360°--Spring 2014

F O R T H E E M P L O Y E E S O F C I N C I N N AT I C H I L D R E N ’ S

SPRING 2014

OUR CHANGING FACE

WHAT’S INSIDE

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Still Changing After All These Years: Evolution Is Key to Survival, Success

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Balancing Care for Those From Near and Far

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Melding Cultures Enriches Our Workforce

OUR CHANGING FACE. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”—Socrates At Cincinnati Children’s, we are well versed in change. From a physical standpoint alone, we’ve doubled the number of employees in the last 10 years and constructed and/or moved into 14 additional buildings. (This doesn’t count Location T or the Liberty Campus expansion, which are currently underway.) Patient encounters have zoomed from 761,482 to 1,161,009 annually.

Our “best at getting better” work ethic, combined with external challenges that demand new approaches, have sped up the rate of change for all of us, leaving us exhilarated and exhausted at the same time. But because we are in the business of saving children’s lives, we know we can’t afford to be complacent. How, then, do we cope?

In this issue, we’ve attempted to give you a glimpse of who we are and how we are evolving to meet the needs of our patients, families and employees. We are doing difficult and noble work, and we have every reason to feel proud of where we’ve been and what we’re continually in the process of becoming.

As you read these stories, I hope you’ll see that, as part of the Cincinnati Children’s team, you are valued for the individual strengths and perspectives you bring to the medical center and our mission.

Cindy Duesing, editor

Volume 2 , Issue 2 | 360° is an employee

To give us your feedback or request additional

Editor: Cindy Duesing

publication of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital

or fewer copies of this newsletter, email us at

Contributors: Kar yn Enzweiler, Kate

Medical Center, produced by the Department

360@cchmc.org.

Harold and Bea Katz Senior Art Director: Anna Diederichs

of Marketing and Communications, MLC 9012,

Designers: Elyse Balster and Gina Johnston

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center,

ON THE COVER:

3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH

This quote from Socrates is proof that

Design Intern: Peter Young

45229-3039, 513-636-4420.

embracing change has been a challenge

Contributing Photographers: Cindy

for humankind since ancient times.

Duesing, Karyn Enzweiler, Mark Lyons

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theknow C E L E S T I A L B A L L A N D A F T E R PA R T Y S U P P O R T CCHMC

The 10th Anniversary Celestial Ball, proudly presented

by PNC, will be held on Saturday, June 21. The ball is Cincinnati Children’s signature black tie gala and one of the region’s most anticipated social events of the year.

To celebrate this milestone event, we are proud to honor longtime friends of the medical center—Boomer and Gunnar Esiason. Through the generosity of the Esiason family and the Boomer Esiason Foundation, the experts at Cincinnati Children’s have helped create healthier, more vibrant futures for children and adults living with cystic fibrosis and other pulmonary conditions.

The fun continues with the third annual After Party presented by Macy’s. Ball attendees will welcome After Party guests, and everyone will enjoy an open bar, complimentary valet, live music, dancing and more.

Proceeds from the After Party will benefit the Charitable Care Fund at Cincinnati Children’s which helps reduce the financial burden for families with a chronically ill child.

Join the fun, and help families focus on what’s most important—their child.

For more information or to purchase tickets to the Celestial Ball or After Party, visit www.cincinnatichildrens.org/ celestial-ball or contact Bridgette Brant at bridgette. brant@cchmc.org or 513-636-5647.

Marc Schecter, MD, who recently joined Cincinnati Children’s from Texas Children’s Hospital, is medical director. David Morales, MD, is the surgical director.

Currently, only two US hospitals perform more than 10 pediatric lung transplants a year. Cincinnati Children’s goal is to reach that level within three years. The program also will make it possible for the medical center to perform heart-lung transplants and other multiple organ transplants when needed.

Cincinnati Children’s has one of the nation’s largest programs for pulmonary disease, which is ranked No. 2 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. It also has extensive experience in pediatric organ transplantation, including more than 526 liver transplants, 583 kidney transplants, 91 heart transplants and 41 intestinal transplants.

