Interested in more UH news? Visit the UH Intranet home page to watch the latest edition of UH News Update. This week’s update features systemwide blood drives, Best Place to Work survey focus groups and a recap of the 2010 United Way campaign.

Your feedback and suggestions are important to us! Send your thoughts on UH News Update and ideas for feature items to InternalCommunications@UHhospitals.org.

UH employees may contribute up to $16,500 (or up to 75 percent of pay, whichever is less) to their retirement savings plan during 2011. An additional $5,500 catch-up contribution can be made during 2011 by UH employees who are age 50 or over by Dec. 31.

UH provides language learning tools and cultural preparation to overcome communication barriers. The Language Line interpretation service is accessible 24 hours a day to assist with any communication barriers.

UH also utilizes My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter (MARTTI) technology to connect patients with interpreters via a secure, video translation service (or phone-based, depending on the language). For more information about how to access these services, including the phone numbers for each entity, please read the Foreign Language Translators policy.

Have you had your annual eye exam?

University Hospitals employees and family members covered by the UH Anthem insurance plan can now receive a comprehensive vision exam from UH Eye Institute optometrists and ophthalmologists, at no cost to you. This means that covered employees and their families will not be responsible for a co-payment when they receive this exam from one of the experts at the UH Eye Institute.

This week’s drives include UH Chagrin Highlands Health Center (Jan. 24), UH Management Services Center (Jan. 25), UH Geneva Medical Center (Jan. 26), UH Case Medical Center (Jan. 28) and UH Richmond Medical Center (Jan. 28).

Donors may schedule an appointment online at redcrossblood.org, select “make a donation appointment by sponsor code” and enter the sponsor code listed on the location schedule.  Walk-ins are also welcome.

Learn and experience the benefits of meditation from Francoise Adan, MD, UH Case Medical Center Department of Psychiatry. Classes meet once a week for four weeks. The Monday series is at noon (starting Jan. 31) and the Wednesday series is at 6 p.m. (starting Feb. 2).

The first ever Rainbow Jumper Challenge is one of three finalists in the running for “Best Nonprofit Fundraiser” in CBC’s Connector’s Choice Awards. Featuring a thrilling equestrian jumping competition, this UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital Circle of Friends event was held last August at The Hunt Club in Gates Mills, and raised more than $100,000 for UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. Please help us win the title by casting your vote for Rainbow Jumper Challenge at cbcmagazine.com/cca2011/vote.

Looking for a great way to build team spirit within your department and get everyone thinking about spring? Put together a team for the 2011 March of Dimes Walk for Babies scheduled Sunday, May 1. Dr. Eric Bieber, Dr. Michael Konstan and Mike Farrell are co-chairs for this year's walk and UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and MacDonald Women's Hospital are sponsoring the event. We are looking for systemwide participation to help make this year's walk the best yet.  Special rewards, prizes and incentives will be awarded to the top UH teams and walkers.

Today from 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. East Boulevard will close between Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and East 108th Street to allow for construction at the Cleveland VA Medical Center. The area will also be blocked off tomorrow through Thursday, Jan. 27, between 9 a.m.-4 p.m. A detour will be posted along E. 105th Street, Wade Park Avenue and E. 108th Street. All lanes will reopen to traffic on Thursday, Jan. 27, at 4 p.m.

UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital recently received a $60,000 infrastructure grant from St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to raising money for childhood cancer research. John Letterio, MD, Division Chief, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Professor at UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University, said the funds will allow the hospital to “increase capacity to develop investigator-initiated clinical trials and to enhance the engagement of adolescent and young patients.”

The UH Neurological Institute’s Center for Music and Medicine invites you to attend “Of Mice and Men: Neuronal Firing in Response to Music” Friday, Jan. 28. This free presentation is open to all and serves as part of the center’s weekly research meetings, which occur Fridays at 5 p.m. in room 618 of Crawford Hall. The speaker will be Jonathan Miller, MD, Director, Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery at the UH Neurological Institute and Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

UH Case Medical Center Auxiliary’s third annual Cupcake Bakeoff will be Monday, Feb. 28. Any employee or volunteer of UH Case Medical Center is eligible to enter and must provide one standard size cupcake for judging and 23 standard size cupcakes (in a disposable container) for selling. 

Properties Magazine names UH Ahuja Medical Center the pinnacle of patient care in its January issue. The article focuses on the balance UH Ahuja Medical Center’s design strikes between form and function, blending tranquil aesthetics with cutting edge technology. It also details how private rooms will afford patients and their families with a home-like environment.

To read the article, visit propertiesmag.com.

The Patient, Customer and Employee Relations Action Team, a subset of the UH Geneva Medical Center’s Service Excellence Team, would like to thank all UH employees and community members who donated to their Mitten Tree. Your generosity supplied school children in the Geneva area with hundreds of winter hats, gloves and scarves. Special thanks to Annette Fobell for transporting the donations and to Mary Norris for providing the Christmas tree, which will be used for years to come.

A series of free Lunch and Learn programs, covering a variety of health and wellness topics, is now being offered by UH Geauga Medical Center. All sessions are available online via a live webinar and many sessions are also available in the hospital’s Conference Center. 

Tuesday, Jan. 25:  

• Horizon HomeCare, scheduled maintenance, starting Jan. 25, at 10 p.m. – Jan. 26, at 2:30 a.m.
• Physician Portal, scheduled maintenance, starting Jan. 25, at 11 p.m. – Jan. 26, at 5 a.m.

*Please share this issue of UH Weekly Report with team members who do not have access to e-mail.