Hospital Newspaper - NE May/June 2017
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Putting the Heart in Kidney Transplants
Getting a new kidney can take years but with Nightingale honoree CJ Zenzick by their sides, patients are often filled with hope and comfort during the duration of their time on what can feel like a seemingly unmovable waiting list. As an Enfield resident and Connecticut native, Zenzick has spent the past 16 years of his life ensuring that long-term kidney patients at Hartford Hospital are ready for their new organs when the day arrives. “It’s not like you break your ankle and the nurse takes care of you once and never sees you again,” Zenzick said. “We see patients multiple times through the year and develop relationships with them. It’s satisfying because you know their families, their kids and you know them.” While waiting is the name of the game with more than 360 people on the transplant list and only 63 kidneys transplanted last year, Zenzick said those successful outcomes make his job worth it, even through all the extra hours. With only three coordinators, Zenzick and his colleagues pull some long hours regularly, with a cell phone strapped to their hips 24/7, on the off-chance a kidney becomes available. Because when an organ is ready to be transplanted, Zenzick has only hours to make it happen.
Tracking patients down is an artful race against the clock because not everyone has a cell phone or answers it regularly. Zenzick has been known to call neighbors, grocery stores and even the police on occasion so his patients don’t miss their shot at a new organ. “I had just seen one of my patients; he’d been on the list for four years by that point so I knew his family and I knew where he worked. We went over everything, none of his contact numbers had changed. Ten days later, I got a call at midnight. Two kidneys came in and he was up,” Zenzick recalled. “I called him; voice mail. I called his wife; voice mail, his son; voice mail. Thinking back on our conversation, I figured he worked all day, shut his phone off and gone to bed. So I called the police and explained the situation. They dropped by and woke him up and got him to the hospital. And sure enough, he got his kidney.” Zenzick is also involved in the Living Donor Champion program at Hartford HealthCare. Finding a living donor can be difficult as the donation requires someone to give not only their kidney, but the time and hardship of surgery and recovery. This program coordinates relatives and friends with transplant hopefuls. The loved ones go out into their commu-
nities, their local churches and neighborhoods or social media networks and work to find a volunteer to donate a kidney for the patient. They can set up online monetary donation sites, spread awareness or work more directly to ask others to donate their organs. Since the patients often can’t or won’t ask themselves, the loved ones often become the patients’ champions. Zenzick’s job includes getting new patients on the transplant list and making sure he can reach any patient at a moment’s notice when a
The Gawlicki Family Foundation Awards Hospital for Special Care $250,000 grant for COPD Program
The Gawlicki Family Foundation is awarding Hospital for Special Care (HSC) a $250,000 grant to expand its Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) program the hospital recently announced. These funds will be used to increase program capabilities and obtain national certification. Additional services will be added including psychology, social work and nutritional counseling. HSC plans to increase the number of patients seen by 25 percent. COPD is a progressive disease characterized by frequent worsening of respiratory symptoms leading to further reduced lung function and increased shortness of breath. There are 15 million Americans with the diagnosis and it is the third leading cause of death. The COPD program is a multidisciplinary system employing unique exercises and education to enable patients affected by COPD to reach a maximum level of independence and function in the community. This grant will enable HSC’s COPD program staff to better help patients increase functional abilities, decrease shortness of breath, improve understanding of respiratory processes and learn relapse prevention techniques.
In addition to expanding the program, HSC will seek designation as a Patient Centered Specialty Program (PCSP) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. All COPD staff will work to establish and implement a Chronic Care Management (CCM) program to increase CCM access for all its COPD patients. “We are grateful for these funds and fully appreciate the magnitude of this commitment from the Gawlicki Family Foundation,” said Lynn Ricci, president and CEO, Hospital for Special Care. “We are proud to announce that we will be using these funds to expand the Gawlicki Family COPD Disease Management Program to help the community and those affected by COPD.” “Hospital for Special Care has consistently adapted to the ever-changing medical landscape to deliver advanced quality care for patients,” said Ted Gawlicki, of the Gawlicki Family Foundation. “These funds will allow the hospital to continue to help those affected by COPD and become a nationally recognized COPD program with a Patient Centered Specialty Program designation.” For more information about Hospital for Special Care, please call 860.223.2761, or visit www.hfsc.org.
kidney becomes available, but a less flashy part of his responsibility is as a patient advocate before they ever reach the top of the list - or even get on the list at all. “Anyone with a chronic history can experience depression or anxiety as they face it over time,” Zenzick said. “My role is to help the patients weed through that, help them navigate the system and be their advocate. I make sure they’re aware of what’s happening and what could happen and how that could affect them and their families.”
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It is for these reasons that Zenzick is being honored with the Nightingale Award this year. His tireless efforts to help long-term patients through everyday strife and challenges has resulted in good experiences and outcomes for everyone involved since he started in the coordinator position in 2007. In transplant nursing, he said, no one shines alone. “The big thing with transplants is it’s all about teamwork. Without the team we have, nothing would work.”