Shriners Hospitals for Children - Tampa
Volume 1, Issue 6 - Winter/Spring 2000 - Page 3
Bits
&
Pieces
By Alice Lanford, RN, MSN, ONC, CNAA Director of Patients Services
We are continually searching for ways to improve our service to you, our patients and families. I would like to highlight two programs which we are expanding and developing to enhance your family centered care in our system. Our Outreach Clinic is the first program that I would like to focus upon. This program is designed to make it more convenient and give better access for families who have to travel long distances to reach the Tampa hospital. Some families spend two days to make a visit to the Tampa hospital. This may include time that the child has to be out of school or days the parents have to take off from work. The concept is that we go to the families instead of the families coming to us. This saves the family time and resources. Since our first outreach clinic at the United Cerebral Palsy Center in Panama City, Florida, in November of 1997, we have expanded our program to include outreach clinics in South Florida as well as the Jacksonville area. Outreach clinics are satellite clinics for established Shriners patients and are just like a regular clinic visit to the Tampa hospital. The hospital brings a team of physicians, nurses, physical therapists and orthotics and prosthetic (O&P) personnel to a donated facility in the designated community area. The area Shriners help find the facility and assist with staffing, transportation and resources to make the clinics a success. The patients that are pre-selected by the staff to attend these clinics are patients who will need regular visits for uncomplicated follow-up care. X-ray services are provided in the host city and are done before the team sees the patient. The patient comes to the facility and sees the physician, nurses and therapists, and he or she is evaluated as if they were in the Tampa hospital clinic. If a child needs a new brace, prosthesis or a major adjustment, the team member will bring the device back to the Tampa hospital to make the adjustments. Then the O & P practitioner returns in three to four weeks later to the area the clinic was held and deliver & fit the device. This saves another trip to Tampa for the family. On rare occasions, the patient may be scheduled to come to the Tampa hospital to receive the device. To date we have seen 497 families in the clinics and have delivered 40 devices on return trips. We hope to further expand this process. We are budgeting to do more clinics in the new millennium! The clinics have enhanced patient satisfaction and improved the access that our patients have to our excellent quality medical services. If you have had the chance to visit one of our outreach clinics, I trust that this was a time saver and a positive process for you and your family.
The process of Care Coordination, sometimes referred to as Case Management in some systems, is beginning to take place in our hospital. Each new patient entering our system will be assigned a care coordinator upon approval and acceptance of the application by the Board of Governors. Patients who have a certain condition/diagnosis will also be assigned to a care coordinator upon their next clinic visit. Care coordinators are registered nurses or social workers who are experts in the care coordination of a designated patient population. The care coordinators will evaluate the total care needs of the patient whether it be orthopaedic in nature or another type of need. They will be responsible for coordinating care within the hospital, communicating with outside agencies, physicians, and providers and providing excellent patient/family education and resources. The care coordinators will be available to you at any time by phone, at your clinic visit, or during your inpatient stay. They will be able to refer you to many resources in your community and will work with you on any care need that seems to be a problem. They will be responsible for completing an annual assessment of your 'all around needs' and will be following up with you on agreed upon plans and goals to meet those needs. Our staff will be expanding in numbers to handle the over 10,000 patients we serve and the program should be complete with every patient having a care coordinator by the end of 2001. This is an expansion of the orthopaedic mission of our Shriners Hospital system to help children and families meet the complex needs anticipated in the medical systems of this millennium.
They
are a welcome addition
to Shriners Hospital, but who are they and what exactly do they do?
By Arlene Latnik, RN
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Fawn Nieuwenhoff, PNP, Melinda Rix, ARNP, Jolene Gall, ARNP, Dawnne Karsky, PA, and Wendy Long, ARNP, provide nursing and medical services in the outpatient and inpatient units. They obtain histories and physicals, diagnose, write orders, interpret lab results and x-rays, prescribe medications and many other treatments.
Advanced registered nurse practitioners (ARNP) have a master of science degree in nursing, while physician assistants (PA) have a master of science degree in physician assistant studies. Their training is different, but their jobs are identical at Shriners Hospital. They rotate between the inpatient and outpatient units every two months on different schedules so they overlap each other for continuity of patient care. Let's meet them!
Fawn Nieuwenhoff, PNP, obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of South Florida and her master's degree from the University of Florida, graduating in 1997. Between classes, she worked as a traveling pediatric nurse in many interesting places, including Denver and Hawaii. She also traveled extensively with the Up With People organization.
Melinda Rix, ARNP, attended college at Florida State University, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida, but says her true loyalty belongs to FSU. Her master's degree is from USF, graduating in 1998. She loves pediatric nursing and worked at All Children's Hospital before she came to Shriners Hospital in January of 1999.
Jolene Gall, ARNP, received her undergraduate and master's degrees from USF, graduating in 1997. Her past nursing experience includes orthopaedics at St. Josephs Hospital and several years in the operating room at Tampa General. She also worked as an ARNP for the Suncoast Hospital Clinic in Pasco and Pinellas counties before joining Shriners in August of 1998.
Dawnne Karsky, PA, has two undergraduate degrees and two master's degrees. She obtained her first undergraduate and master's degrees from Southern Connecticut State, her undergraduate degree in chemistry from USF, and her master's degree in physician assistant studies from UF. She feels the Shriners system most closely matches her own philosophy of how healthcare should be handled.
Wendy Long, ARNP, obtained her undergraduate degree in mass communication at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Connecticut, followed by another undergraduate degree and her master's degree from USF, graduating in 1998. Her past nursing experience includes neurology and oncology. One of Wendy's children has cerebral palsy, so her experiences give her a unique understanding of what families may go through.