Mike Mandl Praises the Call Center

By Bonita R Russell | December 13, 2013

Diagram of emergency situationsOn October 1, 2013, Emory University Healthcare adopted a new Unified Emergency Code for all standardized codes. The new codes represent uniformity among emergency code systems utilized.

Adopting code uniformity enables the numerous Emory staff and physicians who work across multiple facilities to respond appropriately to specific emergencies, enhancing our safety practices as well as the safety of our patients and visitors. The Unified Code committee reviewed the standard hospital and clinical emergency code processes and procedures to ensure the definition and protocol was the same regardless of the facility.

The Call Center was instrumental in the process since the code names and in some cases the protocol was changing. Not only did we have to retrain the entire call center staff, but we were required to correct any inaccurate codes dispatched into our office.

Special thanks go out to Nicole Chandler, Rose Etienne, Mary Secrest and the entire call center staff for helping make this transition a successful one.

On average the call center processes 650 codes per month in addition to normal call volume of 115,000.

In a letter from Executive Vice President Mike Mandl, he praised the staff, saying, “I write to express our appreciation to you for working so effectively to develop a unified approach to emergency codes across Emory Healthcare.” Mandl went on to write, “We want to especially recognize the way in which you demonstrated solution-oriented teamwork toward a common goal while representing multiple facilities.”

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Important LITS Updates

By Khadijah Muhammad | December 13, 2013

Emory Implements Professional Care Management

LifeCare logoThe Professional Care Management Program is designed to help support the needs of any benefits eligible Emory University employee who is caring for an aging, sick or special needs adult, whether nearby or at a distance. The employer‐sponsored benefit will be provided by work‐life services provider, LifeCare. This new benefit is available to all University employees as of November 1 and can provide up to six hours per year of a professional care manager’s services at no cost to the employee.

A professional care manager is a social worker or nurse who is trained in assessment, care planning, and care management of adults. Their services can include: in‐home assessments, facility reviews, post-hospitalization assessments, or ongoing care coordination. This benefit can even be used nationwide so if an employee has an aging parent in another state, they can still use the program.

To learn more about Emory’s Professional Care Management program, visit http://www.worklife.emory.edu/adultcare/news/IntroducingLifeCare.html or contact Audrey Adelson, Work-Life Consultant, at 404 727-1261.

Giving During the Holidays

Toys for Tots logo Toys for Tots:  LITS is sponsoring a Toys for Tots campaign. Toys for Tots is a program of the United States Marine Corps Reserve that collects new, unwrapped toys for distribution to needy children in the community where the toys are collected. If you are interested in participating, please bring a new, unwrapped toy to the LITS HR office, located in room 315 of the Robert W. Woodruff Library on or before December 19th, 2013. All donated toys will be dropped off at the toy collection site on December 20th, 2013. Additionally, you can drop off new, unwrapped toys in the boxes located on each floor of NDB by Friday, December 13.

Canned Food Collection:  1762 Building in conjunction with Employee Council.  Canned food can be dropped off in the 1762 break room

Canned Food for Hosea Feed The Hungry:  North Decatur Building 3rd and 5th floors

Blanket Drive for the Homeless: donate a blanket; please deliver to Winfred Sneed (Infrastructure) in 1762 by end of day December 18th.

Sandwiches for the Homeless:  A dedicated group of staff take over the NDB 5th floor break room to make sandwiches for the homeless every Thursday morning.  Literally hundreds of sandwiches (over 300) are made each week and taken to local shelters.

InfoForums

InfoForums logoHere is the InfoForums list for December 2013 thru February 2014. Increase your knowledge of library and IT projects and initiatives:

  • Tuesday, December 17, 2013 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m., “Licensed to ILL” – Join us as we share who uses ILL at Emory, what kinds of things they request, and who we borrow from as well as who we lend to and what we lend. We’ll also be the changing landscape of ILL in the local, US & international contexts. Presenters:  Kathy Britt-Rogers, Margaret Ellingson, Marie Hansen, Kitty Quitmeyer, and Sarah Ward (Woodruff Library, Jones Room)
  • Tuesday, January 7, 2014, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. – Scholarly Communication Office (Woodruff Library, Jones Room)
  • Thurs., January 23, 2014, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. – Clinical Informationist Program (Woodruff Library, Jones Room)
  • Thurs., February 6, 2014, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. – Library Security (Woodruff Library, Jones Room)
  • Thurs., February 20, 2014, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. – Outreach & Education team (Woodruff Library, Classroom 314)

