New Pain Service Makes Great Strides

Many patients are benefitting from Highland’s new inpatient pain management consultation service.  Dr. Chin-Lin Ching, Director, Palliative Care Division at Highland and Dr. Rajbala Thakur, Director of Cancer Pain Services at URMC and Palliative Care Consultant, and their departments are working in collaboration to offer the service which is expanding advanced medication and procedural options to relieve pain. “Physicians and APPs from all subspecialties of surgery and medicine are utilizing the service for their patients with complex pain,” said Dr. Ching who gives examples with several success stories.

Dr. Lincoln Named NYS Emergency Medicine Unsung Hero

Lisa Lincoln, M.D., Attending Physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Highland Hospital and Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Emergency Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry has been named a New York State Emergency Medicine Unsung Hero. This designation is awarded to physicians for their work ethic, compassion, and collegiality.

Highland Introduces APP Career Ladder

Highland is introducing a Career Ladder for Advanced Practice Providers to recognize their skills, dedication, and compassion in caring for our patients at Highland every day. “This program is a real win for APPs and a testament to Highland’s commitment to our team,” said Arthur Arieno, PA-C MPAS, Director of APPs at Highland.

Kudos

Here are some physician KUDOS that were taken from Hot Comments during the past several months.

Finding HH's Flow: NTOCH Aims to Improve Patient Movement, Build Transparency

Nurse Transition of Care Handoff (NTOCH) is the next Better Flow communications processes initiative that aims to optimize the time it takes to transition a patient from the ED to a unit through instantaneous visuals to indicate when and where a patient is ready to move to the next phase of care.

The NTOCH tool helps nurses initiate a handoff in eRecord, optimizing efficiency through technology. When updating patient information in eRecord, real-time notifications and icon changes are created, alerting staff when the patient is ready to transition to the next phase of care. This visibility is multi-disciplinary, allowing unit secretaries to assist with notifying staff of patient flow changes.