For more information about referring patients to this program, call 513-803-7009.

A R C H I V I S T T O C ATA L O G H I S T O R I C A L H O L D I N G S

In our public areas, private offices and storerooms, Cincinnati Children’s has a surprising number of documents, art and artifacts, books and scrapbooks, furniture, memorabilia and more—comprising a record of the medical center’s rich history dating to our founding in November 1883.

No one has ever cataloged these materials.

Now, thanks to a generous gift from the Cooperative Society, one of our fundraising auxiliaries, Cincinnati Children’s has hired an archivist for a year-long project to identify and catalog our historical holdings.

Michelle Wirth joined the Pratt Library staff on January 13. Her work will help us better preserve our history and make our archives more visible and available to historians and researchers.

She’s beginning the project by becoming acquainted with the large collections in the History Library and in the Marketing and Communications department.

C I N C I N N AT I C H I L D R E N ’ S L A U N C H E S L U N G TR ANSPL ANT PROGR AM

Cincinnati Children’s has launched a pediatric lung transplant program that will be one of the few in the country capable of performing transplants for infants as small as 5 kilos (about 11 pounds).

Please contact Wirth at Michelle.Wirth@cchmc.org if you have documents, photos or other items in your personal or departmental collection that should be included in our catalog of historical materials. Or call the main number for the Pratt Library at 513-636-4320 and leave a message.

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The small group of church ladies who founded a 12-bed charity hospital for Cincinnati children in 1883 would be dumbstruck to see the top-ranking medical center it has since become. Thanks to visionary leaders, benefactors and extraordinary researchers, physicians and staff who laid the bedrock, Cincinnati Children’s has morphed from a compact community hospital into a frontrunner on the national and international stage. Much of that growth has occurred in the last 15 to 20 years. But the rate of change is gaining momentum.

Michael Fisher, president and CEO, reminds us that if we’re not moving forward, we’re standing still. In today’s fast-paced healthcare industry, standing still is equivalent to going backward. If we want to stay nimble and strong for future generations, we must continue to attract the talent that is crucial to our vision of being the leader in improving child health. But how do we recruit the best and the brightest? And how do we support the employees we already have in honing their skills and adapting to change without missing a beat?

A NEW APPROACH

We ask a lot of our employees, and they deliver, says Julia Abell, senior director of employment in Human Resources. “They are what differentiates us from other children’s hospitals. They are the geniuses who do the research and perform the surgeries. They are the frontline staff who give our patients and families the experiences they remember for the rest of their lives.”

Abell’s charge is to recruit the best workforce. To do that, she and her team cast a wide net, searching for candidates with specific skills. “We have the tools to reach a broader market, but it’s a niche market that’s becoming even more specialized,” she says.

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“This is the most multifaceted, complex workforce we’ve ever seen – here and in the US overall,” she explains. “We have multiple generations, ethnicities and religions; men and women; people with disabilities; single, married and divorced; gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender. There’s a lot of richness, but mining that richness requires us to better understand employees’ needs so we can create an environment that motivates them to dedicate their talent and energy—their careers—to us.”

Case in point—At Cincinnati Children’s, 72 percent of employees are young women, juggling work, family demands, and often, the care of elderly parents. The traditional way of engaging them isn’t working.

Charla Weiss, PhD, a consultant for Diversity and Inclusion, cites one example. “Faculty members on the tenure track are under tremendous pressure to get funding, do research and publish, and perhaps see patients. It’s especially difficult for our women faculty who want to have a family. They may need to off-ramp for a few years.

Though Cincinnati Children’s has a policy that extends the tenure clock if faculty need to care for family members or decide to work part time, they may still fall behind. We need to find a way to get them back on track without penalizing them. If we don’t, we risk losing them to private practice or another institution that will reap the benefit of the important discoveries they make. It’s a real brain drain for us.”

A growing number of men who elect to stay home with their children face similar challenges.

