August, 2004
In this issue.....
Adrienne noted for positive contributions to HCA - Page 1
West Nile arrives in OC - Page 1
On-line requisition system update - Page 2
Summer Blood Drive 2004 - Page 2
September Health Observances - Page 2
Pio Pico mentors honored - Page 3
ACS launches Pet Match - Page 3
Save the Date for Cultural Competency Summit - Page 3
HCA Bioterrorism Preparedness benefits from international experience - Page 4
Spotlight on Excellence - Page 4
Inside HCA's Safety Program - Page 5
World Breastfeeding Week - Page 5
Employees recognized for years of service - Page 6
United Way Happenings - Page 8
HCA "Jams" at OC Fair - Page 8
As Agenda Staff Report (ASR) Coordinator for HCA, Adrienne Newman processes, maintains, and coordinates all ASRs for internal review and files them with the County Clerk of the Board.
An ASR is a document used by County agencies or departments for presenting items to the Board of Supervisors for action or approval.
Adrienne's position also involves acting as backup coordinator of the Comprehensive Agenda Management System (CAMS), whereby she assists HCA staff in answering system-related questions, as well as providing general support to HCA's Revenue Unit.
As it is critical that HCA send its ASRs to the Board of Supervisors on time and in conformance with CEO and Clerk of the Board requirements, while meeting established State and Federal funding deadlines, Adrienne is highly regarded for her efficient and accurate work and performance, which helps meet this important requisite.
"Adrienne deserves recognition for her willingness to step in where help was greatly needed and to quickly learn the duties of her position," said Gina Van Quest, HCA Revenue Unit Manager. "She was a key component in the successful processing of 65 HCA ASRs during the annual peak load in May and June."
Adrienne became HCA ASR Coordinator in February 2004. She formerly served as Supervisor of the Word Processing Unit; in that position she also assisted in coordinating documents for review by the Forms Committee and provided HCA programs with a form number for their Agency-related collateral materials and documents.
"I enjoy the diversity of being able to work with a wide variety of people at different levels throughout the Agency, as well as the Clerk of the Board," said Adrienne. "I definitely see myself continuing to grow and learn within the Agency and look forward to exploringwhere that journey will take me."
Adrienne began her career with HCA 6 years ago where she worked for several HCA programs including Children and Youth Services (CYS), Adult Mental Health, Animal Care Services, and Word Processing, to name a few.
"I was first introduced to the County through a temp agency where I was assigned to work for CYS in Costa Mesa," said Adrienne. "Working with staff at CYS and seeing how much they cared for clients really motivated me to pursue a career in healthcare."
Adrienne attended the University of Phoenix and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology with a specialization in Programming and Operating Systems. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband Jesse Newman, also an HCA employee with Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services, and likes to play tennis and disk golf.
It was just a matter of time before West Nile Virus (WNV) would make in appearance in Orange County. Last month, the State Department of Health Services confirmed the County's first human case of WNV, and reported that Orange County's first human case was also the first WNV death in the state.
The virus has now been detected in most California counties and deceased birds are continually being tested by the State to identify the presence of WNV in other regions. Locally, several mosquito pools and birds have tested positive for the virus in cities throughout the County.
HCA staff from Public Health Disease Control & Epidemiology and Animal Care Services (ACS) has been working closely with the Orange County Vector District to share information about WNV to the public and health care providers. Vector Control has been conducting surveillance to detect the virus in birds while also working to control the mosquito problem. ACS is also working closely with Vector Control to help facilitate the testing of birds in their disease surveillance program.
People can contract WNV from the bite of an infected mosquito, but most people who develop WNV infection don't have any noticeable symptoms. A small number will develop a mild illness with flu-like symptoms, and less than one percent of those infected will develop the severe form of the illness.
By controlling mosquitoes, you can limit the risk of crossing paths with West Nile Virus. Empty out any containers or areas around your home that collect standing water, no matter how small and don't forget to use insect repellant containing DEET (follow label directions). Limit outdoor activity when mosquitoes are most present during dawn
The new on-line requisition system continues to be a success with more than 14,000 requisitions processed since its inception in August 2003. Although the initial implementation was occasionally challenging, Purchasing has successfully reduced the processing time of requisitions and increased the ability to track the progress of requisitions through automation.
Although pleased with performance so far, Purchasing is
confident that further improvements to the system can be made. To that end, a user survey
was conducted in April, which identified several areas for system enhancement. An
issue list was created based upon the feedback, which Purchasing is actively addressing.
