issue 03-03
issue 03-03
March, 2003
Working with the community to improve public health is something that Carolyn Secrist, Acting Program Supervisor for the Alcohol & Drug Education & Prevention Team (ADEPT) program clearly enjoys. Carolyn currently works with more than 10 community and school based providers and participates in writing contracts and developing positive working relationships with schools, youth and adults.
Having started with the Health Care Agency five years ago as a program evaluation specialist with ADEPT, Carolyn also provides technical assistance, training and prevention materials to assist communities in reducing alcohol and other drug-related problems.
"Prior to joining HCA, I was given the opportunity to work on the other side of the fence with community coalitions and feel that the type of education and assistance that ADEPT offers to Orange County is something that makes my position so motivating," said Carolyn.
Carolyn's new role as Acting Supervisor has given her the opportunity to work with a group of talented and goal oriented individuals who are all working together to help improve Orange County's public health.
Carolyn recalls a unique situation when teamwork played a contributing role in completing two State grant proposals. Due to everyone working together, both proposals submitted were successfully funded. Working with others, bouncing ideas off one another and sharing experiences is what Carolyn enjoys. This also helps to streamline tasks, while making them easier as well as fun.
"This (teamwork) is what makes working with HCA and ADEPT such a positive experience. My coworkers as well as contract providers help to make such a positive difference in the health of the County," Carolyn added.
Carolyn received a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Science from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and is proud to continue to show her support as a CSULB alumnus.
Both Carolyn and the ADEPT team stay on top of the latest research and best practices available in the field of prevention to further provide assistance with the school and community based prevention contracts they work with.
In the future Carolyn would like to continue working with the Orange County community and with schools to help reduce problems associated with alcohol, tobacco and other drug use.
Outside from work, Carolyn enjoys spending most of her time with her family and husband. She also has a cocker spaniel named Sophie and has a light-green thumb for gardening.
In celebration of Nurses Month, healthcare and law enforcement professionals from all over Southern California will meet on Thursday, May 1st for a highly anticipated conference entitled "The Community of Nursing Captures the Spirit." The all day event will take place at the Irvine Marriott located at 18000 Von Karman Ave. in Irvine.
The conference will offer unique and specialty presentations for all attendees including a morning general session featuring Department of Homeland Security Updates on Bioterrorism and a presentation from the Pentagon on Critical Stress Debriefing. Educational and informative breakout sessions will follow with a luncheon to honor "Nursing All-Stars" who will receive special awards and recognition for their contribution and dedication to the field of nursing.
Join the collaborative efforts of Children's Hospital of Orange County, the County of Orange Health Care Agency, Loma Linda University Medical Center,
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"Getting in Shape for the Future: Healthy Eating and Active Living"
National Public Health Week provides an opportunity to recognize and commend efforts of Orange County public health professionals who protect, promote and enhance the health of all Orange County residents. This year's theme—overweight and obesity—seeks to educate Americans about the health risks associated with being overweight and obese, and encourage healthy eating and active living.
To celebrate Public Health Week, complete this crossword puzzle to find out how much you know about nutrition and healthy eating. After you complete the puzzle, fax it to (714) 834-3492, Attn: Shellie Hunt, by April 11th. Five participants answering all questions correctly will be randomly selected to receive fun prizes. Good luck!
ACROSS
1. Complex or Simple. Provides energy.
4. Fitness raises _____ rate.
5. Not too much. Not too little.
10. Exercise; Form of running.
11. Wide range of choices.
13. "It does a body good!"
14. Star-Kist canned, high in Omega 3.
15. Bugs Bunny's favorite high beta-carotene veggie.
17. Dark green, leafy, rich in iron and the antioxidant, Vitamin A.
19. Maintains digestive tract.
20. (prefix) over, above or excessive.
DOWN
2. Vitamins A, C, E.
3. Physical measurement of the body.
6. Recommended to do an hour everyday.
7. You need at least 8 cups of _____ a day.
8. Low iron status.
9. Builds strong bones and teeth.
12. Helps prevent neural tube defects.
16. National Nutrition Month.
18. One function is to maintain & build tissue.
April Health Observances
Alcohol Awareness Month
Cancer Control Month
National Autism Awareness Month
National STD Awareness Month
Women's Eye Health and Safety Month
National Public Health Week 7-13
National Infants Immunization Week 13-19
National Minority Cancer Awareness Week 20-26
—Charlie Brown (Charles Schulz)
March is National Nutrition Month®! Celebrate along with the Nutrition Services Program and the American Dietetic Association (ADA) by eating healthy and leading active lives to begin the journey to a healthy you.
