Monthly Matters:

• Welcoming Steve Rallison, Chief Operating Officer
• Bidding Adieu to Jill Arena
• Influenza Update- H1N1 and Seasonal Flu
• Family Matters: Successful Parenting
• Office Notes

GreenField Health’s Health Matters

January 2010

Welcoming Steve Rallison, Chief Operating Officer

GreenField welcomes Steve Rallison as our Chief Operating Officer. Steve has a Masters in Health Administration from Washington University, followed by over 25 years of experience leading healthcare organizations. His unique background blends hospital leadership, physician practice management and consulting. His most recent work focuses primarily on performance improvement, process redesign and workflow automation for medical practices and health systems. Among other things, Steve comes to GreenField with a passion for deep customer relationships and service.

Steve serves on the prestigious Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award as a Senior Examiner and healthcare subject matter expert. For those not familiar with the Baldrige Quality Award, information can be found at http://www.baldrige.nist.gov.

We look forward to Steve’s leadership as our GreenField team continues to strive to provide you, our patients, with what you deserve from your healthcare experience – deep trusting relationships, great customer service, and highly reliable clinical care.

Bidding Adieu to Jill Arena

We are saddened to announce Jill Arena, one of GreenField’s founders, will be leaving our team in February. Jill has been a vital part of GreenField since our inception in 2001, and her contributions are deeply appreciated. While many patients do not know Jill, she has provided a great deal of the management behind the scenes and she has led our clinical IT services used by several other medical practices. Jill helped build GreenField into the wonderful organization that it is and she will be missed. We know that Jill will forever be closely connected to GreenField so we don’t expect that she’ll become a stranger to us.

Jill has an abundance of opportunities in front of her and the entire GreenField team wishes her the best on those endeavors. Her passion and fingerprints are indelibly embedded in our organization.

Influenza Update – H1N1 and Seasonal Flu

Flu season is not over yet. We still have H1N1 vaccine available, and will continue to offer it to those who come in for office visits. We are currently out of the seasonal flu vaccine and do not expect to receive an additional supply. There are some pharmacies in the area that have a supply of the seasonal flu vaccine. There is still value in getting vaccinated and we do continue to recommend vaccination.

Influenza 2009 – a Look Back
We would like to take a quick look back at the influenza situation in 2009, mostly with the purpose of praising our team for the way they managed this year’s flu season and the vaccination process, and to point out to you – our patients – how much effort went behind this work.

So called “Swine Flu” provided a very substantial scare to us all in the spring of 2009. We had no idea how severe or widespread it was going to be. The government and vaccine manufacturers raced to produce vaccine and to put out reliable and up to date information, and in all, while not perfect, we think that they did a pretty amazing job. The flu season ended up not being that severe, but it might have been much worse without the actions of public health authorities and the rapid response by vaccine manufacturers. We owe both words of thanks.

At GreenField, we were faced with a challenging situation – an abundance of patients who wanted the vaccine, but continual shortages of both seasonal and H1N1 vaccines to distribute. Because of this, we stuck with national guidelines to vaccinate high risk individuals before opening up vaccination in December to anyone who wanted them as the vaccine supply grew.

As we look at our performance versus other medical practices, we are very proud of the way our team served you. Like no other practice in the area, and like very few practices nationally, we stayed in close contact with you via direct phone calls, direct email updates, we updated our website and Facebook® pages frequently, and we held vaccination clinics to better serve you and get individuals through the process as quickly as possible.

Our processes were certainly not perfect, and not everyone received the impeccable and timely service that we strive for, but the important thing is that we do strive for such service excellence. Your support and understanding during such challenging times is appreciated. So congratulations to our team for their hard and diligent work on behalf of you, our patients.

Family Matters: Successful Parenting

Over the next 6 months, we will have a series of articles written by GreenField friend Kathy Masarie, MD. Kathy is a pediatrician who focuses on parenting and supporting families to thrive. Her two recently published parenting guides: Raising Our Daughters and Raising Our Sons and many more parenting resources can be found at www.family- empower.com.

Modern parenting is a complicated business. When we “signed-up” for parenting and were holding that darling little baby—we thought THAT was complicated. As they grew, there seemed to be more and more we had to do to keep up. We got busy. In our “busyness,” it is easy to get distracted from what is most important in our lives: the lifelong relationships we are building with our children.

In this series of articles on parenting, we will be exploring the following topics in the months ahead: Top Tips for Successful Parenting, Raising Our Daughters, Raising Our Sons, It Really Does Takes a Village, Meaningful Connection with Your Teen, and Ground Your Helicopter Parenting.

