Throughout the last nearly 50 years, Flight For Life has provided critical care transport for patients far and wide, covering seven states in the Rocky Mountain Region, including Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana and Oklahoma. Occasionally, transports are even made to and from the east and west coasts and from Mexico and the Caribbean.

At this year’s Search and Rescue conference (SARCon), Jeff Sparhawk, Colorado Search and Rescue (CSAR) President, presented Flight For Life with the first ever CSAR President’s award. The award recognizes the historic support, collaboration and friendship Flight For Life has provided to search and rescue teams throughout Colorado.

“We all know, when we see an orange helicopter come up a valley or over a ridge, we breathe a sigh of relief and a weight is lifted off our shoulders,” said Jeff Sparhawk.

For decades, the Flight For Life team has helped the SAR team with helicopter support when needed in a remote spot, trained with them on how to conduct a search of an avalanche debris field and supported injured SAR members who need help getting home after discharge from a hospital – to name a few.

	This is a truly special and gratifying award for Flight For Life. We treasure our relationship with the SAR community and have profound respect for the role they play in keeping our back country as safe as possible for those who have misadventures there – in all weather and conditions.
	- Kathleen Mayer, Director – Flight For Life

SARCon is a yearly conference presented by Flight For Life and CSAR in Summit County that draws in about 150 people from across Colorado and the region every year. From knot tying to airway management to splinting and managing a hemorrhage, attendees are presented with a mixed curriculum of medical, technical and SAR training. Along with learning valuable training skills, teams get together to share best practices and exchange ideas.

Join us in congratulating the Centura Flight For Life team for receiving such a meaningful award and for all they do to deliver quality care, daily.

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 are transitioning away from our paper-based occupational health safety event tracking system.

WorkSafe, our new Midas learning solution, is now available! 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.

Find the WorkSafe icon on every computer desktop.

WorkSafe offers a better user experience and is 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.

To participate in this challenge, you need to register for an Inspire Wellbeing account. If you have not yet done so, take a moment today to complete your simple, one-time registration. Associates: Register through My Virtual Workplace Covered spouses: Register at wellbeing.centura.org

Registration is now open for our next Inspire Wellbeing challenge: Three Good Things.

Participating in the Three Good Things wellbeing challenge is simple: Every night before you go to bed, record Three Good Things that happened in the day, your role in it, and how it made you feel. This evidence-based challenge is modeled after a Duke University program where participants who recorded 14 days of Three Good Things within two hours before bed felt increased happiness and fewer depressive symptoms.

Mental wellness is an important part of your whole health, and we recognize that stress and burnout are heightened by the ongoing pandemic. Please consider joining this challenge and taking a few minutes each day to better support your mental and emotional wellbeing!

When you complete the challenge, you can also earn 100 points toward your Inspire Wellbeing incentive.

Log in to your Inspire Wellbeing account to register today! This 14-day challenge will begin Nov. 1, 2021.

Watch this short video to learn more about the science behind Three Good Things. Please note, the sign-up process mentioned in the video is not necessary for Centura associates – a version of this program is available right in the Inspire Wellbeing platform.

Breast cancer is a significant health issue. It is the most diagnosed cancer among American women. Nearly 4 million women in the U.S. have a history of breast cancer. In the U.S., about 1 in 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer at some point in their life, and it is expected that, in 2021, about 43,600 women will die from breast cancer in the U.S. (Breastcancer.org, 2021)

Did you know? Centura Health is currently working with Health Images and the African Leadership Group to bring education and low-cost mammography to members of the African American community who may have health literacy or financial barriers. A screening mammogram does not require an order from a provider. A screening mammogram is covered by most insurances.

Fortunately, breast cancer survival rates have improved. This is due, in part, to the increased use of mammography and other imaging to provide early diagnosis for the most affected population: white women over the age of 50.

The incidence of breast cancer among white women is 131.8 new cases per 100,000 women, compared to 124.7 for Black women, and 105.1 for Hispanic women (Susan G. Komen, 2021).  

Notably, even though Black women have a lower incidence of breast cancer than white women, they have the highest mortality rate from breast cancer in the country. We are still trying to fully understand the reasons for this disparity; however, we believe it is because Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is the most common type of breast cancer among Black women. TNBC seems to develop earlier in life, at ages we do not often screen for breast cancer, and is also a more aggressive form of breast cancer for which, unfortunately, there are limited treatment options.

While we continue to research and learn why Black women develop TNBC more often than white women, it is imperative that we offer robust breast cancer education and improve access to mammography for this community in a way that feels safe and is culturally congruent.  

In 2019 the American Society of Breast Surgeons released their breast cancer screening recommendations, stating that:

• All women age 25 and older should have a formal risk assessment for breast cancer.
• Women with an average risk of breast cancer should start annual screening mammograms at age 40.
• Women with a higher-than-average risk of breast cancer should start annual screening mammograms at an earlier age and should be offered additional imaging each year.

Tomorrow is Global Dignity Day – a day where everyone, everywhere is encouraged to look beyond what divides us and recognize the humanity we share. Ensuring the dignity of every single person is essential to combating intolerance, injustice and inequality.