Says Abell, “We talk about work/life balance, but it’s really about integration. And it calls for a more creative approach that offers employees greater flexibility—to work from home or on a different schedule wherever it’s feasible. The wave

(Left) The original three-bedroom, one-bathroom house where Cincinnati Children’s got its start in 1883 still stands at the corner of Park and Yale in Walnut Hills. (Right) Today the medical center is a bustling clinical and research enterprise that serves patients from all 50 states and 53 foreign countries.

of the future is management by outcomes – the work that gets done – rather than an employee’s physical presence.

Certainly, there’s less wiggle room if you’re caring for patients. But embracing new management concepts means we’ll have more productive employees who will be happier with their jobs and want to stay.”

school, helps us identify potential barriers to managing their condition,” says Page. “This is even more important now, because we are financially accountable for their care. If, for example, they don’t understand the doctor’s instructions and, as a result, have frequent hospital readmissions, we will not be reimbursed for their stay.”

KEEPING UP WITH THE WORK

O U R C H A N G I N G FAC E

While employee demographics and needs are changing, the work itself is also evolving. The last 15 years we’ve seen an increased focus on family-centered care, quality, safety and outcomes measurement. New systems and technologies aim to improve treatment and streamline processes. And as we develop destination programs, we find ourselves in a dual role of caring for kids in our primary service area and far beyond.

Recruiting and retaining a talented, diverse workforce is the number-one factor in Cincinnati Children’s success.

Fortunately, surveys show that 99 percent of employees feel pride in working here.

“We are committed to serving patients in our community and from around the world,” says James Page, assistant vice president, Diversity and Inclusion. “But they are two distinct populations, and caring for each one requires a different skill set.”

Patients who come from outside our regional area tend to be more acute, and their diseases are more specialized, Page explains. They travel farther distances for treatment because they can’t get the care they need closer to home, and some need assistance with housing and translation services. Staff must be culturally competent to effectively communicate and ensure the best outcome for the patient.

Patients from the community often are dealing with chronic conditions, like asthma, diabetes and obesity.

The Affordable Care Act adds a different layer of pressure for cultural competence in these cases. “Understanding what life is like for our patients at home, at work, at

“This place keeps us all on our toes,” says Abell. “Being a leader means we can’t be content with the status quo.

Many of our positions require more education than they used to, which is why we offer such a good tuition reimbursement policy.”

Is there a chance we’re growing too quickly or too much?

Could the quality of patient care suffer if we are too busy and disconnected?

Says Page, “Change often instills fear. But other leading healthcare organizations, like Kaiser Permanente, which has 100,000 employees and revenues of $80 billion, function quite well. So it’s not impossible to be large and have a strong, positive culture. As long as we have managers who are properly armed to lead growth and establish a solid direction, their teams will have the confidence and peace of mind to get on board with where we’re going. If that’s in place, we can grow as big as we need to be to accomplish our mission.”

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In the Family Resource Center, global health coordinator Sidi Samba Elabd (second from left) goes through orientation with the Jafry family who came to CCHMC from Saudi Arabia for treatment for their son.

near & far BALANCING CARE FOR THOSE FROM

Cincinnati Children’s served children and teens from all 50 states plus 53 foreign countries in the last fiscal year.

That’s a 23-percent increase over the previous year. If it feels like you’re seeing more overseas families in the hallways or hearing more foreign languages in the cafeteria line, that’s because you are.

As Cincinnati Children’s continues to grow and become a worldwide leader, we are attracting more families both nationally and internationally. At the same time, we continue to serve the families right in our own backyard.

It’s time for us to explore how we can successfully balance caring for the local population while also addressing the special needs of the global population.

A VA R I E T Y O F N E E D S

Mona Mansour, MD, director of primary care and school health in the Division of General and Community Pediatrics, says both of these populations have unique needs to consider. It’s easy to recognize some of the areas where foreign-born patients may need help: making travel arrangements, finding housing, setting up bank accounts, finding interpreters.

