Latest News from Aspirus ❄️

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December 5, 2023

Regional & Divisional News

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In This Edition

Staples Orders Experiencing Delays
Share Your Favorite Holiday Traditions & Memories
Recognize Your Peers & You Could Win!
Show Off Your Ugliest Holiday Sweaters
Financial Advising with CAPTRUST
Infection Prevention Resources Page
Office of Medical Education Awards
Misdirected Information
Advance Care Planning Update

Staples Orders Experiencing Delays

Our office supply vendor, Staples, is currently experiencing delays in its ability to fill orders in a timely manner.

While any delays are expected to be temporary, Aspirus team members are encouraged to practice careful stewardship of existing stock and conserve your office supplies where possible.

Share Your Favorite Holiday Traditions & Memories

Do you have a favorite holiday tradition you love to participate in every year or how about any extra special holiday memories that warm your heart?

As a means of joyfully connecting with one another, we're inviting all Aspirus team members to post photos of your favorite holiday traditions and memories to our intranet photo gallery. Look for the banner on the intranet homepage.

Don't forget to explain the tradition or memory in the caption field when submitting your photo(s).

Recognize Your Peers & You Could Win!

Visit Aspirus Rewards

Show Off Your Ugliest (or Most Festive) Holiday Sweaters

Every Friday in December

All Aspirus team members are encouraged to don your ugliest (or most festive) holiday sweaters* every Friday in December (8, 15, 22, 29).

Post photos of you and your co-workers wearing your sweaters to our Ugly Holiday Sweaters photo gallery. Look for the banner on the intranet homepage. (Photos posted before 1 p.m. on December 15 may be posted to our Aspirus social media in honor of National Ugly Sweater Day.)

* Please adhere to our dress code and check with your manager to make sure your sweater is appropriate for your department and role. These are NOT casual days unless otherwise noted at the business unit where you are physically located. Look for local communications.

Financial Wellness & Advising Services

Now available through CAPTRUST

Effective December 1, financial wellness and advising services are available to you through CAPTRUST. This advisory firm replaces our former financial partner Francis, LLC.

CAPTRUST is an independent investment advisory firm that provides investment advice to Aspirus Health’s retirement plan committee and plan participants. CAPTRUST has assisted individual participants like you for over 25 years, by providing personalized advice and helping participants build a solid financial future.

Aspirus employees have access to two dedicated licensed financial advisors who can educate, advise and coach on a variety of money matters. Additionally, employees have access to the CAPTRUST Advice Desk where you can reach a licensed financial advisor with or without an appointment. These services are available to all Aspirus employees, with no per-session co-pay.

CAPTRUST also provides financial wellness resources including monthly newsletters, webinars, videos, articles and more.

Click here to book a virtual meeting with one of our dedicated advisors or contact the CAPTRUST Advice Desk at 800-967-9948 / www.captrustadvice.com.

In addition to virtual and phone meetings, we will offer on-site in-person appointments throughout the year. The dates and times of those sessions will be communicated via Aspirus News Now and posted on the Total Rewards website under Retirement & Financial Wellness.

Infection Prevention Resources Page Updated

The intranet’s Infection Prevention Resources page recently received a refresh. See below for details. Click on the image to view larger as a PDF.

Office of Medical Education (OME) Awards

The Aspirus Office of Medical Education (OME) recognizes collaboration and contributions made by Aspirus Physicians and Advanced Practice Clinicians (APCs) as clinical teachers for medical students and advance practice clinician students.

This is the fifth year OME has recognized these efforts throughout the Aspirus system.

This year’s Collaboration Award goes to Natalie Weeks, MD, family medicine resident with Aspirus Wausau Family Medicine Clinic.

Dr. Weeks uses student, academic or clinical partnership to advance Aspirus academic clinical medicine.

Below is a submission by a student of Dr. Weeks.

“Dr. Weeks has consistently gone above and beyond as both a teacher and mentor for me as a medical student. She has been available outside of rotations as a resource for studying as well as professional advice. After a feedback session, Dr. Weeks specifically sought out opportunities for me to further explore areas I was interested in as well as those that we together identified I could use more practice in. She is an exceptional teacher in the way she encourages progress.” - Medical Student

Additional OME Award winners will be announced in future editions of Aspirus News Now and on our Aspirus social media channels.

Preventing & Managing Misdirected Information

This week we wrap up our extended look at Corporate Compliance and Ethics with Patrick Zeps, Privacy Partner, who addresses misdirected documents and information:

Prevent errors – Always confirm patient information is correct prior to providing it to a patient or placing documentation in the U.S. mail. Simple documentation checks can help avoid patient information like after-visit summaries and billing statements being given to the wrong patient or sent to the wrong address.

Report errors – All potential HIPAA privacy violations should be reported as soon as possible so our Compliance team can complete an assessment and reduce the chances of any further disclosure of information. SafetyZone is the best reporting method, or you can contact Compliance at 715-847-2199 or via email.

Despite our best prevention efforts, errors can still occur. If patient information is misdirected, be sure to gather as many details about what exactly was disclosed and include the following information in your SafetyZone submission:

A copy (attachment) of the document that was misdirected.
The name of both the patient the information was about and the person who received it.
How the information was distributed. Was it handed to the incorrect patient, mailed, or disclosed verbally?

Always thank individuals for reporting any incidents and assure them that Aspirus takes privacy very seriously. If feasible, ask for the information to be returned, otherwise confirm that any misdirected information will be destroyed and not further disclosed to any other individuals. Doing these things helps the Compliance team’s investigative process.

Look for the “Compliance Program” link under the Life & Career menu on the intranet to learn more about our compliance team and program.