Each week, Ken has been sending a message to everyone in IT.
Here's the most recent:
Yesterday, Houston Methodist held its first virtual 2020 Quarterly Corporate Management Assembly for leaders systemwide. The ability to bring so many people together remotely represents a technology triumph, as this type of gathering would not have been imaginable merely three months ago. To me, this also reflects our adaptability and a culture shift as we’ve rapidly embraced technologies and work practices that previously might have taken us years to adopt.
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Getting to Know Jim Francis
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"Everyone should experience living in other places. That's how you learn about the world and cultures."
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Joining HM During a Pandemic
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It’s been nearly two months since Jim Francis moved to Houston (on April 10) and joined our IT family as the vice president of technology and shared services.
As a 22-year Air Force and Navy veteran, Jim is used to moving, but joining our organization during a global pandemic has been a unique experience. His new employee orientation was virtual, and he credits Microsoft Teams with helping him get to know his team and direct reports. He’s getting used to working remotely and has recognized that if people can work anywhere, one day organizations could recruit from a global talent pool.
Jim is interested in the direction that health care is going and being a part of the innovative technologies at the forefront of HM. "It's becoming more consumer-driven, patient-focused, mobility-enabled with virtual health platforms."
Jim looks forward to getting to know our organizational culture and meeting everyone in person. He aims to align IT technical and shared services with HM's strategic goals and objectives while applying our I CARE values.
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Jim talks about moving to Houston and shares some exciting family news.
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"SHE WAS BORN MAY 3, 2020."
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Jim and his wife became first time grandparents on May 3, 2020. They look forward to meeting their new granddaughter in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia and having her come visit Houston.
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"I'M NO STRANGER TO TEXAS."
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He hasn’t had much opportunity to get to know Houston, since he moved here about a week after the stay-at-home orders were put in place. He's most surprised by how large Houston is and the amount of traffic we have. He’s no stranger to Texas though ─ He’s lived in San Antonio and has family in Dallas.
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"WE HOPE TO MOVE IN JUNE."
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After visiting multiple areas of Houston they selected a home, under construction, located in Sienna and hope to move in June.
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IT NEO Goes Virtual
The next IT New Employee Orientation (NEO) is tentatively scheduled for late June and will take place virtually on Microsoft Teams. IT NEO includes a discussion with IT senior leadership and our key initiatives.
Managers/Directors – please notify
Marcella Fewox if you have a new hire who should attend.
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Distribution List
Attention Managers and Directors: Be sure your team members are on the
Everyone-IT
Outlook distribution. Send updates to the IT Help Desk. Please review the list and add any team members who may be missing, so they can stay aware of IT news and events.
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Ghalib's Mission Trip
Earlier this year, Ghalib Abbasi, director of system pharmacy informatics, embarked on a medical mission trip to The Gambia in West Africa. A team of three physicians, a nurse practitioner and a pharmacist, in collaboration with IMANA (Islamic Medical Association of North America) and the Oasis Initiative, treated over 800 patients in five days. Most of the patients were suffering from chronic conditions that require long-term maintenance medications and therapies.
The pharmacy was particularly busy. Ghalib dosed and dispensed all medications and counseled patients on proper use. With a few local helpers in the pharmacy, counseling was conveyed to patients in their local language (African Wolof) when English was not understood. The team helped treat a case of pediatric asthma and provided patients with education on managing diabetes, hypertension and several other illnesses. Unfortunately, the country is struggling with a counterfeit drug crisis but is also suffering from an equipment and worker shortage and a poor healthcare infrastructure.
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A Message from Chase
During the final Chase walk-through this quote, left painted on a wall by one of our IT team members, felt uniquely appropriate to our COVID-19 situation.
Hope you are well and able to find hope and laughter during this difficult time.
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1 Bellaire Place
While we haven’t officially moved into 1 Bellaire Place since we are remote, our landlord left us this nice message.
On Display in the Lobby of 1 Bellaire Place
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Reminder: Wear Your Mask
Over the last few weeks, teams have been busy distributing masks and #HoustonWeCan HM yard signs. If you did not get yours, reach out to your manager. Employees are expected to wear a mask when in our facilities.
