One Future Together

provide the appropriate support for laboratory medicine and pathology.

Long overdue that clin/med labs get a modern centralized space.

As UVA expands into a real health system with a network of community hospitals and the opportunity for seamless transfer of patients throughout the network for optimal care, coordinated care will require centralized diagnostic services (imaging, laboratory, pathology). This will lower barriers to transfer of data across the system, assure uniformity of results and ensure high quality diagnostic results.

COVID19 has highlighted the fact that we must prioritize our laboratories. The ever-increasing complexity of testing & specimen volume has put tremendous strain on our anatomic and clinical pathology laboratories, & we must allocate funds to resource and staff them robustly. There is a national shortage of laboratory techs and pathologists so we must offer competitive salaries for these positions if we are to offer timely, accurate, & cutting-edge diagnostic services. We need particular support for the molecular labs so that we can expand our molecular assay offerings to provide a personalized approach to cancer care, particularly given our Cancer Center's prestigious new designation.

In these challenging, changing times seeking ways to adjust to the change is important. Patient care revolving around Mind, Body and Spirit is imperative. Thoughts: Seeking ways to allow patients and staff to interact with nature daily, healthy food selections available 24/7 (pizza is not what I consider a 24/7 healthy food selection), finding ways to incorporate FEAP programs on the patient care units (it is next to impossible for clinical staff in patient areas to leave their work area to go to a program). If each Clinical area had a concierge to help patients and staff navigate issues that arise (grief, anxiety, loss, personal issues, parking, communications, listening, connecting.

I have been sharing positive patient comments with our ED team for several months. The responses I receive from the team: "thanks," "it is my favorite part of the week," "I really appreciate how you support us" make sending this weekly email one of the favorite parts of my job. Our team members work so hard, and are so dedicated to their patients, I thoroughly enjoy sharing with them how they improve their patients' experiences, and how their patients appreciate them. I would love to see something like this roll out to all departments so that all team members see the positive impact they have on their patients.

Some of the best programs that I saw during my time working for UVA Health were those that focused on follow-up and post-discharge care for patients, and I think that it's an area where small steps can have immense impacts on both patient outcomes and reduced costs. Examples: helping patients make follow-up appointments before they are discharged or leave an appointment--even if those future appointments are with different providers, follow-up phone calls to check on patients, increased supervision of outpatient medications by pharmacists, and increased contact with social workers to identify outside factors potentially impacting care before they result in patient harm.

Our culture must be driven by trust, honesty, openness, and inclusion.

From “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” : “focus on efficiency often causes a strain on relationships rather than building relationships, because with people slow is fast and fast is slow. You can be efficient with things but not with people”

Utilize online coding/billing tools to increase physicians and billers efficiency in selecting CPT code(s) for billing and reduce carbon footprint by subsequently purchasing less copies of hardcopy resources.