TippingSacredCows

— Page 4

The first #NBDocTalk launched on NorthBay Healthcare’s Face-book page Wednesday, Jan. 27, with pediatrician Judy Yang, D.O., answering questions on children’s health and the cold/flu season.

#NBDocTalk is a series of live Facebook chats with NorthBay doctors. The discussions are planned with a different physician

every other week on Wednesday.

The chat with Dr. Yang included questions and answers on top-ics that ranged from dealing with continu-ally stuffy noses and exposure to germs from other children to advice on how high is too high for a fever and how to tell the difference be-

tween a cold and the flu.Dr. Yang was a good sport,

volunteering to be the first NorthBay physician to participate

1

…Check My NorthBay, Your Employee Portal, for News in

Real Tim

e…02.03.16

Headed to Hilborn#NBDocTalkLaunches

on Facebook

Ortho, Rehab, X-ray Join Forces

FacebookPromotionContinues— Page 11

See #NBDOCTALK, Page 10

A third building will become part of the NorthBay Health-care landscape on the Hilborn Road campus, bringing ortho-pedics, X-ray and rehabilita-tion under one roof in Fairfield in the year to come.

“This is the perfect location to provide comprehensive, innovative and integrated orthopedic care to our patients,” says Aimee Brewer, president of NorthBay

Healthcare’s Ambulatory Division. “All the services they’ll need will be right here, at an easy-to-reach location right off the freeway with plenty of parking.”

Tentatively called the Hil-born Health Plaza, the building at 2500 Hilborn Road will join NorthBay’s Center for Primary Care and the Hilborn Administra-tion Center, which also houses NorthBay Occupational Health

Ray Green (left) led the tour of the newest addition to the Hilborn campus with (left to right) Aimee Brewer, Doug Hinton, Joelyn Gropp, Justine Zilliken, Diana Nalett and Dr. Cornelis Elmes.

See CAMPUS, Page 9

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Mohammed Arif Shaikh, M.D., a specialist in pulmonary and critical care, has joined NorthBay Healthcare.

Dr. Shaikh earned his medical de-gree from the B.J. Medical College in Ahmedabad, India.

He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn. He is board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease and critical care medicine.

Kevin M. Miller, D.P.M., has joined NorthBay Center for Orthopedics in Fairfield and Vacaville. Dr. Miller earned his doctorate of podiatric medicine from the Califor-nia School of Po-diatric Medicine at Samuel Mer-ritt University in Oakland. He completed his residency in po-diatric medicine and surgery at St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco.

He is board-certified in podiatric medicine and an assistant professor of podiatric surgery at the California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merrit University.

TO REMEMBERDATES

IN THE NEWSPEOPLE

LETTERS

DATES

PEOPLE

NEW FACESWELCOMEWELCOME

LETTERS

Ali Hassani, M.D., an internal medicine physician, has joined the Center for Primary Care in Vacaville.

Dr. Hassani grew up in a medical fam-ily. His mother is a nurse who has worked at NorthBay for more than 20 years. His father is a plastic sur-geon.

Dr. Hassani earned his medi-cal degree from the American University of the Caribbean, Netherland Antilles. Dr. Hassani completed an internal medicine residency at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, Mich. He is board-certified in internal medicine.

Melissa AlbalosPrimary Care Team R.N.Center for Primary Care - NTN

Mary AldenClinical Nurse IIUnit 1800 Med-SurgNorthBay Medical Center

Lori BradishReferral CoordinatorNorthBay Center for Orthopedics

Karen Cobry-HeinloHome Health Nurse/Assoc. Case Mgr.NorthBay Health at Home

Alicia DelucchiInpatient Case ManagerInpatient Case ManagementNorthBay Medical Center

Rokzanne DosierClinical Nurse II Surgery, NorthBay Medical Center

Debra HoustonPatient Services RepresentativeNorthBay Outpatient Rehabilitation

Johnna IlaganClinical Nurse II1-West Med-Surg, VacaValley Hospital

Ashley JacksonPatient Services RepresentativeNorthBay Center for Women’s Health

Kayla LucasReceptionist/Scheduler/BillerAmbulatory Surgery Center

Shelly Mae ManangquilClinical Nurse IIUnit 1800 Med-SurgNorthBay Medical Center

Ciphatire ManioPrimary Care Team R.N.Center for Primary Care - Fairfield

Dean PawleySharePoint App DeveloperInformation Technology

Joshua PayneUnit Clerk/Monitor TechnicianSurgical Unit 1600NorthBay Medical Center

Lourdes PosadasClinical Nurse IIUnit 1800 Med-SurgNorthBay Medical Center

Shina SinghPatient Services RepresentativeMedical OncologyNorthBay Cancer Center

Madison TravelsMedical AssistantNorthBay Center for Orthopedics

Three Physicians Join NorthBay Healthcare

Dr. Hassani Dr. Miller Dr. Shaikh

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Honors from the VaticanPope Blesses Employee’s Retirement Plans

Merry Bern, R.N., has been named manager of Inpatient Case Management.

