If You Can't Come to Us, We'll Come to You!
We're sure this month, like every other month, you anxiously ask yourself, “WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE CENSIS CLINICAL TEAM?”
Jill Sweeney, Clinical Educator, finds herself in Salem, Virginia. Now, you might further be asking yourself, “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A MEMBER OF THE CLNICAL TEAM DOING IN SALEM? HUNTING FOR WITCHES?” There is no witch hunting taking place on this trip as Jill finds herself in Salem, Virginia approximately 700 miles southwest of the location of the infamous Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts.
Salem, Virginia is the county seat of Roanoke County and has a population of approximately 25,000 people. Along with its neighboring sister city of Roanoke, it lies in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in the Roanoke Valley. During her time in Salem, Jill was providing training to Sterile Processing Staff at the Salem VA Medical Center. Salem VAMC provides medical care to military veterans in Salem, Roanoke, and surrounding areas.
There are 24 total staff members in SPS at the Salem VA Medical Center. They work 24 hours a day, five days a week, with call on the weekends. On average, the department processes instruments for approximately 10+ surgical cases, fourteen busy clinics, and 6-12 GI/Endo cases each day.
Dayshift staff double check their sterilization records for accuracy.
Top Notch Records
Staff in the SPS Department at Salem VAMC do an amazing job of utilizing CensiTrac with their Sterilization record keeping, having some of the cleanest records that Jill has seen in her travels. All loads are completely resulted, biologicals are tended to properly, and all loads are quality audited to ensure completeness. Way to go, Salem VA Medical Center!
A lot of hard work with some fun mixed in from the afternoon crew!
Fully Staffed - Finally!
While many facilities struggle to fill all their positions, Salem VAMC SPS department is fortunate to be fully staffed at this time, with the last remaining position recently filled by their newly hired Assistant SPS Chief, Brittany Kuilan. Brittany was a CensiTrac user approximately 12 years ago at a different facility and is amazed at the new functionality available since last utilizing our solution. She looks forward to learning more about CensiTrac through additional education and daily use of the system. Welcome back to the CensiTrac family, Brittany!
The SPS Leadership Team
There is a great group of leaders in SPS at the Salem VAMC. Ivana Grgic is the Chief of the Sterile Processing Department and has been with the Salem VA since 2017. Before her current position, she held the roles of Assistant SPS Chief as well as working as a nurse in the OR prior to that. The quality reflected in SPS at the Salem VA can largely be attributed to the focus Ivana and other leaders place on quality and teamwork.
Salem VAMC SPS Leadership Team: (L-R) Chris, Ivana, Brittany, and Jack
The Roanoke Star
An interesting landmark in the Salem/Roanoke area is the Roanoke Star also known as the Mill Mountain Star. The star was constructed in 1949 in an attempt to draw tourism to the area and has earned Roanoke/ Salem the nickname “Star City of the South.” The star is 88 feet tall, sits 850 feet above the city of Roanoke and weighs in at a staggering 60,000 pounds! The star is outlined with neon tubing that can be illuminated in different colors.
Initially plans were only to light up the star at Christmas time, however the star gained popularity that it is now lit up 365 days a year. The star frequently is lit in red, white, and blue for patriotic reasons. It has also been lit entirely in red to indicate tragedies such as area traffic fatalities, JFK’s assassination, 9/11, and the NASA Challenger disaster. There is a live stream of the Roanoke Star so you (or your family and friends) can be on the observation deck admiring the beautiful view of Roanoke Valley.
The beautiful view of the Roanoke Valley from the Roanoke Star's Observation Deck
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