Capital Area United Way
By Gay Middleton, Medical Library

The Capital Area United Way Campaign at Woman’s Hospital is beginning.  Chair, Marree Saltaformaggio, encourages all employees to support the agencies in our 10-parish area that provide services for newborns, youth and the elderly through building healthy, strong communities.  Your donation improves and strengthens the lives of so many. The vision of Woman’s Hospital: Together we are  building a patient-centered community of extraordinary people and exceptional care, gives us the opportunity to invest in our community in another way, through the United Way.

The theme for this year’s campaign is: Moving in the Right Direction.  Watch for UW highway signs to direct you to activities for this year, which include our regulars: raffles for a garage parking space, 24 hours of PTO, plus grand raffles for a Nortech Navigation System and a cruise to the Bahamas!  Prizes will be drawn in the Cafeteria on Fridays and include gifts from: Auto Zone, Tire Kingdom, and Cortana Mall, to name a few. The grand finale will be the Jambalaya Lunch on the Plaza prepared by an award-winning cooking team, plus the drawing for the “grand” raffle prizes.

Your area solicitor will provide a pledge card, raffle tickets, and any other information.  Serving on this year’s committee are:  Nikki Fox, NICU; Lisa Booth, Surgery; Kathryn Trick, Accounting; Gay Middleton, Medical Library; Brian Watkins, Human Resources;  Pam Ellis, Managed Care; Kelly Kyle, Corporate Communications; and last, but not least, our “Change Bandit”, Orlando Demoss, Environmental Services. Watch for special promotions in your area.

Help us provide help where it is needed most, to the 50-member agencies, who serve our area.

Merit Increases & Segment Reviews
By Donna Bodin
Over the past few weeks, the Human Resources staff has received inquiries regarding merit increases and bonuses, and compensation segment reviews. If you have questions not addressed in this message, please contact your HR Representative.

Merit Increases and Merit Bonuses
There are no plans to discontinue annual merit increases and merit bonuses awarded as a result of performance evaluation scores. Employees may choose to convert any portion of the merit increase into a merit bonus. See Human Resources Policy 230 for complete details.

Compensation Segment Reviews
First, some explanation about compensation segments:

All jobs throughout the organization are grouped into segments.

Each segment is comprised of jobs with similar qualifications and/or responsibilities. For example, all patient care nurses are in one segment, all clinical technical jobs (nursing assistants, nurse aides, phlebotomists, etc.) are in another.

There are seven segments, and one segment is reviewed every three months. Because of the number of segments and the rotation schedule, the pay grade assignment of every job is reviewed at least once every two years. This review schedule and process may be postponed or discontinued at the hospital’s discretion.

The compensation review consists of comparing our pay grade assignments to local market rates for each job in the segment. In instances where market data isn’t available, specific criteria for each job is compared to other similar jobs within the organization in order to assign a comparable pay grade.

If the value of a job within the local job market changes substantially, an out-of-segment review may be conducted.

Not all jobs reviewed will receive a pay grade and salary adjustment as a result of the review.

Market and/or job analysis must justify an upgrade, and any recommendation by Human Resources for pay grade adjustments is subject to an administrative review/approval process.

In fiscal year 2007, three segments were reviewed. Due to financial issues relating to lower patient volumes during the past four months, compensation segment reviews were temporarily suspended. It is important to remember that these regularly scheduled market reviews are unique - other local hospitals do not conduct regular market reviews like Woman's does. But, at times, the additional expense of the reviews must be weighed against how our overall compensation and benefits package compares to other employers within the local market. It would not be a wise decision to implement pay grade increases and the resulting salary adjustments for a few jobs at the expense of limiting or discontinuing employee discounts, merit increases and bonuses, retirement, insurance and the array of additional benefits that all employees enjoy.

Market analysis is currently being conducted for two segments – patient-care nursing and managerial/supervisory jobs. Any pay adjustments resulting from the nursing reviews were reflected on the October 5^th paycheck, or will be reflected on the October 19^th paycheck for the managerial/supervisory segment. Plans are in place to review all non-clinical professional positions in January 2008.

Bulletin Board
Fitness Club Trunk Show 
The Fitness Club will host its Third Annual Trunk Show on Wednesday, November 7^th from 9 am to 6 pm. The trunk show will feature the handmade creations of the Fitness Club members. The show will consist of items such as clothing, purses, candles, jewelry, soaps, bath products, and much, much more!

The show is open to the public. Most items can be purchased the day of the event. However, some items will require an order to be placed and delivery at a later date. For more information, please contact the Fitness Club at 924-8300.

WIC Office Closing
The WIC office located in Woman's Hospital will close on Friday, October 26th. Information will be provided to patients through their ob packets regarding where they can go to continue to receive WIC services. Flyers will also be provided to patients after delivery at the hospital with their Mother/Baby Care Guide upon transfer to the Mother/Baby unit. These flyers will again inform them where they can receive WIC services.

Certified
Congratulations to the following Mother/Baby Nurses for achieving their Mother/Baby Certification through National Certification Corporation (NCC):

• Kristy Smith
• Lani Carter
• Debbie Smithling
• Jennifer Arnold

Entrepreneur of the Year
This past weekend, Lucie Agosta was recognized as 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Louisiana Association of Nurse Practitioners. Lucie is a woman of many talents. In addition to her role as Nurse Practitioner of the Employee Health Clinic, Lucie is an assistant professor of advanced practice nursing at Southeastern, teaches classes for our employees, oversees the nurse practitioners in the Assessment Center, serves as chair for the Heart Walk, builds houses with Habitat for Humanity and was recognized this year as Advanced Practice Nurse of the Year at the Nightingale Awards.

Congratulations to Lucie on this accomplishment.

Hospitalist Hired
Dr. Mike Leggio has accepted the first of four hospitalist positions at Woman’s Hospital.  Dr. Leggio has been a member of the medical staff at Woman’s since 2001; and prior to working in Baton Rouge, he lived in Zachary and had a busy OB/Gyn practice at Lane Memorial from 1994 to 2001. He attended LSU Medical School and completed a residency in OB/Gyn at LSU in New Orleans.   

As the first hospitalist, Dr. Leggio has also agreed to be the collaborating physician for the Assessment Center nurse practitioners.  We are in the process of setting up those agreements and will transition that responsibility when the State Board of Nursing approves the documents. Dr. Leggio expects to have closed his practice by the end of December and will begin covering with the nurse practitioners in January.  Please join me in welcoming Dr. Leggio in this new role at Woman’s Hospital.

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