November 18, 1998, Vol. 20, No. 46
November 18, 1998, Vol. 20, No. 46
Sections of this page:
Burn Patient makes Donation to new Burn Center pavilion
Telephone/Voice Mail upgrade set
Burn Patient makes Donation to new Burn Center pavilion
David Hurlbut (center) reviews plans for the new Burn
Center with Rosie Thompson (far left), Anne Healy, and Chris Lockwood (far right).
Photo by Leslie Champlin
Almost 10 years after he was rushed to
KU Medical Center Burn Center, David Hurlbut gazed at the Plaza through a picture window
from the fifth floor of the hospital.
"I never saw a scene like this when I was here," he said.
"Back then, we stayed in bed. We lived in bed. Everything was done in bed."
That routine will change very soon for KU burn patients. As he gazed
out the window, Hurlbut stood in the patient lounge area of the new Burn Center Recovery
Pavilion. The pavilion, comprising the lounge with entertainment and kitchen facilities, a
children's play room, a rehabilitation room, scrub and locker rooms for family, a family
quiet room, and home-training bathroom, was made possible by Hurlbut. The money for its
construction comes from Hurlbut's donation of more than $240,000.
Caught in the January 1988 industrial explosion in Paola, Hurlbut
suffered fourth-degree burns over 25 percent of his body. The blast melted the plastic of
his hard hat and seared him to muscle and bone. He walked out of the hospital on April
Fool's Day. Since then, he has pondered ways of improving the recovery of burn patients
and easing the stress of their families. The solution: "A place where patients can
go, where they can visit with each other about their injuries. That can be very
therapeutic to them. Talking together provides support for them."
Rosie Thompson, nurse clinician with the Burn Center, agreed. "We
are going to encourage the patients to be out of bed as much as possible" when the
new center is complete.
"This pavilion lets us prepare them for going home,
psychologically and physically."
The new Burn Center's focus on family-centered care ensures the most
advanced medical and nursing care, an emphasis on quality of life, and a sensitivity to
patient and family needs. In addition to the Recovery Pavilion, the new Burn Center will
provide 11 private inpatient rooms, seven step-down rooms and a four-bed intensive care
unit, three outpatient examination rooms, and inpatient and outpatient hydrotherapy rooms.
Extremely important is the on-site operating room. Severely burned patients often require
several operations early in their recovery.
In addition, the waiting room will provide large windows--"Little
things can really make a difference to these families," said Thompson--and will
enable burn survivors to mix with and provide support for patients and their families.
"That is so important," said Hurlbut. "This is so
frightening. It's good to meet the survivors and know what is possible, even with injuries
like these."
Telephone/Voice Mail
upgrade set
KUMC will upgrade the telephone switch at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 28.
Patient care areas, police dispatch and night maintenance will be out
of service about 15 minutes. During this time, patient care areas can communicate through
the emergency backup telephone system (EBS) and all paging will be done by the
switchboard.
Before beginning the upgrade, information technology staff will be in
these areas to ensure EBS system is working. They also will announce when normal telephone
service is restored.
Patient care areas should resume normal telephone service within 15
minutes. All other KUMC service will be restored by 4:30 a.m. Nov. 28.
The upgrade also will erase all instructions initiated for forwarding
phone calls on weekends or evenings. This applies only to call forwarding, not to call
coverage, which is the automatic roll-over to another telephone or Audix.
People can have their telephones re-forwarded by the campus switchboard
if they provide a list of the telephones that are forwarded and the numbers to which they
are sent. People can send their lists to the e-mail address, call forward.
Voice mail upgrade
KUMC also will upgrade voice mail at 1 a.m. Nov. 19. This upgrade will
add ports to the system.
Voice mail will be out of service approximately 1 1/2 hours. Existing
messages, personal greetings, auto attendant scripts, and mailing groups will be moved
intact to the new system.
The new system imposes new criteria for the format of passwords. The
passwords
See Upgrade, page 4
cannot be sequential (for example, 1234), they cannot be repetitive (for example, 1111,
1122), and the password cannot be the voice mailbox extension. User passwords that don't
meet the new requirements must be changed.
