October 19, 2020
From October 19th through October 24th, St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children will be recognizing Healthcare Quality Week. Brought to us by the National Association for Healthcare Quality (HAHQ), St. Mary’s will dedicate time to recognize our healthcare and quality professionals in their goals of improving patient outcomes and preparing for the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has called on more healthcare professionals to ensure that quality is at the forefront of everything we do and that it matters now more than ever.
During this week, St. Mary’s especially recognizes the following staff members and would love if you join us in acknowledging the dedication to care and quality they provide to us and our patients:
Dina Spierer RN, PNP
Dina is known to take her Discharge Coordination with the clinical care teams to the next level. She is actively involved in engaging parents and caregivers to schedule and complete all necessary training to safely transition children home.
Informatics Team,
Nancy Day RN and Janet Fellini RN
During the pandemic, Nancy and Janet collaborated with IT and worked closely with all teams throughout the organization to implement safety systems and 24/7 EMR and clinical support.
Benedetta Montalvo RN; Heather Gallagher RN
In the beginning of the pandemic, Benedetta and Heather joined forces to complete fit testing for all of our nursing, medicine, RT and EVS staff.
System wide Quality Core Team:
Chris Duffy- Chris does an amazing job organizing Baldrige workgroups and also goes above and beyond for the organization on a daily basis. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has continuously offered her time to help with screenings, and covering hours. Additionally, Chris has trained, volunteered and served as a MAAPE examiner.
Tina Hess– Since the beginning of the Pandemic, Tina has worked diligently organizing and scheduling staff testing, and reporting on COVID -19 (as per executive order from the governor). Additionally, her ongoing commitment and dedication to the Incident Command Committee has led to its success. This summer, she volunteered and served as a MAAPE examiner.
Ebbony McPhatter – Ebbony’s work with the Baldrige Core Team for workgroup support has been outstanding. She also has volunteered, trained and served as a MAAPE examiner over the summer.
Judy Vigliotti – Judy runs a 21-bed 24/7 care unit and is also responsible for leading the new Nursing Quality Team. Additionally, her work with the Baldrige Quality Core team has shown system-wide improvement.
Ariana Barongi – In her new role in the CHHA, Ariana has gone above and beyond by delivering much needed supplies to staff and families in need during the pandemic.
Eileen Alvarez RN, ADN and Judy Fine, Infection Preventionist
Eileen and Judy have worked cohesively throughout the pandemic to help improve hand hygiene adherence. Their efforts with the Vitalacy hand washing trial improved compliance with hand hygiene protocols in the Nursery unit, which in turn led to the program being expanded throughout the facility.
Sharon Rome RN, PNP
In partnership with Rehab’s leadership, Sharon embraced the new positioning initiative for an individualized comfort plan for 3CU residents and took on the oversight for the RNT program.
Debbie Ariola-Weiner RN and Rita Gorman RN
Debbie and Rita have worked collaboratively in completing all regulatory required submissions, accomplishing this even with the challenges of reduced resources and a 20% census increase.
Admissions Team
Joanne Bodden, RN , Lori Freudman, RN, Linda Marin, RN, Nanette Costello
At the onset of the pandemic, our Care Coordination Quality Team ensured that a new census of 124 was filled, in addition to our 5 surge beds which allow us to better serve the community by relieving the burden on nearby neonatal and pediatric ICUs.
Care Coordination Quality Team
Alisa Bernstein- Early Intervention Manager, Nadine Sankar- HCBS LOC/Medicaid Specialist, Nekeshia Hutchinson- Quality Assurance Coordinator, Ebbony M. McPhatter- Assistant Director of Quality and Operations and Nancy Speller- Director of Care Coordination & Advocacy
The Care Coordination Quality team works together to encourage care coordinators to achieve optimal care coordination for the children and families they serve. They directly oversee and measure patient eligibility parameters, mandated training and ongoing chart reviews.
Infection Control PIP
Elvie Fardella-Roveto, FNP, Noreen Murphy, RN, Maggie Lang, RN, Ariana Barongi, Judith Fine, Dominique Carriero, RN, Ashley Cordaro, Daphne Walker, RN
Together, CCP and the CHHA established the goal of the project which is to potentially prevent and control recurring infections and/or communicable diseases that increase visits to the ED or admission to acute care. Infection data indicates that respiratory infections are the predominant type of infection. Both the CHHA and CCP have and continue to implement strategies to reduce hospitalizations and to implement the state-wide sepsis protocol.
CHHA Coordination PIP
Noreen Murphy, RN, Ariana Barongi, Julio Rivas, RN, Marcia Brissett-Wint, RN, Lyndonna Williams, RN, Aenid Yu. Kelly Kresofsky and Maggie Lang, RN
As we know, Quality indicators are driven by many reasons; best practice, regulation, mandates, and more! The coordination PIP was established to implement successful strategies to ensure that coordination of care is provided and documented. The CHHA has been working on this PIP since November of 2018 and has had many accomplishments thus far. The team continues to meet monthly to review and analyze coordination of care documentation and the enrollment of the Meditech Web App. Recently, the CHHA PIP team has included field team members in monthly meetings to achieve further insight and receive feedback about implemented processes.
CHHA Quality Audits
Mark Kelly, Guerdy Jean, RN, Danielle Toto, Laudrey Saa, Lois Long, RN, Beth Rivera, Cheryl Hopkins, Maryann Flaherty, Medgine Baudin-Cetoute, Nancy Oellinger, Sergio Suarez, Joleen Sancho, Tina Risorto and Joseph Ingrassia
CHHA Quality Audits are completed monthly to keep track of our indicators. The audits include but are not limited to patient satisfaction surveys, full chart reviews, physician order return rates, status of operations, and Home Health Aide supervisions (regulation). and many other quality indicators. Quality indicators are selected for each year and defined by best practices, mandates, or change in regulation. The following team members report to quality at least monthly so the team can continue to stay on track!
Jennifer Allen
Quality and Education Coordinator
Jennifer Allen jumped into action when safety was on the line. She completed a train the trainer on Fire Safety and worked tirelessly to ensure that all staff received hands on training before the end of 2019. It doesn’t end there though, once the pandemic hit NY Jenn jumped into gear and helped administration coordinate transportation for staff members that were greatly impacted by the reduction and cancelation transit of services due to COVID-19.