“Many of you probably already know Merry, as she has worked at NorthBay since 2006,” says

Shelley Stel-zner, director of Case Man-agement. “She was recruited for an Admin-istrative Coor-dinator (AC) position, which she held for

seven years before migrating to Case Management in 2013.

“Merry has phenomenal expe-rience that will be a tremendous attribute for our Case Manage-ment department,” says Shelley.

That experience includes working as a nursing supervisor at Sutter Solano; a charge and clinical supervisor at Williamette Valley Medical Center in Oregon; a supervisor at a skilled nursing facility, an inpatient emergency room case manager and, most recently, the Inpatient R.N. Medical Auditor.

Merry has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cal Poly and earned her nursing degree from Portland Community College. She also has a degree in naturopathy from National College of Naturopathic Medicine and is currently pursuing her bachelor’s in nursing at Touro University.

Inpatient Case Management

Has New Manager

Anita Santos holds her decree from the Pope with the assistance of Ed Lowe, execu-tive director of Health at Home, Hospice & Bereavement and the Adult Day Center.

When Anita Santos retired last week, her co-workers at NorthBay Health at Home wanted to find a gift that was both personal and unique. Knowing that Anita is a devout Catholic, they decided to ask the Pope for help.

He came through with a beautifully decorated blessing on parchment paper.

“It was truly an effort across department lines,” says Eileen Smith, business manager of the department. “But first I went to Google and clicked on ‘Pope Acknowledgements.’”

Then they spent two days trying to fax their request to Italy with no luck.

“So we turned to the Help Desk to find out why the Pope’s line was always busy,” she says. “After they quit laughing and

realized we were serious, the IT department got behind it and opened up NorthBay’s transmis-sion line to international faxes.”

Within two weeks, Eileen had the gift in hand.

“I sent IT a photo of the blessing and said ‘We Got It!’ and they were amazed,” she adds. “This is just another example of why NorthBay is such a special place to work. Departments came together to make this happen for Anita.”

Anita’s official farewell party was last Thursday, and she gasped when she saw the gift.

“Thank you all. I cherish you in my heart and will never forget you,” she told the as-sembled crowd of well-wishers, who donned red berets to honor Anita’s hopes and plans to travel, particularly to see France again.

4

Ever wonder why a certain practice is done, over and over, even though it doesn’t seem very productive? That task may be a “sacred cow,” and it’s performed without thought about the “why” or simply “because we’ve always done it that way,” says Elisa Jang, R.N., clinical practice manager/clinical nurse specialist, Translational Research.

Now is the time to put that sacred cow out to pasture, argues Elisa and members of the Evidence-Based Practice & Research Council.

That’s why the council held a “Sacred Cow Contest,” to encourage nurses and clinicians to question practice habits and generate a fun way to put the focus on evidence-based practice.

The contest was held last win-ter and the council received 18 entries. It was a pretty impres-sive response for the first-ever contest of this kind, Elisa reports.

Submissions fell under three categories. “Cash Cows” are

deemed to be work practices that are the most expensive but the least cost-effective. “Mad Cows” are considered to be the craziest, most bizarre, outlandish and ridiculous traditional practices. “Cow Tipping” practices are so archaic it’s time to tip them over, Elisa notes.

First place, under “Cow Tipping” went to Fred Maddox, respiratory care practitioner, who said it’s time to stop installing normal saline into endotracheal tubes prior to suctioning, because the practice has been found to introduce bacteria into the lower airways, “sometimes causing the very thing you’re trying to prevent, i.e., pneumonia or infections,” Fred notes.

Second place, also under “Cow Tipping,” went to Maureen Allain, R.N., in the North-Bay ICU, who suggested the practice

of using bedside pans to bathe patients needed to be retired, as using plain disposable cloths instead decreases the likelihood of cross-contamination.

Third place, under “Cash Cow,” went to Autumn Thacker, R.N., Labor & Delivery, who presented evidence that routine use of continuous fetal monitoring in low-risk labor patients was over-utilizing the technology without improvement in outcomes.

Honorable mention went to the Lactation Team, who sug-gested a “Mad Cow” practice was telling breastfeeding mothers they have to “pump and dump” breast milk for 24 hours after receiving a CT scan.

Winning entrants received gift cards for their suggestions.

Tipping OverSacred Cows

Tracey Marshall, R.N., is the new director of Med/Surg Services, effective Monday, Feb.1.

