January, 2005
Inside this issue---
Animal aficionado finds rewarding career at ACS - Page 1
Achieving a successful team - Page 1
Juvenile Hall staff receive recognition in December - Page 2
Division Manager appointed - Page 2
Healthy Weight Week 2005 - Page 2
Extreme Makeover - Page 3
Dorothy Hendrickson joins HCA - Page 3
Annual training nears completion - Page 4
More hints for computer safeguarding - Page 4
OC Hospitals & HASC honored with Flu Response Resolution - Page 4
Santa Visits ACS - Page 6
February Health Observances - Page 6
As an avid animal enthusiast, Brian Frick, a Lieutenant and Supervising Animal Control Officer with Animal Care Services (ACS), clearly enjoys being involved in a position where he can participate in public safety and education, and most of all indulge his love of animals.
In his position at ACS, Lt. Frick supervises 13 Animal Control Officers and two Senior Officers, and participates in a variety of daily responsibilities in which he acts as Watch Commander. He assigns work areas to officers for the 20 contracted cities that ACS covers, responds to calls in the field where he can assist officers with requests, and oversees large scale operations.
Lt. Frick is additionally in charge of the Vicious and Potentially Dangerous Dog Program, and provides presentations to county and community agencies on animal cruelty, bite prevention and animal hoarding.
"Over the years, Brian has displayed, on a number of occasions, his passion for the job and his desire to help both staff and the public," said Kathy Francis, Manager of ACS Operations.
One day 24 years ago, while riding his horse on the Santa Ana River bed, he met Animal Control Officer Gene Aquino on patrol. Lt. Frick was first introduced to ACS by Officer Aquino and spent some time talking to him about animal control and the duties of being an officer. As they say, the rest is history. Lt. Frick knew after his conversation with Officer Aquino that a career in the animal control field was for him.
Lt. Frick spent the past 23 years working for ACS, and first began his career in the Animal Control Licensing Department selling dog licenses door-to-door. After three months, Field Services hired him as an Animal Control Officer. He then became a Senior Animal Control Officer, and was soon promoted to serve in his current position.
"Brian's dedication and self-sacrifice is inspirational. In an environment that at times can be stressful, especially when dealing with injured, lost or abandoned animals, Brian's involvement is appreciated and serves as an important link to the community," said Kathy Francis.
Lt. Frick attended Mount San Antonio College and holds a degree in Animal Husbandry.
When asked about some memorable moments that he's experienced at ACS, Lt. Frick recalls two instances: one in which he came face to face with an injured mountain lion at 2:30 a.m. off the Ortega Highway, and another when he wrestled a 5-foot Caiman alligator in a back yard.
"It's always something different everyday. It could be cows out on Santiago Canyon Road, a 10-foot python in a yard, a vicious dog, or just helping to reunite a citizen with their lost pet," said Lt. Frick. "You get to be outside, but you always have to be ready for any situation, especially the one that wants to bite you!"
Kathy Francis added that recently, Lt. Frick took it upon himself to come to the aide of a resident of William's Canyon. Working with a horse owner who had received numerous complaints over the years regarding her cramped horse corrals and conditions after the slightest of rains, Brian had arranged to meet the horse owner to help her construct new stalls and extend the existing ones - on his day off. The horse owner and the residents of the small surrounding community were incredibly grateful for his initiative and selfless act of kindness.
Several months ago, the HCA/OCEA Labor Management Committee (LMC) introduced the Team Excellence Award winners from Behavioral Health's Children and Youth Services—West Region (CYS-West) program. This month, the LMC Committee shares with you some of the team's insights that were gained in an interview with the team.
The recognition acknowledged a creative team with innovative ideas, and spotlighted supportive leadership that was interested in encouraging motivated and quality staff to venture into a new way of doing business. Key lessons can be learned from their program's winning strategy of "having lemons and making lemonade." Their example serves as an inspiration and model for teamwork and effectiveness.
The mental health outpatient clinic provides a broad range of services for children and adolescents who have behavioral, emotional and/or mental health issues.
The clinical services provided at CYS-West have remained essentially the same over the past 20 years, but a significant change has now occurred in the way services are delivered.
Tom Shaw, Ph.D. and Ken Gonzales, Ph.D. offered their insights on the group's collaborative efforts.
Hats off to Juvenile Hall Clinicians Terry Cardle, LCSW; Kathy Huber, PhD; and David Glavas, MFT on receiving recognition during a Probation Awards ceremony held last month. The group was recognized for their outstanding contributions to the Probation wards that they serve.
Terry and Kathy both head the Sex Offender Treatment program in Juvenile Hall and participate in a specialized team that services the court-ordered population of juvenile male offenders of sex crimes. They provide weekly assessment and case management, along with group, individual and family therapy. Terry and Kathy have developed an outstanding comprehensive program in which many treatment accomplishments have been achieved for the client and the community.
