Corridor Business Journal Article

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With five major hospitals in a two-county area, the Corridor doesn’t lack for those who excel in providing health care. Each year, the Corridor Business Journal seeks to recognize the best of the best with the HealthCare Hero awards.

This year, four people and one institution are being honored for their efforts at treatment, research, compassion and innovation.
HealthCare Hero awards will be presented to:

— John Hays of Hays Water Science of Washington for Advancements in Health Care
— Bonnie Lacina, a private nurse, in the Non-Physician category
— Jan Kazimour, a volunteer with Mercy Medical Center, in the Volunteer category
— Mercy Iowa City for Community Achievement in Health Care
— Polly Ferguson with the University of Iowa Children's Hospital in the Physician category.

They will be recognized at a luncheon as part of the Corridor HealthCare Summit, Feb. 12 at the Iowa City Sheraton. Mike Parkinson, former executive vice president with Lumenos and associate director of medical programs with the Office of the Surgeon General, will give the keynote on the importance of building a healthier workforce and how it can be done.

For more information, visit www.corridorbiznews.com or call Margaret Rios at (319) 887-2251 ext. 301.

Advancements in Health Care: John Hays

He decided to tackle a local water problem and instead, solved a global one.
John Hays, the former water superintendent for the city of Washington, set out in 2004 to help the city’s water plant meet the state’s requirements for chlorine levels; chlorine disinfects water and makes it safe to drink. He took the problem home and in a serendipitous moment created a device to solve it. Mr. Hays came up with the solution in one night, but it took him three years to fully develop the end product.

Now his devices are used across the world to help villages and towns in developing countries purify water, thus reducing the number of deaths associated with contaminated drinking water. Last month, he sent more than 100 of his devices to help people in Haiti clean their water following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Jan. 12.

“When I was on the phone this morning with Haiti, a baby died in the background because of contaminated water,” Mr. Hays said. “That has to stop.”

He developed a small device, which resembles a light socket with wires protruding from it. It is a patent-pending, handheld chlorine generator that greatly reduces the costs associated with disinfecting water and removes 100 percent of contaminants. No other chlorine generator exists that is as inexpensive, removes as many contaminants, has as few moving parts or lasts as long. There is a reason why he is the first to create this device.

“There’s no money in it,” he said.

The devices are internationally certified, last for more than 60 years and can provide clean drinking water for a village of about 5,000 people. A small electric current is needed to split the sodium chloride molecule to make chlorine, which can be created by using solar, battery or hand-crank power. They sell for $190, but Mr. Hays often provides them for free. The devices can purify any water and make it safe to drink, including salt water.

“Many people think, because it’s only $190 it can’t work, but it has to be simple, simple, simple, all you do is pour salt water through it and out comes the product,” he said.

Mr. Hays and his wife, Mary, operated the business out of their home together until she died unexpectedly Jan. 14. Now, Mr. Hays runs the operation with the help of volunteers.

“I’m an optimist, I have hopes for the whole world,” he said. “The goal is to change the water problems of the world in this lifetime; we can do it.”

One of his main goals is to spread the word about the availability of his device and to raise money for the 501(c)3 Hays Pure Water for All Foundation, which provides the devices to those who cannot afford them. Last year, the company distributed 500 devices and has thus far sent out more than 200 this year.

“I know somehow, the message will get out,” he said.

Nearly 1.1 billion people, about roughly 20 percent of the world’s population, lack access to safe drinking water and the lack of clean, safe drinking water is estimated to kill almost 4,500 children per day, according to UNICEF and WaterAid.

For more information about the devices, visit www.hayspurewaterforallfoundation.com.

— Gigi Wood

Volunteer: Jan Kazimour

Jan Kazimour is the role model for volunteers at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids.

She has logged about 12,000 hours of service since she started at Mercy in 1967.