The issues list includes:
Developing system and utilization reports;
Providing additional user training;
Providing ongoing user support via the help line and onsite visits;
Focusing on the administration and monitoring of online requisitions to head off potential problems; and
Revising purchasing procedures to support the online program.
Additionally, HCA Purchasing and Countywide Accounting & Personnel System (CAPS) staff are constantly looking at ways to make the system more user-friendly. A number of enhancements have or are being developed:
Cheat Sheet
A "cheat sheet" of instructions on utilizing the system has been prepared and will be distributed for users to refer to.
Requisition Monitoring System
Purchasing has also implemented a new process, which allows users to track their requisitions after Purchasing has approved the requisition. Training on this new process is currently being offered at the CAPS user Online Requisition training classes.
Office Depot Process
Purchasing is also excited about the new Office Depot on-line purchasing pilot program that will start as a 90-day pilot project in September. Training will also be offered for this pilot program.
Purchasing Website
Furthermore, the Purchasing website will be enhanced to include FAQs and other exciting new features designed to provide customers with additional information and tools.
Future Enhancements
The success of the on-line requisition system creates a platform to launch initiatives, which will further automate and streamline other business processes. Future enhancements include automated receiving, vendor invoice processing, and additional financial and management Reporting. Stay tuned for further development.
County employees once again rolled up their sleeves to participate in the Red Cross summer blood drive held throughout the months of July and early August at various locations within the County.
With current supplies running low in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego, employees responded generously to maintain an adequate supply of blood necessary to help meet the critical needs of patients.
Last year, employees donated a total of 1,491 pints of blood and recently on June 15, 2004 the Orange County Red Cross presented the Board of Supervisors and HCA with a plaque to recognize the generosity.
If you missed one of the dates, don't worry, there's always time to give!
Visit the American Red Cross Online Donor Appointment Scheduling system
at www.givelife.org or contact the local Orange County Red Cross at (714)
481-5300 for more information.
Leukemia & Lymphoma Awareness Month
National Cholesterol Education Month
National Food Safety Education Month
Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
Suicide Prevention Week 5-11
National Rehabilitation Week 19-25
Family Heath and Fitness Day USA 27
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
HCA employees who volunteered their time to become mentors for Pio Pico Elementary School in Santa Ana were honored on July 25 at the Agency's Employee Recognition Awards ceremony held at the Hall of Administration.
Mentors participate in HOSTS (Help One Student to Succeed), an educational program in the school, which utilizes community volunteers to assist students who need additional help with academic learning. Lesson plans are pre-prepared for the volunteer mentors and feature topics that focus on reading readiness, math, language arts, and/or Spanish language arts.
Thank you to the following mentors who have given their time and dedication in helping to enrich the lives of Pio Pico students:
· Guillermo Alvarado · Susan Cabrera · Daryl Chamberlain · Yvonne Flynn · Cynthia Gill · Mary Hard · Mary Jin · Robin Keeble · Shannon Kenny · Patti LaPorte · Annette Malijen · Elke Shattuck · Suzanne Stein · Colleen Van Winkle · Joe Vargas · Tiffany Vong · Ken White
A new feature on Animal Care Services' (ACS) Website is Pet Match, an innovative notification system to alert residents when a certain breed of dog or cat is available for adoption or when a lost animal matching a selected breed has arrived at the Orange County Animal Care Center in Orange.
By filling out a simple request form online at www.ocpetinfo.com, folks will automatically receive an e-mail when an animal matching their requested breed shows up at the Animal Care facility. Requests are effective for 30 days and a new request must be submitted after that time. Because many breeds can be misidentified as another similar breed, checking the shelter in person is the best way to find a missing pet.
ACS is working together with PetHarbor.com, a non-profit website that helps connect the general public to photos and data of lost animals and animals available for adoption at local animal shelters. By creating Pet Match, ACS is able to offer a new and innovative way in helping find new homes for animals available for adoption and placing lost pets back with their owners.
For more information on Pet Match, visit the ACS website at www.ocpetinfo.com or call the Animal Care Center at (714) 935-6943.
Save the date for the 12th Annual Mental Health and Cultural Competency Summit on October 6 & 7, 2004 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Hosted by Behavioral Health's Cultural Competency Program, this year's statewide summit will feature guest speaker Tipper Gore and include five workshop sessions.
The 2-day summit will focus on the provision of high quality mental health care to underserved populations and provide cutting edge information and research outcome studies that assist in increasing access for all.
