Employees Stay Informed With Town Hall Meetings

February 13, 2009 Accessibility of leadership and employees' ability to express concerns without fear of reprisal are two of the five guiding principles of HCA's commitment to a Healthy Work Environment. Being faithful to those principles, members of CJW's leadership team will hold a series of town hall meetings in early March.

With two sessions at the Johnston-Willis campus and two sessions at the Chippenham campus in early March so as to accommodate as many employees from both campuses across shifts as possible, the leadership team will give all employees a clear picture of the direction in which the facility is moving. They will also answer questions submitted beforehand via the Employee Advisory Group Voice Line or via the "Ask Pete" form on their Intranet, which goes to Peter Marmerstein, CJW's CEO.

CJW Goes 100% Tobacco-Free

July 23, 2008 No "butts" about it — this fall, the air at both campuses of CJW Medical Center in Richmond, Va., will be a little cleaner. Patients, employees, visitors and vendors will no longer be allowed to use tobacco products on site, as the hospital is extending its policy on smoking and tobacco use to cover the hospital's entire grounds.

The interiors of both facilities have been smoke-free for years, and there have been designated smoking areas outside for a while. Signs are going up now around the hospital and at the smoking areas to let everyone know that, to coincide with the American Cancer Society's annual Great American Smokeout, CJW will be tobacco-free beginning November 20.

"As a healthcare organization, we have a commitment and an obligation to provide a healthy, tobacco-free environment," said Peter Marmerstein, CJW's CEO. "This policy change supports our hospital's core mission of providing quality care and improving the health status of our community."

CJW is following in the footsteps of fellow HCA Virginia hospital Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem, Va., which went tobacco-free in June 2006. And while it's not mandatory that employees quit using tobacco products altogether, CJW is encouraging them to do so by offering a 15 to 20 percent discount on smoking-cessation products purchased at the in-house Walgreen pharmacy; in addition, there will be free support groups and classes to help with the struggle to quit.

It's a change welcomed and commended by a number of associations dedicated to improving health through tobacco education, including the American Lung Association of the Atlantic Coast, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and Virginians for a Healthy Future.

Read more in the news release.

CJW Receives Outstanding Achievement Award from Commission on Cancer

June 23, 2008 CJW Medical Center's cancer program has earned an Outstanding Achievement Award from the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer (CoC), a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for cancer patients through standard-setting, prevention, research, education, and the monitoring of comprehensive quality care.

CoC accreditation recognizes the quality of comprehensive care available at a facility and represents a commitment to patients and their families that they will have access to all the medical specialists involved in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Approval by the CoC is given only to facilities that voluntarily commit to provide the best in diagnosis and treatment of cancers. To meet the standards necessary for Commission approval, each cancer program, and the organization that controls it, undergoes a rigorous evaluation process and review of its performance. The facility must demonstrate a "Commendation" level of compliance with seven standards that represent the full scope of its cancer program including: cancer committee leadership, cancer data management, clinical services, research, community outreach and quality improvement.Only one in four U.S. hospitals that treat cancer patients are CoC-approved.

In order to receive an Outstanding Achievement Award, the facility must also receive compliance ratings on the remaining 29 standards. To maintain approval, facilities must get an onsite review every three years.

Patients receiving treatment at a CoC-Approved Cancer Program are assured that they will receive:

• Quality care close to home
• Comprehensive care, offering a range of state-of-the-art services and equipment
• A multi-specialty, team approach to coordinate the best treatment options available to cancer patients
• Access to cancer-related information, education, and support
• A cancer registry that collects data on type and stage of cancers and treatment results, and offers lifelong patient follow-up
• Ongoing monitoring and improvement of care
• Information about ongoing clinical trials and new treatment options

HCA Richmond Offers Internship in Operating Room Nursing

March 19, 2008 With the average age of OR nurses being higher than 49, the national average for all registered nurses, it is estimated that ORs will lose between 35 and 40 percent of their nurses within the next five years.

In an effort to offset the specific effects of the nursing shortage on the pool of available OR nurses, HCA Richmond Health System is looking to increase that pool through an Internship in Operating Room Nursing.

The internship will begin on April 21 and will utilize the Periop 101: A Core Curriculum™ developed by the Association of peri-Operative Registered Nurses. The program combines didactic training and clinical rotations with a preceptor through HCA Richmond's four hospitals — CJW Medical Center, Retreat Hospital, John Randolph Medical Center, and Henrico Doctors' Hospital. It will last from six to nine months depending on individual progress.

Applicants must have at least one year of hospital experience, and there are seven available openings. At the end of the program and in consultation with both the hospitals' OR directors and the clinical educator, students will be placed at the HCA Richmond hospital that is the right match for them.

Watch Nurses Speak About Life at CJW

March 10, 2008 CJW Medical Center recently spoke with a number of nurses in a variety of roles within the hospital about working at CJW. They covered a number of topics of interest to potential employees, including the high quality of teamwork at CJW, the direct involvement of leadership, the meaning of quality care, and more.

Now, a number of videos of these conversations are available across the Web.

The most recent videos are of interviews with nurses from the emergency departments at both campuses of CJW. In one video (view it), you can watch the nursing directors of each ED as they discuss their relationships with administrators and physicians, the collaborative work environment, and the kind of extraordinary care they see in their ERs every day.

If you'd like to see more, you can visit the channels set up for videos from CJW and other HCA hospitals at YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, Revver, and BlipTV.

Happy viewing!