issue 06-04
april, 2006
Inside this issue...
Public Health Week
2006 celebrated - Page 1
New Chief Information Officer announced
- Page 1
How's HIPAA? - Page 2
Updating your payroll information
- Page 2
PH Week quiz winners chosen
- Page 2
Pet Fair 2006 is coming! - Page 3
Food Facility Closures now online - Page 3
HCA and SSA celebrate Social Worker Month - Page 4
2006 Gerald A. Wagner Award
presented - Page 4
HCA volunteers receive recognition from BOS - Page 5
Horton urges pandemic influenza preparedness - Page 6
HCA staff push to complete NIMS -
Page 6
May Health Observances - Page 6
In celebration of Public Health Week from April 3-9, a kick-off event was held at the outside patio area at HCA's 17th Street Clinic on April 3 to highlight the programs within Public Health and to honor the efforts of HCA public health professionals who protect, promote and enhance the health of Orange County residents.
Speakers at the event included State Health Officer Dr. Mark Horton, Agency Director Julie Poulson, Chief of Public Health Operations David Souleles and Supervisor Chris Norby who presented a Public Health Week resolution to Julie Poulson declaring April 3-9 Public Health Week in Orange County.
Staff who attended the event enjoyed nutritious snacks and received Public Health Week buttons and a pedometer after they pledged to take at least 10,000 steps a day. Managers from each program within Pubic Health also provided information about the services their programs provide and several success stories from the clients they serve.
This year's theme of "Designing Healthy Communities: Raising Healthy Kids," was the focus of additional HCA events including a car seat check-up, childhood injury and safety health fair and a children's "Steps to a Healthier You" activity, which also took place in the community during the week of April 3-9. A display was showcased at the County Hall of Administration which highlighted information about HCA's programs and services.
For more information about National Public Health Week, visit the American Public Health Association's website at www.nphw.org or www.apha.org. HCA's Public Health Week webpage can be found at www.ochealthinfo.com/public/phweek.
The Agency is pleased to announce the appointment of Jennifer Phillips as HCA's new Chief Information Officer (CIO). Jennifer will be replacing Dennis Masiello, who has announced that he will be retiring.
Jennifer has worked for the past couple of years as the Director of Animal Care Services. Her diverse public administration career includes Principal Financial Analyst with the Orange County Transportation Authority and Assistant to the City Manager with the City of Fullerton.
She brings to her new position strong leadership skills, a wealth of expertise in management and public administration, considerable knowledge of Agency operations, and broad experience in dealing with all levels of Agency and County staff as well as the community.
Jennifer will begin the transition into the Information Technology department in the next two months.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule implementation deadline was three years ago on April 14th. The Security Rule implementation deadline was one year ago on April 20th. So, what have we done to comply with HIPAA? The following are just a few of the efforts we've made over the last few years.
Printed and distributed more than 177,000 Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) documents since 2003. This living document is currently being revised to be more user-friendly and specifically address only those services provided by Orange County at this time.
More than 60 HIPAA training sessions have been provided at the County level, with an additional 53 in-service trainings provided to individual HCA programs and managers. New Employee Compliance Training includes a HIPAA Privacy and Security Module and Annual Compliance Training has included a HIPAA training since 2002. These HIPAA elements are also used for annual HIPAA training for all non-HCA HIPAA covered components in Orange County.
HIPAA Annual Self-Assessments have been completed by 334 program sites and 23 program sites have been audited in unannounced HIPAA audits, since 2003. Included in these Assessments and Audits are review of over 500 charts for HIPAA compliant documents and over 1200 staff surveyed or interviewed with regards to their HIPAA knowledge.
HCA/IT Helpdesk has responded to 1,319 requests to move ePHI (Personal Health Information) off hard drives and onto secure shared files, working with program staff to identify who has what level of access to these shared files. IT technical staff have also responded to nearly 300 security incidents, including virus/worm attacks and external environmental mishaps.
Clearly, a tremendous amount of resources have been directed at implementing HIPAA Agency and Countywide. This equates to an informed, engaged and substantially compliant workforce. HCA has done a great job implementing HIPAA and we should all be proud of our efforts. That being said, take a deep breath and roll-up your sleeves because it's not over. Not only do we need to continue to be actively engaged in maintaining our compliance strategies, but HIPAA continues to roll-out new rules with which we must comply. The National Provider Identifier (NPI) Rule's compliance deadline is just one year away and will personally impact most clinicians, as well as HCA billing systems and internal business operations. Not to worry, we're on it!