Tracey has more than 13 years of su-pervisory experience, with much of that time here at NorthBay. “Having success-fully held a clinical nurse lead position on 1-West, an administrative coordina-tor position, and finally clinical manager of Med/Surg, she is ready to lead at the director level,” says Rhonda Martin, as-

sistant vice president, nursing operations.Tracey holds a bachelor’s in nursing and is

currently enrolled in Seton Hall Law School pursuing a master’s degree in jurisprudence health/hospital law.

She is a past participant in Vacaville Leadership, Vacaville Chamber of Commerce and a graduate of the 2014-2016 NorthBay Healthcare Leadership Academy.

Prior to joining NorthBay in 2002, Tracey served in the U.S. Air Force Nurse Corp.

Familiar Face Takes Director’s Role in Med/Surg

Tracey Marshall

5

SWAT DonatesSporting Gifts

to ‘Our’ SchoolsNorthBay’s two adopted elementary schools

have new athletic equipment, thanks to a dona-tion by Solano County SWAT (Success is Working All Together) and NorthBay Healthcare.

SWAT is a girls’ softball organization whose goal is to provide an affordable, competitive envi-ronment for girls in Solano County to play ball in tournaments across the state. They also stress the importance of giving back to the community, and when they learned about our December Adopt-a-School program, they wanted to help.

Seth Jamel, president of SWAT’s board of directors, said his organization loved to partner with NorthBay. The group donated close to $1,000 to Adopt-a-School to purchase the new equipment, and NorthBay matched that amount, to bring the donation to $2,000, split between Padan Elementary in Vacaville and Fairview Elementary in Fairfield.

The equipment didn’t arrive in time for Christ-mas, so last week it was presented at the schools.

Fairview received an sports equipment cart filled with soccer balls, basketballs and other play-ground balls, along with soccer nets, jump ropes and an electric air pump.

“Spending money on playground equipment always means less money for the classroom, so we were delighted to receive this gift,” says Fairview Principal Dave Marianno. “It’s always exciting when NorthBay comes bearing gifts for our students.”

At Padan, the students were gathered for an

assembly and NorthBay and SWAT were introduced. “This is a very exciting day for us,” Principal

Ramiro Barron told the students. “Do you remember NorthBay?” he asked and the children cheered a big “Yes.” Then two young SWAT softball players rolled in the equipment sports cart and helped unveil the vari-ous new balls to the cheers of the Padan students.

“These balls will be on the playground for all of you to use,” the principal ex-plained.

He also pre-sented certificates of appreciation to NorthBay Health-care President/CEO Gary Passama and the Solano SWAT board members.

Padan Elementary School Principal Ramiro Barron introduces SWAT softball players Kali Walpole (center) and Taylor Eberhart as they roll in an array of playground balls during a school assembly last week. Below, Fairview Principal Dave Marianno accepts his school’s gift from NorthBay Healthcare President/CEO Gary Pas-sama (left) and Steve Huddleston, vice president of Public Affairs.

Padan Elementary School’s assembly last week (left).

6

By Reena Patel Clinical Pharmacist II

We began a new program last year at NorthBay Medical Center, in which our pharmacists now provide pain consultations for patients who report pain scores of five or above within the past 24 hours.

The program was started as a pilot project in the Med-Surg department in July, and recently went hospital-wide.

We go out on the floor and meet with these patients to answer their questions about pain medications. Our goal is to achieve a better understanding of pain management, and to im-prove the quality of their care.

One day in November, I was

providing pain consultations in Med-Surg. I was walking past one of the rooms I planned on visiting later in the day, when I overheard the patient and her daughter talking about their concerns for the patient’s level of pain. Rather than wait, I met with them right there, review-ing their concerns and providing some answers.

I explained the timing and onset of the new, longer-acting pain medication that had just been prescribed, and reviewed the importance of taking that medication, while also taking the short-acting medication as needed early to prevent pain from getting unbearable.

The daughter asked me if I would return the next day to follow up, and I said I would.

The next day, as I approached the patient’s room, the daugh-ter was in the hallway. When she saw me, she came to me in tears. She said she was so happy that I came back and that it made her feel like everyone at

NorthBay really cared. The patient, her mother, was

already feeling better and the daughter said that the time I spent with them had a huge impact on their entire family’s experience.

It’s important for us to listen for cues from our patients. Sometimes they get anxious around “white coats” and may not ask the questions they would want to ask.

As pharmacists, we can be pretty focused on numbers and task management. This program gets us out on the floor, interact-ing with patients, and with staff, who may have only known us as a name or a voice on the phone.

It gives us an opportunity to explain how medications work, and helps to dispel any anxiety patients might have.

This experience made me feel so good, knowing that the patient and her family felt better.

It was also a very good reminder of why I got into this profession.