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But local families have their own set of circumstances too. They might need help finding an area support group, a financial assistance program, or education about parenting a child with a disability.

Mansour says to be successful in treating both the local and global populations, it’s critical to have an infrastructure and support network that allows families to connect to resources that will help them and their ultimate health outcomes—whether they come from Avondale or Asia.

One initiative that is helping at the local level is Cincinnati Children’s Population Health Strategy, led by Rob Kahn, MD, MPH. This tactic has identified four health issues— obesity, infant mortality, asthma and injury—based on prevalence and impact on the community. CCHMC collaborates with organizations and local agencies to reduce health disparities in these areas. “This is about our immediate neighborhoods and communities,” says Mansour. “We’re partnering with them to improve health.”

SPRE ADING BEST PR ACTICES

Social worker Mandy Bley, LISW-S, works with families in the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute who come from Cincinnati and beyond. She points out that whether a family has driven 30 minutes or flown 3,000 miles to get here, they have something in common: an ill child. “With any patient, we need to look at what the needs of this family are and how we can meet those needs,” Bley says.

But the needs for the local and global populations can vary quite a bit. With the international patients that Bley works with, communication can be a barrier, and sometimes it takes longer to establish relationships with those families. However, they need suppor t in the same way our local families do. “Suppor t is really important for families with a critically ill child,” Bley says.

“We need to look at the local resources that are available, as well as how we can reach out to international communities for the benefit of all the families we serve.”

answer questions about the logistics of being in a foreign city, leaving the medical team to focus on the family’s healthcare questions.

P O S I T I V E R E S U LT S

At the same time this large and mixed population provides challenges, the benefits are many. “We learn a lot from other global communities on how they work with population health,” Mansour says. Taking learnings from both populations and blending them results in gains for everyone. “The diversity is great. We learn something new every day from the range of patients we interact with.”

Bley agrees. “Any time people from different cultures are interacting, it’s so beneficial,” she says. “What you hear and learn about other places through the media is different from face-to-face interaction with other people. That personal connection breaks down barriers in a way that can’t be done any other way.”

Cincinnati Children’s has long been treating patients from out of state and overseas. Now the work is focused on bringing systems together and improving them. A new initiative called Destination Excellence aims to do just this. This program is looking at processes that are already in place for international families, standardizing them, making improvements where needed, and spreading them across the organization.

One such improvement is an orientation for international families, led by a global health coordinator. Families from outside the US go through this orientation early on during their care here. That means that the coordinators can

tips Mona Mansour, MD, tends to Deriontae Gillam, age 7, in the Pediatric Primary Care Center (PPC).

• Imagine for a second what it is like to be in their shoes. That might mean a local family with

kids needing to be taken to and picked up from school, or a family who walked into our doors straight from a 20-hour overseas flight.

• For international families, do some quick research on their country of origin to learn about

cultural differences, traditions and beliefs to gain understanding and help make a connection.

• Ask questions instead of making assumptions.

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melding

C U LT U R E S E N R I C H E S

Our Workforce

We typically think about Cincinnati Children’s global reach in terms of the international patients who come here for care. But the growing number of international employees is another measure of our global impact.

Cincinnati Children’s today has employees from 97 countries. Few, if any other Cincinnati area companies, have employees from such a rich diversity of geographies, cultures, national identities and life experiences.

360º asked two foreign-born employees to share the story of the journey that brought them here.

EILEEN MOK Eileen Mok, specialist, Global Health, joined Cincinnati Children’s four years ago. She was the first person hired

by Global Health to facilitate international visitors.

Her work at Cincinnati Children’s has taken her career in an unexpected direction but draws on skills acquired throughout her life.

Mok was born in Guangdong Province, China. Her father, who was originally from Hong Kong, moved home to establish residency there. Eventually Mok’s mother was

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granted permission to leave China and join him. Mok was about 4 years old.

In Hong Kong, Mok’s family spoke Cantonese. Because the country had been a British colony, she was taught English in school from a young age, and she also studied Mandarin.

