General News & Information

The IVR team (Jonah and myself!) is working on 2 projects right now that may be of interest to the IHR.

1- The Appointment Reminder System: This is going to be a pilot project for the Lakewood clinic and all non-represented KP employees. It is going to be a combination of text messaging and a telephone call to remind patients of their upcoming appointments. The pilot will be only for those 19 years and older, and will only be for family practice and possibly a few other specialty care practices. If all goes well for this 6 month project, it will become a regional thing and most KP appointment reminders (via text message or phone call) will originate right here in the IHR. This will save the company thousands in paper costs and will be good for the environment as well! :) This project was patterned after a similar VERY successful project in Southern CA, and we are giving it a try here! We have a system that can tell whether a phone number is a land line or mobile phone number. If the patient has a valid mobile number in their contacts list, they will receive a text message with their appointment reminder info in it. If they do not have a valid mobile number, they will receive an IVR telephone call instead.

2- The Healthy Choice Hot Line: We are in the midst of a new project with Community Benefit and The KP Educational Theatre Program to create a "Hot Line" where parents (and families in general) will be able to get weekly messages on how to improve diet, reduce intake of sweetened beverages, reduce "screen time", get more physical activity, and eat regular healthy meals throughout the day. This will be a community outreach project, and will be available to non- KP members in the community as well. Pediatric dieticians in KP will also be using it as a part of their follow up with patients. We have done projects similar to this, but what makes this really fun and unique is that we are having actors from the Educational Theatre Program (as well as myself !) work with us to make the call really fun and interactive! Callers will be guided through the call each week by "Coach Jumping Jack Johnson" , and will be able to choose a topic weekly to work on, and then choose a strategy to help them achieve their achieve their goal. There will be 6 calls total with the last one being advice on how to make it all stick. Calls will be targeted to families with children 13 and under.

These are just 2 of the upcoming projects that The IVR team has in it's near future! :)

It is with great pleasure that we announce the addition of a new doctorate to our department! Our own Bridget Gaglio successfully defended her PhD proposal, entitled "Assessing Health Literacy and Health Information Needs of Persons at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease." This is a great accomplishment so please take a moment to congratulate her when you see her!

All Hands Minutes

Recent Promotions

Dr. Borsika Rabin, Research Coordinator for the IHR Cancer Communication Research Center, has been named a Cancer Research Network (CRN) Scholar for the next two years. Congratulations Borsika!

Four promotions that have recently occurred in the IHR!

Susan Shetterly has been promoted to Senior Biostatistician in recognition of her outstanding methodological and mentoring skills. Susan came to KP almost nine years ago from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She has been a tremendous asset to the IHR, serving on the Exempla IRB, coordinating and leading CCOR analyses, presenting at various educational forums, and acting as a statistical/methodological resource for IHR investigators and analytic staff.

Diane King, PhD has been promoted to Project Manager II in recognition of her achievements with successful implementation of several large projects including LinkBased2 and Live Well Colorado, her vast skills in mentoring staff and her contributions to the investigator group. Diane joined Kaiser Permanente six years ago, during which time she completed her doctorate degree and has achieved her goal to work in the capacity of co-investigator or investigator on the majority of her funded projects. Diane has been invited once again to present her work at the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s 30th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions with her submission entitled "Use of a community coalition to interpret contextual data: lessons from the Taking Neighborhood Health to Heart study" which will be held this month in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Cristy Geno has been promoted to Project Manger II and is concurrently acting as Supervisor of HSR operations team. Cristy came to Kaiser Permanente 6 years ago as a project manager and has worked in several arenas including as the first lead for the Investigator Support Team. During the last 3 years she has lead the staff on the Viva Bien study. The success of the Viva Bien project has been largely due to Cristy’s ability to work well with a very diverse group of staff and investigators. Cristy is pursuing a doctorate degree and has been a strong mentor, coach and advocate for her project’s staff.

