World Breastfeeding Week is Au-gust 1-7. The theme, Breastfeed-ing Support: Close to Mothers, high-lights the importance of providing support to breastfeeding families.

Hartford Hospital is a leader in op-timal infant feeding and support-ive maternity care practices. We are a Baby-Friendly institution, meaning that we support, pro-mote and protect breastfeeding; and meet the criteria established by the World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF).

In 2000, we were named the first

Baby-Friendly Hospital in Con-necticut and the 24th in the U.S.

We have an infant feeding policy on the Intranet that calls for

communicating and implement-ing the “Ten Steps to Success-ful Breastfeeding” to all pregnant women in our prenatal clinics and to the mothers of all babies born at Hartford Hospital.

We also have a special room avail-able on Bliss 6 for any staff mem-bers who need a place to pump breast milk.

Staff members from the Lactation Department are always available to assist you with any questions regarding breastfeeding. Please call us at 860-545-2824.

RxTraA publication for the staff of Hartford Hospital August 5, 2013 Vol. 69 No. 29

August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding Week...

National Minority Donor Aware-ness Week was created to increase awareness of the need for more or-gan, eye, and tissue donors, espe-cially among minorities.

This special observance honors minorities who have been donors, and encourages others to register.

Minorities make up 56% of those currently on the organ donation waiting lists, but only 36% of the U.S. population, and only 30% of all donors. Eighteen people die each day due to lack of organ donors.

African Americans, Asians and Hispanics are three times more likely than Caucasians to suffer from end-stage kidney disease.

Although organs are not matched according to race/ethnicity, and people of different races frequent-ly match, everyone waiting for a transplant will have a better chance of receiving one if there are large numbers of donors from their racial/ethnic background.

“When we started this effort 17 years ago, we were told that mi-norities don’t donate organs,” said Dr. Clive Callender, founder of Mi-nority Donor Awareness Week. “We’ve learned that by overcoming common misconceptions and cre-ating awareness about organ dona-tion, communities come together and take care of each other.”

Kimelyn Greenwood, PAA on B11E, is African American and a regis-tered donor. She’s heard some mis-conceptions that might keep some people from registering as donors, but knows they’re not true.

“I have seen many patients help others through organ and tissue donation, and it happens only after the health care team has exhaust-ed all possi-ble efforts to save the pa-tient’s life,” Greenwood said. “Having seen this first hand, I believe strongly that it would be a terrible waste if after I died, my body wasn’t used to help others in need.”

For more information, please visit: www.donatelife.net

Kimelyn Greenwood

...and National Minority Donor Awareness Week

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Community Benefits: Vicie Brooks, Community Liaison NurseVicie Brooks, RN, BSN, has been an employee of HH for 43 years. She has worked in dietary, as a nurses’ aide, staff nurse and nurse manag-er. But she loves her newest role as Hartford Hospital’s community li-aison nurse, where she is entirely dedicated to promoting health and wellness in the community, and following up with Hartford Hospi-tal’s patients after they go home.

Brooks contacts patients who have been discharged to ensure that they understand their post-hospi-tal orders or medication directives. She said people do better taking care of themselves once they un-derstand the complex information.

“I know most patients appreci-ate my follow-up telephone calls,” Brooks said. “It allows them to ask all their questions, and for me to present Hartford Hospital as an in-stitution that is really concerned about their care.”

Sometimes patients need assis-tance getting follow-up care, or they have concerns about their recovery or wellness. Brooks will speak to them and their fami-ly members, or consult with their doctors. She even makes home vis-its when necessary.

A Reassuring Presence

“There are not enough good words to describe Ms. Brooks,” said Geral-dine Logan from Manchester, who was treated at Hartford Hospital af-ter a stroke. “Just having her come here after I got out of the hospi-tal and explain everything helped me so much. I don’t know what I would have done without her.”

Angie Martin of Hartford agreed.

“Ms. Brooks is helping me with my dialysis, and with my appoint-ments,” she said. “I give her an A-A-A plus. She inspires me to take the best care of myself that I can.”