Be sure and register by Tuesday, August 31 to take part in "All Inclusive Registration," which entitles attendees to a special evening reception and private party held at the Hollywood Pictures Back Lot at Disney's California Adventure Park, for the same cost as "Basic Registration" fees. If you missed the deadline, a limited number of wristbands for the Disney private reception will be available for an additional cost.
If tickets and wristbands to the special Disney event sell out, the $200 "Basic Registration" fee to attend the 2-day conference is still available up to October 1, 2004.
For more information about this year's Summit workshops, registration fees, and how to register, visit www.ochealthinfo.com/2004summit/ or call the Cultural Competency program at (714) 796-0188.
You can check out the latest issues of the Health Care Agency's newsletters by using this URL: www.ochealthinfo.com/newsletters/
We will keep current issues on line for a year. Let us know how you like the convenience!
HCA's ability to respond to a potential bioterrorism incident in Orange County has been enhanced by participation in an international disaster exercise, which was held last month in the Ukraine.
At the invitation of the California Emergency Medical Services Authority, HCA employees Barry Havlik (Bioterrorism Preparedness Training Unit) and Bryan Hanley (Bioterrorism Planning Unit) joined with participants from the California National Guard and California Office of Emergency Services for the long trip. Other disaster response teams participating in the exercise came from several countries in the same region as the Ukraine, including Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova.
The trip, which was not at county expense, allowed members of one of California's Disaster Medical Assistance Teams to participate in pre-hospital and mental health triage operations during a disaster scenario that involved widespread destruction following an earthquake with many trapped and injured victims. Some exercises simulated a realistic disaster with the use of real life props, which included an actual burning building.
The HCA staff members gained first hand practical experience working with disaster response teams considered to be among the best in the world. They also gained knowledge in dealing with language and cultural issues that could arise should a disaster occur in Orange County's diverse communities. "I learned that people speaking different languages, and having different cultures, values and experiences can easily work together for a common goal when there is respect, courtesy and courage," said Barry Havlik. This experience will be very useful as HCA continues to develop its plans for responding to any potential act of terrorism or a major natural disaster.
The exercise held in the Ukraine utilized the same
Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) and
Incident Command System (ICS) structure as taught in HCA's
Disaster Service Worker Training. Currently, the Bioterrorism
Preparedness Training Unit is working on making on-line
SEMS training available to all county employees and other counties
in California have expressed an interest in using the program
developed in Orange County to train their employees in the
basics of a coordinated response to a disaster or an emergency.
HCA's Safety Program is alive and well … and getting better! Facility safety inspections and training are just a couple of the activities that make up a day in the life of the Safety Program. As most know, each of HCA's programs have their own safety "personality"—from the Public Health Lab to Animal Care Services and all the clinics and offices in between, each has its own common and specific safety needs.
To address these needs, the Safety Program provides a structure and process to inform employees through various safety programs such as the Injury and Illness Prevention Program, Emergency Action Plan, Bloodborne Pathogen and Respiratory Protection, to name a few. These programs and others, provide a framework to educate and train staff on safe practices and also minimize work-related injuries and illness.
Along with the responsibility of administering Cal/OSHA enforced programs, facility inspections and safety training agency-wide, the Safety Program is also responsible for accident investigations, job/task risk analysis, monitoring regulatory updates, developing training programs and responding to the variety of day-to-day safety and health related issues in HCA facilities.
As HCA employees, it's important that we all work together to create and ensure a safe and healthy work environment. The Safety Program is a collective effort of all employees and requires everyone's active participation.
For more information about the Safety Program, contact Sam Love, Safety Inspector at (714) 834-6110 or Mike Hansen, Safety Program Manager at (714) 834-2404. To view the latest issue of HCA's Safety Plus newsletter, visit the Safety Program's Intranet webpage at http://balsam/intranet/safety/newsletter.
Each year in August, HCA Nutrition Services Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program sponsors many events and displays to highlight World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) celebrated from August 1-7. For this year's celebration, many of Nutrition Services' Certified Lactation Educators visited doctors throughout Orange County and provided educational materials to help them actively support breastfeeding. WIC staff also worked with local bookstores and libraries to display books and other materials that helped enhance awareness of breastfeeding. Additionally, each WIC clinic team throughout the County designed a colorful breastfeeding bulletin board promoting this year's WBW theme, "Exclusive Breastfeeding, the Gold Standard: Safe, Sound, Sustainable."
