July 22

Danny Wortman, 2, son of Ronald and Faye Wortman, met his hero Mickey Mouse Thursday, July 16, at the KU Children’s Center. Mickey was on his way home from Marceline, Mo., where he helped celebrate grand opening festivities of Walt Disney’s Marceline, Mo, home as a museum. Danny, who has braved cancer with strength, humor, optimism and his ever-present Mickey doll, was among the children who met the world’s most famous mouse.

Note-
Hospital Authority Board Report
Details about the July 14 and 15 Hospital Authority Board meeting will be published tomorrow in a special edition of Topics.

At least 1,300 KU Medical Center employees, their families and friends will make Kaufman Stadium rock Saturday when they cheer on the Royals during the KUMC Night at the Royals.

Festivities will begin with a 5 p.m. tailgate party under a big KUMC tent in Lot K. Bring your red tailgate party ticket, which gets you into the tailgate party and registers you for the drawing for the first-pitch catcher. Parents whose children plan to march in the Youth Parade should arrive at 4:45 p.m. so the kids can eat before lining up at 6 p.m. for the parade. Remember, children must be 14 or younger to participate in the youth parade. They will get Jayhawk stickers to identify them.

The evening ends with a free, post-game concert featuring KC and the Sunshine Band and the Village People.

A remimder: parking is $5 per car at the stadium. And be sure to wear cool clothing-a KUMC t-shirt for example!

At the request of patients and support groups in the area, the University of Kansas Medical Center’s nationally and internationally renowned Parkinson’s disease treatment team has established an office in Lee’s Summit. Led by Rajesh Pahwa, MD, the service gives eastern Jackson County patients access to one of only 24 Parkinson’s Disease Centers of Excellence in the world. Pahwa’s neurology service is in medical offices at 600 NW Murray, suite 108.

Pahwa and his team provide diagnostic, medical management, physical therapy, nutritional support and, when appropriate, surgical referrals. KU Medical Center’s neurology services can provide the most current medication for Parkinson’s because the hospital assisted pharmaceutical corporations in their experimental development, said Pahwa.

“Because there is no other Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s in the Midwest, we had a lot of requests from the Lee’s Summit area to open a clinic,” said Pahwa. “We have had a lot of support from the local chapter of the Parkinson’s Association in our research and public education efforts. This (new) service is our way of giving back to the community.”

Pahwa also travels to Hays, Emporia and Chanute, Kan., where he sees more than 200 patients, and to a practice in Johnson County, where he sees 40 patients.

The School of Allied Health’s Dean’s Scholarship winners--Recognizing their academic achievements, professionalism, long-range goals and leadership, the School of Allied Health Awards scholarships to 12 outstanding undergraduate and graduate students each year. Also this year, the School honored its nominee for the national Association for Schools of Allied Health Professions Scholarship for Excellence. The scholarship recipients are (front row, L-R): Cara Kifer, medical technology; Heidi Cromwell, occupational therapy, Laura Parker, physical therapy; Jennifer Vandenberghe, health information management; SAH Dean Karen L. Miller; and Kristyn Riddle, speech-language pathology. Back row (L-R) are Jocelyn Hulsebus, PhD, chair of the scholarship committee; Olga Leontovich, cytotechnology; Marc Fey, PhD, scholarship committee; Norma Winn, MS, RD, Scholarship Committee; Julie Ann Nelson, dietetics and nutrition, and Holly Pitterle, cytotechnology. Not pictured: Christopher Anderson, physical therapy; Nancy Plinksy, nurse anesthesia; Teresa McFarland, respiratory care education; Jodi Niehues, dietetics and nutrition; Cindy Lian, speech-language pathology, and Cathy Williams, CRNA, scholarship committee.

'Caring is the Key' helps promote customer service
KUMC's guest relations program, "Caring is the Key," is offered to employees throughout the Medical Center and lets them share their experiences promoting excellent customer service. Through group discussions, participants build skills that improve communication and deal effectively with issues of confidentiality and difficult situations. "Caring is the Key" is in two, 2-hour segments 9-11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5, and Thursday, Aug. 6. A second session will be 1-3 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11 and Thursday, Aug. 13. The location will be announced. For information or to enroll, call Human Resources, ext. 5099.

Alzheimer’s support group meets
The KU Medical Center Alzheimer’s Support Group will meet noon to 1:30 p.m. Aug. 17 and 4:30 to 6 p.m. Aug. 20 in Delp Cafeteria. Anyone who lives with Alzheimer’s disease or who has loved ones or friends with this illness are welcome to attend. For more information, call Heather at ext. 1207.

Sign up to Race for the Cure
The Kansas Cancer Institute (KCI) and the KU Cancer Center are entering Kansas City’s 5th Annual “Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure 5K Run/Walk and One-Mile Fun Walk”. KCI and the KU Cancer Center will have an on-site booth and promotional materials in participant packets on race day, Sunday, Aug. 9, at 119th and Nall. KUMC employees can pick up registration forms at the KCI reception desk in 4030 Robinson or the KCI Development Office in 5002 Robinson. The entry fee before Aug. 1 is $15.00. The entry fee between Aug. 1 and Aug. 8 is $20, and race-day entry fee on Aug. 9 is $30.