This year's campaign theme "Healthy Eating, Healthy You" is designed to focus attention on the importance of making informed food choices, including nutrition as a key component to good health and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. The ADA recommends a well-balanced approach to nutrition and offers the following advice:
Healthy eating helps you get the most out of life. A healthy lifestyle is the key to looking good, feeling great and being your best at work and play.
Individual needs and preferences determine your personal food choices. Match your food choices to your lifestyle and individual requirements, choosing enough to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
Actively pursue variety. Expand your range of choices and explore new tastes, within and among food groups. Eating a wide variety of foods not only promotes optimal nutrition, it provides the pleasurable aspects of eating.
Make moderation your goal_you decide how much and how often. Healthy eating doesn't mean feeling deprived or guilty. Look at the big picture, what you eat over several days—not just one day or one meal—that's important.
Develop a personal fitness plan that fits your lifestyle. The key is to find a variety of activities you enjoy. You don't need expensive equipment or complicated fitness programs.
Contact a registered dietician to help create a personal nutrition meal plan that's right for you. For more information on nutrition, visit the American Dietetic Association's website at www.eatright.org. The site also includes daily nutrition tips, fact sheets and healthy lifestyle information.
In this month's Mission In Action, we look at one of the ways HCA has demonstrated its dedication to protecting and promoting the optimal health of individuals, families and our diverse communities through prevention and education.
HCA Public Health Services has a very active program to provide tuberculosis (TB) treatment and prevention services with special attention given to those groups at higher risk for the disease. One such outreach effort is to Orange County's Vietnamese community, which has resulted in collaboration with the St. Anselm's Cross Cultural Community Center in Garden Grove. In recent years, HCA has worked with St. Anselm's to conduct a TB health fair offering education and testing services. The health fair has served well over 100 people each year, with most participants being adults age 60 and older. The health fair conducted in March has been part of the local observance of World TB Day and has provided a tremendous opportunity to help prevent the spread of TB infection by educating the community about the signs, symptoms and risk factors of TB, as well as reaching those who may have latent TB infection and are in need of treatment.
As a dedicated group of nurses committed to enhancing the profession of nursing, the Professional Nurses Forum (PNF) encourages all nurses to join and participate in the upcoming meetings scheduled throughout the year. Mark your calendars—PNF meets the third Wednesdays of every even month at 2 p.m. at the Data Center located at 1400 S. Grand Ave. in Santa Ana, with the exception of April 16th and October 15th where the meetings will be held at 4:30 p.m. at the Orange County Employees Association (OCEA). The meeting dates are as follows:
• April 16th (4:30 p.m. meeting at OCEA)
• June 18th
• August 20th
• October 15th (4:30 p.m. meeting at OCEA)
• December 17th
Since its implementation in the Fall of 2001, the working group and its subcommittees have taken part in several accomplishments including addressing safety measures at the Orangewood and ETS Facilities, exploring annual CPR Certification for nurses beyond the correctional setting, receiving administrative support for the Nursing Education Advisory Committee to continue to provide in-service programs and participating in strategic planning and development of a position paper to guide nurses.
The Forum wishes to send special thanks to Karen Munoz and Linda Moore who provided the driving force for the many accomplishments and successes since its inception. With the election of new co-chairs Nancy Redler from Correctional Medical Services and Susan Sullivan from Public Health Services, the group continues to be active participants in the field of nursing and is currently coordinating and participating in the annual Nurse Recognition Conference on Thursday, May 1st.
For more information about the Professional Nurses Forum and/or the upcoming meetings, call Nancy Redler at (714) 935-6083 or Susan Sullivan at (714) 834-8309.
Seventeen days and counting!
Depending on where you work in the Health Care Agency, you've seen varying amounts of activity in preparation for the April 14th effective date of the Privacy Regulations in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA. Let's take a look at what's been accomplished so far!
Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP)
Training has been provided to staff in Public Health, Behavioral Health and Institutional Health Services on the Notice of Privacy Practices, or NPP, which will have to be provided to all clients and consumers during their first encounter on or after April 14th. The NPP tells our clients about the ways their medical information may be used by HCA, as well as their rights in regards to their medical information. The NPP will be available in English, Spanish and Vietnamese and includes language that is required by the Federal regulations.
Accounting for Disclosures
One of the requirements of the HIPAA Privacy Regulations is that HCA keep track of certain disclosures of our client's medical information. The information on these disclosures will be tracked by the HCA Custodian of Records but this will require help from staff across the Agency. Clients may ask for an accounting of certain disclosures that take place
on or after April 14, 2003, but not for dates before the regulations take effect.
HIPAA Outreach
One of the ways we will be providing information to our clients about the new HIPAA Privacy Regulations is through a colorful poster called "HIPAA, HCA and You." This poster will be distributed to HCA facilities for display in public areas and includes contact information for the HCA HIPAA Coordinator as well as the Custodian of Records.