Bridget Gaglio has been promoted to Project Manager II. Bridget came to Kaiser Permanente 6 years ago and has been a project manager on several large health services studies from “Harm Reduction” to “Viva Bien.” Bridget is currently working on her doctorate degree and her passions are in both teaching others as well as working to remove disparities in healthcare delivery. Bridget has been instrumental in bringing a focus to the IHR with regards to more formal mentoring for staff as well as research related trainings and a journal club.

Please be sure to congratulate them!!

Recent Awards and Grants

IVR team has been awarded a CARE Award for the Colorectal Cancer Screening Process

The IVR team, Jonah Langer and Alisa Metcalf-Vaughters are awarded for the Colorectal Cancer Screening Process. The project is with the Prevention Department.

The Colorectal Screening Process is a project that originated with Population and Prevention Services. They approached our internal IVR team about pulling HealthTrac data, and using it to make outbound IVR calls to KP Members who are 50 years or older with no record of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Members who are called are asked about family history and past screenings for CRC (possibly outside of KP). Based on the answers input by members called, the IVR system gives screening recommendations, information about colonoscopy, and, if applicable, gives members the option to request that a home stool test kit be sent to them by mail. When the call first began in 2008, members who had not been screened were also asked about personal barriers for not being screened. This call is still running and has recently been expanded to reach our Southern CO population as well. This program won both the CARE Project of The Year Award and the Andrew Wiesenthal Quality Award in 2009 for substantially increasing screening rates for CRC.

Pharmacy Service of the Year Award: Clinical Pharmacy Research Team
The team consists of:
Daniel M. Witt, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, CACP
            Sr. Manager, Clinical Pharmacy Services
Sarah J. Billups, PharmD, BCPS
            Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Research
            (She also sits on the RRC)
Kari L. Olson, BSc(Pharm), Pharm D, BCPS (AQ Cardiology)
            Clinical Pharmacy Specialis
            (She also sits on the IRB)
Thomas Delate, PhD, MS
            Clinical Pharmacy Research Scientist,
            (He is also on the IHR compliance team)
Deanna Kurz, BA, CCRP

How to Schedule A Conference Room

For Legacy Highlands IHR (Third Floor)
For Legacy Highlands HR (Fourth Floor)

Legacy Highlands, IHR (Third Floor)

Conference Room Use Policy for
Castle Peak and Mt. Bierstadt Conference Rooms
Redcloud Peak, Torrey’s Peak, and Crestone Peak Team Rooms

The primary purpose of these conference rooms is to conduct official business of Kaiser Permanente.

Availability
The conference rooms are available Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:15 p.m. except for holidays.

Scheduling
Conference room reservations may be made by email .  
After the room is scheduled you will receive a voice mail or email confirmation giving the location of your meeting.

The address for schedule conference rooms by email is:

CO-IHR-Room-Reservation-Line (this address will auto-populate merely by typing co-ihr)

This email address has been added to our phone lists and an updated phone list is attached.

In the email, please indicate:
1. Subject of meeting
2. Date and time requested
3. Number of people attending
4. Name of host and their phone number
5. Please specify any special needs

Please remember to cancel any meetings you do not need so the room can be freed up for others.

An email response will be sent back to you confirming your room information. Our goal is to have a minimum of 24-hour turnaround for all meetings requested.

Please note that to schedule a videoconference, you must schedule the room through the Videoconference Help Desk at 344-7272 (or send your request to co.vc.scheduler@kp.org).

Cancellation Policy
Cancellations of room reservations must be made by phone.  Please forward all cancellation requests to 303-614-1322. 

Set up Policy
It is the responsibility of the group engaging the meeting space to set it up (chairs, tables and equipment) and to put it away at the end of the meeting.  No information is to be posted on walls.

Catering Policy
All catering arrangements including set up and clean up must be made prior to your meeting. 
It is the requestor’s responsibility to make sure the room is left as it was found.

