Points of Pride

What’s your biggest fear? According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 75 percent of Americans are afraid of public speaking, more than those fearing death, heights or spiders. Interesting, right?

In June 2019, the Central Region started offering colleagues a chance to overcome public speaking anxiety and enhance their leadership skills within The Hospital of Central Connecticut and MidState Medical Center, all thanks to Toastmasters International.

The non-profit organization, around since 1924, helps people become more confident in their speaking ability and communication. There are more than 16,000 individual clubs across the globe — including the Central Region chapter, the only one within Hartford HealthCare.

“When you officially become a member of Toastmasters, you’re put on a pathway based on what you want to achieve and what it will take to get you to that point,” said Laura Prior, MSN, APRN, manager of radiology nursing and advanced practitioners with Midstate Radiology Associates, who joined the Toastmasters Club after it started. “I knew I was on a path to leadership, so I wanted to be able to master the skill of public speaking.”

The Central Region Toastmasters Club meets twice monthly and members are tasked with giving pre-planned and timed speeches, doing improv on random topics, and getting feedback to enhance their abilities. That includes a grammarian who points out the number of filler words — “uh” or “um” — used.

Dr. Mohammed Shams, chief of medicine in the Central Region, sought help speaking for presentations he must deliver.

Hartford Hospital earned three stars from the Society for Vascular Surgery’s Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI) for actively participating in the Registry Participation Program.

The mission of the SVS VQI is to improve patient safety and the quality of vascular care delivery by providing web-based collection, aggregation and analysis of clinical data for all patients undergoing specific treatments. The participation awards program encourages active participation in the 12 registries.

Participating centers can earn up to three stars for actions leading to better patient care, including:

• Completeness of long-term, follow-up reporting, based on the percentage of patients for whom they have at least nine months of data.
• Physician attendance at semi-annual meetings of a regional quality group.
• Initiation of quality improvement activities based on VQI data.
• Number of vascular registries in which the center participates.

A new campaign, funded in part by a $550,000 Connecticut Department of Transportation highway safety grant to Hartford Hospital, brings a plea from state trauma centers to people debating whether to have “just one more” and drive impaired. Not One More is part of a campaign that incorporates ads on local television, streaming audio, billboards, social media and the web to prevent the incidence of impaired driving due to alcohol and drugs. The message Not One More highlights the potential domino effect of impaired driving. In a powerful video, viewers are transported from a restaurant to a busy emergency room and then an operating room as teams fight to save the life of someone who chose to get behind the wheel impaired.

Gabriel Pujols would have turned 36 on July 23, celebrating with his wife Heidy and 1-year-old son Gabriel Jr. Unfortunately, he passed away unexpectedly in February at Backus Hospital.

Instead of cake and ice cream, his family gathered on his birthday to raise a “Donate Life” flag in honor of Gabriel’s decision to be an organ donor. When he died, his heart was implanted in a 60-year-old man in cardiac failure, saving his life. “This is the very first flag-raising we have had at Backus,” said Donna Handley, hospital president. “In raising this flag, the Pujols family will start a tradition for all those who give life to others in the future. Please know we grieve with you and we celebrate Gabriel’s life today.”

Attending the ceremony — in both English and Spanish — were Gabriel’s widow, his son and stepdaughter, brother and cousin, as well as Backus colleagues and representatives of New England Donor Services (NEDS). “This was something pretty special to have on his birthday, to be able to remember him,” a tearful Heidy said.

Heather Harris, NEDS hospital relations coordinator, said Backus typically sees one organ donation a year. By July 2021, she said there were four. Raising a “Donate Life” flag is always offered to a family, and this was the first time it was done at Backus.