Credentialing Specialist Responsibilities: Provides support to the Clinical Staff Office Hobbies: Reading, travelling, and spending time with my family. Contact: Office: Ste 207 2000-C46 HSSB Phone: (319) 384-8987 Email: kymm-ford@uiowa.edu When asked, “What inspires you?” Learning new things whether it be from experiences, people, or reading.  I always strive to become a trusted resource for others ..read more

Credentialing Specialist Responsibilities: Connor provides support in the Clinical Staff Office by processing initial applications, recredentialing current practitioners, updating license and certification renewals, etc. Education and Experience: BBA in Management Hobbies: I love to travel and see new places, especially with my wife and my two corgis. Contact: Office: Ste 207 2000-C47 HSSB Phone: (319) 356-3274 Email: connor-dougall@uiowa.edu When asked, “What inspires you?” The opportunity to try new experiences and helping others ..read more

Hand hygiene is the single most important measure for reducing the spread of infection. Cleaning your hands reduces the transmission of potentially deadly germs to patients and reduces the risk of health care provider colonization or infection caused by germs acquired from the patient.   Did you know? A systematic review in 2022 with 35 articles found that higher compliance with hand hygiene was associated with lower rates of hospital associated infections.  How is UI Health Care performing?   Our institutional compliance goal for hand hygiene is set at >90%. However, in ..read more

The Ethics Consult Service (ECS) is a free clinical resource for UI Health Care personnel who feel they have reached the limits of their own ability to address an ethical question or problem. The ECS is designed to identify and/or clarify ethical problems in the care of a particular patient and promote discussion. The ethics consultant may make recommendations or share resources with those requesting the consult.   Requests for an ethics consult are especially encouraged when:   You want to discuss important ethical dimensions of a patient’s care  A patient’s care raises unusu ..read more

First, I hope you were all able to enjoy the holiday and spend time with your loved ones. For those of you who were here caring for patients, thank you so much. Thanksgiving is a time for us to reflect on the many things we are grateful for. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, what makes our UI Health Care team amazing is each and every one of you and what you do every day. Because of you, I’m confident we can meet any challenge, and I have great hope for our future.   For many years, we have struggled to efficiently use our time and our patient’s time during their inpatient s ..read more

This blog is part of an ongoing series focused on introducing the current quality initiatives. Thank you to the Quality Improvement Program team for sharing their important work with us, and thank you for taking the time to learn more about the vital work that goes on to improve the care we provide to our patients.    Learn more about the other initiatives by viewing the introduction to this series and previous topics. Why do some people need a urinary catheter?  Urinary catheters are used for urinary drainage or as a means to collect urine for measurement. Indications for ..read more

This blog is part of an ongoing series focused on introducing the current quality initiatives. This month, we are featuring the work being done to reduce injuries resulting from falls. Thank you to the Quality Improvement Program team for sharing their important work with us, and thank you for taking the time to learn more about the vital work that goes on to improve the care we provide to our patients.   Learn more about the other initiatives by viewing the introduction to this series and previous topics.    What is the problem  A cesarean delivery is the most co ..read more

Team,  As you know, we’re preparing to soon welcome a group of Joint Commission surveyors between now and September. I hear a lot from different groups about being “Joint Commission ready.” While this is absolutely important—as their survey provides us with a benchmark of our hospitals and clinics’ quality and safety standards—the real question we should ask ourselves is, “Are we patient ready?”  Our protocols and policies are not in place for the Joint Commission. They exist—and we follow them—because it’s the right thing to do for our patients and visitors to keep them safe. If we ..read more

This blog is part of an ongoing series focused on introducing the current quality initiatives. This month, we are featuring the work being done to reduce injuries resulting from falls. Thank you to the Quality Improvement Program team for sharing their important work with us and thank you for taking the time to learn more about the vital work that goes on to improve the care we provide to our patients.    Patient falls are a challenging problem to solve since there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reducing falls and preventing injuries. All health care team members (e.g., pro ..read more

This blog is part of an ongoing series focused on introducing the current quality initiatives. This month we are featuring the work being done to improve Central-Line Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLABSIs). Thank you to the Quality Improvement Program (QuIP) team for sharing your important work with us and thank you to our readers for taking the time to learn more about the vital work that goes on to improve care for our patients here within UI Health Care. To learn more about the other initiatives please check out the introduction and previous topics.  —Theresa Brennan, MD  Wh ..read more