Page 5 - Lion's Gift of Sight Fall Newsletter

Olmsted Medical Center
Olmsted Medical Center has been southeastern Minnesota’s hometown medical provider since 1969. Last year, Lions Gift of Sight identified OMC as an Eye Donation Champion, recognizing that they have one of the most robust donation committees in the state. Their commitment to making donation education and outreach a matter of public health and wellness is an example for all. We had the good fortune to interview OMC’s Erica Hansen and Tricia Schilling, to find out more about their Donation, Advance Care Planning, Palliative Care and Patient Rights committee and their secrets to success.
Tell us about Team DAPP and how it has evolved to meet patient and community needs.
Tricia: The committee started out as the Donate Life Team. It was multidisciplinary and highly sup- ported by OMC leadership. We noticed that a lot of the people that were on the donate life team were also members of the advance care planning team and the patient rights team.
We wanted to have everyone come together, and that’s when Team DAPP
was organized.
One really neat thing is our community initiative for advance care plans. We have added an organ, tissue, and eye donation FAQ piece to our information packets, so people have the facts they need before completing their healthcare directives. This enables us to reach even more patients.
Erica: Our work reaches beyond our patient base. We have taken our
messaging out into the community and provide outreach by walking in pa-
rades, attending Canadian Honkers games, and providing assistance with advance care planning.
Lions Gift of Sight views OMC as a donation champion. What would you like to tell people about OMC?
Tricia: What makes OMC special is our multidisciplinary approach to donation. It’s not just the nursing department that is placing importance on donation education and awareness. Many departments are represented on Team DAPP. We have a dietitian, a clinical nurse manager, social workers, and members from the business office, general surgery, medical records, and others. We have a team of passionate players from every discipline in a healthcare setting involved in donation education and awareness at OMC.
Erica: Leadership at OMC is very supportive of our efforts toward organ, tissue, and eye donation, whether it’s with a patient, hospital event, community event, or staff education. I think that’s something not all organizations have.
How do you make sure that donation information reaches OMC staff?
Erica: I work with our marketing staff to send out “Did You Know” items every Friday. We also have an electronic banner that scrolls messaging to our staff and use this to highlight donation education and awareness throughout the year.
Your staff seems very committed to eye donation and to donation in general. What do you attribute that to?
Tricia: Some team members have personal stories in donation or know someone who has. These personal connections are a huge com- ponent. We also encourage committee members to attend the Spark Conference. Staff members who attend become very passionate
about donation and ask how they can support our committee’s work.
Can you tell us more about your advance care planning initiative?
Tricia: Our biggest success with advance care planning involves ongo- ing education. We share information on donation and advance directives in conjunction with events like blood drives. We drafted an abbreviated, easy to use advance directive, since the advance directive document can be overwhelming for many people. These efforts have resulted in thousands of healthcare directives completed and on file at OMC over the past few years.
OMC Team DAPP members with Lions Gift of Sight’s Partner and Community Relations Manager, Patty Stockdale (far right) and LifeSource liaison, Richard Villella (back right).
We have a team
of passionate players
from every discipline
involved in donation
education and
awareness.
LIONSGIFTOFSIGHT.UMN.EDU 5
Erica Hansen, LSW Medical Social Worker
Tricia Schilling, LICSW Clinical Social Worker