Tomorrow is Juneteenth and has now officially been designated a federal holiday, the date marketing the end of slavery in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation officially went into effect on January 1, 1863. But, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce the end of the Civil War that those enslaved in Texas learned of their freedom.
Topics: Special Holiday Message, Juneteenth
"I never thought an EVS employee could be up on that award wall, much less me.”
Irene Salazar had an established career as a cosmetologist when she put it on hold to care for her husband when he had a stroke. She was his caregiver until he was well enough to return to work. But instead of returning to her former career, she joined the environmental services team as a housekeeper at West Valley Medical Center in Caldwell, Idaho.
Since assuming this new role two years ago, she’s come to love it for many of the same reasons she enjoyed her previous work: people.
“I have a service-oriented heart,” says Irene, an active church member who tries to model her Christian faith. “It’s not just housekeeping. It’s not just a job. It just blesses me that I get to go around and say, ‘Good morning. Good morning. How are you?’ I get to bring love and joy to people, and they delight in it.”
From the start, Irene noticed the lobby wall that held photos of West Valley colleagues recognized for demonstrating a commitment to a positive workplace culture. She imagined her own photo on the wall. Now her dream has come true.
A physician nominated Irene for the We Are West Valley award after witnessing her assist a patient with their shoes one day. Five other colleagues had also nominated Irene for the quarterly recognition. The hospital reviews all quarterly honorees, then selects an annual winner. This year, it was Irene.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked. I have never gotten recognition like this — ever,” she says. “When I started on the night shift, I cleaned the lobby first and when I would dust the award wall, I would pray and say, ‘Lord, I know an EVS (colleague) can do it.’”
Her supervisor, Carlos Vazquez, says, “When I first met Irene, she was that type of person who made you feel like your mom was there. She was able to jump in and take care of everything and we have seen that continue to blossom. She rises to the occasion every single day.”
Carlos Vazquez, director of Environmental Services, Irene Salazar, award winner and Housekeeper
Irene says the most rewarding aspect of her job is when she gets to interact with patients in their rooms.
“They ask me to pray with them. They want hugs or just to be listened to. During COVID-19, they couldn’t have visitors, so they were so happy to see me,” she says. “Even on my lunch break, I would go back and visit with them because they were really missing family. Here at West Valley, we always say ‘Care like family.’ For me, that’s the highlight of my day, to see patients. Honestly, that’s why I’m here. I love it.”
Carlos says that Irene’s warmth and dedication is in demand throughout the hospital.
“Throughout COVID-19 she is one of those people who has kept things together for our team. Oftentimes, people come and praise our team for her efforts. She was helping out in the ICU recently and the nurses and physicians said they loved her and wanted her moved to their area,” says Carlos. “Irene is assigned to the behavioral health unit and checks all public areas such as restrooms and lobbies, but she is so invested we don’t even classify that as ‘her area’ ― the whole hospital is her area.”
“She would frequently sit and pray with COVID-19 patients who were in MICU or med/surg before they went on the ventilator. She had that opportunity to be with those patients and often comforted them before they went back or they were alone.”
An additional unexpected outcome of her career switch came in the form of emotional healing. The heavy burden of caring for her ill husband and the loss of her job as a cosmetologist were very difficult, and Irene found herself struggling with depression. When she began working at West Valley two years ago, she was assigned to the hospital’s mental health unit where she at first felt challenged, but where she soon found a sense of support.
“It was the hardest thing for me to see – but I had to. I couldn’t let it become my crutch,” she says. “I’m actually finding the freedom to speak about my depression because I was embarrassed about it. But I’m overcoming that.”
Irene also tries to inspire her fellow colleagues through leading by example.
“I always tell them, look for the opportunities that you’re missing. It’s not just a job,” she says. “I’m a housekeeper, but I understand how important it is that everything is clean and sanitized for patients. I really tell them how much it means to me that I get to clean their rooms.”
Topics: HCA Healthcare
“Our care teams made Olympic efforts throughout the pandemic,” says Tim Miller, president of HCA Healthcare’s urgent care services, which include 157 clinics and 2,000+ colleagues in 10 states. “Our CareNow clinics went through the H1N1 swine flu in 2009, which led to patients swamping our clinics, with lines out the door. But that is not what happened last March. Many people stayed home with minor symptoms and sheltered in place.”
