The IOWA affords supervisors and co-workers the opportunity to recognize staff for a variety of efforts that have had positive results in their workplace. Nominations are taken twice a year.
A spring reception is held to acknowledge both fall and spring winners and their nominators.
Fall 2008 Awardees
Individual :: Team
Individual Winners (alphabetical order)
Linda Birkhofer, College of Medicine Administration, facilitated an initiative to create interdisciplinary learning opportunities for students from medicine, pharmacy, nursing, social work, nutrition and public health engaging 147 faculty facilitators in the Clinical Beginnings course. Nominated by Gerald Wickham.
Jill Carroll, Department of Social Services, took the opportunity during her performance appraisal to set a goal of initiating a mentoring program for new staff. To date, 14 new staff have been matched with mentors resulting in satisfaction for both parties. Nominated by Tara Clark.
Jon Maakestad, Pathology, ensures through his personal time that 375 families will find food at the North Liberty Food Bank. He engages his co-workers in a variety of continuous opportunities to donate to help provide over 8000 lbs of food. Nominated by Sue Lewis.
Theresa Ortner, Pathology, provides health care policy information to her co-workers through presentations, continuing education sessions, and bulletin boards so that staff may understand and support legislation that effect patient care and laboratory medicine. Nominated by Sue Zaleski.
Team Winners (alphabetical order)
Biosciences Admission Application Team created a common we-based application for 14 graduate training programs that provides to students a way to check the status of their application and to faculty and staff the capability to view files in real time and run reports. Nominated by Andrew Russo.
Ryan Potter -- Medicine Administration
Jodi Graff -- Medicine Administration - Biosciences Program
William (Jim) Weaver -- Health Care Information Services
Duane Staskal -- Health Care Information Services
Cancer Clinic Waiting Room—Patient feedback indicated a need for an upgrade. Staff accessed Project Art work, rearranged the furniture, provided puzzles and cards and are planning a humor corner. Smiling and occupied people are enjoying this friendlier space. Nominated by Jane Utech.
Rachel Wade -- Nursing - Cancer Clinic
Beth Schubert -- Nursing - Cancer Clinic
Alicia Dusenberry -- Nursing - Cancer Clinic
Jane Utech -- Nursing - Cancer Clinic
Brooke Hammond -- Nursing - Cancer Clinic
Central Line Placement Team—In 3 meetings, this small multi-professional group devised a protocol so that patients have one less patient visit through the use of an RN phone screening and preparation and prompt scheduling. Nominated by Bonnie Wagner.
Sandra Roberts -- Surgery Specialty Clinic
Karen Dillon -- Department of Surgery
Connie Beachy -- UI Heart and Vascular Center
Jane Utech -- Nursing - Cancer Clinic
Frank Eischens -- UI Heart and Vascular Center
Duplicate Check and Merge Team devised a rule engine that determines if a match already exists or that the record just inputted should be reviewed or that a new record should be made. This improvement has engendered additional uses including the development of processes that feed information in the prospecting system easily. Nominated by Ed Hill and Karen Knight.
Ken Nickels -- ITS - Admin Information Systems
Jay Paulsen -- ITS - Admissions
Steve Jaeger -- ITS - Admin Information Systems
Inpatient Standards of Excellence—Six multidisciplinary specialty groups developed 14 standards with goals, tactics and measures to improve patient and family experience at UIHC inpatient units. Current implementations include: communication white boards in every patient room, hourly nursing rounds, formal leadership rounding, scripting and the use of Universal Tactics. Nominated by Joelle Jensen.
Steven Nelson -- Pharmacy
Diana Lundell -- Joint Office for Marketing and Communications
Vicki Ibarra -- CQSPI
Joelle Jensen -- Nursing MSS Division
Jay Cayner -- UIHC Administration
Rebecca O'Rourke -- UIHC Administration
Kim Chamberlin -- Nursing
Randall Aitchison -- CQSPI
Scott Wilson -- Internal Medicine
ITC Print Accounting Team – When faced with the need to replace an ITC print service, this team introduced print release stations that allow you to confirm a job (including a delete function that saves 600,000 pages a year) and offer printing from anywhere service supported by a convenient billing system. Nominated by Timothy VanFosson.