Passwords are a form of security for your voice mail mailbox. Passwords
can have up to 15 characters. If you have problems with voice mail, call the help desk,
ext. 7995.
Around KUMC...
What’s New
Shawntel Smith, Miss America 1996, shared her crown
with Amber Stroede, Beloit, Kan., during her visit to the KUMC pediatric unit.
Photo by Jim Burton
Student Services Book Fair next week
Don't forget the Student Services Book Fair next week! The fair will be
in the Wyandotte Room of the main cafeteria from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23; from 7
a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24; and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 25. Proceeds
from the sale will benefit the Community Outreach Program. For more information, call ext.
6681.
Cancer Institute round table Nov. 24
Thomas J. Glynn, PhD, director of Cancer Science and Trends at the
American Cancer Society, Washington, DC, will discuss "Youth Tobacco Use in the
United States - Epidemiology, Prevention, and Cessation" during the next Kansas
Cancer Institute research round table. The discussion will be noon Tuesday, Nov. 24, in
Lied Auditorium.
'Caring Is the Key' set for December
KUMC employees can learn more about guest relations through the
"Caring is the Key" program, offered in December. Employees will learns skills
to improve communication, create positive public impressions and deal effectively with
difficult situations.
"Caring is the Key" is a four-hour program that is presented
in two-hour segments. The first two sessions will be 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1,
and Thursday, Dec. 3. A second session will be 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, and
Thursday, Dec. 10. The location for the program will be announced. For information, or to
enroll, call Human Resources at ext. 5099.
Paul Mathews, PhD, presents at international conference
Paul Mathews, PhD, of the Department of Respiratory Care Education,
School of Allied Health, will present four papers at the 7th Asian-Pacific Association for
Respiratory Care (APARC) Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nov. 20-24.
The papers are "Aerosals, MDIs and Antibiotics;"
"Practical Factors in Developing a Pulmonary Rehabilitaion Program;" "Home
Care Ventilators and Devices;" and "Overview of Humidification: Clinical
Impact." Additionally, he will consult with the Department of Nursing at Singapore
General Hospital on Clinical Research Methods.
"KC Reads" sponsors book fair
Mark your calendars for Dec. 3 and 4 and stop by the Wyandotte Room in
the main cafeteria for the Usborne Children's Book Fair. The fair will open at 8:30 a.m.
and continue to 6 p.m. both days. The proceeds go to benefit KC Reads.
Johnny Carson Show comes to KUMC
"The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" went off the air
more than six years ago, but KU Medical Center personnel soon will see a new, improved
version of the show.
That's because "Johnny Carson" and "Ed McMahon"
will appear live in the KU HOP Talk Show Thursday, Dec. 3, in Battenfield Auditorium.
"Johnny" and "Ed," who strongly resemble Donald Hagen, executive vice
chancellor, and Joe Meek, dean of the KU School of Medicine, Wichita, are sponsored by KU
Health Outreach Programs.
Audience warm-up-also known as exhibits-will begin at 3 p.m. Curtain
time is 4 p.m. During the show, "Johnny" and his cast will discuss KU Medical
Center's health outreach programs and encourage faculty, staff and students to get
involved in them.
Joining "Johnny" will be special guests KU Chancellor Robert
Hemenway, Dean Deborah Powell and representatives from the KU football coaching staff.
Dorothy Knoll, dean of Student Services, Robert Klein, ACE fellow in the chancellor's
office, and William Barkman, MD, hospital chief of staff, will appear as Joan Embrey, Levi
Calvin Klein and Carnac the Magnificent, respectively. The show will close with a
performance by award-winning vocalist Elwanda Richardson.
A "cast party" with refreshments follows at 5 p.m. in
Francisco Lounge. There will also be drawings for valuable game show prizes.
Volunteers Sought for YouthFriends
Remember that special adult who took an interest in you when you were a
kid? That's the idea behind YouthFriends, an innovative initiative that pairs caring
adults with children and youth, ages 5-18, in area schools. KU Medical Center has adopted
YouthFriends.
