The Pulse | Thursday, October 25, 2018

A Day in the Life: Advocate Trinity Hospital in Chicago

For Sue Bocian, community is everything.

Bocian is the clinical manager of operations for Advocate Trinity Hospital’s GI Lab, in Chicago. Recently, SGNA toured the hospital with Bocian as a guide and got a behind-the-scenes look at their operations. The team members at Advocate Trinity have a clear passion for gastroenterology and their community.

Starting the Day Fresh

At the start of each day, Bocian and her department have a team huddle where they come together to discuss the previous day’s events, what their outpatient vs. inpatient ratio is for the current day, their patient engagement scores, ways to collaborate with other departments to maximize care, and address any safety issues or ideas to improve patient care. Then Bocian attends the hospital-wide daily safety huddle to share updates from their unit with other departments.

A True Team

Bocian says her team is extremely cohesive, and everyone from the physicians to the techs understand and trust one another. That’s partly because they use strongly-researched evidence-based practices, and encourage sharing their own findings with team members.

The GI Lab has a unit-based council to review, implement and drive best practices and processes. In addition, they participate in the Advocate-wide corporate GI council, designed to share findings and standardize best practices across the enterprise.

Due to their laser-focus on patient safety, Bocian says her tight-knit GI team has had zero reversals from procedural sedation in 2018. “We like to celebrate those wins by recognizing individual team members who assist in meeting our goals,” she says.

Top-Notch Employees

Passionate people make for a strong team, and Bocian says her staff has passion in bounds. Every team member in Bocian’s unit strives to be the best they can be every day, hold each other accountable, and find ways to improve efficiencies and care. One person in particular goes above and beyond.

GI Tech Will Santiago is a respected member of the team because of his diligence around infection prevention. Not only is he adamant about following safety procedures, Bocian says he goes out of his way to teach his fellow techs, nurses and physicians best practices.

“He was one of the first GI techs to validate his knowledge through SGNA, and that became a standard for our department,” she says. “The best part is he tells all his peers how they should be doing it, and they do. He really encourages people to be receptive to knowledge and to seek out knowledge.”

When SGNA visited, senior members were highly impressed as he explained his procedure for cleaning endoscopes and why.

Bocian says Santiago is a great example of how everyone on the team, regardless of how or where they serve, can be a leader.

But he’s not the only superstar. Bocian says there are several key members of her team who go above and beyond to not only do their jobs well, but to empower others to work hard as well.

“They value each other’s skills. They value each other’s knowledge, they want to share their knowledge, and they feel pride when seeing their team members strive for the next level,” she says.

Serving a Community

One of the things that makes Advocate Trinity unique is how it serves its community.

Bocian says the area surrounding the hospital has a higher-than-average colon cancer rate versus other parts of the state. Judy Jones, RN, a nurse navigator, Yolanda Adagbada, RN, and other nurses at Advocate Trinity attend events and meetings throughout the surrounding communities to educate people on the importance of colonoscopies and help assist in scheduling their procedures.

“It’s critical for people who follow through with their colonoscopy to have a positive experience at the hospital,” Bocian says. “Everything makes a difference when interacting with patients. It’s rewarding to see their faces after their colonoscopy and hear them say, ‘I’m going to tell my friends and family about this.’”

Bocian said helping people catch issues early reduces the risk of colon cancer and promotes better gastrointestinal health overall.

“The hospital really supports community education. We are always focused around what’s happening in the community with the end goal of getting this important message out to as many people as possible.”