Blizzards, furloughs take toll, but not commitment to care
Staffers weather the weather just fine
Design team selection moves new CC forward
Annual address set for Feb. 29
CC rounds go nationwide with CenterNet
From the Director: CC staffers pull together during trying times
Chalmers, former CC director, dies Dec. 20
- Classes offered
- Long-time CC volunteer dies
- NICHD needs study participants
- CCM staffers receive award
- Farrar named
- Retirees noted
- Lucas named EO special assistant
- Assistant director for policy chosen
- Mallin tapped as program director
Clinical Center News, Building 10, Room 1C255, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892. (301) 496-2563. Fax: 402-2984. Published monthly for CC employees by the Office of Clinical Center Communications, Colleen Henrichsen, chief. News, articles ideas, calendar events, letters, and photographs are welcome. Deadline for submission is the second Monday of each month. |
Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership's presentation in the design concept competition demonstrated the firm's creativity and technical ability.
Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, a 180-person architectural, planning, and interior design firm based in Portland, features a diverse portfolio of public and private projects in settings ranging from urban centers to university and research campuses.
Representatives from NIH; the project's developer, Boston Properties, Inc.; and experts from both the government and the private sector comprised the selection committee. As part of the selection process, six design teams were invited to participate in a design-concept competition to demonstrate creativity and technical ability. The candidates' models for the proposed facility were on display in the Visitor Information Center in December.
"We sought comments on the designs from throughout the Clinical Center and NIH," says Dr. John Gallin, CC director and selection team member. "We received more than 300 written comments from the NIH community. The selection team and the NIH family both came to the same conclusion in choosing this firm. They were selected based on flexibility of design, integration of the facility with the campus landscape, and adaptability for the future."
The team will devote a year to determining exactly what CC users want and need in their new facility, Dr. Gallin points out. "Staff in all departments and at all levels will be extensively consulted."
Innovation of design will be only one hallmark of the project, he adds. "The CC Renewal Steering Committee proposed and NIH approved hiring a private-sector developer to oversee construction and identify funding sources for this project. That's never been done at NIH before."
Boston Properties, Inc., was selected last August to oversee the project. "We tell the developer what we want and need in a facility and they will coordinate all phases of design, construction, and project management," Dr. Gallin says.
Working with the Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership will be NBBJ, a Seattle architecture firm with specialists in planning health-care facilities; Earl Walls Associates and McLellan and Copenhagen, Inc., California firms with expertise in lab planning; and Metcalf Tobey Davis of Reston, Va., who will provide local coordination.
Go to Board of Governors NIH News Advisory
"We maintained quality patient care for patients throughout the two events," says Dr. John Gallin, CC director. "But the furlough disrupted our business of clinical research. Many exciting plans and projects were put on hold simply because we could only conduct emergency business." Some 20 percent of the CC staff was furoughed.
Patient-care units were consolidated and patients relocated since there were fewer staff members to provide care, and no new patients were admitted. Some patient support services were reduced or canceled. "Furloughs in housekeeping meant that only patient-care areas got proper attention," Dr. Gallin says. "Getting supplies to research labs from the loading docks was a problem since many of the materials management staff were furloughed. Reaching our clinicians by telephone was difficult even though they were here. Callers got answering machines and routine correspondence and requests went unfilled since administrative staff were not allowed to work."
Accumulating snow brought down the canopy at the CC library entrance and heavy winds toppled one of the giant umbrellas on the sun deck, but otherwise the building weathered the snow storm with little damage.
Some 77 volunteers with all-wheel-drive vehicles ferried 200 patients and employees between the CC and home during the blizzard's worst, and 580 employees spent at least one night at the hospital. Admissions personnel fielded close to 1,000 phone calls a day, many from patients around the country whose pending hospital visits coincided with the blizzard.
It was the phone calls‹up to a thousand a day‹that makes Rhonda Hewitt shake her head and smile.
The Outpatient Department administrative assistant was on duty during the blizzard that flash-froze any hope of a normal routine in early January. Fielding calls from patients from all over the country wanting to know if the CC was open, volunteers with four-wheel drive vehicles, and staff members needing transportation accounted for most of those calls.