Jamie Matthews -- College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Administration
Jeff Reuter -- College of Business-Stead Technology Service Group
Jayne Keiser -- Finance & Operations, Purchasing
Susan Beckett -- COE_Engineering Computer Network
Apryl Betts -- College of Law-Information Technology
William Bacher -- ITS - Systems & Platform Administration
Feather Lacy -- ITS-Campus Technology Services
Marianne Holton -- ITS-Campus Technology Services
Ryan Lenger -- ITS-Campus Technology Services
Timothy VanFosson -- ITS-Campus Technology Services
Les Neu -- ITS-Campus Technology Services
Bradley Gunnells -- ITS-Campus Technology Services
Scott Leeman -- ITS-Campus Technology Services
WIT (Workplace Improvement Team). Technical Network Services of ITS had employee feedback from a 2007 survey that pointed to several areas of concern regarding understanding departmental finances, training, employee perspective of management, and employee perspective of self. The WIT (with rotating staff participation) took the lead on a number of initiatives towards improving the above—from brown-bag lunches to regular employee-supervisor meetings to participating in leadership training. The TNS workplace climate has dramatically improved supported by the departmental "communication creed". Nominated by Mark Katsouros.
Thayne Lowman -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Jo Josephson -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Nancy Grout -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Wendy Wortman -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Jerry Lamb -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Robert Davis -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Wayne Guyer -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Barry Priest -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Joyce Craig -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Paul Garcia -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Chris Hatland -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Andy Millson -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Gil Perez -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Rich Adams -- ITS-Telecom & Network Services
Spring 2008 Awardees
Individual :: Team
Individual Winners (alphabetical order)
Ralph Daniello, Oral Surgery in College of Dentistry, uses his love of photography to enhance the learning experience by providing intraoral photos for educational PowerPoint presentations and to post illustrative photos of new techniques in the 15 operatories. To enhance the patient experience, Ralph has donated his photos of nature for viewing in the waiting room and provides photos of faculty and staff to help patients connect names and faces of staff. Nominated by Kiera Templeton.
Levi deVries, Food and Nutrition Services of UIHC, spearheaded the development of an electronic education/compliance system of 30 courses for 400+ staff in 6 months. Now, Levi is expanding the system to include training in topics that support patient/customer satisfaction. Nominated by Joan Dolezal.
Judy Elleson, Administration of Pathology, lead this unit in developing a stronger internal customer service focus by providing opportunities to build a more cohesive unit and find ways to provide service to the rest of Pathology staff. Nominated by Deb Greene, Sue Dane and Norma Ward.
Robin Paetzold, Office of Student Affairs in College of Medicine, provides an ever expanding list of opportunities for medical students to have international experiences in safe, high quality clinical environments by using her faculty and staff contacts across campus. The success of this program entices students who are altruistic, self-reflective and service-oriented to apply to the Carver College of Medicine. Nominated by Cathy Solow.
Deb Strabala, Clinical Staff Office of UIHC Administration, established a process to quickly add definitional statements updates of practices included in each of the UIHC clinical departments. This process began with a systematic review and rewrite of each definitional statement to reflect current practice to the satisfaction of department chairs, the respective Medical/Surgical Panel and finally, UHAC –all within a 2 week timeframe. Nominated by Cynthia Geyer.
Team Winners (alphabetical order)
E-suggestion box. Communication between Respiratory Care staff who are located throughout UIHC has been fragmented. With the development of an electronic suggestion system, staff ideas have provided positive changes (an 82% implementation rate) that include: pagers for staff to contact supervisors immediately, a mechanism to view staff assignments remotely, linking new policies and patient care protocols on the intranet, etc. Nominated by Donna Muller.
Twila Martin -- Respiratory Care
Lu Wilford -- Respiratory Care
Frances Cramer -- Respiratory Care
Lint Reduction—To reduce lint accumulation, fire risk, and labor costs of lint removal at UI Laundry, Mike Reynolds and Bob Sulzer initiated an internet search for inexpensive lint filtering units. They found four with a total savings of $21,000 less than estimated cost, inspected and installed them. An annual operational savings of $31,000 is expected. Nominated by David Gray.
