Transforming Patient Care Nationwide

Kevin Jensen Receives L.O.V.E. Award
Congratulations go out to Kevin Jensen, Mercy’s 1 st Quarter L.O.V.E. Award
winner. In above photo, he is surrounded by his co-workers at the lab collection station
at the Mercy Diagnostic and Treatment Center in West Seneca, who are l.-r.: Christa
Kintzel, Cathy Freeman, Darleen Tirado, Debi O’Toole, Kevin, Sandy Peters, Sally
Decker, and Debbie Peterson. Recently, Kevin demonstrated his concern for patient
care when he was contacted at home one evening to learn that lab samples from presurgical
patients had not been couriered to the Mercy lab. Kevin became so concerned
about the integrity of the samples that he left his home and drove to the facility. He
was able to search the Pre-test area through the lab entrance and located the patient
samples. Kevin then drove all the patient samples to the hospital and processed them
for testing so that patients would not have to return or have their surgeries cancelled.
This truly demonstrates a level of excellence that we strive for at Mercy and exemplifies
“Living Our Values Effectively (L.O.V.E.). v
Sweet Mercy!People In The News
Janet Evoniak,
RN, BSN, CCP
(certified clinical
perfusionist),
has recently
been named the
Nurse Manager
for cardiac surgery. She is responsible
for the day to day operations of
cardiac surgery and managment of
the cardiac surgery staff.
Janet has worked at Mercy since 2003
as a perfusionist in cardiac surgery.
Prior to that she held positions at
ECMC and Buffalo General Hospitals.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in
Nursing from Brockport State College
and earned a post-baccalaureate degree
in perfusion in 1997 at the Texas
Heart Institute. Residing in East
Aurora, Janet and her husband Chad
keep busy with their three young
children, ages 2, 5 and 6.v
Julio Alvarez-Perez,
M.D. of Mercy Hospital’s
Department of
Surgery, is currently
performing endovascular
repair of aneurysms
using the latest minimally
invasive surgery techniques.
Dr. Alvarez-Perez completed an endovascular
fellowship at the Eastern
Virginia Medical School in Norfolk,
VA in 2006. A staff physician for over
22 years, he explains that when aneurysms
form in the abdominal aorta,
they require repair when there is a
risk of rupturing. He noted that with
the minimally invasive approach to
this procedure that he began performing
at the hospital in the fall of
‘07, patients now experience an overnight
stay versus up to a week before
these techniques were available. v
Transforming Care
Continued from page 1
Kathy Guarino, explained, “The
Transforming Care at the Bedside
initiative measures the success of
rapid cycle improvements through
the use of personal digital assistants
(PDAs), handheld computers that are
carried and rotated among nurses on
the TCAB and control units. Alarms
are sounded on the PDA randomly.
When an alarm is heard, the nurse
carrying the PDA must immediately
input data regarding location, activity
and most previous activity. Data is
collected and analyzed to determine
if TCAB efforts are improving time
spent at the patient bedside.”
Kim Fadeley talked about some of the
staff-driven ideas that have proven
successful on the unit. “Our first
initiative was to simply move the
location of the charge nurse as she receives
the morning report…it immediately
saved time and decreased the
number of interruptions,” she said.
“The pain management initiative
that we reported on at the conference
went through a few trials of ideas
before finding success with using a
plastic clock in the patient rooms that
indicates time for next medication
and helps us assess the effectiveness
of pain management,” she noted.
“There is no fear of coming up with
ideas, trying them out, and abandoning
them if they are not effective. For
instance, we first tried a whiteboard
and then modified it with the clock.”
“Being part of this national program
gives us a valuable opportunity to
network and share ideas,” said Kathy
Guarino. “It allows us to compare
ourselves with like hospitals and
opens up dialogue to learn what
others are doing successfully, and in
turn, those ideas can be planted here
at Mercy as we constantly strive to
improve care to our patients.” v
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