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Hospital Authority Board Announcement Scheduled for Friday on KUMC campus

Safety and Convenience are Key to Medical Center’s Security System

OR Nurses Demonstrate Their Expertise at Fair

Congratulations!

Classifieds

Around KUMC

Topics Information

Hospital Authority Board Announcement Scheduled for Friday on KUMC campus

The hospital’s transition from a Board of Regents institution to a facility governed by an Authority Board moves closer to completion Friday afternoon when members of that board are officially announced.

The announcement will be made by Kansas Gov. Bill Graves on the Medical Center campus. He will be joined by University of Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway, KUMC Executive Vice Chancellor Donald Hagen, KU Hospital Chief Executive Officer Irene Cumming and Chief Operating Officer Jon Jackson.

This marks the beginning of a new KU! Please join the KU Medical Center leadership Friday afternoon for the announcement.

Safety and Convenience are Key to Medical Center’s Security System

With a focus on safety as well as convenience for patients and staff, KU Hospital has enhanced its access system for the Mother-Baby Unit. The system is part of an ongoing security program at KU Medical Center.

Beginning Monday, May 11, all Medical Center staff will begin using their identification badges to enter the Mother-Baby Unit. By sliding the bar code through the card reading device, staff will be able to enter. In addition, the unit will have a dedicated telephone that will ring to the nursing station. Staff members who forget their identification badges will need to call the nursing station and ask them to open the doors.

Likewise, visitors will be asked to use the telephone to call the nursing station to announce themselves. Mother-Baby Unit staff members will then notify the mother of her visitors and escort the visitors to her room.

The changes will be announced on signs outside the Mother-Baby Unit. In addition, signs and brochures will describe the future, additional enhancements of the hospital’s security program.

OR Nurses Demonstrate Their Expertise at Fair

Seventy KU Hospital OR nursing staff demonstrated their skill with procedures and equipment in a Nursing Competency Fair on May 13 and 14. The first competency fairs were last fall for critical care and pediatric nursing staff and for 350 nursing staff, medical-surgical, psychiatric, and mother-baby units in January.

“Offering these fairs provides a non-threatening, yet structured way for the staff to demonstrate their ability to perform certain aspects of their job,” said Tammy Peterman, competency specialist recently hired by the Department of Organizational Improvement.

Terry Rusconi, director of Organizational Improvement, agreed. “The focus on assuring the competence of all personnel is one of the Hospital’s major initiatives. Competency fairs are just one way we are using to validate competency of all staff,” he said. “We’re also committed to providing the professional and educational development needed to strengthen the competence of our employees. We want to be able to maximize people’s ability to succeed and contribute to the performance of the hospital. If they don’t have certain competencies that are needed, we offer them the training that will enable them to develop that competency.”

The focus of the competency fairs is to validate staff competence in certain aspects of their job, said Kathy Robinson, Nursing Practice and Education Specialist in the Department of Nursing.

“We use the data from the fairs to help identify educational needs,” she said. “We can then work to purposefully strengthen staff performance through educational activities. Our goal, of course, is to assure the public and our physician partners that the KU staff is competent to provide quality care.”

Congratulations!
KUMC Honors Medical, Nursing, Allied Health Graduates

Medical School Graduates for 1998

*Completed their clinical training on the Wichita campus of the School of Medicine.

Bachelor of Science in Nursing Graduates for 1998

Allied Health Graduates for 1998

Classifieds

Automotive
For Sale: 1986 Chevy Astro Van, 142,000 miles. Mechanically sound, runs great. $2,500. Call Bonnie at 287-2502 after 5:30 p.m.
For Sale: 1993 Escort Wagon, 51,000 miles, auto, air, nice. Entertaining reasonable offers. After 6 p.m., 432-7902

For Sale
For Sale: 5-piece brown bedroom set $400. Full-size mattress and box spring, $75. Call 942-0240 after 4:00.
For Sale: Solid oak queen size waterbed. Bookcase headboard, pedestal base with six drawers. New mattress and heater. $600. 383-1228 after 5pm.
For sale: Two earth-tone couches, $70 for both. Treadmill, retailed at $800, still under warranty, barely used, $450. Medical School Review Books and
residency preparation books, $15 for the crate. Call Dana at 782-7484.
For Sale: Lifetime Court Time portable basketball system. Brand new, in box.
44-inch unbreakable impact backboard, telescopic pole, portable base moves on its own wheels. $75. Call 334-9920.