Aurora Chavez, CHA II, CLE, used this year's WBW theme to create a display featured in the Hall of Administration lobby. The display aimed to educate more people about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for an infant's first six months, and to encourage the community to support mothers in accomplishing this. Exclusive breastfeeding means that breastmilk, alone or with supplemental vitamin/mineral drops, provides all the infant's nutrient needs during this time, and is the food of choice.
The Nutrition Services/WIC Program provides information and support to help Orange County families achieve this breastfeeding "Gold Standard." If you or someone you know has questions or needs help with breastfeeding, call the Nutrition Services Breastfeeding Helpline at (714) 834-8363. If your interested in assisting Nutrition Services/WIC promote and support breastfeeding, please call (714) 834-7986.
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and dusk hours. When outdoors, wear long sleeved shirts and long pants and make sure your door and window screens are "bug-tight."
For more information about WNV and a listing of cities where birds have tested positive for the virus, visit HCA Epidemiology and Assessment's website at www.ochealthinfo.com/epi/wnv/. Further information can also be accessed on the Orange County Vector Control District's website at www.ocvcd.org and the California State Department of Health Services's website at www.dhs.ca.gov.
HCA employees were recognized for their dedicated years of service and outstanding contributions to the Agency at an Employee Recognition Awards Ceremony held at the Hall of Administration on July 15. HCA Pio Pico Elementary School mentors were also recognized at the ceremony for their dedication in helping students to succeed. The following is a list of awards presented:
5 Years of Service 57
10 Years of Service 29
15 Years of Service 19
20 Years of Service 5
25 Years of Service 6
30 Years of Service 5
Division Manager Frank Madrigal honored Stacy Northcutt from Medical &
Institutional Health Services for her 10 years of service to
the Agency.
Agency Director Julie Poulson took a moment at the July 15 Employee Recognition Awards to congratulate Regulatory Health Deputy Agency Director Mike Spurgeon on celebrating 10 years of service to HCA.
—Doris Lessing
In gearing up for United Way 2004, a series of events and fund-raising activities are already well under way! From purchasing tickets to an Angels game, to building your own ice cream sundae and beginning your morning with a pancake breakfast, the various United Way happenings created by HCA employees each year always receive an overwhelming response. To keep the momentum going, below is a list of current and ongoing United Way happenings:
Disaster Preparedness Survival Kits
Ideal for personal use, family, pets, schools, traveling and/or gifts. Purchase individual kits for $20 or a kit for a family of 4 for $80. Kits contain a variety of disaster preparedness items including, emergency drinking water, flashlight, first aid kit, emergency blankets and food rations to name a few. For more information or to obtain an order form, call Christine Drum from Environmental Health at (714) 667-2302 or by e-mail at cdrum@ochca.com.
Jeopardy Challenge Survey
HCA is once again gearing up for the upcoming United Way Countywide Jeopardy Tournament. In preparation for the event, the Agency needs your help in deciding how teams and players will be chosen to represent this year's HCA team, as well as some new and interesting category topics to include. Visit HCA's United Way Intranet site at http://ocintranet.ocgov.com/unitedway/jeopardy.htm to access the survey and contribute your thoughts.
Stay tuned for more upcoming activities, events and fund-raisers!
The 112th annual Orange County Fair, "Jammin' at the Fair - The Year of the Grape," once again rolled into town with its abundance of food, contests, exhibits, carnival rides and entertainment. HCA joined in the festivities and jammed again at this year's fair by hosting a booth alongside other County agencies and community organizations located inside the Orange County building.
After sampling such fare as fried Snickers bars and egg rolls on a stick, fair goers stopped by HCA's booth and were greeted by friendly staffers who provided valuable information about the Agency and the many programs and services available to the Orange County community. A health-related "Wheel of Fortune" game made an appearance this year and attracted many to test their skills and knowledge about leading healthy and active lifestyles.
Also available to booth visitors again this year was the Agency's popular "Guide to Services" and an informational flyer, designed by HCA Desktop Publishing, which contained a listing of phone numbers and website links to the Agency's programs and services.
Special thanks to all the friendly HCA employees who volunteered
their time to make this year's fair booth a jammin' success!
Health Promotion's Frank Hernandez and Venus Valencia staffed HCA's booth on
Sunday, July 11 and encouraged visitors to test
their healthy nutrition knowledge by playing the "Wheel of Fortune" game. HCA's
display included information and photos on the Agency's various service areas.
Some of the informational items displayed at HCA's booth included the Agency "Guide
to Services" and a Health Information flyer containing phone numbers and
website addresses for various programs and services.
What's UP is a newsletter for employees
of the County of Orange, CA, Health Care Agency.
Editors
Tricia Landquist 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