Because of the risk to our patients and to your coworkers, the following change has been made to
HR16
, the Personal Dress Policy. “During an epidemic or pandemic, executive leadership reserves the right to require all employees to wear facial masks to reduce the risk of community spread of the infection between colleagues, patients, visitors, volunteers and others on our campus.”
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My New Normal
We’ve received over 50 pictures from you of your new normal, your pets, kids and more! Here are a few, but click
here
for more. Keep adding new pictures or send them to
IT-Comms
.
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TJ Ahmed’s 15-year old daughter, Safiyyah, has been joining their weekly team meetings with her beautiful flute-playing. As Penny Black stated, “We started our meeting with her performance and for a few minutes, everyone forgot about pandemics, labor pools, revenue loss and COVID. It was moving.” Everyone has enjoyed it and they are starting an “IT has Talent” friendly competition where people can have their kids perform, do silly stuff, even dog tricks are welcome.
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Human Resources Reminders
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Hurricane Season Begins June 1
As hurricane season approaches, we may need to communicate important information to you. Be sure your contact information is up-to-date in
MARS
so you can receive emergency texts.
To update your contact information:
- Log in MARS
- Click Personal Details, then Contact Details.
- Under Phone click the + icon to add a phone number.
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Test Your Applications - Windows Update
Complete by Tuesday, June 30
All desktop computers will be updated to
Windows 10 version 1909
. Thi
s helps to ensure we can continue to receive security patches and updates from Microsoft. All application owners need to test their applications on this new version by
Tuesday, June 30
. Test machines have been set-up at Knight Road and application owners should test their script and validate their applications. Please schedule your visit with
Danny Passmore
, at your earliest convenience.
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Confirm Help Desk Received Your Backline Request
Because the IT Help Desk is mostly remote, they cannot answer the backline number as quickly as they had previously done. They are looking at alternative options but, in the meantime, you are encouraged to use Microsoft Teams to reach out to the HD analyst who paged you to quickly confirm that your request was received.
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Driscoll's To-Go
Driscoll’s
,
the restaurant
at
Houston Marriott Medical Center
, is doing to-go orders via text. Per Marriott, you can order a chef-prepared, locally-sourced meal that will be ready for pick up in about 20 minutes by following these steps:
- Text 281.942.8466 with your order selection and name of the person picking it up.
- When you receive confirmation that it’s ready, go to the front desk of the Houston Marriott Medical Center to pay and pickup.
As a special thank you, they are offering a 20 percent discount through the month of May. You will need to show your ID when picking it up to receive the discounted rate.
For the to-go menu click
here
.
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Epic Exam Schedule
Epic staff will continue to proctor exams online through
Friday, June 26
. New sessions were recently added. Click
here
for registration instructions.
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PM100 Course Available to You
The Project Management Concepts, Tools & Standards (PM100) course is offered the second Thursday of the month at Holly Hall or via WebEx. You can register in LMS. Click
here to view the 2020 schedule.
For video training: Access on
PMO Home >
Education-Career >
Classes >
PM100
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Thank Yous
– There are many people to thank during this difficult time. Here are just a few extra-special thank yous we received.
MDI Team
They expedited vICU go-live, installed new MDI equipment, rapid COVID Rover rollout, deployed 300+ Vocera badges and implemented COVID tele-rounding. - Melita Howell
Alejandro Sapiens
MDI MVP during COVID activities! Demonstrated ICARE values working on site every day, while meeting team’s equipment and support needs. - Melita Howell
Leslie Klinksiek, Frank Henderson, Donna Ingle
Rapidly expanded DocuSign across the organization to support remote work and contact-less patient registration. Usage has increased more than 1,200 percent. - Drew Cooper
Field Operations at all Hospitals
For being on the front line, working daily at the hospital while most of IT is able to work from home. - Robert Abramczyk and Alex Vega
Shayla Garry, Whitney Torres, Angela Gomolka, Juana Banda, Tom Elias
All have done an outstanding job being available 24x7 and throughout the weekend to support the support locations. - Brad Shaink
Minh Tran
Has done an outstanding job supporting physician training in the Tech Hub that is supporting Virtual Care given the enhanced need for COVID-19. - Brad Shaink
HoustonMethodist.org Developer Team
We received a special recognition email for this team for going above and beyond in time of need to ensure our patients clearly know who they can schedule a video visit appointment with. - Brad Shaink
IT Training Team
Thank you to an awesome Training team who went the extra mile to move our training to virtual learning. Every request that came in was attended to in fast fashion to make sure our end users were able to get to the floor faster to support COVID-19 activities. – Eileen McGrath
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Send your team achievements to
IT-Comms
.