Compassion helps dispel

pain, anxietyMore and more employees

are sharing stories of when they were able to make a connection, either with a patient, another employee or a member of the community, as part of the Creating Connections storytelling venture, according to Jennifer Shoemaker, manager of the patient experience program. “Connection Stories” are being shared on the ShareSpace site under “Patient Experience/Connection Stories.” To share yours, call Jennifer at ext. 5757, or email to connections@NorthBay.org, and it may appear in a future edition of FYI.

Clinical Pharmacist Reena Patel shares her story of how she was able to make a difference in the patient experience for a family.

7

Achieving a Benchmark Foundation SalutesNorthBay’s Pioneers

Benches honoring NorthBay VacaValley Hospital’s earliest visionaries were created in honor of the hospital’s 25th anniversary and were recently relocated closer to the hospital entrance.

Visitors to NorthBay VacaValley Hospital can now take an outdoor seat on a piece of history.

Five granite benches, originally created to memorialize the earliest supporters of the Vacaville hospital, have found new homes just outside the hospital’s front entrance. The benches were originally unveiled at the hospital’s 25th anniversary celebration back in Oct. 2012, and were created through a collaboration between NorthBay Healthcare Foundation and Bryan-Braker Funeral Home.

The benches had been resting at sites around the VacaValley campus but recent construction brought them closer to the hospital, where they are sure to be used more often.

The benches are named after five early visionaries: Mary and Richard Coffer, Walt Graham, Bill Carroll, Martha Orr and Al Porter. Richard Coffer was a Vacaville businessman and community advocate who served on the Vacaville City Council in the 1950s and was very involved in the city’s early growth. Mary was the first president of NorthBay Guild’s Vacaville group. Walt Graham led Vacaville through its growing pains of the late ‘60s as city manager, and was a board member of Intercommunity Memorial Hospital and a founding member of NorthBay Healthcare. He helped acquire land that would eventually become VacaValley Industrial Park, the Factory Stores, and California Medical Facility “South.” Bill Carroll was Vacaville’s

mayor for 12 years in the ‘70s and ‘80s and a Solano County supervisor. He is credited with leading the movement to bring a hospital to Vacaville. Martha Orr spearheaded the first fund-raising efforts in 1955 to build Intercommunity Memorial Hospital and was a strong advocate for the construction of VacaValley. She served NorthBay as a board member for 30 years. Al Porter was vice president of Basic Vegetable Products and served on the Vacaville City Council and as mayor in the 1950s. He was also a member of NorthBay Healthcare boards in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“Each of these early visionaries clearly exemplified the labels of ‘Leadership,’ ‘Compassion,’ ‘Fortitude,’ ‘Strength’ and ‘Vision’ that were ascribed to them on the benches,” noted Brett Johnson, president of NorthBay Healthcare Foundation.

8

Letters Policy

FYI publishes letters written to administration and staff of NorthBay Healthcare. Editors of FYI reserve the right to edit them for length and content. We suggest letters be limited to 250 words in length.

We typically withhold names of patients unless they specifically request to be named.

If you’ve received a letter you’d like to share, or want to write a letter to share with fellow employees, please e-mail it to mranson@northbay.org.

The annual NorthBay Women’s Heart 2 Heart Luncheon is Thurs-day, Feb. 11, at the NorthBay Healthcare Administration Center in Green Valley.

Renowned cardiothoracic surgeon Ramin Beygui, M.D., will talk about the remarkable advances in heart care that are leading to longer, healthier lives.

Doors open at 11:30 a.m., and

the presentation is from 12 to 1:30 p.m.

More than 100 women are expected to attend and all are encouraged to wear red.

Tickets are $10 each and space is limited.

To make a reservation, reg-ister online at http://nbheart-2heart.eventbrite.com or call (707) 646-3280.

Staff was Professional,Cheerful, Encouraging

Dear FYI,

I would like to send out a great big thank you to Lonnie at

Tickets on Sale for Heart to Heart Lunch

Dear Mr. Passama:

I had a heart attack at Travis Air Force Base on Nov. 21. My wife and I were on vacation from Montgomery, Ala., and living in the RV camp at Travis when it occurred. The base hospital re-ferred me to your cardiac reha-bilitation center for treatment. Even though your staff knew that I was to return to Alabama as soon as the insurance company approved the flight, they treated me with the utmost courtesy and professionalism.

I didn’t get all of their names when I had the opportunity, but I do recall a few: Leilani Revelo, R.N., in particular, did a tremendous job in helping me with the paperwork needed to be approved for the flight. She realized I was caught in a paperwork maze and had it straightened out in no time.

The entire staff however, was cheerful, professional and en-

couraging. You must be very pleased to have such an extraor-dinary staff!

Please give them my very best holiday wishes, and a heartfelt “Thank you.”

Sincerely,— A patient from Alabama

Owens and Minor who keeps the Respiratory Care Department (among others) very well stocked at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital.

He does it with care and with a great attitude and is a joy to work with. It is such a relief for us to know that we will have supplies when we need them because he takes pride in a job well done.

