Cherry Hospital is one of only two psychiatric hospitals in North Carolina to be named among 1,099 hospitals nationwide for exemplary performance on specific quality measures during the 2012 calendar year. 

As one of The Joint Commission’s Top Performers on Key Quality Measures, Cherry placed in the top 33 percent of the eligible hospitals in the United States that report performance data to the Commission, the nation’s leading accreditor of healthcare organizations.

The recognition is for Cherry’s use of evidence-based clinical processes for Inpatient Psychiatric Services. To earn the designation, a hospital must achieve a score of 95 percent or higher for its composite performance score and on each individual area that comprises its assessment. Each accountability measure represents an evidence-based practice.

“The Joint Commission’s Top Performer distinction highlights Cherry Hospital’s tremendous commitment to delivering the best care for its patients,” said Luckey Welsh, interim director of the DHHS Division of State Operated Healthcare Facilities and CEO of Cherry Hospital. “I congratulate our Clinical Director Jim Mayo, M.D., and the rest of the team for their exemplary performance and commitment to quality.”

Cherry Hospital will be recognized on the Joint Commission’s Quality Check website at qualitycheck.org . The Top Performer program also will be featured in December issues of The Joint Commission Perspectives and The Source.

The 190-bed inpatient psychiatric hospital serves the citizens of 38 eastern North Carolina counties and it is one of three state-run psychiatric hospitals in North Carolina.

A team effort by leadership and managers at the Division of Information Resource Management has grown from managers feeding employees, to the entire division helping to make sure food is on the tables this Christmas for hungry North Carolina families.

Division Director Karen Tomczak asked her managers to pitch in and help provide and serve a pre-Thanksgiving meal for employees on Nov. 21 at Haywood Gym on the Dix Campus. The turnout was heavy. In all 186 people were fed including the DHHS Privacy and Security Office staff.

The same team that organized the meal is now involved in a food drive, collecting canned and boxed food for the Food Bank of North Carolina.

“This idea came up out of the committee,” said Sherri Lyons Brooks, who, along with Joann Robertson, served on the committee chaired by Janice Warren. “We knew the food bank stocks were depleted, and we wanted to help replenish them.”

The project has already resulted in three boxes becoming full of canned and dry foods, and promises to fill many more before the collection ends on Dec. 13. DIRM staff invites your participation. The boxes are inside the lobby of the Anderson Building, 695 Palmer Drive, on the Dix Campus in Raleigh. 

If you are interested in contacting the Food Bank to see how you or a group may help, find the contact link for central and eastern North Carolina locations on the Food Bank website: www.foodbankcenc.org

You will have the opportunity to chat with DHHS’ Director of Mental Health, Dave Richard, about the McCrory Administration’s Crisis Solutions Initiative on Monday, December 2 at 3:30pm EST, during a Twitter town hall.

A Twitter town hall, or Twitter chat, provides a way for people to discuss a topic of common interest in real time, connected by an identifier called a “hashtag” (e.g., #ncmentalhealth).

To view the discussion, you may go to  www.ncdhhs.gov/ and watch the comment stream on the right side of the page. You may also follow the discussion by directing your browser to www.twitter.com/#ncmentalhealth. DHHS office of communication staff will capture comments and send a summary of the discussion to you.

You need to have a Twitter account to post comments to the discussion. Instructions for setting up an account and posting comments are attached.

You may sign-up to receive updates about the initiative at  http://www.ncdhhs.gov/signup.htm.

Three DHHS employees of the Office of Emergency Medical Services were recognized Tuesday, Nov. 12, for their life saving actions on Oct. 14 when a customer collapsed outside the Farmer’s Market Restaurant in Raleigh in cardiac arrest.

The three – Wally Ainsworth, OEMS Central Regional Office manager, Chuck Lewis, OEMS Western Regional Office manager and OEMS Assistant Chief Tom Mitchell – were honored by the American Heart Association (AHA) with the “Heart Saver” award during a meeting of the N.C. Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council on the Dorothea Dix Campus in Raleigh.

Lewis, Mitchell and Ainsworth – each with more than 20 years as paramedics – were dining at the restaurant when they noticed a lady who had been sitting near them had left and collapsed outside the restaurant. A nurse had initiated CPR and the three took over when they arrived. They took turns performing CPR while awaiting an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, an AED machine was used to restore her heartbeat. She was talking as responders as they loaded her onto the ambulance.