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Congratulations to all our March and April honorees
Our
March 2020
Cheers for Peers winner is
Randolph Sinchioco
. "We've experienced many little and big victories together, and all of them were only possible because of your ability to have a good attitude and work as a team. All of those wins have made my time with Houston Methodist a nice experience to look back on. Today is pretty bittersweet as it is my last day with the organization, but I wanted to extend a big thank you for all that you do. You don't hear it enough, but I want to remind you that your passion and drive definitely do not go unnoticed. It was my pleasure to serve this system and work alongside people like you. Stay healthy and best of luck moving forward." -
Christina Liendro
. For a full list of March honorees, click
here
.
Our
April 2020
Cheers for Peers winner is
Robert Sanford
.
Josh Sol
shared this message with Robert, "I wanted to express my thanks Robert! You have been amazing in the ELR efforts and have been truly a game-changing figure in how we report to public agencies! Thank you for being so diligent and thoughtful! To accomplish a feed like that into Texas Health Department... was truly amazing! Thank you for all that you are doing!!! Truly inspirational." For a full list of April honorees, click
here
.
To nominate a colleague for
Cheers for Peers, submit a BRAVO eCard in
MARS.
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Congratulations to Pam Salyer on her upcoming retirement!
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It is with mixed emotions that we share Pam's retirement. She has been with HM for nearly 42 years. She will be surely missed! Pam's last day at HM will be Friday, June 5.
Fun facts:
Did you know Pam is the last original IT employee, from the the IS Division that started in 1981? And she was on the team that installed our very first computer system in 1982!
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Promotion
Cesar Argueta
Sr. Technical Analyst
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Promotion
Gene Gretzer
Disaster Recovery Architect
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Promotion
John Mason
IT Mobile Security Architect
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Promotion
Charles Ray
Sr. Server Engineer
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Promotion
Nick Tran
Sr. Technical Analyst
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New Hire
Tyla Adams
Application Analyst
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New Hire
Ibrahim Bukhari
Developer, Intelligent Automation
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New Hire
Ellan Chang
Sr. Project Manager
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New Hire
Freddy Coppola
Sr. System Administrator
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New Hire
Robert Daniels
Sr. Server Engineer
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New Hire
Charles Dike
Application Analyst
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New Hire
Gabe Evans
Sr. Server Engineer
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New Hire
Jim Francis
Vice President Technology and Shared Services
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New Hire
Elie Herskovits
Application Analyst
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New Hire
Tanya Kamphuis,
MSN, RN-BC
Epic Business Analyst
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New Hire
Qing (Harry) Li
Sr. Server Engineer
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New Hire
John Siller
Manager, IT Systems
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New Hire
Matthew Smith
Sr. Application Developer
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New Hire
James Whitmire
Pharmacy IT- Computer Application Specialist
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Zac Gbakinro
Adetutu Adereni's Baby
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Lucia Shanelle Rector-Aranda
Shane Rector's Baby
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Alessa Singletary
Janae Singletary's Baby
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Send
IT-Comms your marriage, birth, new team announcements or other great news you want to share!
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IT MATTERS.
IT MATTERS
is our weekly IT related e-newsletter to all our HM employees. Send your news and story ideas regarding system enhancements, workflow changes, new tools/resources, upcoming downtimes and general technical reminders to
IT-Comms
.
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Ways to Reach IT
IT Help Desk, 832.667.5600
Physician Help Desk, 832.667.5555
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