Thanks to Lonnie for his hard work.

— Cynthia Kieffer in RT at VVH

Respiratory TherapistAppreciates work of OMG

New Footwear Policy OfficialIt’s official!The rules regarding footwear

at NorthBay Healthcare have been officially updated, according to Ken McCollum, vice president of Human Resources.

Under “General Standards of Grooming and Dress,” in the employee handbook, Item 10 now reflects the following statement:

“Dress open-toed shoes may be worn in non-patient care

areas of the hospitals, outpatient clinics and corporate adminis-trative offices, as permitted by department policies ...

“Footware must be appropriate for your work location and meet infection control and safety requirements.”

“Your safety and the safety of patients is paramount, therefore if you have questions concerning this policy, contact your manager,” says Ken.

9

Campus ...(From Page 1)

and Employee Health.The 10,000-square-foot struc-

ture is currently vacant, giving NorthBay planners an open can-vas, says Joelyn Gropp, assistant vice president of Real Estate & Facilities Development. “We will put together a team now to start designs, working with the physi-cians, managers and employees to make best use of the space.”

NorthBay Rehabilitation will move some of its equipment from the current location at In-Shape Fairfield Rancho Solano, and also will have some new equipment, says NorthBay Rehabilitation Manager Doug Hinton. In addition, Doug hopes to offer occupational therapy for adults. That program is only currently offered at the Vacaville site, due to space limitations.

Project Manager Ray Green gave Doug and orthopedic sur-geon Cornelis Elmes, M.D., a chance to tour the building last week with Aimee, Joelyn, Diana Nalett, vice president of opera-tions for the Ambulatory Division, and Justine Zilliken, director of Specialty Care Services.

It was clear that the future is an exciting proposition for the team.

“It was fun seeing the space, which is going to create ease

of accessibility and progressive practice initiatives to enhance the patient experience,” said Diana.

Justine agreed.“Having orthopedics, reha-

bilitation and imaging services under one roof will afford our pa-tients the convenience of clinical appointments as well as fostering true patient-centered care,” she said. “How wonderful it will be to have your orthopedic surgeon stop in and make any necessary recommendations as you are re-ceiving your physical therapy!”

Patients will also be able to enjoy “pre-hab,” Justine adds, noting that it allows patients to meet with their

rehabilitation partners during their pre-operative visit with their orthopedic surgeon.

Construction is expected to begin in the fall, with “move-in” as early as year-end, if all goes well.

At that time, the Center for Orthopedics will move from its Fairfield offices in the NorthBay Health Plaza, clearing room for more administrative offices.

NorthBay Rehabilitation in Va-caville, which currently operates at In-Shape Vacaville Browns Val-ley, will also be making a move into the VacaValley Wellness Center, which is expected to open this summer.

HIM Temporarily Makes its Move to NorthBay Health Plaza

NorthBay Rehabilitation Manager Doug Hinton (left) and orthopedic surgeon Cornelis Elmes, M.D., check out their future office space.

The Health Information Management Department at NorthBay Medical Center has temporarily relocated to Suite 203 of the NorthBay Health Pla-za, says Manager Teresa Pierce.

Plans call for the old HIM of-fice to be renovated in order to become the new home of Medi-cal Staff and the Medical Library,

according to Diane Irby, director of Medical Staff Relations. It’s a plus because it will put the Medi-cal Office next to the physicians lounge and conference room, and closer to administration, says Diane.

Once Medical Staff has moved, the old office will be renovated so that HIM can move in, along with

some patient access team mem-bers.

“We’re basically switching places,” says Teresa, “but adding a registration component.”

It should be a patient-friendly move because people arriving for out-patient services such as blood work or cardiology services can check in right there.

10

#NBDocTalk Launches ... (From Page 1)in a chat, even though she admits to being a social media novice.

“I had fun and learned a lot,” she said afterward.

She wasn’t the only one learning lessons from the event, says Social Media and Online Specialist Robin Miller, who is coordinating the chats and sitting with the doctors as they respond to questions from NorthBay’s Facebook followers.

“There were some glitches in how we shared and viewed the posts and I already have ideas for improving the effort as we move forward,” says Robin. “So stay tuned!”

Next up for #NBDocTalk will be a chat with cardiologist Milind Dhond, M.D., at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 10. He will discuss heart health and the latest in cardiology. Send questions in advance to RobinMiller@NorthBay.org.

Dr. Judy Yang contemplates the answer to a question while Robin Miller, social media specialist, offers some editing advice.

Will you be the lucky one who takes home a brand new car for just a $50 investment? That could be the happy reality for the grand prize winner in the Solano Wine & Food Jubilee raffle.

A pile of cool cash wouldn’t be bad, either.