Tim recalls urgent care reaching the lowest point of patients being seen on April 9, 2020. “We were averaging 16 patients a day. It was a substantial drop.” Instead of laying off or furloughing colleagues like other healthcare systems, HCA Healthcare implemented a pandemic pay program which guaranteed that full and part-time colleagues in clinical and non-clinical support services who could not be redeployed to other facilities would continue to receive 70% of their base
pay if they were not scheduled for their full shifts. In 2020, this program has helped more than 127,000 members of our HCA Healthcare family continue to support themselves and their families.
“The way that HCA Healthcare handled the pandemic was so different – really taking care of and protecting employees. It was such an impactful message for anyone working for HCA Healthcare,” says Jaime Bailey, area practice manager for Charleston, South Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida, in the South Atlantic Division.
But by the summer of 2020, patients were presenting to our CareNow clinics in large numbers. “Last July our patient volume spiked by 70% — a lot of that was driven by COVID-19 testing and it kept going up. The surge was beyond anything I’ve seen in close to 30 years in urgent care,” recalls Tim. “We were able to adapt quickly. Urgent care is always there for patients whether it is allergies, physicals or the flu. Urgent care is convenient so someone can see a provider quickly. What we needed last spring was a way to respond to the massive demand for COVID testing. Our teams had to respond and get creative to find other lab partners, so we could give patients what they needed when they needed it.”
“Thanks to a collaboration with our divisions, HealthTrust and the lab service line, we were eventually able to obtain the rapid test in our clinics, and we were one of the first clinics in the country to do it,” says Tim. As of December 2020, HCA Healthcare urgent care clinics cared for more than 2 million patients and performed more than 706,000 COVID-19 tests.
“We leveraged a really great idea by our operations team to do curbside swabbing for COVID testing on the hour, which kept it really efficient for staff. Our team shared their viewpoints and thoughts because they know they are valued, and we were able to better serve our patients because of it,” says Jaime.
“Also, urgent care services had the technology built for web check-ins – but we needed to set thresholds to manage the volume of testing. We engaged with our developers in HCA Healthcare’s Information Technology Group (ITG) and within a matter of days they were able to set controls at the market and clinic level. This allowed us to effectively manage the work flow and available testing supplies,” says Tim. In 2020, 840,000 patients used web check-in at our CareNow clinics. More than 1.7 million people visited the COVID testing page on CareNow.com in 2020.
Tiffany Ridley, director of urgent care operations for the Gulf Coast Division, says the web check-ins also helped our teams manage social distancing.
“Since Houston was one of the hot spots early on in April and May, HCA Healthcare teams were mobilized to support us,” Tiffany said. “Colleagues across the country in Denver or Dallas were picking up phone calls from patients or helping us with web check-in. I have tears in my eyes thinking about the incredible support we received.” But across the Gulf Coast Division’s 19 locations, they still had people lining up before clinics opened each morning throughout the summer. “Between 15 and 30 people would be waiting ꟷ just wanting to come in. Our urgent care team developed a QR code for patients to scan so they could register, and we would get them in every 15 minutes. It also allowed people to come back for testing and that worked very well.”
“We didn’t have virtual care before COVID in our clinics, but we were able to stand up telehealth in all of our clinics within a week or two thanks to our collaboration with ITG. A lot of patients wanted to come in to be tested for COVID-19 but for those who couldn’t get in due to capacity, or they were afraid — we could still help those patients in their time of need,” said Tim.
“We did a soft launch one weekend in Charleston to prepare for adding telehealth and went live the following week,” said Jaime. “Now in 2021, we still see 20-30% of our patients through telehealth. I believe it will help us reach even more patients, long beyond the pandemic.”
As of December 2020, HCA Healthcare’s telehealth utilization increased 485% from previous years, with 1.23 million telehealth encounters in 2020. HCA Healthcare added 3,000 additional hospital-based telehealth services and supported an additional 6,000+ providers through our telehealth services and network to meet the demands from social distancing and quarantine mandates.
In 2020, HCA Healthcare also distributed nearly 1.2 billion pieces of PPE. This includes 5.7 million N95 masks, 1 billion pairs of gloves, 55 million masks and 1.1 million face shields.
“Our staff was fully protected thanks to HealthTrust and our supply chain sourcing so quickly,” says Tim.