Mike Reynolds -- Maintenance Area 2, Facilities Management
Bob Sulzer -- Maintenance Area 2, Facilities Management
Pediatric Hand Hygiene Project—Getting caregivers and consumers to complete hand hygiene takes lots of ingenuity. Using FROGS as a reminder to include Fun, Re-education, On-going monitoring, Great outcomes, and Sustaining the gain in the program has produced in different areas from 71-100% compliance. Ongoing feedback and prizes sustain the habit of caregiver hand hygiene compliance. Their role modeling will support Phase 2 which focuses on children and family members. Nominated by Gwen Senio.
Tami Barrett -- Children’s Hospital
Deb Bruene -- Children’s Hospital
Darla Carter -- Children’s Hospital
Sherry David -- CQSPI, Epidemiology
Eric Endahl -- Respiratory Care
Ellen Eulberg -- Children’s Hospital
Fred Goldman -- Pediatrics
Linda K Johnson -- Children’s Hospital
Suz Kaprich -- Children’s Hospital
Traci Kinnick -- Children’s Hospital
Maria Lofgren -- Children’s Hospital
Angela Otto -- Children’s Hospital
Doug Robertson -- Food and Nutrition Services
Gwen Senio -- Children’s Hospital/Child Life
Stephanie Stewart -- Children’s Hospital
Jennifer Striegel -- Children’s Hospital
Jeff VandeBerg -- CQSPI
Eric Vigil -- Children’s Hospital
Cynthia Waters -- Children’s Hospital
Michelle Zilisch -- Children’s Hospital
Kelli Zimmerman -- Radiology
Staff Reward and Recognition Workgroup—Responding to the Staff Engagement survey results that reflected a lack of staff appreciation and recognition, volunteers from the Core Laboratory first “created a perfect state”(using a process improvement model), then began implementing the practical, low-cost ideas including co-worker Kudos Board with candy bar drawing monthly, themed potlucks to explore staff diversity, and a celebration when staff achieve professional certification of ASCP with a “pinning ceremony”. Nominated by Sue Zaleski.
Sheila Pitts -- Pathology
Iwa Clark -- Pathology
Candice Galvan -- Pathology
Rachel Kobernusz -- Pathology
Julie Kruger -- Pathology
Lu Ann Robinson -- Pathology
Vicki Siefers -- Pathology
Linda McDonald -- Pathology
Dawn Striegel -- Pathology
Training, Resource and Action Committee (TRAC)— Results of the hospital-wide staff survey in April, 2006 noted deficits in employee training. A multi-laboratory workgroup stepped up to create an employee orientation and training process that embraced Baldrige’s every, every, every system—every person would receive the same standardized approach every deployment and learning and improvement documentation would be captured every time. This process includes: a shared notebook for the trainer and the trainee mapping out the entire training process, a Daily Training feedback e-document to give daily feedback, weekly team meetings to review progress and make adjustments to individual needs, competency assessment and independent benchwork. Not only are new employees given clear expectations, they are given the support to be successful quickly. Nominated by Sue Zaleski.
Cherri Doud -- Pathology
Deb Faught -- Pathology
Denny Drees -- Pathology
Cory Morris -- Pathology
Diane Poch -- Pathology
Stephanie Kneeskern -- Pathology
UIHC Patient and Visitor Communication—Providing descriptions of services at UIHC that support the patient and visitor experience in an accessible way brought this team to developing 8 rack cards and choosing 7 existing brochures. Originally displayed on 14 racks in inpatient and outpatient locations, the 17,000 cards are now seen throughout the hospital and are included in welcome packages for new admissions. Nominated by Marty Shafer.
Tim Gaillard -- UIHC Administration
Robin Hennes -- Guest Services
Sharon Artman -- Concierge Services
Shelly Maharry -- Patient Representative
Mindy Egeland -- Patients’ Library
Adrienne Drapkin -- Project Art
Jane Zukin -- Joint Office Marketing and Communications
Tami Barrett -- Children’s Hospital
The Improving Our Workplace Award is a partnership of Organizational Effectiveness, Staff Council and University of Iowa Community Credit Union.
Questions? Email nancy-noyer@uiowa.edu or call 335-0560.