David serves as the primary clinical liaison for Unit I in Juvenile Hall, which operates as the specialized unit for severe mental health cases. He works closely with probation in the unit to develop specific treatment plans needed for individual cases, and provides the probation team with clinical/educational information as needed for strategizing interventions when dealing with difficult behaviors. Through David's collaborative work, the needs of minors in custody with mental health issues have been addressed effectively.
Congratulations to Mary Hale on her appointment as Division Manager for Behavioral Health Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services! Mary served two years as Interim Division Manager for the program, and brings extensive experience and professional strengths in the areas of leadership, planning and problem solving to the position.
Under Mary's direction, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services have been expanded to adults in the criminal justice system, adults with co-occurring mental illness, and pregnant and parenting women. She has also strengthened collaborative partnerships within the Agency and with other community groups, enabling increasing numbers of adolescents and adults to receive the residential and outpatient services needed for their recovery.
Mary joined HCA after receiving a Master's Degree in Psychology, and currently serves as Vice President for the County Alcohol and Drug Program Administrators Association of California.
Celebrated nationally from January 16-22, Healthy Weight Week is a time to promote healthy lifestyles that last a lifetime. This year, take some time to assess how healthy-oriented your lifestyle is, and set a positive resolution to incorporate health and wellness into your daily activities.
A healthy lifestyle can depend on the environment and what kinds of choices are made. Surroundings and habits can influence healthy living in both positive and negative ways.
To help jump start your New Year's resolution to health and wellness, a lifestyle assessment provided by the Orange County Register, and a check list offered by the California Department of Health Services (DHS), can help you evaluate your environment and provide suggestions on how you might be able to change your surroundings.
· Visit www.ocregister.com/multimedia/life_assess for an interactive "Lifestyle Assessment" created by the Register that includes questions on nutrition, physical activity and lifestyle. After answering questions related to each area, the online site will calculate scores and provide an overall assessment.
—Charles Colton
we're on-line!
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!
No, this doesn't refer to the hit TV show. Instead, the title is descriptive of happenings closer to home, here at HCA. Change seems to be the norm these days throughout the County. Nowhere is this more evident than at HCA Purchasing where five new faces have been spotted plying the purchasing trade. The new staff members are Purchasing Manager Tony Bernard, Procurement Contract Specialist Maritza Fajardo, Buyer II Anna Ly, and Office Technicians Tanya Hargrove and Nia Jones.
Tony, Maritza, and Anna bring many years of purchasing experience to the Agency. Tony has 17 years of previous County purchasing experience with GSA, CEO, and PFRD. During this time he has also supervised accounts payable and petty cash sections, overseen warehouse operations, and been charged with asset control responsibilities. He also currently serves as President of the California Chapter of the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, an organization of purchasing professionals with approximately 12,000 members worldwide. This is Maritza's second tour of duty with HCA Purchasing, originally serving the Agency from 1998 through 2002, with a stop in between at the Department of Child Support Services. Anna comes to us from the District Attorney's office.
The trio has melded well with the solid existing core group at HCA Purchasing, forming a hard-working, dynamic team with its sights set on streamlining procurement processes. A number of improvements have been implemented or are planned for the not-to-distant future.
To this end, we encourage all HCA staff to forward any suggestions on improving processes to Tony Bernard at tbernard@ochca.com. Additionally, Tony plans on meeting with staff from the Agency's programs to attain a better understanding of their various needs, enabling HCA Purchasing to tailor processes to provide improved service. HCA Purchasing hopes to further improve service by enhancing its website and by offering training on purchasing processes and related topics.
Online Requisition System
In the past year, HCA has implemented and used the online requisition module of AMS's CAP System (CAPS). On January 3 of this year, administration of the system passed from the County's CAPS unit to staff at HCA Purchasing. Some of the duties which have been assumed include:
· General email and phone assistance
· Identifying requisitions not in the workflow
· Initiators will be contacted and helped as necessary
· Identifying requisitions with errors, about which initiators will be contacted and helped in resolving errors
HCA is pleased to welcome Dorothy Hendrickson, former Executive Assistant to First District Supervisor Charles Smith. Dorothy joined HCA's Behavioral Health Services as an Administrative Manager on January 3.
In her position, Dorothy will assist in planning and implementing Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act that was recently passed by Orange County voters during the November 2004 election.
As an Executive Assistant to Supervisor Smith, Dorothy was involved with numerous community organizations including HCA, CalOptima and the Children and Families Commission. Her work with the community and knowledge of HCA will provide the experience and expertise to both organize and develop Orange County's plan for the community planning process.
Prop. 63 pays for expanded mental health programs for children and adults through a surcharge on income above $1 million per year. The measure provides a range of services including outreach, medical care, short and long-term housing, prescription drugs, vocational training, and self-help and social rehabilitation.
