a registered medical assis-tant and certified phlebotomist techni-cian, and her goal is to become a certi-fied nurse midwife.

The Employees’ Council was created in 1966 as a means of improving com-munication between employees and management.

Every department is represented on the council, and representatives from all of the campuses (Hartford Hospital, Institute of Living, Newington Cam-pus, Jefferson House) attend monthly meetings.

Membership is open to all employees.

Employee Council to Elect New Chairs

Rick Zizzamia Evette Martinez

Retirement Tea Thurs-day for Beth Johnson

Beth Johnson, RN from Case Coordi-nation, will be hon-ored at a retirement tea in the Special Dining Room on Thursday, June 28, from 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Accessories Vendor in Cafeteria ThursdayClassey Accessories & More, a new ven-dor, will be in Cafeteria this Thursday, June 28, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. You’ll find sundresses, Island wear and a huge va-riety of women’s apparel, cover-ups, and the Amazing “Magic Shirt.” Phenomenal prices, and a portion of each sale goes to the Auxiliary.

Care Notes to Become Exitcare (SCM) SaturdayAs of Saturday, June 30, Care Notes will no longer be available. It will become Exitcare (SCM). Please use this for patient education.

Take The Confidentiality Survey by July 1The Department of Academic Affairs is conducting a survey to determine the perceptions and experiences of the Hart-ford Hospital community regarding pa-tient confidentiality. We would great-ly appreciate your participation in this survey by July 1. It should take less than 10 minutes. Your responses will be con-fidential. Please contact Dr. Lenworth Jacobs at ljacobs@harthosp.org if you have questions. Please follow this link to the survey: http://redcap.harthosp.org/surveys/?s=2jKw9U.

New Booking Procedure for ERC Room 221ERC Room 221 has been renovated and will be ready for scheduling new ap-pointments as of July 2. With the renova-tions also comes a change in how room reservations will be scheduled. Book-ing for this room will no longer be avail-able via Groupwise. A busy search can be done to see what is available, but in order to schedule a time, please contact Gina Fleming in the CESI (gflemin@harthosp.org or 860/972-0003). All appointments/standing meetings previously booked in this room for dates after July 1 have been deleted and will need to be resubmitted via email to Gina Fleming. We apologize for any inconvenience.

ERN’s Student Athlete Program July 9-13Eastern Rehabilitation Network’s athletic trainers are gearing up for their summer “get-in-shape” program for students aged 10-18 years. The program is scheduled to take place July 9-13, at Wethersfield High School and there will be a morning and afternoon session. Attendees will work on their agility, flexibility, and speed (vs. sport-specific training). Sessions will be 2.5 hours at a cost of $70. To sign up your student athlete, please send an e-mail to ernsportsmedicine@harthosp.org. If you have any questions e-mail Bill LaBruna at blabrun@harthosp.org.

Swing for the Cure Golf Tournament July 22The 8th Annu-al Swing for the Cure Golf Tour-nament to ben-efit the Helen & Harry Gray Can-cer Center will be held Sunday, July 22, at the Suff-ield Country Club. Shotgun start at 12:30 p.m. For more info, contact Stan McLennan, 860-668-7260, ext. 3.

Tribute To Life Skating Spectacular August 11Tribute to Life: the 4th Annual Skating Spectacular will be held Saturday, Au-gust 11 at 7 p.m. at the Newington Are-na. Proceeds will go to the Helen & Harry Gray Cancer Center, in memory of Da-vid Drake and all those touched by can-cer. The event will feature national and local elite skaters competing at the na-tional and world level. Early bird tickets can be purchased for the reduced price of $20 until July 15; after that advance tick-ets will be $25, and $35 on the day of the show. For more information, email Trib-uteToLifeSkating2@gmail.com, or call 860-294-4758.

Skip The Commute!There is room for full-time or part-time riders in the Rideshare Van that picks up in Colchester and Marlborough and stops at Hartford Hospital for work hours 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Relax and enjoy your ride to work. The flexible and kind riders will make you feel welcome. Try it free for a week, and once you ride, you won’t want to drive again. Call Carl at 860-545-4438 for more information or your free trial.

Happening at Hartford Hospital

Advancing Medicine—Saving the SpineThursday, June 28 • 7:30 p.m. • WFSB Channel 3

Join us as we follow courageous patients who rely on Hartford Hospital’s experts to diagnose and treat their painful spine disorders. After the show, our physicians will be live in the WFSB studios to take calls and questions.