Sals Stars of the Month:
Jonathan Hsiung (Introduced by Sara Unrau)
For Sals Star of the Week, I would like to recognize Jonathan Hsiung. Jonathan is a hardworking, dedicated nurse, with a keen sense of curiosity about what and why things are going the way they are. He does not hesitate to ask questions to make sure he understands the rationale behind any care changes or changes in patient condition. For example, he recently cared for a patient with some unexplained neurological changes that were not explained by any testing that had been completed to date. During multidisciplinary rounds Jonathan questioned whether this could be related to meningitis. After some testing this was confirmed and the treatment plan was adjusted to treat his meningitis. As Dr. Luqman stated, it was his questions that led to making sure the patient was receiving the appropriate treatment. A thank you to Jonathan and his questioning mind. Keep it up! Join me in congratulating Jonathan Hsiung on being Sals Star of the Week.
Justin Poulsen (Introduced by Linda MacLean)
I am pleased to introduce NICT’s Justin Poulsen, General Duty Cardiology Technologist as the Sal’s Star of the week. Justin graduated from the Cardiology Technology Diploma program at Stenberg College in 2020. He secured a part time position at SBH on the day/night shift and jumped into the demanding and often chaotic EKG world. Justin has a friendly and approachable attitude and always looks for the positive in people and situations. He tries to see the bigger picture when confronted with challenges and approaches complex situations with calm. He has great attention to detail and has been valuable in coaching out any new processes with peers. Justin is appreciated as a team player in his flexibility and easy going nature when he is reassigned from area to area. Justin has continued to support our profession by appearing at the Stenberg College information sessions online to speak on the student experience and the employment opportunities in this field. He is an active participant in our department as a part of the social committee in planning events and recognizing special occasions for our team. Recently Justin became our first D/N tech to complete training in Holter analysis. He approached the training with a keen interest, great computer skills and a solid arrhythmia knowledge which allowed him to pick up this modality quickly and accurately. He will lead the night duo initiating Holter analysis on this shift to assist in maintaining the turnaround time goals for NICT.
He commutes daily from Elm Creek Manitoba where he lives with his wife Alex and his dog Dunsten.
Wanda Penner and Michaele Rivet (Introduced by Anita Maric)
I would like to recognize Wanda Penner and Michaele Rivet, Patient Safety Consultants (PSCs) as this week’s Sals Stars of the Week.
Wanda and Michaele are both much valued and respected members of the cardiac team and are an integral part of our patient safety processes. They lead and are heavily involved in the Cardiac Sciences Critical Incident (CI) Review Process and work closely with our program providers, patients and their families, management, and leadership, and other stakeholders to provide patient safety expertise, guidance, and overall support. The PSCs monitor the RL patient safety event reporting system and provide follow-up support to and consultation with the units/areas as patient safety trends and themes arise. Most recently, with a spike in CIs and recent influx of patient safety events, Wanda and Michaele have worked diligently to review these events with our team, identifying several gaps in our processes and procedures, and helped our teams learn from these events, mitigate risks, and make significant strides in our quality improvement and patient safety work across our program.
Wanda and Michaele are an asset to our team. Their leadership and support with the CI process is invaluable. Each CI or patient safety event is thoroughly reviewed including a review of the clinical documentation, interviews with providers, patients and their families, and other key stakeholders to gain all perspectives on the event, the gaps, learnings, and explores ways to mitigate these risks and prevent these events from happening to another patient. The final report prepared by the PSCs highlight the results of the investigation and provide meaningful and actionable recommendations (a roadmap for patient safety and quality improvement) for our program.
Thank you Wanda and Michaele for your patient safety science and quality management systems expertise, your professional independent and unbiased perspective, and for your thoughtful reviews, recommendations and overall support with the patient safety follow-up work! Your people-centered and thoughtful approach to this dynamic and complex work is admirable and sets the bar for excellence. Your passionate advocacy for patient safety and collaborative and caring approach doesn’t go unnoticed. Thank you for facilitating and promoting a culture of safety, learning, and continuous quality improvement for our team.
The Cardiac Sciences team is fortunate and grateful for Wanda and Michaele’s dedication and contributions to our program. It is a true pleasure and honor to work alongside these experts. Thank you, Wanda and Michaele (and your patient safety team), for everything you do to enhance patient safety in our program and health system!
Shout Outs!
Congratulations to Melanie Beauchemin, Physician Assistant, and her husband, Sunny, on the arrival of their new baby girl. Ruby Grace Rooprai was born October 23rd weighing 7lb 14oz. Mom and baby are doing great and bit brother Felix is excited to have a little sister!
This past week was Canadian Patient Safety Week, Oct 24-28, 2022. The theme for this year is “Safer Care for Older Adults”.
Resources: Patient harm in Canadian hospitals? It does happen. | CIHI Now’s the time to “press play on safety conversations” (healthcareexcellence.ca)
November is National Fall Prevention Month. The FPM website has been recently updated with new activities. To access, click on the link:https://www.fallpreventionmonth.ca/
This Month’s Faculty Publications
Hellmuth R Muller Moran, Michael H Yamashita , Rakesh C Arora Reply: Right, wrong, or somewhere in between? JTCVS Open. 2022 Apr 29;11:153. doi: 10.1016/j.xjon.2022.04.037. eCollection 2022 Sep
Monica Parry, Sarah Visintini, Amy Johnston, Tracey Jf Colella, Deeksha Kapur, Kiera Liblik, Zoya Gomes, Sonia Dancey, Shuangbo Liu, Catherine Goodenough, Jacqueline L Hay, Meagan Noble, Najah Adreak, Helen Robert, Natasha Tang, Arland O’Hara, Anice Wong, Kerri-Anne Mullen Peer-support interventions for women with cardiovascular disease: protocol for synthesising the literature using an evidence map BMJ Open. 2022 Oct 5;12(10):e067812. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067812.