In the photo above, the three OEMS employees are joined by the presenters and all the uniformed officers who responded to and assisted with the 911 call that resulted in a life saved with no apparent neurological damage:

Front row: (left to right) Vern Davenport, AHA Triangle Metro board member,  Ainsworth, Lewis. Mitchell, and Todd Baker, AHA representative to the EMS Advisory Council; second row, Eric Hoffman, Pete Gitto, Kevin Ricks, Lisa Pope, Wesley Marshall and Mark Quale, Wake County Emergency Medical Services; third row, Joshua Fuller, Wake EMS.911 operator, Carl Hardee and Todd Gautier, Raleigh Fire Department; and top row: Thomas Zlockie, Michael Taylor, Daniel Hicks, Matthew Kohr and Brian Harris, Raleigh Police Department.

Left to right, Kathy Peterson, executive director, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; Palle Thorsen, corporate vice president, Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Denmark; DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos; Dr. Monet Sifford-Wilson, medical director, Novo Nordisk Inc., Princeton, N.J.; Justin Thomas, outreach for eastern North Carolina, American Diabetes Association; Clayton Mayor Jody McLeod.

DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos joined representatives of the Novo Nordisk facility, local Johnston County officials, the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation on Nov. 14 to present a proclamation from Governor McCrory recognizing the date as “World Diabetes Day” in North Carolina.

At the event, Dr. Wos encouraged citizens to learn the signs and symptoms of diabetes, consult with their health provider and to get screened for diabetes if recommended. 

“Diabetes affects more than 10 percent of the adult population in our state and is our 7th leading cause of death,” said Dr. Wos. “The Department of Health and Human Services is actively working with local health departments and community partners to educate and teach people with diabetes about improving their health and managing their disease.”

The annual recognition is held each year as a way of raising public awareness to the serious and growing problem that diabetes has become. The event was held at the Novo Nordisk pharmaceutical plant in in Clayton which recently broke ground for a major expansion.

On Nov. 7, DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos announced the McCrory Administration’s Crisis Solutions Initiative, a new statewide effort to improve mental health and substance abuse crisis services in North Carolina.

Click here to watch Secretary Wos’ remarks.

For remarks from Dave Richard, director of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, click here.

For remarks from Brent Myers, director of Wake County EMS, click here.

For remarks from Bill Roper, CEO of UNC Health Care System, click here.

DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos announced Nov. 7 the McCrory Administration’s Crisis Solutions Initiative, a new statewide effort to improve mental health and substance abuse crisis services in North Carolina. This initiative will bring healthcare, government, law enforcement, and community leaders together to identify help for individuals experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis so they receive the most effective care.

“Improving mental health and substance abuse services is a top priority of our administration,” said Governor Pat McCrory. “By bringing people together to implement strategies that work, we can better serve the thousands of North Carolinans who struggle with mental illness and substance abuse.”

Secretary Wos was joined by Dave Richard, director of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, as well as Dr. Brent Myers, director and medical director of the Wake County EMS System, and Dr. Bill Roper, CEO of UNC Health Care, at the announcement event at the WakeBrook Crisis Center in Raleigh.

“With today’s announcement, we begin a focused, long-term effort to ensure that individuals and families who are experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis know where to turn for the help they need,” said Secretary Wos. “In turn, we can begin to reduce the tremendous burden that these issues place on hospital emergency departments and law enforcement.”

Each year, there are an estimated 150,000 visits to emergency departments in North Carolina related to an acute psychiatric or addictive disorder crisis.  13 percent of patients with a mental health crisis who are treated in an emergency department will return within 30 days.  In addition, national studies indicate that about 17 percent of people in jail have a serious mental illness. 

As a part of this initiative, a Crisis Solutions Coalition will be created to address the inefficiencies that currently exist surrounding crisis services in the state. Secretary Wos has charged Dave Richard, director of the DHHS Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disability and Substance Abuse Services, with leading this coalition. Patient advocates, along with leaders from healthcare, government, and law enforcement communities will be invited to join the coalition to help:

• Recommend and establish community partnerships to strengthen the continuum of care for mental health and substance abuse services. 
• Promote education and awareness of alternative community resources to the use of emergency departments. 
• Make recommendations related to data sharing to help identify who, when and where people in crisis are served, and what the results of those services are. 
• Create a repository of evidence-based practices and provide technical assistance to Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations (LME/MCOs), law enforcement and providers on how to respond to crisis scenarios. 
• Recommend legislative, policy and funding changes to help break down barriers associated with accessing care. 
• Assist with the creation of LME-MCO Local Business Plans to provide a roadmap for mental health investments in the community. 