Coordinating in-house accommodations for staffers electing to spend the night was added to Outpatient Department duties. "It was interesting," Hewitt says, "everybody came together. They were nice, cordial, joking about getting wake-up calls and breakfast in bed."
"We had to do bed checks in the evening," adds Charmaine Marchan, Outpatient Department administrative assistant. "People would make popcorn and invite us to chitchat. Everyone was laughing, getting along. It was nice to see. It did more than any seminar could to bring people together." The overnighters nicknamed Marchan "den mother," and the camaraderie was infectious. "I met people I always see in the halls, but never knew their names. I remember thinking, ŒI'm glad I'm here.'"
"We focused on patient-care units, the OR, and special procedures areas," she said, "and tried to keep the entrances mopped. It meant that we all pitched in and did everything."
But there was time for a little fun, too. "When things were slow, we ate together in the locker room, potluck style. We worked and laughed like family. It made me very proud of all our people."
"Patients on some protocols have to be apheresed at a certain time and we want to do everything we can to make sure we are here when they need us," she points out.
That's why she spent part of the blizzard camped out in the transfusion medicine department. "If we skip one part of a protocol, the patient may have to start over," she explains. "Continuity is the key. We've come this far with the patients and that's why we're here."
That drill took Sands and his four-wheel-drive all across the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia picking up staff and taking them back home.
When one patient in the District on a drug development protocol needed some blood drawn, Sands and another nurse headed out. "If you miss a stage of the protocol, the protocol is ruined," he explains.
"We were coming and going all the time," he adds. "As long as there was more snow than cars, it was fun."
A medical technologist in DTM's immunology section, Chen does hepatitis viral screening for blood donors and patients.
"I was on the backup schedule, but I was sure my coworker wouldn't be able to make it in," she explains. Chen, her husband, and teenaged son started digging out of their Virginia home on Sunday for the trip to the CC on Monday.
Out before the snow plows, the Chen family cleared their street by hand with shovels. "We know things have to be done," she says. "I was committed."
Many of the nurses were in the same boat, staying for at least one overnighter. "Our patients thought it was wonderful, saying they were glad we got to see what it's like to be here overnight. Nurses have had to do this before, usually for not such a long time. It was a close-knit group, congenial and supportive."
And the snow enhanced the "kid" in some of the unit's pediatric patients. One went down to the sun deck and stamped out messages to the 13th floor staff in the snow. The same patient tiptoed in to wake sleeping nurses with a chipper "time for your temperature," Corey adds with a laugh.
"One mom staying in the Children's Inn even cooked a meal for us and it was welcome."
He and colleague Wayne G. Griffin decided to just stay put during the historic blizzard. "There were only two of us that weekend," Gourdine explains, "when normally there are four. If we left, I wasn't sure we could get back and patient care would suffer. I was glad I didn't have to be out in the snow, glad to be able to make a difference. We kept things open and rolling. It was a team effort, and we couldn't have done it by ourselves."
Interactive presentations by Dr. Steven Rosenberg, NCI chief of surgery, and Dr. Mark Hallett, NINDS clinical director, will be broadcast live at noon on Feb. 14 to 50 of the country's medical schools.
Rounds are presented in Lipsett Amphitheater. Seating for overflow attendees will be in Masur Auditorium.
CenterNet is a joint project of Healthcare Management Television and the Association of Academic Health Centers. Five of the CC Grand Rounds will be carried by the network in 1996.
I commend and thank those of you who put in the extra effort to keep the Clinical Center functioning during both events. I also appreciate the patience and perseverance demonstrated by those of you who were furloughed. It has been a stressful time full of uncertainty.
One source of uncertainty was removed when funding for NIH was approved for the remainder of the year. The $11.9 billion budget approved by Congress represents a 5.7 percent increase over FY95 levels, which is terrific news for the Clinical Center. Secure funding through September 30 means that we will not be vulnerable to any other furloughs this year. It also means that we can continue with architectural design and initial construction planning of the new clinical research center.