Kirmaryer Kids last chance for summer blast!
    Don’t wait! You can still sign up for the last session of swimming lessons at Kirmayer Fitness Center for your children ages 6-17. Run by the American Red Cross, the classes start July 27 and continues through Aug. 7 at Kirmayer Fitness Center. Levels I-III are offered and are determined by the child’s ability, not age.
    The cost is $35 per child for members and $40 for non-members. Classes are 7 to 7:45 p.m. and 8 to 8:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 6 to 6:45 p.m. and 7 to 7:45 p.m. Friday.
    Sign up at the Kirmayer Administrative Office. Spots are filling up fast, so don’t wait until the last minute.

Fifth Long-term Care Symposium scheduled
Mark your calendar now for the Fifth Annual Heartland Long-Term Care Symposium, “Improving the Quality of Care in the Long-Term Care Continuum: Palliative Care,” Nov. 13. The symposium will feature the expertise of physicians from Mayo Clinic, Univeristy of Maryland, and the Louisiana State University Medical Center. The event will be in Battenfeld Audiorium.
The symposium is sponsored by the Center on Aging and the Division of Continuing Education. For more information, contact the Division of Continuing Education, ext. 4488 or e-mail at ceinfo@kumc.edu.

Anti-Violence Seminar set
The Human Resources Department and the University Police Department will present a seminar titled “Preventing Violence in the Work Place” from 2 to 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, August 5. The location will be announced. For more information, or to enroll, call ext. 5089.

Low back pain is topic of July 27 presentation
The KUMC Pain Resource Committee is offering a special presentation, “Low Back Pain-Evaluation and Treatment,” Monday, July 27, as part of its 1998 Pain Lecture Series, “No Pain is Everyone’s Gain.” The presentation will feature P. Prithvi Raj, MD, professor and co-director of pain services at Texas Tech University of Health Sciences Center. Open to the first 60 participants, the event begins with an 11:45 a.m. lunch, followed by a noon to 1 p.m. program in Clendening Auditorium.

Community Health Project-KU medical students experience real-world health problems

This summer, medical students from the University of Kansas School of Medicine left behind classrooms and textbooks to work with social service agencies throughout the area to learn about real-world health problems.

As participants in the student-run Community Health Project, the students are becoming familiar with community health and gaining experience working with needy populations. This is the sixth year for the program.

“The Community Health Project gives students experiences in non-clinical settings,” said Danielle Stebbins, medical student and executive director for the program. “They get to see problems facing Kansas health care and learn about referral services in the community. The goal of the program is to provide the students with experiences that will help them as physicians to give better medical care to patients.”

Twenty-nine of 170 medical students are participating in agencies throughout Kansas City and Kansas. They complete an application process and interview with agencies. Once a student is matched with an agency, he or she will spend eight 32-hour weeks working with the agency.

The project is known as “service learning,” according to Stebbins. “Service learning means that the community teaches the student about real life, what people really deal with and how their nutrition, housing, education, income, and other factors that affect patients’ health and ability to get health care,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to get into a non-clinical setting and learn from that.”

Traditional medical education focuses on basic health science during the first year and pathology during the second year, said Christine Moranetz, PhD, faculty advisor to the program and director of health promotion in the department of preventive medicine. “The Community Health Project lets the students see people as whole, not just a collection of working or non-working body parts,” she said.

“The students are having wonderful client contact experiences,” said Chris Brown, medical student and program director for this year’s project. “They work with an agency to develop a project. They identify a need, design and implement a project that serves that agency.”

This year’s projects include a survey of 1,000 physicians to learn why some delay referring patients to hospice services; development of a program to get more fathers-to-be involved with pregnancy issues; building and renovating houses; and developing a handbook for telephone crisis hotline volunteers to respond to HIV positive teenagers.

On Monday I signed over two thousand letters to those persons who are working for the hospital and who will be offered positions in our new Hospital Authority.
It is a very important letter, and was personally delivered to each person on Monday of this week.

Our hope is that everyone who gets a letter will say “Yes” and join our new team. We will include information on benefits and those important issues with the letters. Virtually hundreds of hours of preparation have taken us to this important part of our transition, so we are very concerned that we do this exactly right.

I am sure many of you will have questions, and there are many mechanisms in place for you to respond. We are trying to be very careful that we live up to your expectations in every way, regarding the statements that the Chancellor, President Cumming, and I have made over the past year.

We held the first meeting of the Hospital Authority last Tuesday and Wednesday, approved bylaws, mission and value statements, and learned a great deal about our medical center, the hospital, and each other.

We have a very dedicated and professional, highly qualified board. We elected Chancellor Hemenway to be the Chairman of the Board, and Dr. George Farha to be the Vice Chairman. We elected Irene Cumming to be Chief Executive Officer and President of the Hospital Authority. We also elected Mike Worley to be the Secretary of the Authority and Scott Glasrud to be the Treasurer.

I need to be certain that everyone, not just those employees who will transfer to the Authority, understand that this is such a significant action that it will involve virtually every department in the medical center. This is the most disruptive time in organizational change. We must be very, very patient with each other. We must think of ourselves as a closed system. We should not hire from outside our system until we first consider all eligible employees within our system. We must look out for our own people first.