Amenities
The Institute for Health Research (IHR) will not provide coffee, cups, utensils, creamer, sugar or other supplies. 
It is the requestor’s responsibility to make the necessary arrangements.

Audio & Visual Equipment
The IHR will not store or be responsible for AV or other equipment belonging to other groups.  Portable LCD equipment checked out and returned to IHR Admin continues to have missing or broken parts/accessories. As a result there are new procedures in effect starting immediately.

1. You must fill out a "check list" when picking up and when returning an LCD to IHR Administration.
2. If your meeting is very early in the am -- please pick it up the afternoon before.
3. If your meeting runs past office hours in IHR Administration (7:30 am to 5:15 pm), you or someone you designate must return the LCD first thing the next morning and fill out the "check in" sheet. 
4. Equipment will not be dropped off in a room for anyone -- you must check it out appropriately and it becomes your responsibility.
5. Any missing/broken parts/accessories will be charged to the department checking out the LCD.  Replacement charges are as follows:

 Failure to comply with any of the above policies may result in loss of conference room privileges.

Legacy Highlands, HR (Fourth Floor)

Conference Room Use Policy for
Steamboat, Loveland A/B, Keystone, Breckenridge, Winter Park

Availability
The HR conference rooms are available Monday through Friday 7:45 a.m. –  4:45 p.m.  The conference rooms that are located behind locked doors (Keystone, Breckenridge, and Winter Park) cannot be scheduled before or setup before 7:45 a.m.  Meetings must end by 4:45 p.m.  HR’s doors are locked and receptionist is gone at 5:00. There will be no exceptions.  All attendees for meetings behind locked doors must check in at the front desk first. Please be aware that your KP badge will not give you access to the HR doors, nor will you be able to access the Legacy building before 7:00 a.m.  DO NOT PROP THE LOCKED DOORS OPEN FOR ENTRANCE.  The HR area must maintain its security at all times.

In order to schedule meetings in the Steamboat training room, you must contact the Organizational Effectiveness administrative assistant at 303-614-1408.

NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT PUT A HOLD ON OR SCHEDULE ANY ROOMS ON THE 4TH FLOOR BY USING MRM. IF YOU DO NOT USE THIS PROCESS YOUR MEETING WILL BE DELETED!!

Scheduling
You may schedule a conference room by contacting our conference room scheduling line at 303-614-1585 or by sending an e-mail to HR-AdminAssts-Calendar@kp.org. Once the room is scheduled you will receive an email or voicemail confirmation giving the location of your meeting.

Cancellation
Cancellations of room reservations must be made both by phone and e-mail the day before the scheduled meeting.  This will allow us to make the room available to others. Please forward all cancellation requests to
HR-AdminAssts-Calendar@kp.org and by calling 303-614-1585. 

Set-up
It is the responsibility of the group using the meeting space to set it up (chairs, tables and equipment) and to return the room to the previous setup after the meeting.  If you use the whiteboards during your meeting, please make sure to erase all of your information.

Catering
All catering arrangements including set up and clean up must be made prior to your meeting.  It is the responsibility of the requestor to make sure the room is left as it was found.  All items should be removed, tables cleaned, and all trash placed in the grey receptors.  Housekeeping for Legacy does NOT clean up after meetings.

Parking
Please inform all attendees about parking at Legacy. The only spots they can park in are the ones marked ‘Visitor’ or on the 3 level of the parking structure. The building will tow cars parked in reserved parking, which is the 1st and 2nd level.

Amenities
Human Resources does not provide coffee, cups, utensils, creamer, sugar or other supplies. 
It is the requestor’s responsibility to make the necessary arrangements.

Audio & Visual Equipment
HR will not store or be responsible for AV or other equipment belonging to other groups.  HR does not offer LCD, overhead equipment or polycoms for checkout. All of the rooms (with the exception of Winter Park) have built-in equipment. If you need a polycom in Loveland or Steamboat, you must bring one with you.