Plans for the new building, results of the Options Team review of the Clinical Center, proposals to strengthen our mission, and recent initiatives are among the topics I plan to cover during the Director's Annual Address and Awards Ceremony Feb. 29 at 2 p.m. in Masur Auditorium. I look forward to seeing you there.
He left NIH to serve as president of the Mount Sinai Medical Center and dean of the School of Medicine, posts he held until 1983.
Dr. Chalmers' Dec. 23 New York Times obituary quoted Dr. John W. Rowe, president of the Mt. Sinai Medicine Center: "[Chalmers] forced doctors to be intellectually rigorous about the treatments they recommended. He set the stage nationally for using randomized clinical tests rather than anecdote to determine treatment methods."
Throughout his career, Dr. Chalmers was an advocate of controlled clinical trials to evaluate drugs and therapeutic techniques. His primary research interests while at the CC were liver disease, clinical trials, and epidemiology. Under his guidance, the Mt. Sinai medical school established the country's first department of geriatrics. He developed the department of biostatistics there, now the department of biomathematical sciences, and pioneered the use of meta-analysis in medical research. The approach pools and analyzes results of similar studies conducted independently.
After leaving Mt. Sinai, Dr. Chalmers held positions at Harvard, Tufts, and Boston University, and served as chairman of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center from 1983-1993. In 1992, he founded a company‹Meta Works‹that used meta-analysis to study the effectiveness of treatment of diseases such as heart disease and cancer.
The son and grandson of doctors, Dr. Chalmers was born in Forest Hills, N.Y., attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University, and earned the M.D. degree from Columbia University in 1943. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Frances Talcott of West Lebanon, N.H., and four children. Memorial services were held Jan. 5 at Tufts Medical School in Boston.
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The logistics of making sure that there was always a place for the more than 500 staffers who overnighted brought some unexpected dividends.
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It was hectic, but Housekeeping and Fabric Care Department members stuck together, adds Jean Green, department assistant chief.
Department members also had to make sure rooms for CC staffers were cleaned. Since the rooms were used in shifts, that meant at least two check-out cleanings a day.
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De Gladden is a Department of Transfusion Medicine nurse who works with patients who need apheresis, the process of separating whole blood into components.
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Dan Sands, Nursing Department, welcomed the chance to put his year-old, four-wheel-drive to the test. "There was no snow last year and I was disappointed" he admits with a laugh. "That Sunday morning I showed up at the admissions desk. I've been a staff nurse and a head nurse, so I know the snow-emergency drill."
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To staffers like Marina Chen, there's a simple reason for reporting to work despite crippling weather: "Patients and staff depend on us."
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Barbara Corey, head nurse for both 13 West and the 13th floor clinic, stayed for the long haul. "I was on call for the [nursing] service, had worked on Saturday, and just came on back in on Sunday."
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Richard L. Gourdine, a phlebotomist in the Clinical Pathology Department, has weathered the Clinical Center's last four snow storms and he wasn't about to miss this one.Annual address set for Feb. 29
Mark your calendars for Feb. 29 at 2 p.m. in Masur Auditorium. That's when Dr. John Gallin, CC director, will present his annual address and preside over an awards ceremony. He plans to update employees on CC initiatives, including results of the Options Team review and plans to strengthen the CC mission.CC rounds go nationwide with CenterNet
CC Grand Rounds will go nationwide again this month as its cooperative program with CenterNet, the Academic Health Center Network, continues.
From the director: CC staffers pull together during trying times
by Dr. John I. Gallin
CC Director
It has been a season of the un-precedented. Just as the government prepared to shift back into gear following the longest shutdown in history, the Blizzard of Œ96 buried us in snow. It proves that the "politics of nature" can be just as unpredictable as the "nature of politics."Chalmers, former CC director, dies Dec. 20
Dr. Thomas C. Chalmers, CC director and NIH associate director for clinical care from 1970-1973, died Dec. 20 at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. He was 78.News briefs
€Learning from Conflict, a class covering the seven stages of the conflict cycle, common reactions, causes, and methods for resolving conflict. Feb. 13, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., 6100 Executive Blvd.