I am looking forward to a significant “halo” effect from this transition. We have seen many changes since my arrival the formation of KUPI, the creation of the Research Institute and now the Hospital Authority. These three entities give us tremendous flexibility to work much smarter, and much more effectively than any time in the past ninety-five years.

Nonetheless, the road will be rough at times, so my message to you all right now, is — develop trust in each other, respect for each other, concern for each other, and come to work with a “Wow!” attitude,” — look what we can do today to make this a much better place. “

For Sale: Conversion van, 1990 Dodge B250, V-8, loaded, dual AC, TV, VCR, great condition, 106,000 mostly highway miles, $7,500, negotiable. Call 631-5189 after 6 p.m.

For Sale: 1994 Toyota Corolla four-door. White, automatic. Power locks and windows; stereo, alarm, 79,000 miles. Runs perfectly. $6,500 or take over payments of $209/month. Call 498-0975 and leave message.

For Sale: Queen size RV mattress. 60-inches long. Nearly new. $50. Call 299-4207.

For Sale: Two Chiefs tickets and red parking pass. Aisle seats in section 322, row 2 near 35-yard line. Game 1-Chiefs vs Jaguars, 7 p.m. Aug. 22. Game 2—Chiefs vs. Rams, 7 p.m. Aug. 28. Asking face value $94.00/game. Call Gary at 469-6412.

For sale: 17,600 BTU Kenmore air conditioner. Practically new with no problems but not needed due to central air installation. Still in original box. $300 firm. Call 737-1318 after 5 p.m. or leave a message.

For sale: Cordless phone, $30; sewing machine in wood cabinet, $75, Karaoke machine, $40; disc camera, $25; two motion detector security yard lights with two bulbs, $20 each. Call Gina, 432-7475.

Ride wanted, vicinity of Blue Ridge Cut-off and 40-Highway. Hours: 8 a.m-4:30p.m. Call Larry after 6 p.m., 353-2751.

Volunteer readers needed for KU Medical Center “KC Reads” program. Volunteers spend one-hour shifts between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday-Friday in the KU Children’s Center waiting room, reading to children awaiting physician appointments. Contact Susan Mong, ext. 6528 or email SMONG for details.

Beliefs and well-being
Healthy women, with no chronic illnesses, ages of 35 to 65. Subjects will participate in a one-time, two-hour evening discussion group that will focus on issues of beliefs and well-being. Participants will receive a stipend and a light meal. For information, call Carol at 588-2466.

Women with physical disabilities
Women with physical disabilities in the Kansas City metropolitan area are needed for a University of Kansas study that will look at the role exercise plays in improving the mobility of and reducing the risk of secondary conditions. Study participants will undergo six-month-long, individualized physical-activity program. They will be paid to visit KU Medical Center for a medical exam, cholesterol test and fitness testing. Eligible participants must: Have a physical disability or health-related mobility limitation; be between age 18-55; live in the greater Kansas City area; agree to undergo blood testing and medical and fitness evaluations; be available to attend a day-long workshop; and agree to come back at six-month intervals for two years for further evaluation. Participants will be paid $45 for each visit. For more information, call 897-5652 and ask for extension 4-3791 or 4-4095 to talk to someone from the Centers for Disease Control Women’s Health Promotion Project. It’s a local call from the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Type 2 Diabetes
Study Subjects Wanted: Men and women between the ages of 30 and 78 with adult onset (Type 2) diabetes mellitus who are unable to maintain adequate blood sugar control with diet and exercise. Cannot be taking any oral diabetes medications or insulin. Study participants will receive physical examination, lab work, blood sugar meter and strips, and diabetes study medications at no cost. The study lasts about 34 weeks and will involve close follow-up. Compensation for travel expenses. For information, contact Glee at ext. 3960.

Marlene Custer
Patient Financial Services announces the retirement of Marlene Custer after 27 years of exceptional service to KU Medical Center. Please plan to say good-bye to Marlene at her reception, 3 to 4 p.m. Friday, July 24, in the Support Services Cafeteria.

Topics Information
Topics is the employee publication of the University of Kansas Medical Center.
It is published weekly by the office of Public Relations and Marketing. The deadline for submitting news briefs for consideration is noon on the Wednesday before they are to appear. For longer articles or features, contact the editor in advance.
Send story ideas to Leslie Champlin, acting editor, G114 Hospital, or e-mail: lchampli@ kumc.edu or call ext. 1602

Topics ad policy
Send or bring your ad to Topics, G114 KU Hospital, or fax to ext. 1225, or e-mail: lchampli@kumc.edu by noon Wednesday of the week before it is to run.
Ads run free of charge for employees, students and volunteers. For-sale ads are limited to three items. All ads must include the advertiser’s name and work extension (or medical student box number) for verification.
Only home phone numbers --- no pager numbers or KUMC extensions --- will be published. No ads for commercial services or pets for sale will be accepted. Ads will not be taken by telephone. Only one phone number per ad.
Ads may be a held a week if space is limited.