Sarah Gibbs, Evan J Wiens, Kunal Minhas One-year outcomes in patients who underwent coronary intravascular shockwave lithotripsy for highly-calcified coronary lesions Indian Heart J. 2022 Oct 8;S0019-4832(22)00144-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ihj.2022.10.001. Online ahead of print.
Evan J Wiens, Meagan Deviaene, Ashish H Shah Clinical Applications of High-Sensitivity Troponin Testing: From Diagnosis to Prognosis Can J Cardiol. 2022 Oct;38(10):1521-1524. doi: 10.1016/j.cjca.2022.05.008. Epub 2022 May 13.
Monica Parry, Sarah Visintini, Amy Johnston, Tracey Jf Colella, Deeksha Kapur, Kiera Liblik, Zoya Gomes, Sonia Dancey, Shuangbo Liu, Catherine Goodenough, Jacqueline L Hay, Meagan Noble, Najah Adreak, Helen Robert, Natasha Tang, Arland O’Hara, Anice Wong, Kerri-Anne Mullen Peer-support interventions for women with cardiovascular disease: protocol for synthesising the literature using an evidence map BMJ Open. 2022 Oct 5;12(10):e067812. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067812.
James O Burton, Andrew J S Coats, Csaba P Kovesdy, Biff F Palmer, Ileana L Piña, Giuseppe Rosano, Manish M Sood, Shelley Zieroth An international Delphi consensus regarding best practice recommendations for hyperkalaemia across the cardiorenal spectrum Eur J Heart Fail. 2022 Sep;24(9):1467-1477. doi: 10.1002/ejhf.2612. Epub 2022 Aug 4.
Raghu S Nagalingam, Sikta Chattopadhyaya, Danah S Al-Hattab, David Y C Cheung, Leah Y Schwartz, Sayantan Jana, Nina Aroutiounova, D Allison Ledingham, Teri L Moffatt, Natalie M Landry, Rushita A Bagchi, Ian M C Dixon, Jeffrey T Wigle, Gavin Y Oudit, Zamaneh Kassiri, Davinder S Jassal, Michael P Czubryt Scleraxis and fibrosis in the pressure-overloaded heart Eur Heart J. 2022 Oct 6;ehac362. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehac362. Online ahead of print
Pedram Hassan-Tash, Umar Ismail, Iain D C Kirkpatrick, Amir Ravandi, Davinder S Jassal, Brett Hiebert, Malek Kass, Richard A Krasuski, Ashish H Shah Correlation of impedance cardiography-derived and cardiac magnetic resonance-derived stroke volumes Curr Probl Cardiol. 2022 Oct 20;101457. doi: 10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2022.101457. Online ahead of print.
Andrija Matetic, Bonnie Ky, Eric H Yang, Phyo K Myint, Muhammad Rashid, Shelley Zieroth, Timir K Paul, Ayman Elbadawi, Mamas A Mamas Prevalence, characteristics and mortality of cancer patients undergoing pericardiocentesis in the United States between 2004 and 2017 Cancer Med. 2022 Oct 20. doi: 10.1002/cam4.5373. Online ahead of print.
Jacqueline Saw, Andrew Starovoytov, Eve Aymong, Taku Inohara, Mesfer Alfadhel, Cameron McAlister, Rohit Samuel, Tejana Grewal, Johandra Argote Parolis, Tej Sheth, Derek So, Kunal Minhas, Neil Brass, Andrea Lavoie, Helen Bishop, Shahar Lavi, Colin Pearce, Suzanne Renner, Mina Madan, Robert C Welsh, Brent M McGrath, Ram Vijayaraghavan, Bryan Har, Reda Ibrahim, Pulkit Chaudhary, Santhi K Ganesh, John Graham, Alexis Matteau, Giuseppe Martucci, Dennis T Ko, Karin Humphries, Gb John Mancini Canadian Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection Cohort Study: 3-Year Outcomes J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022 Oct 25;80(17):1585-1597. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2022.08.759.
Charles Michael Pearman, David Lee, Brianna Davies, Habib Khan, Rafik Tadros, Julia Cadrin-Tourigny, Jason D Roberts, Shubhayan Sanatani, Christopher Simpson, Paul Angaran, Simon Hansom, Erkhan Ilhan, Colette Seifer, Martin Green, Martin Gardner, Mario Talajic, Zachary Laksman, Jeff S Healey, Andrew D KrahnThe Incremental Value of the Signal Averaged ECG for Diagnosing Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy Heart Rhythm. 2022 Oct 13;S1547-5271(22)02491-2. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2022.10.005. Online ahead of print.
Rachel Eikelboom, Michael H Yamashita Commentary: Until the ideal aortic valve prosthesis is invented, pick your poison! J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2022 Nov;164(5):1456-1457. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2020.11.123. Epub 2020 Dec 3.
Abdul Mannan Khan Minhas, Dmitry Abramov, Joshua S Chung, Jay Patel, Mamas A Mamas, Shelley Zieroth, Richa Agarwal, Marat Fudim, David G Rabkin Current status of perioperative temporary mechanical circulatory support during cardiac surgery J Card Surg. 2022 Oct 13. doi: 10.1111/jocs.17020. Online ahead of print.
