Centura Health is committed to achieving zero preventable harm to caregivers, patients and their families. With our collective dedication to safety and reducing preventable harm, we live out our mission to become the system of choice and provide high-performing whole person care to our communities. We’ve heard the feedback shared in our Culture of Safety Surveys – thank you for speaking up for safety. Based on your feedback, we are pleased to share that we will be transitioning away from our paper-based occupational health safety event tracking system.

A new Midas learning solution will launch on Monday, Oct. 18. This new learning tool is designed to better capture associate and provider safety events and near misses and identify trends and opportunities across our connected ecosystem.

The new tool will offer a better user experience and will be conveniently located on every desktop so you can complete reports at your convenience. Transitioning to a computer-based system will also allow us to have a more robust repository of safety event information to aid in identifying opportunities and support our prioritization of system solutions as we continue to work toward our goal of zero preventable harm.

As a High Reliability Organization (HRO), we are dedicated to supporting a culture of learning. Over the last three years, our shared work to enhance reporting of patient safety events has demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach. Using our learnings from patient safety reporting and implementing the same technology for associate and provider safety event reporting will allow us to better support the safety of our incredible people as we continue our HRO journey.

Thank you for your unwavering commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our caregivers, patients and communities. Our vision is that every community, every neighborhood and every life is whole and healthy, and you – our incredible caregivers – are at the center of that vision.

Questions?
Contact your local Occupational Health lead.

All associates and providers must submit proof of flu vaccination or an approved religious or medical exemption by Monday, Nov. 15. Receiving a flu shot or submitting an approved exemption is a condition of employment. Click here for a schedule of associate flu vaccination opportunities.

An annual influenza vaccine is the best defense against seasonal flu, keeping you healthy and making a meaningful impact in the lives of those around us. It is our responsibility to the people we serve to help protect the whole health of our communities by preventing the spread of illness – and getting immunized against the seasonal flu is extra important this year as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Make sure to get your flu shot by Nov. 15. Associate vaccination opportunities are available acros our system through the end of October. You can view the full schedule here.

The health and safety of our incredible people remains our top priority, and as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, flu vaccination options will again look a little different this year. Each Centura facility will be delivering associate vaccines in the way that makes the most sense for that location. Options may include:

• Roaming vaccination carts that come to you
• Traditional clinics with social distancing and enhanced preventative measures in place
• Vaccination by appointment with your local occupational health nurse

Nearly 140 years ago, our founders came to Colorado and western Kansas with the determination and pioneering spirit to build healthier communities. The spirit of loving neighbors helping loving neighbors is amplified today through the care provided by our 21,000 incredible caregivers.

Starting in October, we’re highlighting several caregivers and their impactful connections to our Mission and Vision in our next multilingual brand campaign, “I Am.” Together, their collective stories reflect the impact we have in our communities outside of a work setting, and with every life we treat in health and wholeness. We’re especially grateful to the following caregivers who are featured in this first wave of the campaign.

Dr. Olukemi Akinrinola, pediatrician at Southlands Primary Care, also practicing at Centura Parker Adventist Hospital: “My mission is to extend the healing hands of Jesus to every patient and their relatives that I come into contact with by my dedication and passion for their whole well-being.” View her :30 TV spot below.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our incredible caregivers have continued to provide whole person care to our patients from the safety of their homes or mobile locations using telehealth and connected care services.

We know how important it is to deliver quality, whole person care to our patients and are excited to announce that Centura has been awarded $997,597 to expand patient access and care coordination efforts in the telehealth space.

Centura is one of 72 health care providers nationwide to receive critical support funding for telehealth and connected care services during the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) second group of funding commitments under Round two of the COVID-19 Telehealth Program. The total amount of funding for this wave in round two is nearly $42 million. To date, 134 awardees have received funding commitments for just over $83 million under round two. The FCC will continue to commit funding to the highest-scoring applications until at least $250 million has been committed.

	This is the largest funding award that Centura’s virtual care team has ever received. The telehealth funding will complement our ministry-wide goal to improve patient access and care coordination through expanding remote communication, evaluation and care efforts outside of our facilities.
	- Gerard Frunzi Director, Virtual Care

The funding will help:

• Replace and add telehealth carts to our emergency departments, inpatient units and intensive care units across the ministry; and
• Expand remote patient monitoring kits – increasing the ability to send patients home with kits that measure biometric data.

Established in April 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) act, the COVID-19 Telehealth Program provides health care providers with reimbursement for telecommunications services, information services and connected devices necessary to enable telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joining Centura on the list of awardees for this round is one of our sponsors, AdventHealth. View the full list of awardees here. Congratulations to Centura’s virtual care team for the well-deserved award and for continuing to provide whole person care to our patients!