In addition to working with hos-pital patients, Brooks is also working on mak-ing the communi-ty a healthier place in general. In part-nership with the hospital’s Stroke Center, Heart Fail-ure and Transplant Dietitian and Wal-green’s Pharma-cy, Brooks creat-ed the “Families Walking Together into Better Health” program to pro-mote walking as a no-cost family activity.

This serves to im-prove people’s physical health and promote fam-ily cohesiveness in order to help re-duce the risk of cardiovascular dis-ease, diabetes and obesity.

“I wanted to create the family walking project because of concern about the increase in strokes and younger patients need-ing dialysis,” she said. “I thought that if educating the community about their health issues and pre-senting a simple no-cost physical activity could make a difference, then I wanted to put forth my best efforts into making it happen.”

By improving wellness in this way, health care costs can be lowered and health issues related to inac-tivity can be decreased. The add-ed benefit is that these families are setting a good example and learn-ing valuable health lessons.

The project as been well-received in the community churches and centers.

“I love my new role as Communi-ty Liaison Nurse; it has allowed me to develop relationships with some wonderful people in this commu-nity,” Brooks said.

“Patients see me as representa-tive of Hartford Hospital,” she said. “I was visiting one patient at her home, and she introduced me to her family as her ‘new best friend from Hartford Hospital.’ To me, that says a lot about the value of my role.”

“Vicie just took such good care of me, I knew that I was going to be okay. She is my guardian angel,” said Logan. “People need her.”

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Compliance Questions or

Concerns?If you need to obtain information

about compliance issues or raise

concerns regarding internal and

regulatory practices

or policies, please contact your

supervisor or call the ComplianceLine,

a confidential and toll-free service, at

1-855-HHC-OCAP

or online at HHC.OCAPComplianceLine.com

Hartford Hospital Campus85 Seymour Street, Suite 125(former location of Bank of America)

860.696.0090

Hours: Mon, Wed, Fri: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.Tues, Thurs: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Primary, preventive and urgent care

HHC Employees Can Get 20% Off Tickets To U.S. Gymnastics Championships

United Way Corner: Helping First Time Home Buyers in Hartford

Community Benefits: Vicie Brooks, Community Liaison Nurse

HART’s Home Ownership Made Easy, or HOME Pro-gram, has been providing education and support to first-time home buyers for 20 years. Their goal is to enable participants to buy a home, and help them become successful, long-term homeowners.

The HOME Program features the most effective ho-meownership education programs, is offered in Eng-lish and Spanish, and is HUD and CHFA approved.

The City of Hartford has a very low homeownership rate. Three-quarters of HOME participants close on their first home in Hartford.

HART’s HOME program has maintained a participant mortgage default rate of less than two percent, far less than the general population.

HART now has a Landlord Education class twice a month – once in English and once in Spanish. It is offered free-of-charge and includes handouts and supporting materials. Each class session features expert speakers on landlord and tenant rights and responsibilities.

For more info visit: www.hartofhartford.org/our-work-2/home-program

The 2013 U.S. Gymnastics Champi-onships is coming back to Hartford Aug. 15-18 at the XL Center and features the best gymnasts in the country.

Last year’s champions include 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist and Member of the Fierce Five, Jordyn Wieber, and 2012 Olympian John Orozco.

The roster of former U.S. All-Around Champions is a veritable who’s who of gymnastics, includ-ing: Shawn Johnson, Carly Pat-terson, Courtney Kupets, Shan-non Miller, Dominique Dawes, Kim

Zmeskal and Mary Lou Retton; and Paul Hamm, Blaine Wilson, John Roethlisberger, Mitch Gaylord and Bart Conner.

Because Hartford Health-Care is one of the sponsors of the event, HHC employees can save 20% on single-session tick-ets. Here’s the Ticketmaster link: http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/rrdpoi

ABOVE: Gabby Douglas visited Hart-ford on July 19 to promote the 2013 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, which will be held in Hartford Aug. 15-18.