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
Due to a recent event that required an early payroll submission, a couple of issues came to light. As Payroll staff was hurrying to track down missing timecards, staff discovered several employees' and supervisors' phone numbers listed in VTI were no longer in service. Please take a moment to log into your VTI account, and click the Admin tab. You should find yourself in the My User Profile screen. Verify or correct your phone number that is listed. While you are there, also check to see if your e-mail address is accurate. Both the phone number and e-mail address must belong to you personally. Once you are finished, click Update if any changes were made.
Supervisors, while you are still in the
Admin tab, click the My Acting Roles
link. That will put you in the Acting Role Assignment
screen. When Payroll staff was trying to contact supervisors during
the same event mentioned above, Payroll discovered several supervisors had
other supervisors/managers listed as their
"acting supervisors" that had retired!
Please take a moment to list at least three
supervisors/managers who can approve your staff's timecards in your absence.
Make sure those listed are not at a level lower than your position. They must either be
at or above your current position. Otherwise, you risk your subordinate
supervisor/manager having the ability to self-approve
his or her own timecard! —lan Paton
"When a deep injury is done to us, we never recover
until we forgive.
"
Congratulations to this year's Public Health Week quiz winners! In March's issue of What's Up, we included a true-false quiz where staff could test their knowledge about various public health facts and statistics and submit their answers online.
Three lucky winners were randomly selected among a handful who submitted correct answers. Thank you to all staff who took this year's Public Health Week quiz.
Congratulations to the following winners:
David Kim
Tristen Teasdale
Frank Rodriguez
In recognition of the American Humane Association's "Be Kind to Animals Week," Animal Care Services (ACS) is preparing to host its annual Pet Fair on Saturday, May 20, 2006. Pet Fair 2006 is FREE to attend and will be held at the Orange County Animal Care Center located at 561 The City Drive South in Orange from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This year's "Hooray for Hollywood" theme is sure to highlight all of ACS's famous adoptable dogs, cats, rabbits and exotic animals.
ACS expects to have animal lovers of all kinds: breed
rescue groups, wildlife exhibitors, K-9 demonstrations/performances, and
vendors with the latest in pet care products to pamper your animals.
Explorer Post 538 and the junior volunteer program will be selling hot
dogs, hamburgers and refreshments, and the "New Leash on Life"
volunteer program will have complimentary gift bags for newly adopted animals.
Wonders of Wildlife founder Cherly Rendes and her mascot "Carnita" having a blast at Pet Fair 2005.
Last year, ACS played host to more than 20 vendors, 7,000 visitors, and placed over 55 dogs, cats, puppies, kittens, rabbits and other critters into lifelong homes! Plans are already underway and this year ACS anticipates an even bigger turnout.
Be sure to save the date for Saturday, May 20, 2006. Put your best paw forward and be a part of all the fun and excitement! For more information, contact Rachel Gorman at (714) 935-6301 or by e-mail at rgorman@ochca.com.
Marriane Jacobs and her "Westie" friend from West Highland White Terrier Rescue
were participants at the 2005 ACS Pet Fair.
Food Facility Closures now online
New to Environmental Health's Food Protection Program website at www.ocfoodinfo.com is the ability to view all food facility closures within the last 60 days. The webpage also features a food closure search element and the ability to view violations which closed that particular food facility, as well as when the establishment reopened.
Those who visit the website can also view inspection violation information for their favorite Orange County eateries when searching by name of food facility or by city. This inspection information makes it easier for the public to find out when the last inspection occurred, and which, if any, violations were recorded.
In addition to the new webpage feature, the Food Protection Program has posted the names of 2,088 food facilities throughout Orange County that received Award of Excellence Certificates for 2005. From a qualifying group of almost 9,000 facilities, these Award recipients were recognized for their outstanding food safety and sanitation practices.
The added features to the website will provide the public with greater access to information to help them make more informed decisions about the restaurants they choose to frequent.
HCA's Food Protection Program focuses on the inspection of retail and wholesale food facilities in order to promote the safe and sanitary preparation and service of foods, prevent foodborne illness, and protect consumers from adulterated food products. For more information about the Food Protection Program, call the hotline at (714) 433-600 or visit www.ocfoodinfo.com.
The Health Care Agency and Social Services Agency (SSA) joined March 22nd for a joint celebration of Social Worker Month held at SSA's headquarters building in Santa Ana.