· Download "A Check for Health Workplace Environmental Assessment" provided by DHS at www.dhs.ca.gov/ps/cdic/cpns/press/downloads/DHS_Worksite_audit_tool.pdf. `Check for Health' is an easy-to-use tool for assessing your worksite environment, and provides a checklist of items to help make healthy changes.
Eat well, live actively, and feel good about yourself and others. It's a welcome change from the dieting and bingeing that typically begin in the New Year! For more information about leading healthy lifestyles, call HCA's Nutrition Services program at (714) 834-7952 or visit www.ochealthinfo.com/public/nutrition/index.htm.
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
A big "Thank You" to all HCA staff who have completed the required annual Compliance Program training. Through the end of 2004, about 95% of the HCA workforce had completed the yearly training requirement and many others have completed the training online during the early days of January.
While the time period established for the annual training program has passed, if you were unable to complete the training during the program period, you may still fulfill your annual Compliance training requirement by logging on to www.ochealthinfo.com/training. The Compliance training program takes about one hour to complete and will ensure that you are up-to-date with important information about HCA's Compliance program and efforts. If you have any questions about Compliance training, please call HCA's Office of Compliance at (714) 568-5614.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires us to safeguard the protected health information (PHI) we create, receive and maintain. As we go about our daily job duties, PHI may be visible on our computer monitors.
We have been careful to face our monitors away from others so they will not inadvertently view the protected health information on our screens, but should we do more? The HIPAA Security Rule requires covered entities like HCA to use the "inactivity timeout" and "lock computer" features available on our workstations.
The Inactivity timeout is set using the screensaver feature. You should set your screensaver to activate after 15 minutes of inactivity and require a password to return to the screen. Call the HCA/IT Helpdesk at 834-3128 if you need assistance in setting up this feature.
The careful user should also activate the "lock computer" function themselves whenever leaving a workstation unattended, even for a few minutes. To activate this feature, simultaneously press the CTRL, ALT, DELETE keys. A dialog box will appear. Click on "lock computer." To "unlock" a workstation, simply press CTRL, ALT, DELETE again and enter your password.
Finally, don't forget to shut down your computer each night before you go home. It is important that we use these features to ensure protection of private and confidential patient information and to protect our computer systems and network from inappropriate access.
Although Ken had been suggesting that efficiency changes could be made seven years earlier, it took funding cutbacks a couple of years ago to finally provide the momentum for change in order for CYS-West to fulfill its responsibilities. They had to approach their main core of business and make certain decisions and changes to deal with the financial cutbacks. "Things had to change, and it came from all of us," said Tom.
Tom and other clinicians had experienced chronic frustration as they each performed every clinical and administrative task assigned. Each clinician had been required to handle intake and follow-up with each type of case, whether it was assessment, treatment, or residential, even if it was not their area of specialty, interest, or what they liked, Tom shared.
The Office Support Team remained the same. Although the coverage for clients was good, all the staff could not do everything consistently well. When everyone was doing everything, "tasks were just barely getting done," and staff were ineffective and inefficient in trying to accomplish assignments during five-minute increments in between their appointments, "which was about all the time that was available; it was very frustrating," said Ken.
Ken and other staff proposed that the clinic be reorganized into teams that are responsible for certain tasks, and that professionals be allowed to function within those teams utilizing their personal strengths and interests. This was a good opportunity to reorganize the staff to become more effective and efficient, and their wishes were listened to and honored.
The staff first reviewed the State law that CYS-West works under, AB 3632, and took apart its components to ensure that the mandates would be met with the restructuring.
The consequent change took about one year, and nothing was "written in stone" at the beginning of the changeover. Staff focused on assessment of their responsibilities, and no one was required to give up what they wanted to do, or take on anything they did not like.
"As a team, they needed to know about each other, their language, culture, and expertise, and their professional abilities," said Tom.
Each staff member reviewed their main business objectives and was given an opportunity to do what their preference was, according to their skills and interest. Fortunately, the "division of labor fell naturally," said Tom. During the process, two or three positions were not refilled, but there were no layoffs and only a few personnel changes occurred.
Tom mentioned that the staff members were surprised at how harmoniously and cooperatively they worked together. It was a group effort and there were no "stars"—other than the leadership and support of Service Chief Phyllis Crane, Division Manager Alan Albright and CYS Program Manager Patty Rogers. Nor were there any staff that impeded the progress.
The new team management style allows staff to function where they are best suited, which has raised morale. "The results have been excellent!" said Ken.
"People have fun here, more than before. It is meaningful work, and staff are enjoying what they are doing. "
Now, staff have more control over their schedules, and are more productive and effective. By being available to do more of what they liked, the staff was not scattered doing many different things and were able to concentrate on their specialties. The surprise occurred in how equitable it turned out. Staff was not worked harder, nor did they pick up extra responsibilities. They became sharper and more effective, had more control, and were less stressed since there were fewer deadlines to meet.