€Illness Across the Life Span: An Interdisciplinary Educational Series. Participants will gain an understanding of how the special needs, behaviors, and issues related to specific age groups apply to patient care. Feb. 20, noon-1 p.m., Lipsett Amphitheater.
On tap for March are:
€Motivating Your Employees, offering a theoretical and practical framework for developing supervisory and management skills. It fulfills the 40-hour training requirement for probationary supervisors. March 4, 6, 8, 12, and 14, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., 6100 Executive Blvd.
€Illness Across the Life Span: An Interdisciplinary Educational Series. March 19, noon-1 p.m., Lipsett Amphitheater.
Call 496-1618 for details on these and other classes.
A world traveller by nature and design, Dr. Goldenberg retired Dec. 31 after working 36 years in and around hospitals across the nation.
Recently returned from a pleasure trip to Japan, Dr. Goldenberg says there is more to life than what we see in our own backyards. "We are not the only culture on this planet," he explains. "It's good to put yourself in another culture and experience a different way of life."
Understanding other cultures and viewing life from other perspectives is what motivated him with his first job and what leads him to travel all over the world today. He has visited 29 different countries so far, and plans to visit many more.
After earning a Ph.D. in microbiology from Yale University in 1960, Dr. Goldenberg began his career in Hawaii fighting an outbreak of the plague. What followed that first year in Hawaii became a decade of plague study for the CDC in San Francisco and then Colorado, including a month on a team fighting an epidemic of bubonic and pneumonic plague in central Java.
"I have always felt that the work I've done has been worthwhile," Dr. Goldenberg says. "Whether I was working as a bench scientist or an administrator, some purpose was served that improved lives."
Improving the future lives of federal prison inmates was one rewarding task for Dr. Goldenberg when he was director of the clinical laboratory at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri in 1970.
"Along with operating a clinical laboratory for the 1000-bed hospital, we trained inmates to be laboratory technologists. And it was so successful that 95 percent of the inmates we trained did not return to prison. We gave them a skill they could use in just about any hospital laboratory, so they could earn an honest living when they left prison."
Over the years, Dr. Goldenberg has worked for various PHS agencies across the United States. He was chief of the human resources section in the Bureau of Medical Services, where he staffed the PHS hospitals and outpatient clinics with physicians and other health professionals. In the Health Resources and Services Administration he administered grants given to hospitals for training physicians in family medicine. In 1985 he came to the NIH as the Clinical Center's assistant director for special programs, overseeing the normal volunteer patient program, the NIH medical staff fellowship program, the clinical elective program for medical and dental students, and working on special initiatives in the Office of the Associate Director for Quality Assurance and Medical Education. Three years later, he was named the executive secretary of the Medical Board, the committee that provides advice to the director to ensure that the medical care given here is of the highest quality.
Retiring is nothing new to Dr. Goldenberg; he retired once before in 1989 after 30 years in the Commissioned Corps. But that retirement didn't stick. At the request of the then CC director, Dr. John Decker, he returned to continue his work with the Medical Board.
He also organized the CC's Board of Scientific Counselors and served as its executive secretary, and he wrote and maintained the administrative and medical administrative policies that guide the Clinical Center's operation.
Dr. Goldenberg and his wife, NCI microbiologist Sarah K. Goldenberg (who has no intention of retiring), have two grown children, two grandchildren, and one grandchild "due to arrive in March."
"We have a list of countries we want to visit," Dr. Goldenberg says. "And I have books to read, lots of work to do around the house and in the garden, a stamp collection to catalogue, and grandchildren to visit. I'm going to be very busy."‹by Laura Bradbard
DeCederfelt joined the department as a student in 1987 and went on to become a pharmacy technician. That experience led him to pursue his degree in pharmacy at Howard University. He joined the department as a pharmacist last summer. Recent projects have included rebuilding the department's work area to include increased shelf capacity and efficiency and expansion and reorganization of the department's computer system. He also initiated audit procedures in support of the department's first formal quality assurance programs.
Wallace, a pharmacy technician, was named for her commitment to both the department and CC patients. Her citation noted that she had provided new ideas to improve departmental work flow. She has received two promotions in her two years as a CC employee.
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Last modified 2/6/96