This year, the Jubilee raffle top prize is a choice of a 2016 Nissan Altima, Buick Encore or Hyundai Sonata, courtesy of local auto dealer Rami Yanni. Up to $10,000 in cash prizes will also be award-ed.

Rami is general manager of four dealerships in Vacaville: Vacaville Nissan, Vacaville Dodge, Vacaville Buick GMC, and the soon-to-be-opened Vacaville Hyundai. He has generously sup-ported the Solano Wine & Food Jubilee for the past three years.

The Solano Wine & Food Jubilee, and its raffle, are fund-raising opportunities for the

programs of NorthBay Hospice & Bereavement.

For the cash prize portion of the raffle, 12 winners will receive $125, 10 winners take home $500, one winner receives $1,000 and one is a $2,500 winner.

Raffle tickets are $50 each or buy two and get the third for free. They can be purchased by calling (707) 646-3133, pur-chased with a credit card by fax

at (707) 646-3135, or in per-son at the NorthBay Healthcare Foundation office in Green Valley, or at Jackson Medical Supply on Main Street in Vacaville.

The winning tickets will be drawn at the 29th Annual Solano Wine & Food Jubilee, set for April 23 at Sunrise Event Center, 620 Orange Drive, Vacaville. It’s a dressy, black tie affair and it all gets under way at 6:30 p.m. Tickets, for those ages 21 and over, are $125 each and must be purchased in advance by going to www.wineandfoodjubilee.org. Call (707) 646-3133 for more in-foramtion.

Presenting Sponsors for 2016 are Al and Patt Shaw, Freeman Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, Rami Yanni of Vacaville Nissan, Dodge, Hyundai and Buick GMC, Financial Architects Partners, Western Health Advantage, and DPR Construction.

Who Wants to Win a New Car, Cash?

11

Facebook Page Loving Our ‘Likers’The NorthBay Healthcare

Facebook campaign continues to flourish. The three-month effort is designed to grow the number of followers on the page and it is succeeding.

In the first few weeks of handing out water bottles to those who show that they “like” us on Facebook, we’ve gained more than 500 new followers.

Haven’t gotten your water bottle yet? They are available at all CPC and specialty care clinics. One bottle per employee.

Facebook fans at VacaValley Hospital were lined up and ready to get their water bottles when the social media team dropped by.

Jac Ancheta put the straw to the test.

Tony Williams said “If there was a love button, I’d click that one, too.”

Corey Bodiford and Jasmin Fullwood of Central Services show off the blue thumb signifying a “like” on their Facebook page.

Ruby Ching and Sheila Del Los Reyes show off the Facebook “like” that earned them a water bottle. Aira Catabay (at right) of Unit 1800 stopped by to collect her water bottle.

12

Presidents Day weekend is a time of celebration and midwinter activities, but you never know when an accident or illness will dampen your fun.

“Care ’til 8,” a service offered by the NorthBay Center for Primary Care in Fair-field and Vacaville, will be open for North-Bay patients with non-life-threaten-ing injuries and illnesses over the Presidents Day weekend.

Holiday weekend hours will be 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and noon to 8 p.m. on Monday at both locations: 2458 Hilborn Road in Fairfield and 421 Nut Tree Road in Vacaville.

Not a NorthBay patient? A number of payment options and insurance plans are accepted.

For a complete list of accepted insurances, see www.NorthBay.org/care8 and click on Health Plans.

Appointments can also be made up to 24 hours in advance; call (707) 646-5500.

This Valentine’s Day, do something for your heart, for your sweetheart, and for others whose hearts need a little help, all at once.

First, grab your sweetheart and get your heart rac-ing at the “Be Good to Your Sweet Heart” dinner dance, set for Feb. 13 at Sunrise Event Center in Vacaville.

Then, know that your fun and participation will ben-efit patients of the NorthBay Heart & Vascular Center.

The evening kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with a no-host bar, and a buffet meal prepared by Outback Steakhouse, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Dancing, to the popular dance band The Rhythm Method 4 — the same group that will perform at the 29th Annual Solano Wine & Food Jubilee — goes to 11:30 p.m.

Tickets are $50 each, and can be purchased by going to www.NorthBayC2C.eventbrite.com.

Ticketholders may also choose to buy a rose for their date at the event. Roses will be $5 each and proceeds will support “Autism Awareness,” a benefit for the Children’s Nurturing Program.

Sunrise Event Center is located at 620 Orange Drive. For more information, call (707) 646-3133.

Care ’til 8 Open Presidents Day

Dance Benefits Heart & Vascular

Taking Careof Business

Steve Huddleston, NorthBay Healthcare Vice President of Public Affairs, takes

the podium last week at the Solano Economic Development Corporation Annual Meeting as the group’s new

chairman. This is the second time Steve has served as chairman of the Solano

EDC board, the last time in 2005. Steve is also the incoming chairman

of the Fairfield-Suisun Chamber of Commerce, and will be installed in July. Dr. Robert Eyler, economic foresensics

and analytics expert, and economic development experts Audrey Taylor and Don Schjeldahl gave an overview of the economic climate in Solano County and

fielded questions from a full audience at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fairfield.