Lexicomp Mobile, our convenient drug reference tool for clinicians, is a subscription-based service that must be renewed annually. If you use Lexicomp Mobile and have received a notification that the subscription is about to expire, you need to obtain an authorization code to renew your mobile subscription by mid-October.

In order to obtain this code:

1. Log in to Lexicomp online at http://online.lexi.com/lco/action/home.
2. Click on Mobile Access codes:

3. Select your platform and choose existing customer.
4. You will then be provided an authorization code. Follow the directions outlined to update your subscription.

If you or someone you know needs help with substance abuse, visit https://www.centura.org/recovery

Preventing and treating substance use disorders is a vital part of the whole person care we deliver to our patients and communities, and our multi-faceted treatment, harm reduction and prevention efforts are saving lives across our connected ecosystem. In the communities we serve throughout Colorado and Kansas, binge drinking is a growing problem – and one we are working to address.

An important goal in behavioral health is advancing whole person care through delivery of early detection practices to prevent substance abuse. Centura’s Integrated Behavioral Health teams are advancing care with an intervention called Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI). SBI is a preventive approach that begins with a questionnaire to assess the patient’s substance use, including alcohol. If the questionnaire registers a score indicating excessive substance use, the patient is connected with additional resources and treatment.

Click for full-size image.

With more than 37 million Americans binge drinking, the use of SBI could reduce injury, alcohol-related disease and possibly death. SBI is integral when implementing awareness around binge drinking and substance use. With increasing awareness and more patients entering facilities, we look to Centura’s front line health care providers to deliver health education related to SBI and binge drinking.

At Centura’s SET (Service, Empowerment, Transformation) Family Medical Clinic in Colorado Springs, caregivers practice SBI with the use of the tool AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test). Shannon McPherson is embedded in the clinic as the Integrated Behavioral Health Consultant, and partners with other clinic associates to respond when patients are at risk for alcohol misuse.

In January 2021 the SET clinic received a Facilitating Alcohol Screening and Treatment (FAST) grant, which made possible the implementation of the AUDIT tool to quickly assess alcohol use for over six months. If the patient’s responses indicate risky or heavy alcohol use, their primary care provider (PCP) conducts a brief intervention using a compassionate, nonjudgmental technique called Motivational Interviewing. The PCP may also refer them to Shannon as the Integrated Behavioral Health Consultant, offer Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) and/or provide a referral to other treatment providers, as deemed necessary.

We also have a chance to impact risky drinking behaviors of clients and to help them reduce their alcohol consumption prior to it negatively affecting their health. For example, in the last quarter, the SET clinic screened 464 patients for risky alcohol use. Of those who screened positive, 97% engaged in more detailed assessment. Six of the positively-screened patients began counseling and nine started MAT with the SET team.

Conversations about substance abuse can be difficult but being open to discussing alcohol consumption with a nonjudgmental attitude and motivational interviewing allows space for the patient to address and make changes in their health behaviors and take control of their overall health.

Questions?
For more information about SBI, visit https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/fasd/alcohol-screening.html. For questions about the SET clinic or Centura’s substance abuse prevention efforts, contact Amber Quartier, Quality Outcome Program Coordinator, Behavioral Health Initiatives, or Shannon McPherson, Integrated Behavioral Health Consultant at the SET clinic.

Did you know? Binge drinking and addiction impact every community – but not every community is impacted in the same way. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, in 2018 binge drinking was reported as follows by various ethnic groups: Whites made up 76.3% of the US population. Of those, 56.7% reported alcohol use and 25.7% reported binge drinking. African Americans made up 13.4% of the population. 43% reported alcohol use with 23% reporting binge drinking. American Indian or Alaska Native population, which made up 1.3% of the population, 35.9% reported alcohol use with 22.4% reporting binge drinking. Asian population, which made up 5.9% of the US population, 46% reported alcohol use with 23.3% engaging in binge drinking. Hispanic or Latino population, which made up 18.5% of the overall population, 41.7% reported alcohol use with 24.6% reporting binge drinking. It is important to note that access to addiction treatment and the ability to complete that treatment varies for different populations. Research shows that African Americans and Latinos are less likely to complete addiction treatment due to financial factors and lack of insurance. Research also shows that cultural barriers are a significant factor when it comes to access and completion of addiction treatment for indigenous or Native American populations. Other contributing factors limiting use of needed addiction services for underserved groups include lack of trust in the health care system, historical trauma from discrimination and racism, and lower health literacy levels. References: National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2019: Table ##. Hyattsville, MD. 2021. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2019.htm. US Census Bureau (2019). Quick Facts. Retrieved from: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219 Saloner, B., & Lê Cook, B. (2013). Blacks and Hispanics are less likely than whites to complete addiction treatment, largely due to socioeconomic factors. Health affairs (Project Hope), 32(1), 135–145. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0983 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA] (2018). National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Retrieved from: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey-drug-use-and-health

To ensure Microsoft Patches are deployed less than 30 days from receipt and to maximize our data security, the Non-Epic Critical Application monthly maintenance window was moved to the third Sunday of each month.

