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Power of Performance: February
The Power of Performance Recognition is a way for employees to recognize peers who work to provide Veterans with the best care possible.
PRODUCE MEANINGFUL PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Suzanne DeLugo and Sandra Kokaska, Community Living Center (CLC)
The Community Living Center was required to quickly respond to a Long Term Care Institute survey citation regarding care and treatment of residents with aspiration risk in Nov 2012. The CLC formulated an action plan which included an immediate, broad ranged chart review and audit of all CLC residents to ascertain their risk for aspiration and the treatment, planning, and documentation associated with it. Suzanne DeLugo and Sandra Kokaska were assigned this task, largely due to their dependability and trustworthiness to be responsible to complete a project of such importance. They completed the review by the established deadline, in addition to their normal duties. Suzanne and Sandra continue to collect information and report to CLC Leadership daily and are instrumental in developing new protocols at the CLC to address aspiration risk screening and treatment. Their efforts are an example of putting producing meaningful results that directly impact CLC residents.
 PROMOTE IMPROVED BUSINESS PROCESSES
Alan Moyer, Pharmacy Service
Mr. Moyer is a pharmacy technician and over the past year, he has completed his MBA and is hoping to start Pharmacy school in the fall. Mr. Moyer self-identified an opportunity within the inpatient pharmacy to improve resource utilization and save the facility money and decrease pharmaceutical waste with our Omnicell program. Many items are stocked in the Omnicell in order to have medications available at the point of care, but many go unused if they are for very specific, emergency and non-emergency type conditions. Mr. Moyer realized that we could reduce both waste and cost if we could prospectively remove those items from the Omnicell 2-3 months before the expiration date and use them in the pharmacy before they expire. His project is currently underway and within the first 19 days, he has an estimated cost savings of approximately $1,600. We anticipate that over the year, we could likely see a cost savings of greater than $14,000 for FY13 with the implementation of Mr. Moyer's project. I applaud his efforts and appreciate his dedication to the Veterans, the service, and the medical center thru his actions.
 PRACTICE PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP
Scott Wuest, Primary Care
Over the past year, Mr. Wuest was instrumental in guiding the new CBOC Nurse Manager for the Kentucky and Indiana Clinics through her transition. Without his extensive knowledge and support the transition would not have been as successful. Mr. Wuest has profound knowledge and expertise regarding the many aspects of the CBOCs such as Contracting, Infection Control, Environment of Care, Emergency Management, Disruptive Behavior, Human Resources and Staffing Issues, Ethics and Specialty Services, just to name a few. His supportive, humorous, patient nature has made this transition smooth. He is accessible to colleagues and staff alike. He goes out of his way to provide staff with precise information and also teaches them how to find necessary forms, documents, policies and procedures. He continually looks for opportunities for improvement in order to maintain safety for the workplace. Recently, he proposed starting a workgroup to address the issue of CBOC patients who are infested with bed bugs wanting to attend group classes, which poses an infestation risk to other patients and employees and thereby costing the VA $600 per extermination. Mr. Wuest is being acknowledged for his exemplary leadership in supporting fellow managers.
 PUT PATIENT CARE FIRST
Terrance Winters, Pharmacy Service
In spite of the length of employment, Terrence became a major team player in our pharmacy because of his professionalism that places patient care first in his work. Because of his work ethics, he improved his skills very rapidly and became a very reliable source in the pharmacy. He is not only strong with his skills but also provides soothing effect by staying low profile and taking care of things as a matter-of-fact-manner under many situations that could be hectic and stressful. To sum up, Terrence has been a very valuable addition to our pharmacy and a key player in non-standard tour. Awarding him with Power of Performance would be a good encouragement to him and good example to other staff members.
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