She grew up, completed college majoring in teacher’s education, became a teacher, earned another degree in Chinese-English translation, and married a scientist.

His career brought them to the US. After he completed his PhD, her husband accepted a post-doctoral position in a research lab at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Eileen Mok, a specialist in Global Health and a native of China, has found her niche at Cincinnati Children’s facilitating visits to the medical center from international leaders, physicians and researchers.

Their move to the US was supposed to be temporary.

“When we left Hong Kong, we told our family we’d return in two or three years,” Mok recalls.

To their surprise, they’ve now been in the United States for over 10 years, have a son who was born here, and became US citizens last year.

T E A C H E R A N D T R A N S L AT O R

Six months after she arrived in Boston, Mok found a job as a counselor in a school that taught English as a second language. Here she applied her teaching and translation skills to helping new immigrants from China.

Although she was new to the country herself, she had the communication skills to help them open bank and internet accounts, find doctors, enroll their children in school—navigate daily life in the US. She had been in Boston five years and was doing work she found meaningful, when the principal investigator in her husband’s lab moved to UC. That brought Mok and her husband to Cincinnati.

In a new city, without a job, she went back to school.

She took a GED, earned a master’s degree from UC in early childhood education, and got a green card.

She was now positioned to return to her first love, teaching. She found a job teaching Chinese in Winton Woods Elementary School, then taught preschool classes for a few months.

And that’s when it hit her: “I realized that because I was not raised here, I was not a very good teacher for these children. It was something very subtle: the culture, the TV shows they watched, the lingo. I felt like I didn’t fit in, and I wasn’t enjoying teaching as much as I did in Hong Kong.”

She quit.

A conversation in church with Reginald Tsang, MD, set her on a new path. Tsang knew that Global Health was looking for a coordinator. She applied and was hired.

Her job at Cincinnati Children’s gives Mok the opportunity to work with people from many cultures and to use her skills in new ways. She facilitates visits by international hospital leaders, physicians and researchers who come here from China and other countries to learn from Cincinnati Children’s.

She appreciates the support she receives from staff across the hospital to help her develop itineraries for our guests and offer them a positive learning experience. “This is a great hospital. People are very generous in welcoming guests and sharing what we have here,” she says.

Summarizing her feelings about her work at Cincinnati Children’s, Mok says, “This is even a more meaningful job than my work in Boston. I feel I’m making a difference.

If our guests learn even one thing to take back to help patients, my job is worth it.”

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Advanced research engineer Wolfgang Loew grabbed the opportunity to work in the Imaging Research Center here. Although Cincinnati is different from his hometown of Munich, Germany, he’s found plenty to love about it.

WOLFG ANG LOE W While the route that brought Eileen Mok to Cincinnati Children’s took surprising twists and turns, Wolfgang Loew, advanced research engineer in the Imaging Research Center (IRC), came here from Munich, Germany, specifically for the opportunity to work here.

Loew worked in his native countr y developing and designing novel magnetic resonance imaging devices for an American company—GE Global Research. Through his work, he knew of Charles Dumoulin, PhD, who also worked for GE, though he was located on this side of the Atlantic. “The MR community is small,” Loew says, explaining that “hardware guys” tend to know each other.

Dumoulin joined Cincinnati Children’s in 2008 as scientific director of the IRC and began recruiting new staff to expand the center. For Loew, who says he was always interested in coming to the US, working at Cincinnati Children’s was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so here I am.”

Since arriving in June 2010, Loew has helped design and build the world’s first infant-sized MRI for our newborn intensive care unit. He’s now developing new technology to speed up imaging and improve resolution. In another project, he’s collaborating with pulmonologists to improve lung imaging.

Loew feels he has greater freedom here to work on a variety of projects that make a difference. “Everyone has new ideas, and our priority is to improve healthcare for children,” he says. He enjoys working in an environment that fosters creativity and innovation and especially appreciates being able to work closely with clinical staff.