“From gowns, gloves, masks ꟷ it was incredible to be able to have everything for the team and to be able to encourage universal masking without worrying about supplies,” says Jaime.
Tiffany says the resiliency of the Gulf Coast Division CareNow team was astounding. “The staff were amazing as they managed extremely high-stress levels. There were a lot of support conversations. HR was providing resources for mental health. We pulled staff from other clinics, PSG and division teams so we had an additional team member to support if someone was out. There was a lot of intrinsic motivation,” she said. “During our team huddles, we would ask, ‘Are you guys OK? We know it is stressful. What do you need?’”
“We have opened up COVID vaccination appointments now for patients, and we are so grateful for our hospital partners. They were willing to teach us their best practices to offer the vaccine to the community. They show us what works, how they run scheduling, and it’s been a tremendous help,” says Jaime.
Looking towards the future, Tiffany said, “Now it’s time to get back to basics. The pandemic put a wrench in everything — it was all COVID. So now that we have normalized COVID processes, we can do orientations and ongoing training with new staff on what to do when you see a patient who comes in with strep or a bicycle injury. We’ve also developed partnerships with radiology schools for our medical assistants to get X-ray trained. We have pathways for our colleagues to learn, develop and pursue leadership opportunities.”
“It is hard to put in words just how proud I am to have been able to serve the community and see all of our colleagues step up and thrive in taking care of patients and each other. We were close before the pandemic and now there is an unbelievable bond,” says Jaime.
Topics: Healthcare, HCA Healthcare
The May 2021 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Hiring Situation Report showed moderate job gains last month, recording a job growth of 559,000 jobs. The smaller gains are reportedly a result of ongoing labor shortages as the economy reopens. The unemployment rate edged down from 6.1% in April to 5.8% in May, it's lowest since the pandemic shuttered businesses in March 2020. According to the U.S. Labor Department, job openings reached a record level of 8.1 million at the end of March, reflecting a widening labor shortage.
In May 22,500 new jobs were gained within healthcare, primarily within ambulatory care settings (22.5K). Hospital payrolls grew by 2,900 and nursing and residential care facilities lost 2,400 jobs last month. The unemployment rate for healthcare stands at 3.1% and at 2.2% within hospitals. Compared with February 2020, healthcare employment is down by 508,000.
Topics: Jobs Report
There are so many wonderful reasons to pursue a career in healthcare — improving lives, helping people through difficult times, witnessing life’s big milestones or working towards a cure for cancer, to name a few. But many of our colleagues were moved to join the field after they themselves were helped through a health crisis by care teams who were truly dedicated. In their most difficult moments, these colleagues learned firsthand the power of caring like family. And it’s their experience as patients that enables them to bring compassion and empathy to their roles every day. Meet three HCA Healthcare colleagues who were called to care.
Natalie, Patient Safety Screener (Timpanogos Regional Hospital)
Natalie Ficklin-Holliday received life-saving care at HCA Healthcare’s Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah. In the wake of a weight loss surgery by a non-HCA Healthcare provider, Natalie experienced severe complications that prevented her from eating. In the six months after the surgery, she lost 120 lbs., and her strength and health deteriorated.
Natalie began suffering from seizures and was rushed to Timpanogos Regional Hospital. Her condition worsened as she went into cardiac arrest five times. But her care team at the hospital resuscitated and cared for her through the night for 14 hours. They saved her life.
“They fight for you at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. They wouldn’t let me die,” Natalie said.
She remained in the cardiac ICU where the surgical cardiac team used cutting-edge, 3D imaging technology to identify and repair three complications from her earlier weight loss surgery.
“They cared for me as a human being rather than a patient room number. I felt safe in a very scary time, and I was taken care of emotionally as well as medically,” Natalie said. This care she received inspired her to want to give the same attention to other patients.
“I got another chance at life – a chance to do better and serve people the way I had been served. I asked myself what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I decided I wanted to work at Timpanogos Regional Hospital,” Natalie said. “In fact, it was the only place I wanted to be, and those were the only people I wanted to work with.”
After a year of recovering at home, Natalie realized her dream and became a patient safety screener at the hospital. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as a frontline COVID-19 screener, delivering compassion along with COVID-19 tests. She continues to screen patients today, thoughtfully greeting and interacting with every colleague, patient and community member who enters the hospital.