Policies and Procedures
A set of Agency-wide Policies and Procedures is being developed to provide guidance on meeting the HIPAA Privacy guidelines. These will be complemented by service and program level policies that will follow. Many of these policies are currently in draft form and are in the process of being reviewed.
Forms
You will notice some changes being made to current forms in order to comply with HIPAA regulations as well as some additional forms being developed to address new patient's rights and Agency responsibilities as required under HIPAA.
Intranet Site
Another available resource is the HCA HIPAA Intranet site, which can be accessed at http://balsam/intranet/compliance/hipaa/default.asp. This site includes contact information for the HCA HIPAA workgroups and a list of Internet resources for more information on HIPAA.
On a slightly different subject, an interactive quiz to test your knowledge about the HCA Compliance Program is now on the Agency Intranet. See how your knowledge of Compliance stacks up by taking this fun and friendly quiz at http://balsam/intranet/compliance/quiz/default.asp.
*(Integrated Records Information System)
When is it coming? By now, you've probably heard several possible "go-live" dates, which have been revised as we continue to prepare IRIS for use by HCA staff. To help you anticipate when IRIS will be "coming to a computer near you," plans have been made to provide some definite indicators that will give all of us sufficient time to prepare.
Everyone will have at least two months notice of the IRIS "go-live" date. That's because staff will be given a 30- day time period to register for the training they will need to put IRIS to work at HCA clinics and facilities. The user training will take place the month before go-live and will feature hands on training to be offered by IRIS instructors in a fully equipped HCA classroom. During that training, HCA staff will receive the actual password they will use to access IRIS at their worksite.
IRIS will provide a common medical information system for Behavioral Health, Public Health and Medical and Institutional Health Services. In the first step of implementation, the registration and billing modules for Behavioral Health and Correctional Mental Health Services will be rolled out. Steps two and three will take place simultaneously. The second step will include the first use of the clinical documentation module at Adult Mental Health Services clinics. This rollout will continue on a clinic-by-clinic basis and will expand to other Behavioral Health divisions. The third step will be Public Health's registration and billing module, with the Public Health Lab next in line.
As you can see, there's lots of preparations to be completed before IRIS is put to work for the benefit of HCA staff and clients. In the coming months, we'll continue to keep you posted on the latest developments, provide information on things to look forward to and we'll share the success stories that are coming out of the efforts to make IRIS an effective tool to facilitate the provision of HCA services.
The HCA Compliance Program offers a confidential telephone hotline to voice your concerns about any situation that may conflict with Compliance Program principles. You may call the hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at: (866) 260-5636
The ACS booth at the City of Anaheim's First Annual Pet Fair on March 8th was greeted by many pet enthusiasts as they received information on the various services ACS provides.
Orange County Animal Care Services (ACS) participated in the City of Anaheim's First Annual Pet Fair held on Saturday, March 8th. Hosted by Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, animal enthusiasts enjoyed the various festivities of the day and received helpful information from ACS. Brochures on spay/neutering, wildlife and bite prevention were handed out as well as coloring books for children. Along with providing information on the various services, ACS also brought along a mobile adoption unit that day for those interested in adopting pets. For information on pets available for adoption or to learn more about the services ACS offers, visit the Animal Care Services website at www.ocpetinfo.com.
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the Los Angeles County Dept. of Health, Nurse Week Publications, Nursing Spectrum Magazine and St. Joseph Health System as they come together for the first time to honor Nurses Month.
This is a conference you can't miss! Pre-conference registration is available for $60 until April 20th and includes a continental breakfast, lunch and the day's schedule of activities and programs. On-site registration is also available for $75 after April 20th. For more information about the conference, a listing of breakout session topics and speakers or to register, visit www.nurserecognition.org or contact MaryJo Vincent at (714) 834-2964.
What's UP is a newsletter for employees of the County of Orange, CA, Health Care Agency.
Editors
Tricia Landquist
Howard Sutter
Anne Fialcowitz
Your Input
Phone (714) 834-6644
E-mail: TLandquist@ochca.com
FAX (714) 834-7644
Pony Bldg. 38-S, 4th Floor
Behavioral Health's Cultural Competency Program named Tung C. Nguyen, Ph.D. as the recipient of the February 2003 Spotlight on Excellence Award. Having started with the Health Care Agency 17 years ago as a Mental Health Specialist, Tung became aware of the increasing mental health needs of the Vietnamese community and decided to return to school to obtain his Ph.D. After completing his education at the California Graduate Institute in 1986, Tung focused on assisting members of the Asian communities to help them understand mental illness and how to overcome the stigma that is sometimes associated with it.
We will keep current issues on line for a year. Let us know how you like the convenience!
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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