13

OperationPROMises Seeks Donations, SeamstressesOnce again, NorthBay

Healthcare invites employees to be part of Operation PROMises, a special one-day event designed to make teenage girls’ prom dreams come true.

This is the third year that NorthBay has part-nered with Soroptimist In-ternational of Vacaville and other businesses in So-lano County. Last year 70 girls were able to select dresses, shoes and accessories, items they could not otherwise afford.

This year, organizer Jane Hill-iard, NorthBay director of Volun-teer Services, is hoping the event can serve 100 young women.

How can you help? Between now and the March 12 event, coordinators will be collecting community donations of gently used prom-style dresses, shoes, jewelry, wraps and purses.

Cash donations are also wel-

come, as Jane typically pur-chases a number at bargain dresses and shoes from warehouses at re-tail prices. (Make your check out to NorthBay Health-care Foundation and put Operation PROMises in the memo field.)

Employees are also welcome to volunteer. Set-up help will be needed on Friday, March 11. Volunteers will be needed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, the day of the event. Seamstresses are espe-cially needed. Cleanup Sunday morning will require two to four hours of work, starting at 9 a.m.

School administrators are tasked with inviting girls from their schools who could most benefit from the invitation.

This year’s event will take

place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at a new location: In the conference facility of the Green Valley Ad-ministration Center, 4500 Busi-ness Center Drive in Fairfield.

“The event grew so large last year, we were squeezed into our downtown thrift shop,” says Jane. Hilliard, “With the larger space we hope to serve more girls this year.”

All girls who accept their invitations will be assigned a time to come and select an outfit free of charge, see hair and makeup demonstrations, and win prizes.

Anyone wishing to volunteer time or services is encouraged to contact Jane at 646-3137. Donations are welcome at Secondhand Rose Thriftique, 322 Parker St. The thrift shop is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Check donations should be sent to the attention of Foundation Analyst Tim Johnson at GVAC.

PhysiciansInspired

by Halley’sComments

Marc Halley, Founder of Halley Consulting, author and thought lead-er, spoke with NorthBay Medical Group physicians and leaders in January to kick off the new year and the Network Operations Coun-cil. He spoke of building the right infrastructure so we can connect silos and “move up the Integration Pyramid,” says Aimee Brewer, president of NorthBay Healthcare Ambulatory Services. “Success-ful integration requires physicians and clinical experts to partner with business experts to balance clinical quality, service quality, productivity and financial sustainability, and hearing Marc share his experience and best practices got us all energized,” says Aimee.

14

Catch Another Lean Wave of GradsWith projects focused on

streamlining work flow, reducing wait times and increasing access to testing, the Lean Wave 3 pro-gram graduated six new Certified Lean Advisors in January.

“Congratulations to Farida Chettfour, Andrea Rodriguez, Niki Petersen, Angel Tellechea, Kerry Wilmerding and Cody Zamora,” says Trish Hackemack, director of Performance Excellence. “This is quite an accomplishment,” noting

that the program requires about 200 hours of reading, class time and process improvement work outside of class.

During the graduation cer-emony, the students shared their process improvement stories and insights with more than 70 NorthBay Healthcare leaders and staff.

“Listening to these gradu-ates, it is very clear that each person came away with a good

understanding of Lean tools and methodologies,” says Trish. “Throughout the program, they have been sharing their learning with co-workers and involving them in their process improve-ment work. They came away understanding that process improvement needs to involve everyone who touches a process to document all the steps, iden-tify the problem in very specific

CEO and President Gary Passama (left) and Vice President and Chief Quality Officer Nicole Brocato (right) celebrate with graduates (left to right) Cody Zamora, Angel Tellechea, Farida Chettfour, Kerry Wilmerding, Andrea Rodriguez and Niki Petersen.

Andrea Rodriguez (left) and Angel Tellechea (above) share their project findings during the Lean Wave 3 graduation event in January.

See LEAN, Page 15

15

terms, drill down to the key root causes, and develop and trial potential solutions.”

The goal of the CLA Program is to embed continuous improvement and problem solving into the culture of NorthBay.

“Every project focused on making the system better for patients,” noted Nicole Brocato, vice president and chief quality officer. “This is what makes us a great healthcare system. This is what will continue to make us better in the future.”

NorthBay Healthcare President and CEO Gary Passama had words of praise for the graduates and the program.

“To think that four years ago we were just learning about Lean,” he said. “And we’ve learned now

that we can make it sustainable within our organization. We are on the right path.”

In related news, the Wave 4 Certified Lean Advisors class kicked off on Jan. 20 with eight participants.