Important information regarding Maintenance Window activities:
Due to the Epic Upgrade on Sunday, Oct. 10, Information Technology (IT) will NOT be performing any monthly maintenance on Epic in October.

On Sunday, Oct. 17, Information Technology (IT) will be performing monthly maintenance on the following non-Epic critical applications and services, which will be unavailable from Sunday, Oct. 17, from 11:30 p.m. until Monday, Oct. 18, at 2 a.m. (2330 until 0200 MT, 0030 until 0300 CT), lasting approximately two and a half hours. Please view the list of impacted applications or services and their related workarounds.

For the month of October, the computer workstation security updates will NOT occur during the third Sunday Maintenance window. Instead, this will occur on Sunday, Oct. 24, from 11:30 p.m. until midnight (2330 until 2400 MT). Following the installation of workstation updates, you will see a 15-minute countdown and then the workstation will automatically restart. Offline workstations will automatically update and restart once connected to the Centura Health network.

Non-Epic Critical Applications or Services impacted and their workaround:

Non-Epic Critical Applications	Workaround
3M 360 Encompass	There is no workaround for this application.
Alaris Interoperability	Use the Alaris IV Pump Integration Downtime Recovery Checklist.
Ascom Vital Sign Alerts (St. Francis NICU)	Ascom will not provide vital sign alerts to Cisco phones and requires the downtime procedures to be initiated. Additional staffing may be needed.
Flight Vector	The system is unavailable. Please initiate downtime procedures.
Myla Software/Virtuo Blood Culture Instruments	Culture orders will not interface from Epic to Myla during this time. Please follow downtime and manual procedures, as necessary.
Natus Neuroworks	Please initiate downtime procedures.
Nurse Call Systems (All)	Nurse Call systems will not send alerts to phones. Nurse Call alerts will alarm at the main console. Downtime procedures should be in place and the nurse call console should be monitored while the system is down.
OBIX	OBIX will be unavailable. Downtime procedures including in-person monitoring should be initiated which may require increased staff.
Point of Care lab tests uploading to Epic	Point of Care lab results will not upload to Epic during the full maintenance window. POC tests completed during the downtime will upload to Epic once the downtime is complete.
Pyxis	Pyxis stations will automatically be placed on critical override in order to pull medications.
WellSky Transfusion – Blood Bank	WellSky Transfusion (Blood Bank) will not be available. The labs should initiate downtime procedures if the application is needed during the downtime.
Computer workstation security updates	For the month of October, the computer workstation security updates will NOT occur during the third Sunday Maintenance window. Instead, this will occur on Sunday, Oct. 24, from 11:30 p.m. to midnight (2330 until 2400 MT). Following the installation of workstation updates, you will see a 15-minute countdown and then the workstation will automatically restart. Offline workstations will automatically update and restart once connected to the Centura Health network.

When this will occur:

• Non-Epic Critical Applications: Sunday, Oct. 17, at 11:30 p.m. until Monday, Oct. 18, at 2 a.m. (2330 until 0200 MT, 0030 until 0300 CT).
• Computer Workstation Security Updates: Sunday, Oct. 24, from 11:30 p.m. until midnight (2330 until 2400 MT, 0030 until 0100 CT).

• Ascom Vital Sign Alerts (St. Francis NICU): Additional staffing may be needed.
• Nurse Call Systems (all): Downtime procedures should be in place and the nurse call console should be monitored while the system is down.
• OBIX: Downtime procedures including in-person monitoring should be initiated which may require increased staff.

Play hard to get with cyber criminals. If you’re unsure who an email is from, even if the details appear accurate, do not respond and do not click on any links or attachments found in that email.

Launch Microsoft Outlook Email and then select the Mimecast tab to report suspicious emails, block senders and domains:



How to spot a “phishy” email:

• Internal email with external email address
• Misspelled words in the body of the email
• Requests to confirm private information

To support Centura’s commitment to deliver high-performing whole person care, Information Technology (IT) has launched a new streamlined process for submitting Epic optimization requests that incorporates the core priorities of physician enablement and system alignment.  

The new Epic Intake Process (also commonly referred to as the Sand, Pebble, Rock (SPR) Intake process) will assist the business and IT teams by:

• Providing requestors with a centralized tool to submit new Epic optimization requests.
• Promoting a consistent process.
• Ensuring prioritization of work to focus on the work that is most urgent or impactful.
• Standardizing and automating the intake process.
• Supporting transparency of where a request is in process.
• Improving communication and collaboration across teams and requestors.
  
• Allowing the Centura Health enterprise to see the complete book of business for Epic optimization requests to ensure work is getting completed in a timely manner.