NORINE HEMPHILL,
MSN, RN, NEA-BC
Vice President & Associate
Chief Nursing Officer
Leadership
spotlight
A special thanks to Norine
Hemphill who owned the role of
Operations Chief in the command
center for the three measles
cases. Norine led a thoughtful
approach for the clinical teams in
the ED, critical care and inpatient
floors, and worked to provide
education and support for team
members caring for these highly
infectious patients. She played
a vital role in helping us plan
our operational response to
prevent the spread of measles,
including how we were to
identify individuals at Children’s
Colorado who were considered
to be exposed — of which there
ultimately 96. She worked on
call scripts to interview and
determine immunity status. If
determined not to have immunity,
Norine led the team in identifying
the best care options with our
epidemiology experts.
On January 3, 2020, we were able
to report that there had been no
secondary cases of measles. This
is due, in large part, to Norine’s
leadership, communication and
partnership.
Chris Martin, FACHE
Vice President,
Ambulatory Services
“Norine is always willing to assist her fellow admins on
call by taking a position in the Emergency Operations
Command Center, even when she is not the AOC on duty,
and she bravely volunteers to be the incident commander
during drills and exercises. Thank you, Norine!”
SARAH LORENZ, MA, HEM
Manager, Emergency Management
Measles
Mitigation Work
In December 2019, there were three confirmed cases of
measles at Children’s Colorado. The patients acquired
measles internationally but traveled to Denver by plane.
The patients arrived at our Anschutz Medical Campus
Emergency Department because they were symptomatic,
and once our team identified their condition as measles,
we sprang into action. Working closely with the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE),
Tri-County Health Department and Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), we put precautions
in place, including a series of additional screening
questions, and we identified all patients and families
who might have been exposed and contacted them for
follow up as appropriate.
We commend the efforts of the many team members who contributed to the
mitigation work. Together, we were able to maintain the safety of our patients,
their families and visitors to our hospital while we treated the three patients with
measles. Those patients were discharged when they were no longer contagious.
Situations like this give us an opportunity to evaluate our current processes and
make any necessary improvements. There are at least 34 process improvement
efforts that are ongoing across multiple teams as a result of this event. Thank you
to the team members who’ve stepped up to lead the charge on those efforts.
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