“Working in medical imaging for a corporation, I never got to talk to the customer on the clinical side,” he says. He

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acknowledges that an approach that makes sense to him as an engineer might not be right for the clinician. “Here I can talk to the doctors, nurses and technologists who use the equipment. I can ask: How do you actually do that? Does this work for you?”

This collaboration between researcher and clinician speeds up the work. For someone who “came here to make new things happen,” it’s a very rewarding environment.

C U LT U R E C H A N G E , B U T N O T C U LT U R E S H O C K

Coming from a Western European countr y, adjusting to the workplace here was not too dif ficult, but life in Cincinnati presented some surprises.

Previously, he had traveled to the US for business meetings on the East Coast. “I thought America was all the same,” Loew says with a laugh. “There’s actually a difference between the East Coast and the Midwest. It was not as easy to make friends here.”

Another surprise: The taste of American beer, Cincinnati pizza and Cincinnati-style German food.

But Loew found plenty to like, too. “I’m a foodie, and there are so many choices here. I like to check out new places. I love barbecue, the steaks here are phenomenal, and I can buy anything I want at Jungle Jim’s.” He also loves living in a complex with a swimming pool. “That’s really sweet. This concept is unknown in Germany.”

After nearly four years, Loew now has many American friends, has found good beer at the Hofbräuhaus and Cincinnati’s new microbreweries, and knows where he can get New York-style pizza and authentic German specialties.

Professionally and culturally, he’s happy to be here.

snapshots

Department Heart Institute Role Project manager for clinical trials sponsored by the Pediatric Heart Network What I love most about what I do is building relationships and being a part of a team that provides excellent care for children and their families.

When I’m not here, you can usually find me spending time with family and friends.

A phrase that describes me Dependable What I love about CCHMC is the culture. People are valued for their individual contributions, regardless of position or title.

I was born in a humble Midwestern town.

The guiding principle of my life is our family motto: Love God. Love your family and friends, and love to learn.

Person I admire most My husband. He pursues his passions relentlessly, works tirelessly, leads by example and speaks up for what he believes in.

People would never guess that I had the opportunity to be a two-sport, college athlete.

What’s on my bucket list Travel, travel and more travel.

Department Specialty Resource Unit Clinical Support Team Role Patient care assistant What I love most about what I do is getting to see a variety of patients, from the little babies in the NICU to adolescents and adults, and experiencing new things.

When I’m not here, you can usually find me shopping. But when the weather breaks, you can find me riding my motorcycle.

A phrase that describes me I get the job done.

What I love about CCHMC The Specialty Resource Unit members are family, and this has become my second home.

I was born to help people out whenever and however I can.

The guiding principle of my life Always do your best and give a helping hand without expecting anything in return.

God will bless you.

Person I admire most My mom. She worked very hard to make sure I and my siblings didn’t need anything.

People would never guess that I went to Rome and attended Mass with the Pope— a wonderful life-changing moment.

What’s on my bucket list I would like to visit Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Department Health Network

by Cincinnati Children’s Role Social worker What I love most about what I do is helping families to problem-solve issues that they thought were insurmountable.

When I’m not here, you can usually find me walking my puppy.

A phrase that describes me Energetic What I love about CCHMC is that I feel supported as an employee, and that helps me give 100 percent in my work.

I was born in Ontario, Canada.

The guiding principle of my life is to try to leave an impression that inspires positive change.

Person I admire most My parents People would never guess that I am a former competitive figure skater and current skating coach (actually maybe that’s not so surprising since I’m Canadian).

What’s on my bucket list Traveling to visit friends and family in other countries.

Department Drug & Poison Information Center Role Director—Operations What I love most about what I do is knowing that poison control truly improves patient outcomes and helps keep children (and adults) out of the hospital.

When I’m not here, you can usually find me watching my three kids play basketball and volleyball.

A phrase that describes me Open, calm and honest. A true ISTP on the Myers-Briggs chart.

What I love about CCHMC is working with talented and caring people who are passionate about what they do.

