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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.”

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 . 

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.

Human Resources Reminders

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:

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.  

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.  

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:

 

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 . 

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. 

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

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

Send your team achievements to IT-Comms .

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.

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 .

QUICK LINKS

Ways to Reach IT

IT Help Desk Self-Service

IT Help Desk, 832.667.5600

Physician Help Desk, 832.667.5555 

[email protected]

[email protected]

New Employee IT Access

New Employees (except physicians)

New Providers

New Vendors and Contractors

IT Division

Sent to: Everyone-IT