Quality Matters Award
See below for archived award recipients
This week’s Quality Matters Award goes to Iwa Clark, Mayra Delgado and Sheila Pitts, all from the Core Laboratory. Iwa, Mayra and Sheila’s dedication and commitment to the community is demonstrated in leading the Department of Pathology on great adventures! For National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week they have inspired the department to donate more than 1,300 cans for a “Canstruction Project.”
The cans of food will be donated to food banks when the competition is over. They are also involved in coordinating a Silent Auction in which the proceeds will benefit the Department of Rehabilitation Therapies. Their leadership actions demonstrate the Core Values and Concepts of the Baldrige National Quality Program. These actions emulate good citizenship by motivating and encouraging other staff to contribute to these creative and commendable projects.
Sue Zaleski, Sue Lewis, Mayra Delgado, Dr. John Kemp, Iwa Clark and Sheila Pitts
(left to right)
This weeks Quality Matters Award goes to Brooke Zittergruen, a mortician in the Department of Pathology. Brooke’s considerate and compassionate actions, along with a team of other health care professionals, helped make a patient and her family's bereavement request possible. Brooke’s genuine and caring acts exemplify “The Iowa Difference – Innovative Care, Excellent Service and Exceptional Outcomes.”
Joe Galbraith, CLS III, Brooke Zittergruen, Hospital Mortian, and Dr. Marcus Nashelsky, Associate Professor and Director of Autopsy Services (left to right)
February 7, 2008
This week’s Quality Matters award goes to Ellen Abusada and Amy Trent – both in the Immunopathology Laboratory. They applied Lean principles to organizing four freezers in their laboratory. They sorted, set in order, shined, standardized (by mapping out the contents in the freezers) and will now be working on sustaining the new processes in which all tissues and other contents have a labeled place to go and all tissues will be discarded on a continual basis. Congratulations to Ellen and Amy for applying a lean process, (the 5 S) in your workplace!
Ellen Abusada and Amy Trent, (left to right) both of the Immunopathology Laboratory and Denise Baird (far right), Accreditation and Compliance Coordinator for Pathology's Quality Assurance.
January 16, 2008
This week's Quality Matters award goes to Julie Happel and Stacy Uhde – both in UIDL (University of Iowa Diagnostics Laboratories)
They discovered that “RECUTS” for Research were being priced in the system inconsistently. Their discovery generated some additional revenue for the UIDL and ensured that the quality assurance in UIDL was addressed appropriately.
 
Dr. John Kemp,
Director of Clinical Laboratories presents the Quality Matters Award to
Julie Happel, Program Assistant - Clinical Research Coordinator (left photo)
and Stacy Udhe, Informatics Specialist, (right photo).
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January 13, 2008
This week’s “Quality Matters” award goes to Tim Gehris, Lead Scientist in the TCT (Tissue and Cellular Therapy) area of DeGowin Blood Center for his suggestion to bundle packages of skin, in specific and pre-measured amounts, in order to decrease the time needed to find and package the skin for the OR, thereby decreasing the likelihood of it thawing before use in the OR.
Dr. John Kemp, Director of Clinical Laboratories,
Christy Hillberry, Tissue Bank Quality Assurance Coordinator,
Tim Gehris, Lead Scientist and award recipient
December 23, 2007
The next “Quality Matters” awards go to Deb Jacobsmeier, Chad Hoffman (both Cytotechnologists) and Kent Becker (Program Associate in Anatomic Pathology for Operational Quality Assurance). The award is to recognize their process improvement for “Ensuring Communication of Diagnoses and Improving the Lab’s Process for Follow-up Notification”. All three performed a thorough investigation after a significant data transmission variance occurred. They devised and implemented a new key indicator to address data transmission and revised the procedure for Correlation/Follow-up Studies for High Grade PAPS.
 
| From left: Chad Hoffman and Deb Jacobsmeier, both cytotechnologists and
Chris Jensen, MD |
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Kent Becker, Program Associate from Anatomic Pathology and Judy Elleson, Assistant Director |
December 16, 2007
The first “Quality Matters” award goes to Karin Olson, Program Associate I (Operational Quality Assurance), Clinical Pathology for coming into work on her day off to meet with the Joint Commission surveyors to discuss critical value reporting. To make a complicated situation even more difficult, she parked in her assigned parking lot and received a ticket for “improper display of the hangtag”!!
Pictured above: Chris James, Ancillary Services Coordinator, Quality Assurance
and award recipient, Karin Olsen, Operational Quality Assurance
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