For Rent
For Rent or For Sale: Two-bedroom house at 3916 Springfield. One-bath, large living and dining rooms. Stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, washer/dryer, basement. One-car garage. ADT Security. Call Louisa, 453-5826.
For Rent: 2 bedrom house, 1 bath, living room, dining room, kitchen with stove and fridge, basement and garage. Call 358-6072 after 5 pm. Near KU Medical Center.
For Rent: 2 bdrm, 1 bath duplex five
minutes from KUMC. Quiet neighorhood. $385 per month. Please call 789-7699.
For Rent: Westwood, two-bedroom house. Newly remodeled kitchen, bathroom, new carpet, prefer no pets. Free trash pick-up, use of Woodside Racquet Club. $575 a month. Call 432-5141.

Pets
Wanted: Loving family with a back yard. I’m sweet, cute and only 4 months old. I play well with other dogs and puppies and kids, too. I’m part shepherd, collie, chow. I’m brown with a black muzzle, have short hair and a long tail. Please call 690-7974.
FREE: 6 month old male lab/sharpei mix to good home. Wonderful, sweet natured dog. We don’t have time enough to give him the attention he deserves. Please call 262-4944

Wanted
Wanted: Babysitter for 9 month old boy during daytime to assist stay at home mother. Flexible hours two days a week. Plaza area. Hourly rate negotiable.
753-5917.

AROUND KUMC

Anti-Violence Seminar Set
The Human Resources Department and the University Police Department will present “Preventing Violence in the Work Place” from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., Thursday, June 4.
The location will be announced. For more information, or to enroll, call ext. 5089.

Tuition Assistance Available
Full-time employees who have worked at the Medical Center for at least six months can apply for tuition assistance the fall semester. Application deadline is June 30. Get applications at Human Resources, 1044 Delp, by calling ext. 5099, or on-line at http://www.kumc.edu/HR/tuition.html
Nursing Services RNs and LPNs may get applications through the Nursing Services Office or by calling ext. 6550.

KUMC Credit Union Annual Meeting,
Elections Scheduled for May 21
The KUMC Credit Union Annual Meeting and election of officers will be 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, May 21, in the courtyard. A catered picnic will be served to all registered members attending.

Credit Union Lucky Numbers Listed
Credit Union members with the following numbers can come in to claim their prize! This month’s numbers are 9889, 12723, 10845, 16380, and 15841.
Committee Defines Proposed Parking Changes
Parking changes have been proposed and will be discussed during the annual Parking Public Hearing, tentatively scheduled for May 28. Specific time and location information will be announced. The following changes have been proposed: 1) Oversized vehicle parking will be allowed in the Pediatric Parking Lot or Yellow Zone areas. 2) Parking fines will be $10 minimum and rise to $100. When unpaid more than 14 days, Group III parking violations will rise to $125. 3) Employee rates for Parking Facility: a Day Card is $5. Reserved area is $25. 4) Courtesy parking for garage cardholders will be allowed in Red lots only. 5) Penalty for late renewal after 14 days is $15. 6) Fee for Billing/Validation stamps is the vendor price for the stamps. 7) Mandatory Payroll deduction.

JayCare Offers Summer Program
JayCare Learning Center is accepting enrollment for its summer school program for children aged kindergarten through sixth grade. The program runs from June 1 to August 28 and is open 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. Among the activities to be offered this summer: art, music, sports, and field trips. Space is limited. For more information or to register your children, call Gretchen Goodman, executive director, 236-5240. Cost is $100 per child per week.

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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