The Pulse

Children’s has scheduled its final clinics for the first round of the COVID-19 vaccine. These clinics will be held Thursday, Jan. 21; Friday, Jan. 22; Monday, Jan. 25; and Tuesday, Jan. 26. We anticipate these dates will exhaust our supply of initial doses of the vaccine, and we are not sure if additional first-round doses will be coming. These clinics may be your last chance to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for now. There is a slim chance that we may receive additional doses after this week, but as the vaccine becomes more widely available to the general public, it is less likely that Children’s will receive additional shipments. If you have not yet received the first dose of the vaccine and you would like to get it, please call the COVID-19 vaccine scheduling hotline at 402-955-6020, option 5, as soon as possible.

Curriculum to Offer Mandatory Opiate Education for Nebraska Prescribers Plus Pharmacology Credit

Save the date for the sixth annual Pediatric Pain Conference will be offered virtually on Friday, May 7 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The conference will feature keynote speaker Myron Yaster, M.D., renowned pediatric anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado. Dr. Yaster will discuss the national opioid crisis and non-medical use of opiates in children. 

Other topics include:

• Pediatric Posterior Spinal Fusion: Surgical & Pain Management Considerations
• Chronic Pain: Partnering with Behavioral Health
• Non-Pharmacologic Therapies for Pain Management
• Live Ultrasound Demonstration of Regional Blocks
• Nebraska Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

A total of 2.75 hours will count toward the mandatory opiate prescriber education for providers in Nebraska; 0.5 hours of which covers the Nebraska Drug Monitoring Program requirement. A total of 2.25 hours will qualify for pharmacology credit. CME & CNE credit is pending for the 7.0 hour agenda. 

View the flier

Click here to register (select Continuing Education; Live Online Activities). There is no fee to attend, but advance registration is required. Contact CME@ChildrensOmaha.org with questions. 

Children’s recognizes that caring for children goes beyond the walls of the clinics and hospital.  Nearly 80 percent of health outcomes are driven by factors outside of traditional health care settings, and there is a recognized need to work with community partners to address social needs to better support the health of children.  The Unite Nebraska partnership offers a unique opportunity to advance our resource and referral practices across Children’s enterprise. 

In 2020, CyncHealth (formerly Nebraska Health Information Initiative — NEHII) identified Unite Us as a lead technology partner to launch Unite Nebraska. Unite Nebraska is a robust web-based network designed to seamlessly connect health care providers and social service agencies to better meet the needs of the child and family.

Using the Unite Nebraska platform will allow our team of social workers to efficiently make referrals to social services organizations that can meet the needs of our patients. Resources to address social determinants of health (SDOH) in Nebraska are not currently centralized. The Unite Nebraska platform will provide a central location for available resources and will serve as a “one-stop-shop” for Children’s Social Work team to access information that will assist families.

Read more.

Getting to Know Our Physician-Leaders

Recruiting success was a theme of 2020 and continues to build in 2021. This has included welcoming many new division chiefs to our organization. In 2021, we will feature content on new physician-leaders to help the entire medical staff learn more about these colleagues.

 “I knew that a career in medicine was what I wanted, where my heart was, where my passion was.” 

Dr. Oluwaseun “Seun” Adetayo, M.D., Pediatric Plastic Surgery, and professor, Department of Surgery at UNMC College of Medicine, is board-certified, fellowship-trained and recognized as one of the top plastic surgeons in the United States. She arrived at Children’s in February 2020.  

Q. Through the work you’re doing in pediatric plastic surgery, how are you impacting and improving the lives of children? 

A. It’s something I’m passionate about. It’s a privilege for me to be part of the children’s stories, to see them grow and see the impact our intervention makes in their lives. I’ve seen kids who are depressed, who wouldn’t take pictures or make eye contact because of a facial or body deformity. To see them go through their reconstruction, with such strength and fortitude, and see their function restored – as well as their psyche and confidence – shows you’ve really changed that life in a way that’s very difficult to explain. You changed their face to the world. And it’s not a one-sided exchange either; the children, through their strength and fortitude, teach us a few things about life in return.  

Read more of Dr. Adetayo’s Q & A here.

Mark your calendar and plan to attend one of the upcoming Town Hall sessions happening at the end of this month via Zoom. These quarterly sessions are a great way to hear from Children’s senior executives regarding the organization’s strategic initiatives and stay up-to-date on what’s happening throughout the organization. In addition, it provides the opportunity to submit questions to be addressed during the sessions. If you would like a question addressed during the upcoming Town Hall sessions, please email it to MyChildrens@ChildrensOmaha.org.

Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, these town hall meetings will be held remotely. Zoom meeting information is posted below. DO NOT go to Glow Auditorium. The first quarter Town Halls will be held at the following times:

Tuesday, Jan. 26
6:15 – 6:45 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 27
10 – 10:30 a.m.
noon – 12:30 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 28
8 – 8:30 a.m.
8:45 – 9:15 a.m.
3 – 3:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 29
10:30-11 a.m.
12:30-1 p.m.

All town halls will use the same Zoom number, regardless of day/time:
https://childrensomaha.zoom.us/s/97778000393
Meeting ID: 977 7800 0393
Passcode: 799094

We’re starting our tour of the Hubbard Center at the bottom, on Lower Level 3. LL3 will be home to the kitchen and cafeteria, as well as a conference center and support services including the resident lounge, on-call rooms and storage. The Security department will also be located on this floor. Click here to view a detailed blueprint plan for this floor.

Click here to see some LL3 renderings and photos.

For patients with dysphagia/aspiration and who are not supposed to be fed orally, occasionally providers enter an NPO order to restrict any feeding by mouth.  At the same time, they enter a feeding order with an enteral tube. Formula lab holds the formula because of the NPO order.

The current recommendation is to ONLY provide feeds by the method written in the feed order, therefore, if the feeds are written by NG/GT/JT then NO feeds should go by mouth. Additional orders can be entered for oral feeds.  NPO will be utilized and interpreted as “nothing enterally” and all feeds will be held when an active NPO order is in place.

This recommendation has been agreed upon by leadership from all inpatient units. Please advise your teams and learners. If you have any concerns or questions, contact Lauren Maskin, M.D., Pediatric Hospital Medicine & Inpatient Med/Surg Services.

Read more

The Nebraska Chapter of  the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has partnered with Children’s on a new Project ECHO series that addresses infection prevention and control, as well as risk recognition and communication. This ECHO series is made possible through a grant the Nebraska Chapter AAP received from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Primary care providers throughout Nebraska are invited to participate in these ECHO sessions, which run from Feb. 3 to March 17.

Read about the sessions.

Hundreds of learners have already used the new sign-in process for continuing education credits and meeting attendance. Setting a shortcut on your smartphone will make sign-in faster and easier. Check out the links below.

iPhone shortcut
Android shortcut

For additional information, please review the updated user guide.
With CME questions, contact CME@ChildrensOmaha.org.
With CNE questions, contact CNE@ChildrensOmaha.org.

Shannon Godsil, M.D., Children’s Physicians, Val Verde, recorded a video, posted on Children’s Facebook and YouTube, to remind families to seek help from their pediatricians if their child is struggling. The pandemic has hit children and teens hard emotionally, socially and mentally. Your pediatrician is your starting point and can be a source of comfort if parents have concerns about their child’s well-being.