Our People - SSM Health Care

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The Adrenaline Junkie “ER people are adrenaline junkies. What’s going on now won’t be going on 30 minutes from now. I thrive on organizing chaos.” Kris Mims has been an emergency room nurse for 40 years. And Mims can’t imagine being anywhere else, although the years may have tempered her a little. “You start out thinking you’re going to save the world, and then you realize that all you can do is the best you can,” she said. “You can’t change the world, but you can make things better.” Mims is director of the Emergency Department at SSM St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles, Mo. She’s also been at DePaul, St. Mary’s (St. Louis), and a host of other EDs in St. Louis and elsewhere. She likens her ED memories to a scrapbook filled with pictures of people she can see just as clearly as if they were standing in front of her. She remembers a lot of the sad things. The worst: Child abuse. But there was the time the trucker drove himself to the ED with severe chest pain. He coded, received great care and a month later, showed up in the ED to say thank you to the staff for saving his life. She tears up at the memory. Mims’ mother, who was a nurse, inspired her to become one. “I grew up listening to her stories,” she recalled. As a young nurse, Mims wanted to go to Viet Nam. Instead, she met her husband, and her life took a different course. They have two children, one of whom is also a nurse. Mims started as a staff nurse, and early on asked herself if nursing was a job or a career. When she answered that question, she went back to school first for her bachelor’s and later for her master’s. The fact that she’s done it all serves her well in this role. She is able to juggle volume and knows to involve her staff in decisions that affect them. All these years in the ED have given her a certain outlook on life. “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal,” she said. “This is it. You have to make every day count. In the ED, you learn that quickly. I’ve seen people who kissed their loved one good bye and never saw them again. People take life for granted.” Her wisdom extends to the smallest things. Take the time a homeless man arrived in the ED with a cast that had been on for way too long. Once removed, the cast contained all sorts of “crawly things.” And the smell was bad. Mims suggested a simple solution: “Keep a jar of Vicks around and put a dab of it under your nose.” This year the St. Joe ED is expanding, which is good news, though juggling the space during the interim will be another challenge. But Mims is up for it. “I can’t imagine myself anywhere else.” Kris Mims 8
The Fixers Throughout SSM Health Care are 65,000 medical devices — from relatively simple suction units to sophisticated, radiation-delivering linear accelerators. There are MRIs, ECGs and CT scanners; colonoscopes, bronchoscopes and endoscopes; and infusion pumps, infant warmers and intravenous poles. Just about everything a patient does at SSM hospitals from Wisconsin to Oklahoma is tied to a medical device in some way. So who keeps all these devices running, purring, humming, beeping, blinking, clicking, flashing About 110 employees of SSM’s Clinical Engineering Service (CES), that’s who. CES, a department of SSM Integrated Health Technologies, maintains the devices that monitor, diagnose and treat patients. Thurmond Waits, BMET II, St. Mary’s Health Center, Richmond Heights, Mo. Ever wonder what happened to some of those intellectually curious kids who dissected their families’ VCRs and radios to see what made them tick, whose hobbies were tinkering with cars and building robots Some of them work for CES today. They fix things. “We like what we do. We love what we do,” said Russ Storck, who restores old tractors away from his job as CES operations manager at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center in Richmond Heights, Mo. “That’s why I’ve been here for 32 years.” “Our job is like a series of little victories all day long,” said Jerry DeGeare, BMET II at St. Mary’s. (BMET stands for biomedical electronics technician). “Some days the problems are much larger than other days. But basically that’s what we do. We solve problems.” CES employees are on call 24-7. Though upkeep of the more sophisticated equipment, say the da Vinci surgical system, is covered by service contracts, the vast majority of devices are serviced by CES. “By doing this, we’re saving thousands of dollars,” said Frank Bodenschatz, BMET III, SSM St. Clare Health Center, Fenton, Mo. System-wide, the savings add up. Ron Sanders, CES operations manager, SSM St. Clare Health Center, Fenton, Mo. “We can maintain it cheaper, faster and better because we’re on-site,” said Heidi Horn, vice president - CES, who noted that the department saved more than $1.3 million in contract costs between 2007 and 2009. "CES' technicians are very smart and they take a lot of pride in their work and the value they provide,” Horn added. To keep the devices running, CES employees stay abreast of the latest technology by undertaking regular training, said Ron Sanders, CES operations manager at St. Clare. Once upon a time, the technology wasn’t so high tech, added Sanders who has worked in hospitals for 43 years. There were on-off, high-low buttons. “It was simpler. It was easier,” Sanders said. “But the technology has made things a lot better for the patient.” Many SSM caregivers are familiar with CES’ handiwork and know the department’s members by name — their customer satisfaction ratings are high. But the department’s deeds aren’t always evident to patients who may not give much thought to who’s maintaining their blood pressure cuffs. Often the only signs they’ve been on the scene are the yellow, initial-bearing labels they affix to devices they performed routine maintenance on. Keeping the equipment running for the sake and safety of patients is always their No. 1 priority, said Joyce Perkins, BMET III - lead tech at St. Mary’s. “I want to do quality work and I want to make sure our patients get the best care they can,” Perkins said. Jerry DeGeare,BMET II at SSM St. Mary’s Health Center, Richmond Heights, Mo. Go to www.ssmpeople.com to watch Our People. 9
Page 1 and 2: A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION BY SSM HEAL
Page 3 and 4: OptimiSSM A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION B
Page 5 and 6: The Twins Even before birth, the Lo
Page 7: The Young Leader Maurine Free is he
Page 11 and 12: The Safety Champion Growing up, Deb
Page 13 and 14: Record Is Better for… Nurses Mary
Page 15 and 16: Green Roofs St. Mary’s Hospital i
Page 17 and 18: Other Green Efforts Reported Around
Page 19 and 20: Heart Failure Scores for 2009 All S
Page 21 and 22: SSM-WIDE SSM Comes to the Aid of Ha
Page 23 and 24: THE S.P.A.T.U.L.A. MEETS NEVER LIFT

Our People - SSM Health Care

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