I started this blog back in July with the idea that — through real conversation, collaboration and problem-solving — we can continue to meet challenges head-on and uncover the opportunities that will continue to drive UVA Health to new heights.
Here is just a small selection of the ways — both large and small — you've shaped UVA Health through your feedback via this blog, my "Coffee with Colleagues" series, our leadership rounds, questions during system-wide town halls, my Be Heard: Ask Me Anything Forums, We Hear You Wednesdays, institutional surveys, and so much more:
- The Telemedicine Team asked for feedback to help shape Virtual Visit platform offerings. In response, it launched Zoom for Epic in the fall, bringing clinicians and support staff the top features they asked for, such as a virtual waiting room, patient tech support, screen sharing and multi-party visits.
- During a leadership round, frontline nurses asked if it was possible to make controlled substances more readily available on the units so they wouldn't have to leave the bedside multiple times daily to get them from our central pharmacy. With this feedback, the pharmacy operations team rearranged medications in unit Pyxis stations to make room for controlled substance infusions to be delivered by the pharmacy and stored securely.
- Direct feedback from the Scholarship Work Group and RN-to-BSN Program Evaluation Focus Group participants led to expanded eligibility and additional funding for the RN Scholarship program to support team members on their path to achieving their academic progression goals.
- A nurse submitted a request via the Be Heard form on this blog asking that the communicator masks — which have a transparent panel that allows hearing-impaired individuals to read lips — be more broadly available to all team members. As a result of this outreach, units can now easily request communicator masks from Supply Chain through a streamlined ordering process by emailing G Storeroom Orders.
- Our Clinical Nurse Specialist team heard of frontline nurse frustrations with glitchy medical scanners. This team connected with leaders and worked to replace the faulty medical barcode scanners.
There are so many other examples of how your feedback has shaped UVA Health this year, of course — the most prominent being the significant updates to the comprehensive Medical Center total rewards package to make it more market-driven, performance-based and equitable. So let's continue the conversation we've started here on this blog and elsewhere in all our work together in the year ahead. Because, thanks to your feedback, the best is yet to come for UVA Health. Until then, I hope you and your loved ones have a safe and happy holiday.
Take care and be well!
Wendy
PS— Vision and Voice is taking the last week of December 2021 off but will return with a new blog post the first week of January 2022.