Some of you are parents, some perhaps just contemplating parenthood, while others are grandparents. In any case, these articles will have lessons for us as we contemplate the raising of our own children, grandchildren, and even neighbors or other children that we care about. We thank Dr. Masarie for offering us her wisdom via these articles.

When it comes to excellence in parenting, we first offer the following 7 Tips for Successful Parenting:

Tip 1: Think long-term
Ask yourself, “What would you like your relationship with your future 25-year-old to be? What qualities would you like to encourage?” Then look at your current parenting approach to see if it is effective towards these goals. When our children are babies, they are 100% dependent on us. As they grow towards independence, it is our job as parents to slowly do less and give them opportunities to learn. When a child experiences the unpleasant natural consequences of a mistake, he/she learns good decision -making skills. However, if a parent interferes, the child learns, “I am inept and need help.” Parents do this to help and protect kids and because we are often so busy, it is easier to just do it ourselves.

Tip 2: Connect with your children
Whether you have a girl, boy, or both, close personal connections are critical. Effective communication and connection with your child continues to be the most powerful protection against future risky behaviors. A well done study called “Protecting Adolescents from Harm,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, surveyed 12,000 youth and showed that the single most protective factor against risky behaviors was good connection with parents.

Effective connections and communication are much more about what you hear than what you say, so listen well. When you listen well, you can find out what your child is thinking and doing, so you have a chance to be supportive. That support might simply be in the form of curious, coaching questions to help them work through an issue they are dealing with. It is also important to find common activities to do together where there is meaningful connection time. We know people are busy, but such time may be: over dinner, a one-one parent-child outing, on the drive to soccer practice, or at bedtime. Pay attention to the connecting moments in your relationship and foster them. I will be sharing specific communication strategies with boys and girls in the next couple of newsletters.

One good friend, another pediatrician, reserved one weekend day per month to spend one-on-one with his daughter and another with his son. The activity for day was defined by what they – each child – wanted to do on their day, not what the father wanted to do. He found this meaningful and vital time as he reflects back on his parenting experience.

Tip 3: Be consistent, clear, and kind
Perhaps it need not be said, but consistency in parenting, in attention given to children, in the advice given, and the interest shown is all extremely important. Be clear, compassionate and kind in your discussions, not judgmental. Inconsistent interest and persistently judgmental interactions can be very damaging to any relationship, particular that with a child.

Tip 4: Be an “Effective Parent” rather than a “Good Parent”
It is also easy to think that a “good” parent is one who has “superkids” – those who get A’s and are star soccer players. It is easy to think that a “good” parent is a permissive friend, fun-loving, and child-centered until the kid “crosses the line,” and then the parent is strict and controlling. This yo-yo parenting is confusing and exhausting.

We encourage parents to strike a better balance and to focus on being an “effective parent” instead. An effective parent focuses on connections that are kind and strict at the same time. They frequently evaluate their parenting to see if it is working towards fostering independence and connection. One of the best resources on effective parenting is Jane Nelsen’s Positive Discipline series. This approach preserves the child’s self respect, respect for the parent, and the personal dignity that is so important as they grow.

Tip 5: Nurture yourself
Perhaps it need not be said, but to be an effective parent, you have to take care of yourself. Think of the last time you went away for a weekend with your friends or your spouse. Most likely, when you came back, you were more resourceful, patient, caring, and enjoyable to be around for a few days. Taking care of oneself is easily forgotten leaving us in an emotionally and sometimes physically depleted state. To be resourceful, it is very important to “put your oxygen mask on first.” That includes healthy eating and daily exercise – the life habits that you exhibit are both critical to your own health, but they serve as vital examples to your children about life habit expectations for them as well.

When a family eats healthy together, when the parents exercise as a matter of routine, when the family frequently does these things together, then the children begin to build their own life expectations around positive lifestyle habits. You can take care of yourself and your kids at the same time by focusing on weekend activities that you can do together, such as long walks in town, hiking on local trails, cycling, skiing, snowshoeing, and long walks on the beach.

It is too easy to bring the stress of our work life home with us – we are often busy at work and we bring that busyness and stress home spending the evenings focused on our own work. We don’t advise that every evening be overly focused on our children, but we can become so persistently focused on work that we lose time for our children and don’t give them the attention that they need. Demonstrating hard working habits is, we believe, a very positive parenting attribute, but consistently bringing too much work or work stress home can be harmful to the parent and thus to the children.