HCA Assistant Director David Riley offers comments during the Social Worker Month reception. Supervisor Chris Norby is shown at right.
Supervisor Chris Norby (Fourth District) attended the event to present resolutions from the Board of Supervisors to HCA Assistant Director David Riley and SSA Chief Deputy Director Alisa Drakodaidis. HCA has approximately 150 social workers serving in Behavioral Health and Public Health Services who help to meet the needs of our diverse clientele every day. Representatives from each service area were selected to represent their colleagues at the Social Worker Month reception. Those chosen to represent HCA were:
Behavioral Health Services
Robin Fontaine
Alcohol & Drug Abuse Services
Ken White
Adult Mental Health Services
Karen Jue
Children and Youth Services
Barbara Rocha
Behavioral Health Central Administration
Public Health Services
Alice Apodaca
Family Health Division
Pedro Carbajal
Disease Control & Epidemiology Division
Elvie Reyes
California Children's Services Division
2006 Gerald A. Wagner Award presented
Congratulations to Nancy Clifton-Hawkins of Clifton-Hawkins and Associates and former Health Educator with HCA's Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health and Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Programs, on receiving the 2006 Gerald A. Wagner Excellence in Health Education Award.
Nancy follows the notion that being a health educator is more than just feeding information to people—a health educator's job is to empower individuals and organizations in the realization of health and organizational goals on their own.
Thus, while working with many local non-profit organizations and hospitals in the development of strategic plans, evaluation tools and protocols or the creation of community benefits program, she brings her clients into the process to help them understand the reasons why they are doing it, how it is implemented and how to share their results with others.
When Nancy worked with HCA from 1995-2001, she taught
people, organizations and communities why they needed to do things to be
healthy, and then gave them the tools to succeed. Her experience in
the Peace Corps helped her to recognize the need to bring
sanitation, nutrition and health education programs to the community
without disrespecting or destroying their cultural belief system.
The Orange County Coalition for Health Educators and Dr. Gerald Wagner presented the 2006 Gerald A. Wagner Excellence in Health Education Award to Nancy Clifton-Hawkins of Clifton-Hawkins and Associates at a luncheon event held at the Kidseum in Santa Ana on April 11. Nancy was acknowledged for demonstrating exceptional commitment to health education and the delivery of health services to the community. Nancy's colleagues and staff from HCA's Health Promotion Division attended the event to offer their congratulations.
Nancy also founded the Orange County Coalition for Health Education to create a forum by which health educators could come together to improve and strategize ways on how to use their skills within HCA and out in the community. She energized Public Health Week and the ideals of health education by founding the Gerald A. Wagner Award.
She is also passionate about promoting breastfeeding within the community. While at HCA, she helped to facilitate the remodeling of the women's restroom at the Agency's 17th Street clinic to accommodate breastfeeding stations for employees needing them.
Nancy currently serves as President of the Orange County Breastfeeding Coalition (OCBC) and is in her third year in the position. Most recently, in this capacity she has led the development of a new five-year scope of work that will integrate a more community-based collaborative approach to achieve specific breastfeeding milestones.
Nancy is dedicated to public health and strongly believes in a community's ability to be empowered to improve their health status.
The Gerald A. Wagner Excellence in Health Education Award was
first established in 2000 by the Orange County Coalition for Health
Educators (OCCHE), and honors Orange County professionals who have
demonstrated excellence in the healthcare field. OCCHE was founded in 1997 to
promote health and provide leadership in order to improve the health of the
community through education, policy, collaboration and consultation.
HCA volunteers receive recognition from BOS
Four HCA volunteers, Nicole Hensley, Zachary Mikelson, Barry Sohl and Diana Van New Kirk were honored by the Orange County Board of Supervisors at the 10th Annual Countywide Volunteer Recognition Awards held this month. The honorees received commemorative plaques and were acknowledged for their significant contributions and dedication in serving as County volunteers.
Nicole Hensley was just 20 years old when she first volunteered to mentor a child who was receiving therapeutic treatment through Providence Community Services, a contract program with HCA's Children and Youth Services (CYS). Nearly six years later, she has served as a Project Together mentor to four additional children and has volunteered more than 1,500 hours.
Zachary Mikelson joined the Bioterrorism Preparedness Program as a health education intern in July 2005 and has contributed more than 225 volunteer hours. During his internship, he worked with staff on the Special Population Needs Assessment for emergency planning. His contributions to the project helped accelerate the data collection process so that special population information was understandable and available to incorporate into several of Orange County's emergency plans.
