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WHAT’SNEW PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL JULY/AUGUST 2021 A DRIVING FORCE FOR VACCINE OUTREACH While vaccine access has been expanding rapidly across the country and region, there are some vulnerable groups who are at risk of being left behind. For patients with disorders like schizophrenia Behavioral Health Service Line, and Hall and Tourette’s, going to a public vaccination Mercer’s case managers, began to have site can be a challenging task. Barriers like conversations on how to better reach their access to transportation or to a computer behavioral health clients in the city. or smart phone prevent patients from Prior to launching the home-visit vaccine patients’ homes. Once a vial was opened for “Everything went as smooth as can be,” said signing up for appointments in the area and outreach, Cartwright encouraged Hall the day, Cartwright only had six hours to Johnnie, another patient who received the traveling to their destination. It can also be Mercer’s case managers to identify any of reach her next clients, who lived all over the vaccine with her friend. “Scheduling was a struggle to leave the house for patients their clients who were interested in getting Philadelphia community. Racing against the easy and Donna waited with us to make sure with anxiety, depression, or delusions. the vaccine, including contacting patients’ clock, Cartwright would drive to and from we didn’t have any side effects. We were very “Some patients can’t tolerate standing and caregivers and other members of their patients’ houses, administer the vaccine for happy and grateful to have this offered.” waiting in long lines, and there’s often household. The team would call to schedule each willing individual in the home, and a history of scheduling and cancelling Reflecting on the outreach, Cartwright and confirm appointments, even speaking monitor her clients for 15 to 30 minutes for appointments more than once,” said nurse appreciates her team’s collaboration for with individuals who were hesitant. “Some any potential side effects. Donna Cartwright, BSN. “They need that driving this initiative and helping patients clients were on the fence, so I would call extra support to follow through with their For patients who received the vaccine, receive their shots safely and in the comfort and provide resources about the vaccine,” appointments.” Cartwright’s outreach has provided of their homes. “Our goal was to vaccinate Cartwright said. “We wanted to make sure opportunities to safely reconnect with loved as many interested people as we could, and As part of her role for Pennsylvania Hospital’s they had the right information to make a ones free from the fear of COVID-19, and it with my team’s efforts, we were able to Hall-Mercer Community Mental Health decision that’s best for them.” brought relief to those uncomfortable leaving accomplish that goal.” Center, Cartwright typically travels through The team was ready to hit the road in April their homes. Cartwright recalled meeting a Philadelphia to offer medical and mental but had to briefly pause their plans when young woman who was grateful to have the health support to behavioral health patients. distribution of the single-dose Johnson & vaccine because afterward she could have To tackle these barriers to the vaccine, Johnson vaccine was temporarily paused face-to-face visits with her daughter again. Cartwright also administered the COVID-19 for additional safety evaluation. Once the Another patient, a man struggling with vaccine at patients’ homes, allowing her review was completed and deemed safe, hoarding, felt at ease to not have to go to a clients to comfortably receive their shot. Cartwright was equipped with stacks of public place for his vaccination. When Penn Medicine opened vaccine vaccination cards and a cooler to store “My two sons and I were vaccinated, and it outreach to patients, Cartwright’s team, the vials in a cold temperature, ready to was a quick and easy process,” said Patricia, one consisting of Maryann Bourbeau, MS, vaccinate her first patient on May 5th. of Cartwright’s clients. “We were worried about manager of Hall-Mercer’s Targeted Case In just one month, Cartwright administered the side effects from the vaccine, but they went Management Program, Patty Inacker, 52 vaccines, one by one in vulnerable away quickly. We feel good that we got it.” DSW, MBA, administrator of the } Donna Cartwright, BSN VANTAGEPOINT THERESA LARIVEE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER It has been more than half a year since the hospital, partnering with Live Nation vaccine, allowing our behavioral health first COVID-19 vaccines were administered in February to open our South Street patients, who felt uncomfortable leaving at Pennsylvania Hospital — the first Clinic at the Theater of the Living Arts their houses, to safely receive the shot vaccines to be given at our health system (TLA). Our staff from Nursing, Patient through a home visit. early that chilly December morning. Met Access, Pharmacy, Security, Patient & The efforts of hundreds of individuals with applause by our staff in the Zubrow Guest Relations, and even our Volunteers add up to a huge impact: From that first Auditorium, that first shot was a first step established a workflow that created delivery of doses, Pennsylvania Hospital of protection for our frontline staff, and a smooth vaccination process from staff have fully vaccinated more than 16,000 by extension their patients, against this appointment scheduling to post-shot patients. And we can see how widespread devastating disease. monitoring. For patients with concerns vaccination is now bringing this virus about the vaccine and other health-related I’m grateful for our whole Pennsylvania under control at long last. June 4 marked IN THIS ISSUE worries, our staff offered support and Hospital community of heroes, starting the first day of having zero COVID-19 helpful resources to put them at ease. A Driving Force for Vaccine with the frontline staff who first stepped patients on the fourth floor of our Cathcart Outreach forward in the early days of the pandemic With the success of the TLA vaccination building since the onset of the pandemic. to help our patients battle the virus. Our site, Pennsylvania Hospital has pivoted These achievements would not have been Vantage Point retirees even returned to the frontline, ready to opening operations at Hall-Mercer possible without the tremendous efforts PAH Welcomes New Director to make a difference in the Philadelphia Community Mental Health Center, of our Nursing managers, educators, and of Patient Experience community. which has also been actively involved in supervisors, pharmacy, IT partners, and Remembering Our Service Philadelphia’s vaccination efforts. As you system wide planning group. Together, we When we were able to expand our vaccine Men & Women at the Missing can read above in this issue, our Targeted have faced down the worst pandemic of outreach to our patients and then the Man Table Case Management team has traveled our lifetimes. To each and every one of you, public, we looked outside the walls of the Proud Mom Celebrates Son’s throughout the city to administer the I thank you for your consistent dedication Win on The Voice to serving our patients and community. NEW DIRECTOR OF PAH PATIENT EXPERIENCE Pennsylvania HospitalWelcome welcomed Cassandra A. Cuesta, MHA,s CPXP, as its new director of Patient Experience, joining March 23 from Temple University Hospital. Despite only being in the role for a few months, Cuesta already feels part of the Penn Medicine family and has been working to strengthen the patient experience at the nation’s oldest hospital. WHAT WAS YOUR WHAT IS THE SCOPE WHAT ARE YOUR JOURNEY TO PAH LIKE? OF YOUR ROLE? PLANS FOR PATIENT EXPERIENCE AT PAH? I started my career at Temple University Much of my role includes analyzing Hospital (TUH) and served multiple patient satisfaction data to implement There have been a lot of moving pieces, roles over the past 7 years. I first worked best practices and performance such as bringing back our volunteers, in the Performance Improvement and improvement initiatives to improve our patient and family advisors and therapy Medical Staff Affairs office and facilitated patients’ and their families’ experiences. dog program [after suspending these in- our monthly Performance Improvement We want practical feedback to provide person programs during the pandemic], Committee. I then saw an opening in to managers and frontline staff to know developing a task force to pilot a new Patient Experience at Temple, and while where their strengths and opportunities way to track patients’ belongings if they’re I didn’t have much background in it, I was are. Some of this data is collected through lost, and getting the welcome desk a new determined to work hard and take myself, paper or digital surveys distributed to visitor management system to better track Humanizing data and my team, and patient experience at TUH patients, online reviews, and social media people in the hospital. We’re working on to the next level. Our team developed “The comments. We’re looking at comments implementing a new volunteer management sharing stories and Temple Experience,” a service excellence and reviews in a whole new way, looking system in order to streamline the volunteer employee recognition program and created beyond whether it’s positive or negative. onboarding process and make it electronic. experiences is how we’re Temple’s first patient and family advisory Humanizing data and sharing stories Another plan in motion is the recruitment council. Under our guidance, we grew and experiences is how we’re going to of patients and caregivers for our Patient- going to improve engagement the volunteer program, increasing our improve engagement and consistency Family Advisory Council who will meet members from 15 volunteers in 2015 to in our branding and messaging of the with staff to help improve our clinical and consistency in our 200 volunteers by 2020 and establishing it Penn Medicine Experience.

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