Because of the restructuring, assessments of clients actually increased. A good program became better, and no surprises occurred, nor any fallout. The time was just right and things fell into place.
What were the key elements of dealing with budget cutbacks and restructuring, resulting in a better outcome with more content staff? The degree of cooperation and trust helped. Tom said, "If you are not trusting in yourself or others, it will be tougher to achieve."
Leadership was key. Cliques did not figure into the equation. They did not succeed more or get along better just because of their professional counseling backgrounds. "They are just people and have a cooperative spirit," Tom said. It was evident that leaders must be willing to allow this to exist. "People have fun here, more than before. It is meaningful work, and staff are enjoying what they are doing."
After 30 years of working for the County, Ken said, "it is clear that it is still important that you feel valued as an employee." He added that it is very helpful to the team to feel supported and he described these last few years as the golden age of this CYS clinic.
It was a satisfying experience, and a win-win for everyone involved. Ken's advice to staff is that if you have an idea on how things could be done better, tell your supervisor about it. His advice to managers and supervisors is "be open to feedback from your employees and open to their ideas about the way you deliver services, and how they might be improved."
The CYS-West Team and the LMC have a common goal - having effective teams share those things that they believe have made them successful in an effort to improve the effectiveness of work teams.
Stay tuned for the next HCA/OCEA LMC Team Excellence Award
nominations, coming soon. For more information regarding the Team Excellence Award
and how you can nominate a team, visit the HCA Intranet online at:
http://balsam/intranet/lmc/team.asp
Lt. Frick is also in his ninth year of service as a Reserve Firefighter for the Orange County Fire Authority, working at Station 16 in Modjeska Canyon. When home, he responds to all emergencies and was one of the first responders on the scene along with another firefighter when a mountain lion attacked two bicyclists in Whiting Ranch last year.
For the future, Lt. Frick sees himself spending the rest of his career with ACS and hopes to move up into a management position where he can participate in providing a great workplace for employees and offering quality service to the citizens of Orange County.
In his spare time, Lt. Frick enjoys working in his yard and finding old
antique "yard art" to landscape with.
He also enjoys spending time relaxing and reading, and watching his old
German Shorthair play in the Santiago Creek, which runs behind his home.
· Identifying requisitions which are over 30 days old, for which initiators will be contacted to see what they want done with the RX.
Please contact Duyen Lac at dlac@ochca.com or Laura Feiner at lfeiner@ochca.com with any inquiries concerning the requisition process.
Assignment and Use of Cell Phones
Recently the County Executive Officer issued guidelines to ensure proper and consistent procedures for cellular phone use for County business. These guidelines have been folded into the new Health Care Agency Policy and Procedure V-5.10, Assignment and Use of Cell Phones. The procedure addresses subjects such as the following:
· Requesting a cell phone
· Issuing a cell phone
· Monitoring cell phone usage
· Reporting lost or stolen cell phones
· Reimbursing for personal use caused by emergencies or occasional incidental calls
Please take a few minutes to review the new procedure at: http://balsam/intranet/P&P/table.asp and share it with staff. All requests for cell phones; returned cell phones; reports of lost or stolen cell phones must be submitted to Mike Hansen, the Agency Cell Phone Coordinator at, Bldg. 38AB.
If you have questions, please contact Mike Hansen at (714) 834-2404 or by e-mail, mhansen@ochca.com.
Members of Operation Santa Paws visited Animal Care Services (ACS) on December 23 and donated more than $300 worth of toys, treats, bedding and other pet products to the Care Center.
Dogs and cats at ACS received a variety of
donated items that were collected by the non-profit
group through a donation drive they hosted during the
month of December to benefit less fortunate pets during
the holiday season.
Justin Rudd, organizer of Operation Santa Paws, came dressed as Santa and spent some time playing with the animals as he and other members of the group distributed the donated toys and treats.
It's not too early to begin donating to Operation Santa Paws 2005. The group is encouraging animal lovers to purchase a new dog or cat toy, treat or supply that will be delivered in time for Christmas to shelters and rescues around the Southland. For more information and a list of suggested items to donate, visit www.santapaws.info.
Operation Santa Paws, part of the Long Beach Haute Dog organization, is a diverse and growing network of dog owners, lovers, educators, rescuers and supporters. Now in its fourth year, their mission is to provide toys, treats and supplies to area animal shelters.
—Faye Myenne Ng
February Health Observances
Kids E.N.T (Ears, Nose, Throat) Health Month
National Children's Dental Health Month
National Burn Awareness Week 6-12
Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week 7-14
National Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week 3-19
National Donor Day 14
National Women's Heart Day 18
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
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