|
Director's Message
September 3, 2004
To: DHS Employees
From: Gary Weeks, Director
Director's Excellence Awards for outstanding work
I'm proud to tell you today about the exceptional achievements of six DHS employees — achievements that remind us that our work truly makes a difference in the lives of the people and communities we serve.
These employees are the first that I have had a chance to honor with Director's Excellence Awards.
As I mentioned in a message to you several weeks ago, up to three awards will be given each quarter, to individuals or to small work teams, to recognize:
- Outstanding work that moves DHS toward its vision of positive outcomes through integration, collaboration and continuous improvement.
- Innovative sharing of public and private resources to produce positive outcomes, or
- Exceptional efforts that make a demonstrable, positive difference in people's lives.
For the third quarter of 2004, the DHS Cabinet and I have decided to give two awards. Here's a look at the accomplishments behind the honors:
Keeping our clients safe. Each month, our Criminal Records Unit, part of the Office of Human Resources, checks some 15,000 records of employees, service providers, childcare workers and others.
This is a vital function that increases safety for our clients.
Georgena Carrow, a longtime DHS employee, took leadership of the Criminal Records Unit in January 2001. Her task has been formidable: consolidating separate processes from our former divisions to produce a unified, department-wide system.
This year, she finalized a long, difficult effort to put in place a new administrative rule to govern our criminal history check process.
Along the way, Georgena has become an expert in this process, and has worked with representatives of many populations and programs to address their specific needs.
She continues to work to resolve issues associated with the new process — and to show exceptional skill in integration, collaboration and leadership. Although there are many concerns and sensitivities, she has earned the respect of our partners.
Her achievement will make a real difference, enhancing the safety of people who receive our services.
A public health success story. A critical function in public health is to detect and investigate disease outbreaks, so that necessary measures can be taken to protect communities' health and safety.
A Director's Excellence Award will go to a team of five public health staff members for their work on a food-related disease outbreak that had eluded detection elsewhere in the country. Their quick action and collaboration with others resulted in prompt removal from store shelves of the food that carried the disease, and led industry to correct a widespread food safety problem.
On May 12, Janie Tierheimer of the Oregon State Public Health Lab completed DNA "fingerprinting" tests of two samples from patients with Salmonella, an organism that causes fever, abdominal cramps, severe diarrhea, and sometimes bloodstream infection and even death.
She forwarded the results to Julie Hatch, who works on the epidemic investigation team in our Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology. Julie noticed that these samples made a total of five with identical genetic characteristics in the preceding three months.
Julie discussed the situation with public health veterinarian Dr. Emilio DeBess, and with research analyst Melissa Plantenga. They agreed that the cluster was probably not a coincidence.
Melissa contacted the five patients and interviewed them in detail, using a 400-item questionnaire about foods eaten in the days before their illnesses. She was able to reach four of the patients that day, and the fifth from home that evening.
She learned that all had eaten raw almonds purchased at Costco warehouses.
Senior epidemiologist Bill Keene phoned Costco that night, and the almonds were off the shelves in stores throughout the western U.S. before the next business day.
Janie, meanwhile, forwarded her lab results to colleagues at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at other state public health labs. When other investigators used the same techniques that Janie had used, Salmonella with identical genetic characteristics began to show up across the country.
Tracing of the almonds by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showed that they had been sold internationally, under various brand names. The outbreak had been going on, at low levels, for many months.
The products were recalled, and within weeks the California Almond Board voted to recommend sterilization of all almonds that are sold raw.
This was a prime example of collaboration, not only among our staff but also with colleagues in other states, federal agencies and industry, all for the benefit of Oregonians and many others across the country.
In closing. Please join me in congratulating these employees and in thanking them for their fine contributions.
Our next set of Director's Excellence Awards will be given near the end of the year. I will let you know in a future message when nominations for those awards are due. We're doing excellent work throughout our agency, and I encourage you to be thinking about colleagues to nominate for a future award.
To learn more about the awards, visit the DHS home page at www.dhs.state.or.us and click on Staff Tools, just below the main heading. Also, watch our online Staff News, also available on the DHS home page, for reports on the formal presentation of the awards.
The importance of registering to vote
The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which Congress passed in 1993, seeks to increase opportunities for citizens to register to vote.
The NVRA is best known for its requirement that people receive an opportunity to register when they visit DMV offices. However, the law also requires social services agencies to offer this opportunity — an important step in helping lower income people to participate in elections.
With the exception of child welfare offices, which are not subject to the act, staff in our offices must offer clients the necessary forms for voter registration, and assistance in completing them. Our responsibility also includes forwarding completed voter registration applications to elections officials.
This is an important responsibility, and complying with the act is an integral part of our work. With the November elections approaching, I'd also like to encourage each of you to register and to take part in our electoral process.
A holiday wish
The Labor Day weekend is the traditional end of summer, and a time for many of us to travel, relax with family and friends, or enjoy boating, swimming, camping or other activities.
Whatever your holiday plans, please keep safety in mind — for yourselves, and for children and others around you.
I appreciate your hard work, and wish you a relaxing holiday weekend.
Food for thought
"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing."
— Abraham Lincoln
|