“By bringing all stakeholders together, we can begin to focus our resources and energy on solutions that already are working in some of our local communities,” said Dave Richard.  “This effort is about finding practical solutions that will allow us to move away from a crisis-based system to one that is truly focused on patient outcomes.”

A primary goal of the Crisis Solutions Initiative is to ensure that individuals experiencing an acute mental health or substance abuse crisis receive timely specialized psychiatric treatment in coordination with available and appropriate community resources. The initiative seeks to identify ways to expand existing best practices that have been proven to work on the local level, such as: 

• Walk-In Crisis Centers and Short-Term Residential Treatment Options 
• Youth Mental Health First Aid 
• Person-Centered Crisis Prevention Plans 
• Telepsychiatry 
• EMS Pilot Programs 
• Crisis Intervention Teams 

“It is tremendously important to Wake County that we find ways to help people in crisis receive the treatment they need, in the right place, from the right provider, the first time,” said Dr. Brent Myers. “Our comprehensive, community-wide approach includes partnerships with hospitals, mental health facilities, detox facilities, and the Capital Care Collaborative so that patient’s encountered by EMS may choose from a menu of services rather than be transported only to an emergency department that may not have the resources to address the cause of their crisis.  This concept, referred to as Mobile Integrated Healthcare, is receiving national attention and can be replicated in other communities.”

At the center of this initiative is a new scorecard system to help track the progress and success of these initiatives in three key areas over time:

• Percentage of emergency department visits for primary diagnoses related to mental health or substance abuse issues; 
• Wait times in emergency departments for inpatient psychiatric and substance abuse placement; 
• Number of individuals with mental health crises, who have been admitted to emergency departments that are readmitted within 30 days. 

“I want to thank Governor McCrory, Secretary Wos and the Department of Health and Human Services for their commitment to this issue,” said Dr. Bill Roper, CEO of UNC Health Care. “We look forward to partnering with you and the community to solve the mental health problems facing our state.”

North Carolina Hospital Association President Bill Pully added: “NC hospitals support the renewed efforts of Secretary Wos and the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce the amount of time behavioral health patients spend in emergency departments. Hospitals know first-hand that the current system of care for North Carolinians with behavioral health needs is dysfunctional and unsustainable. We look forward to working with the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services, the Local Management Entities and Managed Care Organizations and other stakeholders to develop and implement concrete, cost-effective, and evidence based, steps to improving the behavioral health service delivery system in NC for all North Carolinians.”

• Click here for a fact sheet about North Carolina’s mental health and substance abuse challenges. 
• Click here to download an in-depth overview of the new Crisis Solutions Initiative. 

Instead of adding on pounds, you and your DHHS coworkers are invited to join the eighth annual Eat Smart, Move More…Maintain, don’t gain! Holiday Challenge. Rather than focusing on trying to lose weight, this free six-week challenge provides participants with tips, tricks and ideas to help maintain your weight throughout the holiday season. The challenge begins Nov. 25 and runs through Dec. 31.

How to join: Sign-up at  https://esmmweighless.com/holiday-challenge-live/ . Click ‘Sign Up Today’ and enter your email address. All participant information is kept confidential. Once you join you will have access to:

• A calorie counter, a food log and an activity log to track your progress.

• A chance to receive bonus healthy holiday recipes if you sign up early and complete the pre-survey.

• Six free weekly emailed newsletters with tips to

• Manage holiday stress

• Fit physical activity into your day

• Cook quick and healthy meals

In 2012, more than 3,960 people from 40 different states and Canada took part of the challenge, and 72 percent were first time participants. At the end of the program, 71 percent reported maintaining their weight. In addition, 20 percent reported losing 3 to 5+ pounds.

The Eat Smart, Move More…Maintain, don’t gain! Holiday Challenge is a part of Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less, an online 15-week weight management program using strategies proven to work for weight loss and weight maintenance.

The Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less program was developed by N.C. State University and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Public Health.

For questions or comments, please contact Madison Fehling at Madison.Fehling@dhhs.nc.gov or 919-707-5398.

Muhammad Mackalo and Elizabeth Newcomb

Two DHHS employees are among recent graduates of the Certified Public Manager Program.  Without strong leadership, few organizations succeed. This rule certainly holds true for N.C. state and local government organizations.