Adults volunteer as little as an hour a week for four weeks or as long
as they wish. Volunteers choose the school, the age group, and whether to volunteer with a
small group or one-to-one. Because the volunteer time occurs during the work day,
employees should discuss plans to volunteer with their supervisors.
YouthFriends can read aloud, tutor, coach sports, play music, surf the
internet, be a lunch buddy, or just spend time with a young person who needs a friend.
Neona Calovich, Kansas Cancer Institute, volunteers at Frank Rushton
Elementary School. Her friends are two 11-year-olds who need help in reading.
See Youth Friends, page 4
“They also just want someone to visit them and make them feel like
they count,” she said.
YouthFriends grew from the combined efforts of nine school districts,
the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, Partnership for Children, YMCA and Heart of
America United Way. The YouthFriends goal is to connect 10,000 adults with youth in the
metro area by the end of 1999.
Several studies have found that at-risk youths with adult mentors have
a 50 percent improvement in grades, a 90 percent reduction in dropout rates, and a 400
percent improvement in attitudes.
Contact Jennifer Rodvelt via email or at ext. 1498 for more
information.
Fall clothing drive underway
The KU Medical Student Assembly has launched its annual fall clothing
drive and will be collecting winter clothes donations throughout the campus. Though all
clothing items are needed, the highest priorities are warm children's clothes, winter
coats, and warm socks.
Donation boxes will be available through Nov. 23 in the main cafeteria,
KUMC Bookstore, Dykes Library, outside Wahl Hall East Auditorium, the Student Center and
in Rainbow Towers.
Campaign organizers ask donors to clean and separate their
contributions, placing children's clothing in one plastic bag, coats in a second and all
other donations in a third.
Student Governing Council to expand recycling
Ever thrown a half-full can of soda into the recycling bin? You may
have condemned the entire contents to the land-fill instead of the recycling system.
That's one of the facts the Student Governing Council hopes people will remember when they
recycle aluminum cans.
Tossing a not-quite-empty can into the recycling bins creates a sticky
mess that discourages workers from working manually pulling the cans from the bin and
placing them in distribution boxes. Worse, dropping trash, plastic cups, glass or other
non-aluminum items in aluminum-can recycling bins dramatically lessens the chances for
recycling. Often, a full load of cans is tossed in the trash, because the effort to
separate cans from trash is too immense.
The Student Governing Council's goal is to improve the efficiency of
the recycling program, so that it can be expanded to more areas throughout the hospital.
First Collins award goes to KUMC student
Travis W. Taggart, first-year doctoral student at KU Medical Center,
has been named the first recipient of the Suzanne L. and Joseph T. Collins Award for
Excellence in Kansas Herpetology. The award was presented during the Nov. 7 Silver
Anniversary Meeting of the Kansas Herpetological Society.
Winners of the $1,000 award are chosen from scientific presentations or
papers presented in the preceding two years. Taggart's award-winning paper was
"Status of Bufo debilis (Anura: Bufonidae) in Kansas." The Kansas Department of
Wildlife and Parks sponsored the research, which focused on the natural history and status
of the green toad (Bufo debilis), a threatened species of amphibian in Kansas.
The Collins Award is the largest biological award given annually in
Kansas, and one of the largest awards given for research on reptiles and amphibians
worldwide.
Taggart is working on his doctoral degree in molecular biology.
Research is what makes our medical
center different from other colleges, hospitals, and health care facilities in our
community. University-based research programs are the backbone of our nation's rise to
global prominence. Our research provides breakthroughs to longer, more productive and
healthier lives.
KUMC has a rich tradition in research. We have increased our extramural
funding to almost $50 million last year. This, along with the wise planning of past
administrators, enabled us to build the Lied Biomedical Research Building and provide
financial support to bring technologies to market. Our visionary faculty grew their
programs, sometimes against significant barriers. We can be proud to have accomplished so
much. We have much yet to accomplish; we want to double the external funding in the next
few years.
I want to congratulate Biostratum, a company that licenses and helps
develop one of our technologies, for receiving the Silicon Prairie Technology
Association's top prize for its work with Pyridorin. Our Quanta 6.2 computer program was
the other finalist in the biotechnology area. We are proud of you.
