May 31, 2022

Regional & Divisional News

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• Central WI Region
• UP Region
• North WI Division
• Northeast WI Division
• Northwest WI Division
• South WI Division
• Southeast & Southwest WI Division

Heartbreaking Tragedies

Shock. Horror. Sorrow. We are feeling this and more in response to the tragic mass shootings that happened recently in Buffalo, NY, and Uvalde, Texas. Our hearts are with the victims and their loved ones.

If these tragedies have you feeling stressed or down, or if you could use someone to talk to, know Aspirus Employee Assistance Services (EAS) is here to support you.

EAS Helpline: 1-800-236-4457 or 715-847-2772

Need help talking to a child about what happened?

The following on-demand training from ComPsych was created in response to the events in Uvalde to help adults have conversations with children.

• Talking to Kids about Violent Events with Widespread Media Coverage

Resources for traumatic events

View this Traumatic Events Resources Guide for tools for coping with tragic events and supporting others.

Protecting You in the Workplace

Aspirus is committed to the safety of our team members. With ongoing partnership between our Clinical Leadership, Facilities & Security, Human Resources and Employee Health, we are continuing to ensure a safe working environment for all our employees. 

Our Employee Health & Wellness (EHW) department recently made process improvements to our workplace violence (WPV) event response to enhance how it proactively supports us.

Know this:

• WPV events reported through SafetyZone include physical violence, harassment and threats, and can involve patients, visitors and co-workers.
• EHW’s improved follow-up process better supports team members involved in WPV events by leveraging the expertise of our Employee Assistance Services (EAS) specialists.

If a team member reports a WPV event via SafetyZone:

• The manager and an EHW nurse will be alerted.
• An EHW nurse will call the team member to identify any physical harm.
• EAS will provide a more in-depth response and contact the team member(s) regarding the WPV event.
• A survey will be sent to the impacted team member(s) one month following the event.

The addition of the survey will help us identify additional improvement opportunities to ensure our team members are getting the support they need.

Do this:

Report employee and patient safety concerns via SafetyZone. Aspirus encourages a culture of reporting all safety concerns so we can learn from them and improve our processes to keep each other safe. 

Visit the Workplace Violence Events intranet page to learn more (Life & Career > Employee Health & Wellness > Workplace Violence).

Lawson S3 Moving to the Infor Cloud

Aspirus Health in June plans to kick off a project to convert our supply chain and finance systems currently in Lawson S3 to the Infor CloudSuite’s Financial and Supply Management (FSM) system. This is the final phase of a complex, multi-step conversion to the Infor CloudSuite that began in 2018 with Global Human Resources (GHR) and, later, Employee Benefits.

When complete, we will be able to retire Lawson and have unified data that will increase efficiencies under a fully integrated system. The Global Ledger structure will fundamentally change and supplies currently in Lawson will be renumbered. As a result, Epic and other systems will need to be updated to reflect these changes.  

The final phase of this project includes the Payroll and Absence Management modules of GHR. We also recently kicked off a project to replace Position Manager with Infor's Talent Acquisition (TA) system as part of a separate but equally important effort to help align under a single platform.

Infor FSM is slated to go live on June 30, 2023, and Talent Acquisition in late 2022. Periodic communications are planned over the course of the project.  

The Impact of Compromising Patient Privacy

This is part of our ongoing HIPAA Engagement efforts to highlight potential compliance pitfalls and tips to help staff avoid unintended HIPAA violations.

The Compliance Team manages numerous privacy concerns throughout the system. In fact, approximately 50-60% of all matters involve patient privacy. The outcome impacts the patient experience and contributes to reputational harm and decreased trust in our organization.

Cautionary tale

A local news station reported on a death. The Aspirus Compliance Team received an anonymous concern that co-workers were discussing the patient outside of the treatment team and sharing misinformation about the patient’s cause of death.

The investigation concluded Aspirus employees accessed the electronic medical record and participated in verbal disclosure of the patient’s health information for reasons unrelated to treatment, payment or health care operations. As a result, Aspirus had an obligation to notify the deceased patient’s family of the privacy violation as well as self-report the incident to the Office for Civil Rights. 

Upon receiving the notification, the family contacted Aspirus to express disappointment and frustration with compromising the deceased patient’s health information. The family also shared they were grieving the loss of their loved one and the notification of the employee’s disregard of safeguarding the patient’s health information contributed to a negative impact and distrust in Aspirus. 

Understand your boundaries

It is important to understand your boundaries as an Aspirus workforce member and to only access information in the electronic medical record related to treatment, payment or health care operations.

Additionally, communicating with co-workers about a patient’s health information should only be with members of the treatment team. Sharing patient information with co-workers outside of the treatment team and for purposes other than for treatment, payment and health care operations is not appropriate.

Please see our privacy policies below for more information:

• HIPAA – Minimum Necessary Standard for Use and Disclosure of PHI
• Confidentiality Policy (System)

Bike-to-Work Day a Success

Thank you to everyone across the Aspirus system who participated in our Bike-to-Work Day fun. Despite some uncooperative weather, the event was a success. Aspirus Employee Wellness and our Aspirus Sustainability Initiative look forward to expanding this event in the future.

Remember to send a photo of your adventure along with your name and any co-bikers’ names to Jennifer White to earn 150 Rewards & Recognition Points.

Advance Care Planning

Conversation Corner

Check out the latest system work our Advance Care Planning (ACP) team is doing.

An “invaluable service”

Our ACP team does incredible work to support our patients and communities. A grateful community member recently reached out with a compliment following a meeting with Julie Barge, ACP Coordinator:

“I just wanted to take a minute to express my appreciation [with you] for meeting with my [parents] and me yesterday to assist us in completing Advanced Directives. You have such a gentle, empathetic manner and are a wonderful source of information! You made the process super easy for all of us! I am so grateful that you were there to help with this invaluable service!”

Visit aspirus.org/advance-directives to learn more about Advance Care Planning or to download an "Advance Care Planning Kit" for you or a loved one.

Dr. Kelman Now a Board-Certifed Neurological Surgeon

Congratulations to Craig Kelman, MD, Aspirus Spine & Neurosciences, on passing his Neurosurgery Boards.

Dr. Kelman is now a board-certified neurological surgeon through the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS).

Intimate Partner Violence

May is National Trauma Awareness Month and Sandra Wolf, registered nurse and SANE coordinator with Aspirus, recently shared how our health system supports intimate partner violence survivors through our Sexual Assault Nurses Examiner (SANE) Program.

“We encourage victims of intimate partner violence to reach out and know that they are not alone,” Sandra said.

Aspirus provides examinations and treatment for anyone who has experienced sexual violence through the SANE Program located at Aspirus Wausau Hospital’s Emergency Department. This program includes a nurse with special training in helping adolescent and adult survivors, as well as a team of trained caregivers.

About one in four women and one in 10 men have experienced intimate partner violence in the United States during their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Recognizing a Stroke: At Any Age

Chaylen Kuklinski woke up one morning and couldn’t walk or stand. She managed to get out of bed, crawl outside and lay on the ground with her dog. Her mother eventually found her, and Chaylen was taken to the hospital.

At the age of 36, having a stroke wasn’t at the top of life concerns for Chaylen.

She was a young working professional who spent the previous nine years as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) at Aspirus Wausau Hospital (AWH).

Despite that, she found herself at AWH being told she was having a stroke.

Regional & Divisional News

• Central WI Region
• UP Region
• North WI Division
• Northeast WI Division
• Northwest WI Division
• South WI Division
• Southeast & Southwest WI Division