Barry Sohl is a mentor for Project Together and works with CYS clinical staff to develop effective methods to raise his 9-year old mentee's self-esteem and help him meet his treatment goals. Barry has devoted hundreds of hours, serving as his mentee's friend, tutor and coach. Through Barry's support, his mentee has developed his natural athletic abilities so that he can fully participate in school sports.
When Diana Van New Kirk joined the Animal Care Center Volunteer Program in February 2004, she brought a wealth of experience and tremendous commitment to her volunteer assignment. One of her many contributions includes her dedication to exercising dogs as a volunteer "dog walker." Diana's involvement benefits the animals she works with in many ways, especially by enhancing their chances for a successful adoption.
The volunteer recipients were selected as "Volunteers of the Year" from more than 25,400 individuals who volunteered their time within County agencies/departments during 2005. Last year, volunteers contributed one million hours of service, with total combined efforts resulting in more than $23 million in avoided costs to the County.
Thank you to all of HCA's volunteers. The time and talents you have contributed to the Agency are recognized and appreciated.
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
Phone (714) 834-6644
E-mail: TLandquist@ochca.com
FAX (714) 834-7644
Pony Bldg. 38-S, 4th Floor
State Health Officer Dr. Mark Horton returned to Orange County on April 3rd to urge local leaders to continue their preparations for the possibility of pandemic influenza.
Dr. Horton joined HCA Director Julie Poulson, Orange County Supervisor Lou Correa and representatives from the offices of Supervisors Bill Campbell, Thomas Wilson and Chris Norby in the roundtable discussion of emergency preparedness issues. Also in attendance were representatives of Orange County's health care, business and education communities, as well as Santa Ana Fire Chief Phil Garcia.
In his role as State Health Officer, Dr. Horton has been advising California's leaders on the steps needed to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic. Dr. Horton described those initiatives as falling into several key areas, such as increased influenza surveillance, the stockpiling of anti-viral medications, public information campaigns to urge individual emergency preparedness and increased public health laboratory capabilities. He acknowledged that one of the most difficult issues will be developing surge capacity in California's health care facilities in order to care for the thousands of additional people who would become sick due to pandemic influenza.
The roundtable discussion followed a statewide pandemic influenza summit held March 30th in Los Angeles featuring U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.
Pictured
(left to right) are HCA Acting Health Officer Dr. Hildy Meyers, State Health
Officer Dr. Mark Horton and Agency Director Julie Poulson.
HCA staff push to complete NIMS
As of this month, many HCA employees have already completed the mandatory IS-700 course, "Introduction to the National Incident Management System (NIMS)." As successful completion notices poured in, both by e-mail and FAX, employees may have wondered how this training moves our workforce ahead on the road to even better emergency preparedness.
Government workers at all levels and jurisdictions across America have similarly completed required NIMS courses, in compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-5 that was issued February 28, 2003. Compliance with NIMS by September 2006 is a requirement of continued eligibility to receive federal preparedness funding. It may seem that government workers and government programs are completing the required courses simply to continue their federal funding. However, there is another perspective from which to regard these local, state and national efforts.
NIMS is the federal government's attempt to have all levels of government - local, state and federal - speak the same language, use the same guiding concepts for emergency response and pursue the same preparedness goals and objectives. NIMS is both standardized and flexible in response options and planning. By completing the NIMS course, HCA employees have joined hundreds of thousands of public service workers across the country in this massive, historic training effort. HCA will continue to roll out a series of NIMS courses over the next several months—some to be completed by everyone and some targeting only those with specific readiness-related responsibilities and duties.
"I urge you to meet this challenge with enthusiasm and commitment," said John Van Sky, PhD, Bioterrorism Training Manager. "Complete the NIMS courses, put a family emergency preparedness plan together and be an active member of the HCA Preparedness Team!"
As disaster service workers, county employees can play a key role in helping to keep their communities safe and be well prepared for any disaster, whether naturally occurring or intentional in nature. For more information about NIMS training or the Bioterrorism Preparedness Training Unit, call John Van Sky at (714) 834-6587 or by e-mail at JvanSky@ochca.com.
Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month
Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month
Mental Health Month
National Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month
Older Americans Month
Cover the Uninsured Week 1-7
National SAFE KIDS Week 6-13
Emergency Medical Services Week 14-20
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 18
Recreational Water Illness Prevention Week 22-29
World No Tobacco Day 31
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