“Jan is modest and tireless in her heartfelt dedication to Mercy,” hospital President and CEO Tim Charles wrote in nominating her. “She is indisputably the queen of volunteers, whose cheerful contributions in time and attitude make an enormous difference in the hospital’s atmosphere and operation.”

Ms. Kazimour said her involvement with the Junior League led her to volunteer at Mercy. She likes it so much she hasn’t stopped.

Volunteers provide some reassurance to patients and family members after walking through the hospital’s entrance or reaching their room.

“It sort of seems like not anything overly important, but everyone after that will be a medical person, so to have one last ‘civilian’ to talk with is good,” Ms. Kazimour said. “They can ask about how to raise or lower bed without feeling silly as they might with a nurse.”

She continues to volunteer at Mercy’s front information desk.
She’s worked in a variety of areas, including surgery-desk scheduling years ago and in the emergency room.

“She is invaluable wherever she works because of her extensive knowledge of Mercy,” Mr. Charles wrote.

The near-constant rate of technological change in health care is impressive, she said. Patients gain from quicker and better treatment.

Additionally, volunteers get information that they can review online rather than going through multiple thick packets of updates.

In 1983, she joined Mercy’s board of trustees.

Since then, she has an expanded interest in more areas of health care, she said.

She is also a member of the Mercy Foundation board.

Ms. Kazimour is on the board of three other health-related agencies: Aging Services, Tanager Place and Sixth Judicial District Board.

She noted she is proud to play a part in the reliable health-care scene in the Cedar Rapids area.

“We’re known for consistency and constant striving for high-quality care,” Ms. Kazimour said. “We’re very fortunate in Cedar Rapids that we have excellent health care institutions such as Mercy and St. Luke’s.”
— Tim Kenyon

Non-physician: Bonnie Lacina

Bonnie Lacina finds home care immensely more satisfying than working as a nurse in a hospital or care facility.

“It’s so much more involved. I’m a nurse that has to be hands on as I like to tend to patients’ needs more than pushing a pen,” said Ms. Lacina who has been working in home care for about 15 years. “I love the one-on-one and that you are your own boss.”

Ms. Lacina home-care approach for patients is dedicated and personable.

“You really get attached to them. Every client you have you almost become part of the family,” she said.

Her way of looking out for the well being of a patient’s family stands out, said Nicole Keller, daughter of the late Eliot Keller.

Mr. Keller, the former president and general manager of radio stations KZIA 102.9 and KGYM 1600, nominated Ms. Lacina as a Health Care Hero a few weeks before his Dec. 28 death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

She brought a massage therapist friend to the Kellers’ home to relieve some of the stress of Ms. Keller, and her mother, Sandy. Ms. Lacina also helped with cooking, quilting and crochet tips as coping techniques.

Her creative home remedies worked better than medicine in some instances. Her “power pudding” applesauce, wheat buds, stewed prunes and prune juice and gastric distress remedy – Seven Up and bitters – helped Mr. Keller’s digestive system as well as his toddler grandson’s, Nicole Keller wrote.

Ms. Lacina’s keen insight and closeness with patients helps her know when a situation calls for levity and when she has to be firm.

“You learn their personality and adjust,” she said. “Sometimes you had to let things go and other times follow through to the person’s wishes. Eliot was a perfectionist. There was no halfway point for him. You knew he wanted things at a certain time and a certain way. Sometimes you can kid around with them and you can work around a disagreement. But if it’s professional medical decision he’d go with what I told him needed to be done.”

Ms. Lacina’s extraordinary commitment helped Ms. Keller and her mother, Sandy, follow Mr. Keller’s wishes to stay at home for his last days.

Ms. Lacina started working six days a week in mid-January 2009 at the Keller home and adjusted her hours mid way through to help Mr. Keller and his family more.

She also spent the last several days with them.

“I spent the last 187 hours straight through with him. I made a promise that I wouldn’t leave him when it came time to pass and I stuck to it,” Ms. Lacina said.
— Tim Kenyon

Community Achievement in Health Care: Mercy Iowa City

It’s a sacred space.

