Weekly Updates: Week of Oct. 19
Phase one of new Infonet launches Oct. 27
The first phase of a new Penn State Health Infonet site designed to improve the user experience will launch Tuesday, Oct. 27. The interim site will have one landing page that allows all Penn State Health and College of Medicine employees to easily access the Infonet sites of any entity.
Users will not need to log in to the landing page but will need to log in with their user name and password to access the following:
- Hershey Medical Center/College of Medicine Infonet site
- Penn State Health Medical Group Infonet site
- Shared Services departments
- Tools such as Kronos and Compass
The changes are a necessary step as the health system and the College of Medicine prepare to migrate to a new Infonet site in 2021. The biggest benefits employees will see next year include the ability to customize the content they see and an improved search function.
Your contribution to United Way can make a big difference in children’s lives
Kindergarten is the celebration of the beginning of a journey for most children, but not every child has the skills they need on the first day of school. United Way of the Capital Region’s Ready for School, Ready to Succeed program helps prepare children academically and socially.
You can support this program by giving as little as a dollar a week to Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine’s 2020 United Way campaign, which runs through Nov. 20.
Ways to Give
- Hershey Medical Center, Shared Services and Medical Group employees: Click on the United to Give pledge site.
- College of Medicine employees: Download the College of Medicine United Way pledge form (Penn State access ID login required). Fill it out, save and email it to UnitedWayPayroll@psu.edu.
- St. Joseph employees: Visit uwberks.org/PSH and log in with “2972” as both the user name and password. The St. Joseph campaign runs through Oct. 31.
Tree-planting ceremony adds 100 saplings to Hershey Medical Center campus
Volunteers from Hershey Medical Center and the College of Medicine—along with members of the Facilities Department Grounds team—planted 100 native saplings on the western portion of the campus during a tree-planting ceremony on Oct. 15.
Facilities Grounds Manager Steven Furmanski gave a presentation about the campus’ landscape master plan and an overview of the social, environmental, health and economic benefits of restoring the campus’ natural and native landscape.
“This event demonstrates our commitment to building and growing a sustainable and more native campus,” Furmanski said.
Hershey Medical Center presents awards for patient safety, reliability
Hershey Medical Center President Deborah Berini and Director of Patient Safety Steve Mrozowski honored the 2019-2020 Patient Safety and Reliability award winners on Oct. 7.
Recipients exemplify the principles of the Medical Center’s TEAM (Talk Safety, Expect Ownership and Accountability, Act on Opportunities, Monitor) and SAFE (Support the team, Ask questions, Focus on task, Effective Communication) reliability bundles. Health care workers use these guides to ensure patient safety. The winners were selected through PAWS Up! submissions.
Winners:
- Ron Cummins, vice president of operations – Leader of the Year Award
- Dr. Fahad Khalid – Physician Award
- David Melhorn, director of security – Nonclinical Award
- Leandra Davis, assistant nurse manager, 6th Floor Medical – Patient Safety Champion Award
- Katarina Kunkel, Patient Safety and Quality analyst – Clinical Outpatient Award
- Leonard Shamus – clinical staff leader, Neuroscience Critical Care Unit – Clinical Inpatient Award
- Linda Gangai, Quality and Patient Safety Outcomes program manager, Emergency Medicine – Patient Safety Coach Award
Team patient safety award winners:
- Blood Bank
- Medical Intermediate Unit
- Patient Transport
College of Medicine celebrates, honors student leaders
The Offices of the Dean, Vice Dean for Educational Affairs and the Vice Dean for Research and Graduate Studies recognized student leaders from the College of Medicine.
During the 2019-2020 academic year, students from the graduate, medical, nursing and physician assistant programs served in more than 140 officer roles for student government organizations. They also led more than 100 student organizations including interest groups and clubs. Students honored include:
- David Velez – MD Class of 2021
- Natasha Sood – MD Class of 2022
- Justin Brooke – MD Class of 2023
- Jason Spicher – MD University Park Curriculum Track
- Rachel Fletcher – Physician Assistant Class of 2021
- Maryknoll Palisoc – Physician Scientist Student Association
Read remarks from Interim Dean Dr. Kevin Black and see a full list of student leaders.
St. Joseph names September Daisy Award winners
Penn State Health St. Joseph presented DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Awards on Sept. 29 to two nurses, Betty Jo Rivera and Marissa Campbell. The accolade recognizes nurses for their skillful, compassionate care and their daily support of patients and families.
Penn State Health, College of Medicine alter temperature scan procedures
Penn State Health and the College of Medicine have changed their screening procedures for employees and students during COVID-19:
- A temperature equal to or greater than 100 degrees is considered high―a designation supported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance. Employees and students should inform their supervisor and Employee Health if they detect a high temperature. All employee and student screening practices (including thermal temperature screening kiosks) will use 100 degrees as a new screening criteria.
- Thermal temperature screening kiosks will display “temperature normal” or “temperature high” without the display of temperature
Employees and students are responsible for monitoring and appropriately reporting COVID-19 symptoms, as the health system and College remain vigilant and committed to the health and well-being of those they serve.
As a reminder, FAQs on use of the thermal temperature screening kiosks are available on the COVID-19 FAQs and Fact Sheets page.
Kienle Center competition seeks diversity, equity, inclusion ‘ripple effects’ by Nov. 1
The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine is holding a “Ripple Effect Competition” to support programs, projects or actions that would improve the experience of Penn State Health and the Penn State College of Medicine’s racially and ethnically diverse staff, patients and/or learners. All employees of Penn State Health and the College of Medicine are invited to participate and submit proposals with a budget of up to $10,000.
New courses coming to Compass, complete pending work by Oct. 29
Penn State Health is upgrading its online learning system Compass.
New courses include offerings focused on leadership and professional development, health and wellness and business and technology. Because of the upgrade, effective Friday, Oct. 30, some courses will no longer be available, including classes from content providers getAbstract, SkillPill, CyberU and TED Talks.
Employees can log in to Compass to complete all currently active, pending and outstanding courses from these providers and print a copy of their transcript before Thursday, Oct 29.
Contact the Human Resources Solution Center at 717-531-8440 or visit mySolutions for more information.
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