Happening at Hartford Hospital

Questions or comments about RxTra? Contact editor Annie Emanuelli at aemanuelli@harthosp.org or 860-972-2199

N-95 Respirator Fit TestingThere will be N-95 Res-pirator Fit Testing in the ERD, 4th Floor on:

• Monday, August 5, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m.

• Tuesday, August 6, 1-5 p.m.

• Thursday, August 8, 4-8 p.m.

• Friday, August 9, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Employees who are required to do a yearly N-95 Respirator Fit test will see their due date in HealthStream as their anniversary date of starting at the hos-pital. Please ensure you meet all of the requirements before getting Fit Tested.

Dementia Support and Education Group

The Dementia Support Education Group will meet on Tuesday, August 6 from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the IOL Staunton-Williams Building, Clarke Social. It will be devoted

to sharing successes, challenges and re-sources as caretakers. We welcome new members! Please RSVP to Mary Cameron at ext. 5-7665.

Nite of Lite Laughter - With Jason AlexanderTickets are available now for the WRCH/Hartford Hospital 16th An-nual Nite of Lite Laughter with Jason Al-exander, Friday, Oct. 4 at The Bushnell. All proceeds benefit the Helen & Har-ry Gray Cancer Center. Don’t miss this chance to laugh and celebrate life. Buy your tickets now at www.bushnell.org or call 860-987-5900. For more information, contact Nadia Woodman at 860-545-2161 or nadia.woodman@hhchealth.org.

Homeownership Incentive Program Information We d n e s d a y , August 7 and every Wednes-day until Sep-tember 25, there will be repre-sentatives from SINA (Southside Institutions Neighbor-hood Alliance) in the HH Cafeteria from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with information about our Homeownership Incentive Pro-gram (HIP) and available homes in the area. Through HIP, Hartford Hospital of-fers interest-free loans of up to $10,000 to employees in good standing who wish to buy homes near Hartford Hospital. The HIP loan will be forgiven over the course of five years. Applications are available on the Human Resources Intranet page.

Free Music Thursdays at Blue Back SquareHartford Hospital has partnered with Blue Back Square in West Hartford for their outdoor concert series, A Little Thurs-day Night Music, which offers free sum-mer concerts on Thursday evenings from 7-9 p.m. Bands will play next to Barnes & Noble. On Thursday, Aug. 8, the band will be “Streetlife.”

Poster Presentation By Summer Research Students

Poster presentations of the research proj-ects that were completed by the 17 sum-mer pre-med and research students will be presented on Friday, Aug. 9 from 9-10 a.m. in the ERC, Formal Lounge on the first floor. All staff members are invited.

Free Outdoor MoviesHartford Hospital has partnered with the Farmington Valley Shoppes in Canton to offer free outdoor movies at sunset in the main parking area near the barn. Pre-show entertainment 6-8 p.m. The movie Saturday, Aug. 10 is Madagascar 3.

Beauty Boutique in NewingtonThe Beauty Boutique will be selling pock-etbooks, scarves and other accessories on the fifth floor connec-tor in Newington on Thursday, Aug. 15 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is sponsored by the United Way Special Events Committee.

“Serving Up Hospitality”The Health Science Libraries are offer-ing a Customer Service Class, “Serving Up Hospitality,” on Thursday, Aug. 22 from 2-3 p.m. in the ERC 3rd floor Library Class-room. Instructor will be Sheila Hayes. To register, call/email Sheila at 860-972-2416 or sheila.hayes@hhchealth.org.

Join the Bowling League!The Hartford Hospital Co-ed Bowling League will start on Wednes-day, Sept. 4, and run every Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. until April at the Bowl-O-Rama

on the Berlin Turnpike. (Three person teams.) Cost is $18/week. Please contact Beth Clancy at 696-7028.

Tuition Reimbursement No Longer AvailableUnfortunately, we have reached the bud-get capacity for the fall tuition reim-bursement, so we are no longer accepting fall applications. Please try again for the spring semester.