Applications are now being accepted for Wave 5, which will begin May 18.

If you have any questions about the program, please visit the Performance Excellence ShareSpace or contact any of the Performance Excellence Team or CLA graduates.

Lean ... (From Page 18)

Graduates surprised their mentors with flowers. They are (left to right) Gary Pila-cinski, Trish Hackemack, Letitia Goodjoint and Isaac Brown. Niki Petersen (below) shares her results.)

Clearly, construction and changing foot traffic patterns around NorthBay’s two hospitals have shaken up the way we go about our business on the campuses, even for NorthBay Guild members.

But, that’s not stopping the Guild from coming up with a new site for popular vendor sales, notes Jane Hilliard, director of Volunteer Services.

It started in January, with a different vendor sale every week at the VacaValley Gift Shop.

Local artists and crafters set up a display of their handiwork in the shop, Tuesdays through Fridays, and their unique items will be offered in addition to the regular selection of NorthBay logo merchandise, candy, cards and small sundry items.

The shop will also be open longer hours — until 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday — to make it easier for employees to peruse vendor merchandise before or after work.

The VacaValley Gift shop will still open at 10 a.m. Monday through Friday.

Nothing will change in terms of hours of operation or what is for sale at the NorthBay Medical Center Gift Shop, Jane adds.

Here’s the vendor sale schedule for VacaValley Hospital in February:w Feb. 3-5: Wine Country

Designs.w Feb 9-12: iCandy Handbags

and Jewelry.

New Sales,Vendors

Coming toGift Shops

16

TO REMEMBERDATES

IN THE NEWSPEOPLE

LETTERS

DATES

PEOPLE

NEW FACESWELCOMEWELCOME

LETTERS

02.03.16 Retirement Plan Meetings – VVHP Ste. 29002.04.16 Retirement Plan Meetings – NMBC Penn Tab lobby02.06.16 Ski & Snowboarding Trip, Sugar Bowl02.11.16 Annual Heart to Heart Lunch - GVAC03.10.16 Advanced Medicine Series: HealthSpring and a physician will talk about your heart health03.12.16 Operation PROMises03.19.16 Ski & Snowboarding Trip, Sugar Bowl04.08.16 Open Staff meetings – VVH Cafe CR04.09.16 Sacramento Zoo04.11.16 Open Staff meetings – Annex CR 3 & 404.11.16 Open Staff meetings – Hilborn CR 22904.12.16 Open Staff meetings – GVAC CR 15604.23.16 Solano Wine & Food Jubilee – Vacaville05.14.16 NorthBay at Scandia Day

By Robin Miller

The magnitude 6.0 earthquake that rattled the American Can-yon/Napa region just before 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2014, opened my eyes in more ways than one.

I had fallen asleep in my recliner while watching television, and the shaking was strong enough in Vacaville to wake me and my youngest son, who had fallen asleep on the couch watching the same show.

We stared wide-eyed at each other for a moment and then he asked the obvious question, “Was that an earthquake?”

Then we both did something that opened my eyes in a different way. We picked up our cell phones and started checking for text messages, Facebook posts and Tweets.

The quake hit at 3:20 in the morning. T.V. had nothing.

I was a local newspaper editor at the time, so I spent the next three hours posting information on the paper’s Facebook page from the U.S. Geological Survey and inviting followers to share their experiences. Before I finally dragged myself to bed, I posted a simple question: “Did you feel it?” When I got up a few hours later and opened the Facebook page, I had more than 50 com-ments. I had crowd-sourced a story while I slept and had all the quotes I needed for a report.

It shouldn’t have surprised me. Increasingly, people people are turning to social media, not just for the latest news but to share information, research products and services, and to express their opinions.

And it’s not just newspapers that are seeing the impact.

A recent survey showed 94 percent of health care organiza-

tions have Facebook pages and 51 percent are on Twitter. Most (99 percent) have at least one Yelp page.

Why? Because that’s where the people are. Just like the newspapers discovered, health care providers are learning that our customers, potential customers, employees, donors, potential donors, are all on social media. They are there — we need to be there with them!

Social media makes it easier

to connect with and engage with our audience. The NorthBay Way is all about creating connections. Social media is one more tool in our tool kit for caring, communication, collaboration and competence.

NorthBay has launched a Facebook campaign, giving free water bottles to anyone (including employees) who “likes” our page. The effort to grow engagement took another step with our #NBDocTalk events on Facebook. The live “chat” with NorthBay doctors will be held twice-monthly (every other Wednesday) until April. The idea is to create yet another venue to connect with our community on health issues of concern.

I’m hoping they’ll be eye-opening experiences.

The author is NorthBay Healthcare’s social media/online specialist and writes a recurring blog and column on social media.

Earthquake was a Social Wakeup Call