Megan, Patient Care Navigator (Blake Medical Center)
At HCA Healthcare’s Blake Medical Center, Megan Hawkins helps burn patients as a patient care navigator. She understands what they’re going through because at two years old, she was injured during a house fire. Her father was injured as well, with up to 40% of his body affected by burns.
What she went through with her father led her to a career in healthcare at HCA Healthcare’s Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Florida, where she started as a bedside nurse.
“I have had patients in the past where, in a moment where they are having a rough day or a rough time, I think that’s an important thing to say to them, I have been through this. My family has been through this. You will get through this too. Just kind of giving them that outlook that life will get normal again. It will take you working really hard and us working with you, but we are here for you and you will get through it,” she told Fox News 13 during Burn Awareness Week.
Megan is now a patient care navigator at Blake Medical Center, which is one of only six burn centers in the state. She also takes her work beyond its walls, spreading awareness to the public about burn injuries and how to avoid them.
Henry, Patient Safety Screener (North Florida Regional Medical Center)
In April 2020, North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida, discharged its first COVID-19 patient, Henry James. Henry experienced a miraculous recovery after a month in the hospital’s ICU — so miraculous that his care team came to know him as the “Amazing Henry.” And to him, they were his “guardian angels.”
“When I was out here in March I got introduced to some fabulous angels,” said Henry. “I love these nurses… they are my angels.”
Since his recovery, Henry returned to visit his angels in the ICU frequently. And despite the pandemic making this a challenging time to be in healthcare, Henry decided to apply to join the North Florida Regional Medical Center community.
This spring — almost a year to the day of being admitted to North Florida Regional Medical Center as its first COVID-19 patient — Henry officially joined the team where he works several days a week as a patient safety screener. As a screener, Henry provides a friendly face at hospital entrances and helps to screen entrants for infectious diseases and respiratory illnesses with a verbal and temperature assessments.
Before and after each shift at the hospital, Henry makes sure to visit his guardian angels in the ICU.
“I don’t feel comfortable not coming back to thank them and show them that I appreciate what they did… I love them dearly,” Henry said. “It’s very exciting to come back and to give back.”
“To me, he was my angel,” said Carrie Browning, an intensive care unit nurse who took care of Henry at North Florida Regional Medical Center. “I think that patients like him show us what we do day in and day out, and they don’t realize the impact they have on our lives.”
Henry, Natalie and Megan represent the many HCA Healthcare colleagues who were “called to care” because of their own positive patient experiences. And who knows? The care they now provide may someday inspire a patient of their own to follow in their footsteps.
If you're interested in joining the HealthTrust Workforce Solutions team and working at many outstanding HCA Healthcare-affiliated facilities, click here.
Topics: Healthcare
Happy National Healthcare Recruiter Recognition Day! In 1991, Congress declared the first Tuesday in June to be National Healthcare Recruiter Recognition Day — celebrated on Tuesday, June 1st this year.
HealthTrust Workforce Solutions is thankful for the incredible dedication and hard work demonstrated by all of our talented healthcare recruiters who work diligently to find the best clinicians and interim leaders for healthcare facilities across the nation. Through the perseverance of our healthcare recruiters, especially throughout COVID-19, HealthTrust Workforce Solutions has been able to effectively enhance patient care.
Topics: Healthcare, Nursing, Healthcare Recruitment
HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers and parent company to HealthTrust Workforce Solutions, and Google Cloud today announced a multi-year strategic partnership that plans to build on HCA Healthcare’s innovative use of information technology to accelerate the digital transformation taking place within the company.
Topics: Healthcare
HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers and parent company to HealthTrust Workforce Solutions, announced that the HCA Healthcare Foundation has established a $50 million community impact fund designed to support innovative initiatives focused on addressing high-priority community needs and health equity. Called the Healthier Tomorrow Fund, the positive impact fund will initially provide grants to nonprofit organizations in 25 communities where HCA Healthcare has a presence, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Palm Beach, Tampa, Tallahassee, Orlando, Kansas City, Denver, Austin, San Antonio and Asheville, with plans to expand to additional markets.
Congratulations to Aaron Hicks, RN, on earning a DAISY Award!
Aaron was nominated by a patient at the Medical Center of Aurora for his outstanding kindness and ability to create an atmosphere that was relaxed and comfortable. Read the full nomination below:
Topics: Nurse Appreciation, Healthcare, HealthTrust, Nurse Recognition, DAISY Award
