July 2006
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Grants, Asthma, Art and more
First hospital Patient Safety and Quality grants
Children's Hospital Boston's Program for Patient Safety & Quality (PPSQ) has awarded its first set of grants to employees for research addressing patient safety and quality of care. The review committee received eight proposals for research projects in Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Community Medicine, Nursing, Endocrinology, Ophthalmology and Cardiology.
The first of the two grants, for $19,055, went to Stephen Porter, MD, MPH, MSc, for a project to improve communication between parents and providers in the Emergency Department (ED). Porter and collaborators Anne Stack, MD, Fran Damian, RN, and Rory St. Pierre, RN, will develop a simple, one-page form on which parents can give information about their child, ask questions and offer their view on what help their child needs. The form, to be refined through interviews with families and providers, will also serve as a checklist to ensure that parents' concerns are addressed, and that they clearly understand how to care for their child once at home. After pilot testing, the plan is to introduce the form into ED care this fall, and eventually to measure its impact on communications and parent satisfaction.
The second grant, for $14,992, went to Elizabeth Woods, MD, MPH, director of Children's Community Asthma Initiative. Woods, with collaborators Ronald Wilkinson MA, MS, Gareth Parry, PhD, and Urmi Bhaumik, DSc, will compare rates of ED visits and admissions for asthma among children living in neighborhoods served by the initiative and other Boston neighborhoods. Comparing neighborhoods will enable the researchers to define the variability in asthma visits and admission rates due to normal yearly fluctuations of allergic and respiratory disease, so the program's impact can be better assessed.
Three additional proposals were tentatively funded, pending revisions. "Proposals were selected based on scientific merit and their alignment with the hospital's quality goals—namely that patient care should be safe, effective, timely, efficient, patient-centered and equitable," says Kathy Jenkins, MD, MPH, director of PPSQ.
The application deadline for the next round of PPSQ grants is October 1. For more information, contact Nina Rauscher, MS, RN, in PPSQ, at ext. 5-6567 or nina.rauscher@childrens.harvard.edu.
Getting active with asthma
Despite the pouring rain on June 3, more than 85 children with asthma and their friends and family members participated in the fifth annual Boston Asthma Games, a collaborative event with Children's Hospital Boston, the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), and the Roxbury YMCA. Kids had a chance to get moving with exercises, shooting hoops, and swimming in the pool, as well as participating in activities to learn about their asthma.
Children's and the BPHC teamed up five years ago to launch the Asthma Health project, designed to provide opportunities for the growing number of Boston children with asthma to be physically active while learning more about their condition in a family-friendly environment.
Anaelle Schabe is a "Kool Kid"
If something at the PEC seems a bit fishy these days, it's because longtime Children's Hospital Boston patient Anaelle Schabe has taken control of the decorating. An art lover, she decided to look into providing art for the hospital after a stay at the hospital last year. "Art cheered me up, and I thought it would cheer other people up," she says of her sixth grade class's project. Several of Anaelle's classmates created works of art with an underwater theme for Children's Art for Kool Kids program. Anaelle worked with her mother, Myriam, Art Consultant Pam Wilkins-Horowitz and Art Coordinator Jessica Finch to bring this refreshing new art to the PEC. On June 14, a reception was held to welcome the artists and to view a video made by student Erin Cohee in which the students were interviewed about their art.
Children's goes wild!
Things got a little wild in the Patient Entertainment Center (PEC) on June 8, as Peter Gros from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom television show showed off creatures ranging from an African fennec fox that skittered across the stage to a Madagascar hissing cockroach. "It's a great way to make the connection with wildlife for children who can't necessarily get out to see it at this point in their lives," says Gros. There were smiles all around at this event, coordinated by Child Life Specialists Kirsten Fowler and Jill Twomey.