Mercy Iowa City is being recognized this year as a Healthcare Hero for its work in converting a former convent space into hospice care. When the Sisters of Mercy convent closed in 2006, the sisters wanted the space to be dedicated to a special use. Responding to community demand, Mercy opened Johnson County’s first facility dedicated to hospice care in April 2009.

“We are making a new sacred space of the former convent,” Jeanne Hein, director of nursing operations at Mercy, stated when the facility opened.

Mercy Hospice Care can serve up to six people who are in the care of any local hospice service and has accepted more than 125 patient admissions since it opened. The unit offers two levels of care: Hospice Inpatient Care, for an individual with a terminal illness, with six months or less to live, whose symptoms cannot be managed in another setting and Respite Care, which gives caregivers a break from providing home care for up to five days at a time.

“Mercy has done this in a way that has been both spectacular and humble, in keeping with their mission of healing and comforting the sick and improving the health of the community,” Maggie Elliott, executive director of Iowa City Hospice, stated in her nomination of Mercy.

In addition to the six patient rooms, the unit includes a meditation chapel, complete kitchen where meals can be prepared, dining and lounge area, children’s play area, patient whirlpool, shower facilities for family members and laundry facilities.

“A terminally ill patient living in Johnson County would usually die in their own home, in a nursing home or a generic hospital room,” Dr. John Bennett, medical director of Mercy Hospice Care, stated in a press release. “Mercy Hospice Care has been able to provide an alternative. Whether it is to provide respite care for family and caregivers, provide symptom management or care during one’s final days, we now have a beautiful, dedicated space to use.”

Mercy Hospital Foundation supported the creation of the new unit through a capital campaign and has raised more than $1 million.
— Gigi Wood

Physician: Polly Ferguson

Credit Polly Ferguson’s bad genes for motivating her to become a HealthCare Hero.

Ms. Ferguson, director of pediatric rheumatology at the UI Children's Hospital, had a rheumatic disease as a child and deals with a different one now.

“I have bad genes,” she said, “and I’ve always been interested in what genes predispose you to (those ailments).”

Getting to the root of those problems is what motivates her research, she said.

Ms. Ferguson was trained at the University of Iowa, earning her doctorate here. She then did her internship and residency at the University of Virginia. She worked at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for two years before coming to the UI in 2002.

When she arrived, she was the only pediatric rheumatologist in the state. She was subsequently joined by another doctor at UIHC, Sandy Hong, but they are still the only two practicing in the field in the state.

There are only 200 board-certified pediatric rheumatologists in the country, she said.

“My specialty loses money, so it’s very difficult to make it in private practice,” she said. “If your chairman thinks what you do is important, as mine does, then it’s all good. At Iowa, it has been good.”

Ms. Ferguson’s work is split between the clinic and the lab. As a clinician, she treats children from across the state who deal with juvenile arthritis and related illness. According to the Arthritis Foundation – Iowa Chapter, which nominated Ms. Ferguson for the HealthCare Hero award, 2,800 children in Iowa deal with juvenile arthritis. Ms. Ferguson said she and Ms. Hong treat about 1,000 children.

The incidence rate of juvenile arthritis makes it as common as juvenile diabetes, Ms. She said, but it is much less well known.

Rheumatoid illnesses are created by immune system problems, and treatment involves trying to dampen those problems. She said advances in treatment have made the practice a lot more fun.

“We try to make it an inconvenience for them,” she said.

Her efforts clearly make a difference. Her office walls are decorated with photos, cards and notes from appreciative patients.

The rest of her time is spent doing research. Ms. Ferguson researches the genetics of chronic autoinflammatory disorders, focusing on autoinflammatory bone disorders.

Ms. Ferguson’s efforts to curb juvenile arthritis go beyond her work at the UI. She is a board member with the Arthritis Foundation and has been active on the group’s juvenile arthritis efforts, including working to pass the Arthritis Prevention, Control and Care Act.
— John Kenyon

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