Hospital Appoints New 'Chief Cuddler' on Mother's Day
To mark the launch of its 1998-99 Maternity Education Program, St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco appointed a new "Chief Cuddler" on Mother's Day.
The Cuddlers Program reinforces a tender-loving-care hospital image for moms and their newborns. The group of 15 carefully selected "cuddlers" deliver a unique brand of highly attentive care to new babies during their first few days of life. Care ranges from taking photos to knitting hats for the 1,100 babies born each year at the hospital.
When Debbie Nocero, the chief cuddler for the past 10 years and chair of the program announced on Mother's Day that Teresa Brown, an active hospital volunteer, would be heading the program. The hospital handled the transition with kid gloves. Brown was mentored by Nocero for the past year in preparation for the appointment.
"Babies are serious business at St. Luke's, so any program change or addition to our Cuddler's Program is not made lightly," says Lucinda Morlin, St. Luke's volunteer facilitator.
The group of cuddler volunteers - who each work weekly two-hour shifts - devote extra time and energy to newborns that busy nurses and exhausted mothers can't provide.
To keep the program safe and effective, the effort requires:
- A strict infant security initiative that involves extensive volunteer screening, with a background check, of each candidate.
- A liaison between the clinical staff and the volunteers.
- A training manual for cuddlers. (Patricia Ramirez, 415/651-6628; Lucinda Morlin, 415/641-6538)
Mobile Healthcare Units Reaches Rural Community
Orange County, Calif., often associated with Disneyland and high-tech business centers, also hosts a major agricultural industry fraught with rural healthcare barriers.
To reverse the somewhat bleak healthcare picture for 80,000 farm workers, a collaborative program called Puente a la Salud (Bridge to Health) launched two years ago already is showing early results. The program, funded by The California Wellness Foundation (CWF), consists of several regional healthcare organizations.
So far, the program has reached 1,200 patients using a mobile medical unit that visits two work sites a month.
To break down the economic and cultural barriers to preventive care, the project:
- Uses four bilingual case managers to launch health fairs and health education classes at churches, work sites and other neighborhood locations.
- Relies on a 14-member advisory council for strategic planning and implementation. The council consists of employers, healthcare experts, state and county representatives, farm workers and community advocates. (CWF, 818/593-6600)
Walt Disney Targets Healthcare Execs for Benchmarking
Walt Disney [DIS] is challenging healthcare executives to look beyond the industry for best practices in the areas of patient/guest services and human resources/training.
"The Disney Approach to People Management: Forum for the Healthcare Industry" offers an opportunity to benchmark with Walt Disney Resort, to see how the entertainment giant recruits, selects, trains and communicates with its 50,000 employees. The program will be offered in August for three-and-a-half days.
The forum is designed for healthcare professionals at hospitals, HMOs, PPOs and pharmaceutical companies. Participating healthcare organizations have included Johnson & Johnson, Florida Hospital, Cigna Healthcare and the Mayo Clinic.
Tuition is $2,695 per person. (Disney Institute, 407/828-5800)
Internet Call-In Talk Show Targets Docs
Physicians can tune into Radiofreedocs.Com and get weekly updates on business, management and regulatory issues. Launched earlier this month by The Health Capital Group, a Chicago-based healthcare consulting firm, the new "Webcast" incorporates audiovideo presentations with live physician audience feedback.
The program, which can be accessed with special "sound card" software, is available for free through the company's Web site at http://www.radiofreedocs.com. Guest experts will appear each week and field questions from callers via telephone and email.
The program will be hosted by James Unland, THCG's president and editor of the Journal of Health Care Finance, published by Aspen Publishing of Gaithersburg, Md. The Webcasts air every Sunday morning from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., Central Standard time. (THCG, James Unland, 800/423-5157)