Benefits Contact for LITS

HR benefits symbolNote that due to the creation of the LITS division and staffing reorganization, Velma Browning will now be the benefits contact for employees in LITS. Velma is a Senior Benefits Specialist and has been supporting the Libraries for over 2 years but, effective immediately, she will provide benefits support for all employees in LITS. Velma can be reached at 404-727-1658 or velma [dot] browning [at] emory [dot] edu.

Performance Management Training For Managers

Photo of tiles with the words "Lead" and "Learn"For the FY2014 performance period (Sept 1, 2013 – Aug 30, 2014), schools and divisions across Emory will be implementing a new performance management system and tool. In order to familiarize our managers and supervisors with this new process, the LITS HR team will be holding training sessions over the next two weeks. All managers and supervisors in LITS have been asked to make plans to attend one of the training sessions listed below, as their schedule permits. Also, there will be a make-up session scheduled in January for those who are unable to attend the December training sessions. Additional information will be distributed shortly to all Emory personnel, explaining the major elements of the new performance management process.

Training Course:  Performance Management Training: “New Competencies, New Perspective”
Target Audience:  All Managers and Supervisors in LITS
Course Length:  2 hours
Cost:  There is no charge to the department for this training

Times and Locations Performance Management Training is Being Offered (please make plans to attend one of the following sessions):

  • Friday, December 13th, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 4th Floor Auditorium in North Decatur Bldg
  • Monday, December 16th, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Jones Room on 3rd floor of Woodruff Library
  • Thursday, December 19th, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m., 4th Floor Auditorium in North Decatur Bldg

 

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LITS Holiday Party is on Monday!

By Wade Moricle | December 13, 2013
Holiday Party poster

The theme for the event is a Roaring 20’s Lounge and Casino.

The LITS Holiday Party is Monday, December 16, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Goizueta Business School, West Building, 5th Floor. The theme for the event is a Roaring 20’s Lounge and Casino, so feel free to dress up! The casino will include blackjack, craps, and roulette, all run by professional croupiers, and players can exchange their winnings for additional door prize tickets.

There will also be dancing and karaoke! Music will be provided by a DJ. A few solo or group karaoke performances will be sprinkled throughout the evening. To sign up for a time slot, email alex [dot] wan [at] emory [dot] edu.

As usual, we will be doing a collection for the Emory Hardship Fund, so please bring a few extra dollars!

So, come on out! Eat, drink, and be merry! Dance the night away and sing til your heart’s content! See you there!

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Overview of the Coursera Course Selection Process

By Lee Clontz | December 6, 2013
Photo of an empty recording studio

The new studio setup features a lighting grid.

The Faculty Advisory Committee for Online Education (FACOE), chaired by Judy Raggi Moore, is a newly-formed committee that handles Emory’s various online education offerings. Comprised of about a dozen faculty members from different disciplines, the committee possesses a broad mix of interests and backgrounds that lead to challenging discussions from a variety of angles. Although Coursera course selection was the first official act of the committee, the guiding mission of the group is to advise the provost to help shape our broader vision for online education.

Following last year’s initial Coursera offering at Emory, the FACOE began the process of selecting the courses for the 2013-14 academic year. The application process began late last spring and interested faculty provided information about course learning objectives and how the classes could benefit and support their residential courses.

The slate for 2014, which can be seen at coursera.org/emory, includes another session of last year’s Digital Sound Design class, as well as a broad mix of subjects from a variety of disciplines.

For the Coursera team in Faculty Services, the first three classes served as a potent learning experience. The team learned what the platform could and couldn’t do and helped hone best practices for upcoming courses. Timing is a major factor and the team is now better able to plan and create complete and useful schedules.

The team has expanded significantly since the first slate of courses, with an intent on expanding and improving our production capabilities. We’ve recently added three new members: Ray Jones, Stephanie Parisi, and Dina Warnock (Academic Technology Services).  Ray bolsters our video production capability, Stephanie performs instructional design and guides faculty in the development of their course structure and Dina crafts the footage into course modules.

