Pulse

Volume5/2000_May09May 9, 2000 PULSE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER Fullmer Named Executive Director of University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics Richard A. Fullmer Richard A. (Rick) Fullmer has been named the new executive director of University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics, pending formal approval by the university's board of trustees. " Fullmer possesses a rare combination of technical expertise in health care and finance, years of successful experience in hospital opera-tions and demonstrated leader-ship ability," said A. Lorris Betz, M. D., Ph. D., university senior vice president for health sciences. " He has risen to the top in a very complex field because he works hard, he has a pragmatic, common sense executive style and he is a team builder," Betz said. Fullmer, who has served as the hospitals' interim executive director for the past six months, was selected after an extensive national search. He now assumes overall responsibility for nearly 3,000 employees and most of the patient care work of the University Health Sciences Center. A Brigham Young University alumnus, Fullmer began his career at the University of Utah in 1976 as an assistant controller. He joined the hospital staff in 1980, and was named chief financial officer in 1994. In 1998, he joined the Univer-sity Faculty Practice Organization/ University of Utah HealthNetwork where he served until September of last year when he was tapped to lead the hospital on an interim basis. " The challenges of today's health- care world are immense," Fullmer said. " The University Hospital team will meet them. I'm humbled and excited by this opportunity to lead this outstanding group in providing quality health care to our patients, and being of service to their families and the community," Fullmer said. Read current and past issues of Pulse online at www. med. utah. edu/ pulse Bed Management Focus of SMART A hospital- wide project to streamline patient dis-charge is expected to provide bed space for an additional 30 patients each day, according to members of the recently established Strategic Management of Admission Resources Team ( SMART). The effort is one of several projects under way to help the hospital find ways to increase revenue. " It currently takes five and a half hours from the time a physician signs the discharge order until a patient is released. That delay results in our having to send as many as 30 patients a day to other hospitals because we don't have beds available," said Jadie Barrie, R. N., service director. The team's goal is to have 80 percent of patients who are scheduled to be discharged out of the hospital by 11: 00 a. m. Barrie coordinates the SMART project, along with hospital associate administrator Madeline Buelt, R. N., assistant dean David J. Bjorkman, M. D., Barbara Ward, R. N., hospital administration, and Terri Christiansen, Performance Monitoring and Improvement. A steering committee consisting of faculty and hospital staff is expected to be named this week. " There is no single issue that slows down the dis-charge process; a number of factors contribute to the problem," said Barrie. " The goal of SMART is to identify areas where we consistently experience slowdowns and then take steps to move things along." The first phase of the project, which started last week, is to track all discharges over a two- week period. The entire project is expected to last three to four months. Barrie says one of the first changes staff will notice is the way discharges are handled through Allegra ( the hospital's electronic census management system). Begin-ning May 15, health unit coordinators will be able to post patient discharges through Allegra, eliminating the step of notifying the admitting office. The system will then notify Environmental Services ( ES) that there is an empty room to be cleaned. Once the room is available, ES staff will alert the patient access coordinator. A comment, suggestion and question line, x5- l494, has been established to encourage employee input throughout the SMART project. Watch Pulse for more details and SMART updates. Peter H. Maughan Third- year Medical Student Wins Prestigious Research Program Award Peter H. Maughan, a third- year medical student, has been selected to participate in the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute- National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program. Maughan, son of Paul and Susan Maughan, Salt Lake City, is among 40 students nationwide selected from 200 applicants for the one- year program, which begins in July. The National Institutes of Health ( NIH) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute ( HHMI), the world's largest public and largest private biomedical research organizations, collaborate in this program, which gives selected scholars an opportunity to work with leading NIH scientists in their laboratories. Maughan will participate in neuroscience research during his year's stay. At the U, he has been involved in research on head injury, working with Richard H. Schmidt, M. D., assistant professor of neurosurgery. Maughan will return to the U for his final year of medical school and then plans to specialize in neurosur-gery. " Peter Maughan's acceptance to the research scholars program is a distinct honor for him and brings great credit to our medical school," said T. Samuel Shomaker, M. D., J. D., senior associate dean for aca-demic affairs. " I'm sure his study and experience with NIH scientists will be of great value to him as he progresses in his medical career." Maughan will join the other scholars at the Mary Woodard Lasker Center for Health Research and Education known as the Cloister on the NIH campus, Bethesda, Maryland, which serves as the residential and teaching home for the scholars. HHMI pays the scholars a salary and a benefits package for the research period. Guest House Offers Special Graduation Rate The University Guest House is offering a special rate of $ 69 per night to family and friends of medical students attending commencement on May 20. Refrig-erators, microwaves, coffee makers and irons are available in every room. For reservation information, call x7- 1000. Celebrating the Gift of Life Cheryl Ray ( seated left), lung transplant recipient Harold Williams ( seated right), Ray Jessen, executive director of the Utah Lions Eye Bank ( standing left), and lung transplant recipient Dave Gentle ( standing right) enjoy a quiet moment in Red Butte Garden and Arboretum during the hospital's fun walk held in observance of National Organ/ Tissue Donor Awareness Week. Ray led a team of 25 employees from the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI) and is coordinating an effort to get the FBI's 200,000 employees to sign donor cards. Ray's 20- year- old son Casey was an organ and tissue donor. The walk capped a week of hospital activities designed to raise awareness about the importance of organ and tissue donation. O RINTED ON RECYLED PAPER Medical Terminology Course Postponed The hospital's 10- week course in medical terminol-ogy, originally scheduled to begin last week, will begin this Thursday. Classes will be held in the Browning Auditorium every Thursday from 4- 6 p. m. The course is open to all employees and participants will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course. For more information or to register, contact Patti Sharp, Human Resources, xl- 2110. Book About First Navajo Woman Surgeon Focus of Literature and Medicine Discussion Faculty and staff are invited to join members of the Native American community this Thursday, at 6 p. m. in hospital administration's large conference room for a discussion of Lori Arivso Alvord's book, The Scalpel and the Silver Bear: The First Navajo Woman Surgeon Combines Western Medicine and Traditional Healing. Monica Maillet, Ph. D., visiting professor of litera-ture and medicine, will facilitate the discussion. A light dinner will be served. The book is available at the Barnes & c Noble bookstore on 612 East 400 South. The discus-sion is sponsored by the Division of Medical Ethics' Literature and Medicine Discussion Group which holds monthly discussions of readings on health and cultural differences. To RSVP call Sherri at xl- 2482