As a ministry, we have a deep commitment to advancing social justice and health equity across our connected ecosystem. We recently announced the 19 recipients of Centura Health’s inaugural Health Equity & Advancement Fund, created to extend the impact of community efforts focused on advancing social justice through initiatives that extend health equity across Colorado and western Kansas. Grants awarded ranged from $25,000 to $87,720 with a focus on programs that serve diverse communities and/or populations, focus on diverse caregivers and leverage collaborations with other partners to increase social impact. We are truly excited about the incredible impact these organizations are making in our communities and invite you to learn more about their projects here.

Individually as caregivers and collectively as a ministry, we are called to care for all people and treat everyone with compassion, respect and dignity. People seeking care are often at their most vulnerable, and we have the unique opportunity to be a part of our patients’ stories, to demonstrate that we value each person’s inherent value and worth as a human being.

It’s important that in every interaction, we choose to treat people with dignity. When we uphold dignity with our words and actions, together we can build cultures of dignity in our communities and a world where compassion, understanding and love triumph over intolerance, injustice and inequality.

Thank you for inspiring change and continually working to make every community, every neighborhood and every life – whole and healthy.

Through education and initiatives in more than 80 countries, Global Dignity empowers people to recognize their own inherent dignity and respect the equal worth of all others. Learn more and find a collection of videos that show the universally powerful values and principles of dignity in a variety of ways here.

As part of growing and nurturing a culture of security at Centura Health, the Email Retention Policy will be updated Nov. 15, 2021, to reduce email retention from three years to one year.  

Currently, emails are automatically deleted after three years. Beginning Nov. 15 all emails will be retained for up to one year from the date of receipt. After one year, all emails will be automatically deleted.

This change to Centura’s Email Retention Policy accomplishes the following goals: 

• Reduces the cost and risk of litigation related to handling large volumes of electronic information. 
• Reduces security vulnerability, limits exposure and the amount of data that an unauthorized user or cybercriminal could access in the case of a breach.   

Cybersecurity plays a vital role in everyone’s life. Centura Health is continuing to grow a culture of security by increasing the ways Information Security and associates engage and by encouraging the practice of Cyber Hygiene. Together we can protect Centura Health from cyber criminals.    

Cyber Hygiene includes activities and behaviors that reduce cyber vulnerability and increase cyber safety.

Recently the Centura Information Security Office (ISO) was reorganized to better serve our patients, families and caregivers. This reorganization will help with:

• Proactively creating and implementing safeguards throughout our Ministry through the Cyber Services division and Program Management.
• Enhancing the Cyber Operations division with additional associates and technology to promptly react to issues and incidents.
  

• “Seeing and reporting”: By promptly reporting suspicious activity to the Information Security Office, you can help to prevent a situation that could interrupt services to patients and families. In some cases, you could help to avert a potential data breach. Report suspicious activity to ITSecurity@Centura.org.
• Review and follow the Centura Data Security Risk Management policy in Policy Tech.
• If you are seeking a career change, the dynamic field of cybersecurity is rapidly growing and offers something for everyone. For more information about cybersecurity careers, please reach out to a member of the information Security Office.
• Examine cybersecurity’s impact on society and take a virtual tour of the The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Cyber Operations.

“You are our first line of defense! Phishing is one of the most popular modes of attack. Don’t think that this is just an IT problem to solve. Please learn, watch and report any suspicious emails in your organization. #BeCyberSmart” Carrie Damon, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer

At Centura, we know that health is better where we are. As part of a larger digital strategy to improve patient access and care coordination, we are excited to announce that online scheduling via Centura.org is now available at select primary care clinics. We encourage you – our incredible caregivers – to schedule your next primary care appointment online!

Online scheduling allows any patient, new or established, to schedule an appointment online via Centura.org. Currently, we have direct scheduling available only for existing patients who have a MyCenturaHealth account.

During this soft launch, online scheduling will be available and tested at the following pilot clinics for primary care providers only:

• Church Ranch Primary Care
• Cornerstar Primary Care
• Silverthorne Primary Care
• Highlands Primary Care
• Tri-Lakes Primary Care
• HealthFit Primary Care
• Castle Rock Internal Medicine
• Plaza Medical Clinic (KS)
• Porter Primary Care
• Northglenn Primary Care

How to schedule your appointment

• Existing patients: If you are an existing patient at any of the pilot clinics, simply search for your provider on Centura.org. From there, under “schedule an appointment,” select “existing patient.” You will then fill out some additional information and select what type of appointment you are scheduling. On the provider’s calendar, you will choose a date and time.

• New patients: If you are interested in becoming a new patient at one of the pilot clinics, search for a provider on Centura.org. Once you have found a provider, under “schedule an appointment,” select “new patient” on the provider’s profile. You can then select a date and time from the provider’s calendar.
  

  

Thank you for your support with this initiative as we work to continuously improve our patient experience and move health forward.

Questions?
Please contact Lisa Donovan at LisaDonovan@centura.org.