I was born in Cincinnati but grew up in Findlay, Columbus (IN), Buffalo and Detroit.

The guiding principle of my life is John 14:6 Person I admire most Other than Jesus (who never lets me down), my wife is amazing, intelligent, beautiful, family-focused and can fix anything in the house!

People would never guess that I am fairly adventurous and willing to try just about anything (once).

What’s on my bucket list A romantic, all-inclusive vacation with my wife would be nice…hopefully someday soon!

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thebuzz “I wish I was better at making people smile, at making them happy.”

Tracey Allen, shift leader, Food Services

“I’d like to improve my

WHAT SKILL OR

organizational skills so

ABILITY DO YOU MOST

I can do better at keeping

WISH YOU HAD

everything straight and planning where I need to be.”

(THAT YOU DON’T HAVE ALREADY )?

“I wish I would have completed my master’s

Bob Siegel, MD, medical director, Center for Better Health and Nutrition

degree, but I have a beautiful set of twins, so it’s definitely a worthwhile trade-off.”

Julie Zigmond, RN, care manager, GI Transplant

“More patience.

MORE patience.”

Dan Kaimann, senior officer, Protective Services

“Stretching sleep.

My productivity would skyrocket if only I had the ability to make one to five hours of sleep feel like eight!”

“I would love to learn how to snow ski.”

Dawn Sherrill, senior analyst, Information Services

“I wish I had a great voice. I sing all the time, but it doesn’t sound good.”

Sue Wright, access services representative II Outpatient Registration

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LaQuan Wills, patient care assistant, Urology/Nephrology Center

milestones 40 Kathleen Firth, RN, Otolaryngology Sharon Johnson, Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute Mar y Ryan, Rheumatology

Congratulations to the following employees who celebrate milestone ser vice anniversaries in A P R I L , M AY and J U N E !

25 Rebecca Bailey, RN, GI Transplant Nursing Michael Bauer, Accounting Judy Belli, RN, Human Genetics Judy Black, Early Education and Care

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Suzanne Black, RN-CNP, Palliative Care Nancy Boosveld, RN, Rheumatology Ann Boughner, RN, Home Care Anne Burnside, RN, Pediatric Surgery

Bernadette Beane, RN, Same Day Surgery

Rober t Davis, Building Maintenance

Peggy Clark, RN-CNP, Neurology

Carla Earlywine, RN, Liberty Campus/Surgery

Marty Goodfriend, RN, Family Relations

Terri Edwards, Adolescent Medicine

Mary Ann Groeschen, RN, B5/Critical Care Karen Hartjes, RN, Orthopaedics Center Margie Hueneman, RN, Same Day Surgery Jennifer Kemper, RN, A3 North

Gwen Feldhaus, RN, B1/Emergency Department Kimberly Gabbard, RN, A3 North Heidi Gardner, Radiology Elizabeth Gibboney, RN, Pediatric Surgery Suzanne Ginter, RN, A6 North/Adolescent Medicine

Jayne McMath, RN, Same Day Surgery

Patricia Goetz, RN, B6/Heart Institute

Terry Moore, RN, Rheumatology/Rehabilitation Center

Gloria Graham, RN, Supply Chain Contract and Value Analysis

Paula Jo Morehart, RN, Neurology

Rebecca Gunn, RN, Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute

Joanne Reese, Emergency Services

Amy Har tkemeyer, Clinical Translational Research Center

Nancy Schmidt, Medical Staff Services

Tina Lewis, RN, College Hill

Elizabeth Skulas, RN, Neurology

Rober t Linger, Protective Ser vices

Joyce Slusher, RN-CNP, Advanced Practice Nurses

Tammatha Lingsch, RN-CNP, Advanced Practice Nurses

Mary Lou Sorter, RN, Infection Control Cynthia Tudor, RN-CNP, Advanced Practice Nurses Ileana Wendling, RN, Cardiology Jean Whalen, RN, Epidermolysis Bullosa