Steve Bransford and Shannon O’Daniel (Academic Technology Services) also continue to provide expert production guidance as we begin work on our 2014 slate of courses. We also just finished a professional renovation of our studio space, including a lighting grid and upgraded cameras. Our plan is to have the best-looking, best-organized courses on the Coursera platform and to be able to bring that expertise to video content produced for residential courses.

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Be Aware of Current Phishing Scam Hitting Emory

By Wade Moricle | December 6, 2013
Illustration of a thief using a computer

“The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.” – Lao Tzu

Emory University is currently under the attack of a very sophisticated email phishing scam that attempts to use an employee’s secure ID and password to route their direct deposit to an off-shore bank account. The emails look very authentic, some posing as a Fidelity announcement that your direct deposit has been stopped.

Dana Haggas (Enterprise Applications) made an announcement at the November 21 IT Briefing that her team is acutely aware of this issue. This scam has been hitting universities around the US and now Emory is a target. Nancy Seideman (Emory Associate VP and Executive Director of Media Relations) sent out a security alert to all employees on December 5 entitled: “Security Alert: Direct Deposit Fraud” which contains several preventative guidelines:

  • Be suspicious of unsolicited emails asking you for your login credentials, or those that tell you that you must take some immediate action to log in and fix a problem.
  • Do not click on links in emails that ask you to provide login information. Instead, go directly to the site via the address that you already know. Phishers will provide you with a link that they control, and once you’ve logged in they have your credentials. They may even go as far as exactly duplicating the login screen that you would expect to see.
  • Always check your web browser’s address bar before logging in. Make sure that the address matches the one you’re expecting to log in to.

Phishing emails should be directed to abuse [at] emory [dot] edu. If your direct deposit information has been changed without your initiation, please contact the Emory University or Emory Healthcare payroll departments immediately.

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Shackelford CBAP Honor

By Wade Moricle | December 6, 2013
Photo of Betsy Shackelford

Betsy Shackleford: Certified Business Analyst Professional!

Betsy Shackelford (R-WIT) recently passed the CBAP (certified business analyst professional) exam. A member of the Business Analyst Team (BAT), her team works with end users who want to build (or enhance) a new software system. The BAs determine software requirements, and use specialized practices to translate those requirements for the developers who build the software. Betsy has been working most recently with software applications for the Office of Research Administration, ACTSI, and also with the University Library IT team.

The exam is quite arduous, requiring the memorization of a huge amount of material, much of which is theoretical. “It’s like a CPA exam, only for BAs,” said Betsy, who studied for 6 months. The exam took her two and a half hours and was administered by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). Her teammates presented her with a crown to celebrate the achievement!

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Atlanta SNUG Celebrates Second Anniversary

By Wade Moricle | December 6, 2013
Photo of Sharon Gregory with a prize iPad

Sharon Gregory won an iPad as a door prize at the SNUG event!

On Wednesday, December 4, the Atlanta ServiceNow User Group (SNUG) celebrated its 2-year anniversary with a holiday-themed party at Villa Christina in Atlanta. The event featured a DJ, heavy hors d’oeuvres, a photo booth, various vendor/sponsor tables, and a rousing Wheel of Fortune-style door prize game.

Since being founded in 2011, Atlanta SNUG has grown from 65 attendees in a small conference room to over 150 members participating in quarterly meetings held in the Emory University Claudia Nance Rollins Auditorium. Atlanta SNUG is a forum for information sharing, customer relationship building and focused interaction with key subject matter experts at ServiceNow.

Meetings include customer presentations with the featured business partner, breakout sessions and an update from a ServiceNow executive. The Breakout sessions are divided into two racks (Technical and Process), allowing participants to trade tips for using ServiceNow, hear best practices and view demonstrations based on attendees’ IT Service Management goals. The 2013 session included presentations on Knowledge Management at Emory University by Rose Harris (ITSMO) and Request Catalog by Nicole McFarland (ITSMO).

The committee that coordinated the 2013-14 Atlanta SNUG events is chaired by Enid Britton (ITSMO) and includes Emory employees Sharon Gregory (Enterprise Services) and Tiffany Kady (RSPH).

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