Now we are preparing to strengthen and expand our research enterprise.
Our research deans are working together to build on our strengths in neuroscience, cancer,
developmental biology, and immunology, to name a few. We are recruiting new faculty who
have established research programs. We are exploring ways to add new animal care
facilities, laboratories, equipment, classrooms, and offices. Growing and strengthening
our research enterprise will require that we work and interact more collaboratively. We
must seek stronger partnerships with our state legislature, corporate and individual
donors. We must find ways to support each other in the collective research efforts of
ourUniversity.
Everyone must become involved if we are to meet our research mission
within the University. This does not mean that each of us must be the principal
investigator on a federally-funded grant. Young scientists on our faculty can begin their
research programs by participating on larger grant projects of senior faculty, or with
small grants from their schools. Faculty primarily involved in clinical teaching
contribute to the research endeavor by helping their colleagues and students connect the
basic sciences with clinical applications. Department heads can distribute work among
faculty and staff to enable all members to contribute their strengths to the overall goals
of the department. Staff support our research mission when they take leadership in the
operations of departments so that faculty can concentrate on research development tasks.
I am proud of the impact our research has had on advancing knowledge
and improving people’s lives. I look forward to the contributions we will be able to
make with our collaborative efforts now and in the future.
For Sale
Diaper covers for cloth diapers. All sizes, from newborn
to 35 pounds. Car seat for child 20-60 pounds. Excellent condition. Call Julie, 363-0254,
after 5 p.m.
Overstuffed couch and matching chair, cardboard-colored brown. Very comfortable, $150 for
both. Solid wood furniture: desk (stripped), $60; three-drawer chest (partially stripped),
$50 for both or $100 for all three. Artificial, 71/2-foot Christmas tree, Douglas fir,
easy to assemble, $30. Call 453-6111.
New, open media cabinet, four shelves, hardwood and veneer, raw wood ready to stain.
Assembly required. Half price, $35. Call Barbara, 531-6183.
Bunkbed, writing desk and ice-box. Call
671-8710.
Automotive
1994 Nissan Pathfinder SE, 4X4, automatic, sunroof, alarm package, fully loaded, 86,000
miles. Excellent condition. $13,000. Call 913-585-9807 after 7 pm.
1993 Ford Escort LX Hatchback, 128,000 miles, five-speed, new tires, runs extremely well,
dependable economy car for student or commuter, $4200 or best offer. Call Sheila,
262-3235.
Housing
For Sale by owner: Two-bedroom, one-bath house two blocks north of KUMC at 1923 Federal.
Nice block, easy walk, good condition with hardwood floors, nice yard, semi-finished
basement with large bedroom and second full bath. One-car garage with attached utility
room. Fenced yard. Asking $58,500. Call 531-0097.
For rent: Two-bedroom townhouse in mint condition. Within one mile of KUMC. Call 989-7876.
Female roommate wanted to share two-bedroom, two-bath apartment located north of the
river. Non-smoker. Call 816-746-8104.
Pets
Free to good home: shepherd mix, 11 months old. Neutered, black with gold markings. Loves
children and other dogs. Call 390-9329.
Study Subjects
Young males for Grayhawk study
Young adult males, 23-30 years old, to participate in a research study at the KUMC
Grayhawk Laboratory. The study involves a comparison between young and older adults and
their ability to pay attention and avoid distraction. The study take approximately one
hour and participants will receive $10. To schedule an appointment, please contact Pam
Klaebisch, ext. 7181.
The KUMC Auxiliary Bazaar
luncheon brought extra praise this year when diners tasted the pumpkin pie cake. Dorothy
Ebner graciously supplied the recipe, so everyone can enjoy this treat at home any time.
Pumpkin Pie Cake
Serves 12
2 cans pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups evaporated milk
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package yellow cake mix
1 stick margarine, melted
Grease and flour 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan.
Mix first nine ingredients and pour into pan.
Sprinkle cake mix on top, drizzle evenly with melted margarine.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.
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.
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