Mar y Lockett, Early Education and Care Karen Marsh, Child Life and Integrative Care Regina Mingo, Anesthesia Pamela Palazzolo, RN, Post Anesthesia Care Unit Ann Greene Pillow, RN, Hematology Catherine Randolph, RN, B4/Newborn Intensive Care Unit

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Tonya Ross, RN, Anderson Urgent Care Car yl Shelton, RN, A5 North Rebecca Shundich, Speech Pathology Sherri Sievers, RN-CNP, Advanced Practice Nurses

Cindi Bedinghaus, RN, Perioperative Ser vices

Sandy Singleton, Orthopaedics

Frank Biro, MD, Adolescent Medicine

Marilyn Thomas, Occupational Therapy/Physical Therapy

Mar y Gander, Child Life and Integrative Care

Nicole Thompson, Emergency Ser vices

Judy Heilman, RN, Home Care

Dotty Volpenhein, RN, Same Day Surgery

Steven Hoath, MD, Neonatology and Pulmonary Biology

Donna Walker, RN, Gynecology

Karen Johansing, RN, A6 North/Adolescent Medicine

Kar yn Weber, RN-CNP, Pre-anesthesia Consultation Clinic

Daniel Lovell, MD, Rheumatology Diane Procter, RN-CNS, Cardiology Gayle Riemer, Audiology

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Rober t Shapiro, MD, Center for Safe and Healthy Children Sandra Shar fe, RN, Epic

Arash Babaoff, MD, Emergency Medicine

Mar y Shinkle, RN, Specialty Resource Unit

Beth Cooper, RRT, Respiratory Care

Julie Stevenson, RN, Vascular Access Team

Scott Holland, PhD, Neuroimaging Research Consortium

Jane Stock, RN, Diabetes/Endocrinology/Clinical Translational

Cur tis Sheldon, MD, Pediatric Urology

Susan Wiley, MD, Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

Research Center

Ellen Tulisiak, RN, Otolaryngology Pamela Walters, Otolaryngology Patricia Wimmers, Anesthesia

See a complete list of milestone service anniversaries online in this week’s edition of CenterNews.

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3333 Burnet Avenue, MLC 9012 Cincinnati, OH 45229-3026

Volunteer in the Spotlight Gideon Nkrumah loves working with children. It brings out the kid in him. Not that that’s a far stretch for the 26-yearold who is the middle child squarely situated between three older brothers and three younger sisters.

Nkrumah came to Cincinnati last June to take his prerequisite courses for medical school. The native of Ghana, West Africa, spends every Thursday morning volunteering in the surgical waiting room on B3.

There he especially loves re-uniting parents with their children in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU).

Nkrumah holds a degree in optometry and cared for patients during his last semester of college. But he wanted some international exposure.

Gideon Nkrumah “My father has lived in the US for a number of years,” Nkrumah says. “He arranged for me to come here. I spent some time working with children at a psychiatric hospital in Alaska, and I enjoyed it very much.”

There are no hospitals in Ghana devoted solely to children.

The concept fascinates him. “Children are intriguing to me,” he says, “and that stage of life is so important. It’s one of the reasons I was attracted to volunteering here —that, and the fact that this is one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals.”

Nkrumah is thankful for the opportunity he has to be part of those happy moments when parents see their children for the first time after surgery and know that they came through it okay. “When the parents first arrive in the waiting area, they are broken and in tears.

Then after the procedure when I take them to the PACU, they hug each other and start playing with their child.

It’s awesome to experience first-hand the joy Cincinnati Children’s brings to families here and around the world.”

a moment in history Boomer and Cheryl Esiason, their son, Gunnar, and daughter, Sydney, attend the May 19, 1995, dedication of the Gunnar H. Esiason Cystic Fibrosis and Lung Center at Cincinnati Children’s. The Esiason family and the Boomer Esiason Foundation are generous supporters of clinical programs at Cincinnati Children’s to improve the quality of life for children with cystic fibrosis and of research to find a cure.

Boomer and Gunnar will be honored at this year’s Celestial Ball in May.

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