Tip 6: Take care of your spouse
Children learn and develop expectations from watching their parents, and a key relationship that they witness each day is the relationship between their parents. While each parent needs to take care of her or himself as noted above, they also have to take care of each other. The health of your relationship with your spouse will be overtly visible to your children day-by-day. The way you manage your relationship expresses expectations to your children. You should be mindful of the way that you communicate with each other, the way that you show affection, your emotional and intellectual connection with each other, and how you spend time together. Your children will learn from observing you. Far too many children grow up in families where the parents fight, they are frequently at each other’s throats, they raise their voices, and they don’t really listen to each other. Effective relationships, including that with your spouse, take thoughtful work over time. Staying very attentive to that relationship is important to the quality of your parenting.

Tip 7: Network with other parents
Parenting is complicated and we frequently try to do it in isolation. We may have many friends with children, but it is rare that we have explicit discussions about parenting. Successful parents talk with each other about their parenting in open, honest discussions. Whether things are going smoothly or a little rocky, it is important to have other parents who care about you and care about your kids to support you. Parenting is hard work, and like any other challenging skill, it requires work and reflection for us to be effective. Talking with other parents who are in the same school, place of worship, or neighborhood can help give you insights and new perspectives.

RESOURCES FOR RAISING OUR CHILDREN

1. Raising Our Daughters and Raising Our Sons Parenting Guides by Kathy Masarie MD, Jody Bellant Scheer MD, and Kathy Keller Jones, MA can be used as reference guides or as discussion guides to network with other families. Please visit: www.family-empower.com.
   
2. Parenting From the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive by Daniel Siegel, MD and Mary Hartzell, Med
   
3. How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen, and How to Listen So Your Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
   
4. Positive Discipline: A Classic Guide for Parents and Teachers to Help Children Develop Self-discipline, Responsibility, Cooperation, and Problem-solving by Jane Nelsen, EdD, MFT and Positive Discipline for Teenagers: Empowering Your Teen and Yourself Through Kind and Firm Parenting by Jane Nelsen, EdD, MFT and Lynn Lott, MA, MFT
   
5. Uncommon Sense for Parents of Teenagers by Michael Riera, PhD
   
6. The Parent as Coach Approach: The Seven Ways to Coach Your Teen in the Game of Life by Diana Sterling
   
7. The Good Father: On Men, Masculinity, and Life in the Family by Mark O’Connell
   
8. Parenting From Your Heart: Sharing the Gifts of Compassion, Connection, and Choice by Inbal Kashtan
   
9. Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids: Seven Keys to Turn Family Conflict into Cooperation by Sura Hart and Victoria Kindle Hodson
   
10. Putting Family First: Strategies for Reclaiming Family Life in a Hurry-Up World by William Doherty, PhD and Barbara Carlson
    
11. Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children by Michael Thompson, PhD
    

Office Notes

• We will be open for normal clinic hours on Martin Luther King Day- Monday, January 18th
  
• As a reminder, if your insurance changed as of the first of the year, please make sure to contact us to provide us with your new insurance information. We will need the name of your new insurance provider, your ID and Group numbers, the subscriber’s name and date of birth, and the phone numbers and billing address for your new insurance which can be found on the back of your card.
  

As we enter into this New Year, we would like to wish each and every one of you a happy and healthy 2010!

Sincerely,

Your GreenField Team

Alisyn Shaw, CMA, your Health Coordinator
Angie Ashburn, CMA, your Health Coordinator
Beth Davis, your Business Office Manager
Bonnie Hicks, your Billing Clerk
Carrie Destefano, CMA, your Health Coordinator
Chuck Kilo, MD
Connie Turner, MA, your Health Coordinator
Cynthia Ferrier, MD
Dana Lee, MA, your Clinical Supervisor
Danika Pellicano, NCMA, your Health Coordinator
David Hays, MD
David Shute, MD
Elizabeth Hays, MD
Jill Arena, your COO
Joel Swartzmiller, your IT Manager
Kate Griggs, your Administrative Assistant
Kim Walgraeve, your Marketing Manager
Kristin Walker, your Program and Executive Assistant
Malcolm McAninch, MD
Marsha Box, MA, your Health Coordinator
Meena Mital, MD
Pam Mockenhaupt, CMA, your Health Coordinator and Biller
Paula Koeller, MD
Peter Casey, your Consultant
Samantha Charles, your Clinic Administrator
Steve Rallison, your new COO

GreenField Health at Barnes Road
9427 SW Barnes Road, Suite 590
Portland, OR 97225

GreenField Health at NE Broadway
2606 NE Broadway, Suite C
Portland, OR 97232

Phone: 503.292.9560
Fax: 503.292.9510
Web: http://www.GreenFieldHealth.com

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