For the past 16 months, Muhammad Mackalo a former Public Health Epidemiology employee, and Elizabeth Newcomb, of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, are among select managers from across North Carolina state and local government organizations who worked to improve their skills and become better leaders through participation in the Certified Public Manager Program (CPM).

The two were honored during graduation ceremonies on Oct. 7 and presented their certificates by DHHS Recruitment, Engagement and Retention Manager Nina Davit.

The Certified Public Manager Program is intended to increase the effectiveness, efficiency and productivity of NC state and local government organizations by improving the leadership abilities of employees in management positions. Improving the skills of managers will carry through to all employees and help government organizations better serve our clients and citizens across North Carolina. To complete this program, each manager must complete 300 hours of course work and a service delivery improvement project within their own organization.  

This is the 35th class to complete the program since it began in 1981. The Certified Public Manager designation is granted by authority of the National Certified Public Manager Consortium, which has reviewed and accredited the NC Certified Public Manager Program.

Following his off-duty passion of 29 years, Jeff Horton has traveled – with camera – to national parks in the West and even to Colombia, South America, composing and recording the amazing landscapes that he saw. But it was a photograph of a rolled bale of hay on a Johnston County farm that he shot at sunset last Dec. 1 that won him a prize. He won the Award of Excellence earlier this fall at the 15^th annual Art Faire competition sponsored by Clayton Visual Arts. It came with a cash prize of $750.

The photograph he named “Late Fall on the Farm” is a sandwich of digital images captured by his lens and camera back of the same view using exposures of varied lengths. The different exposure settings enhance the detail and illumination of the subject without affecting the composition.

Newer cameras and some smart phones offer HDR (High Dynamic Range) imagery by overlaying multiple exposures of the same image. Horton’s equipment and software take the process to a higher level that provides even more striking results.

For those who keep track of such things, he shot the photo using a Nikon D3X set at ISO 200 using a Nikon 24-120 f/4 AF-S lens at 32mm, aperture f/16 and shutter speeds (seconds) of ½, 1/3, 1/6, 1/13 & 1/25 or (+2, +1, 0, -1, -2 bracketed exposures). He also used a circular polarizing filter.

When all the processing was completed, he had a RAW image file of about 150 MB that he reduced to 24 MB, and finally to 3 to 4 MB – about the size of a digital image available on most point-and-shoot cameras. Here are the shooter’s details on the hay photograph:  

It was 1986 when Horton bought his first single lens reflex (SLR) camera – a Nikon F-2E, and he’s been capturing images and trading his equipment up to professional quality since 1990, and switching from film to digital formats along the way, and finding lenses that work best for his compositions.

His work days are spent in a fully different world, yet one where attention to detail is just as important. He is assistant director for compliance in the Division of Medical Assistance where he is over the Program Integrity Unit, which combats Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse.

Employee training and associated record keeping across DHHS are becoming centralized for the first time through a new system for training and development via the NC Learning Center, made available department-wide on Nov. 7.

No more trips to a centralized training facility distant from your work station. Training is now available online, from your work station, or from a training room near your work area. The NC Learning Center is a result of a state government-wide project called Learning Management System that has been phased in across state government departments starting last spring. DHHS joined the new system this month.

“We are fortunate to have this excellent tool to leverage,” said DHHS Director of Human Resources Mark Gogal. “With the new system individuals can more efficiently register for needed training, as well as access information about their training history starting in 2014.”

The new system will provide access to records of all individual training set up through the NC Learning Center. Previous training records will remain in their original formats, retrievable via local HR shops.

NC Learning Center replaces the de-centralized process in which each division and state-operated facility had one or more methods for monitoring and reporting training information. The systems in use included DOS, data bases such as Access and Excel, as well as paper files.

“This is a sorely needed integrated learning information system ” Gogal said. “It brings improvements in access, oversight and accountability as well as efficiencies through the sharing of learning throughout DHHS. These all bring value to the department and its employees, as well as the public we all serve.”

The Center is operated by the state Office of Human Resources (formerly OSP). Within DHHS, the new system has going through beta testing at Cherry Hospital, where training for employees there is being added to the system.

The NC Learning Center is accessed through your Beacon logon and NCID. Select the ‘learning’ tab at the top of the screen to be directed to your personal page in the NC Learning Center. Your transcript will contain a tutorial to the system (16min) which demonstrates how to navigate and request training.

In the coming months human resources staff will be loading training courses for divisions and other state operated facilities into the system, with a goal to have it all completed by next summer.