Pittsburgh Magazine Honors Hometown Heroes with 2021 Excellence in Nursing Awards

A Salute to Nurses By RACHEL WEAVER LABAR | Photos by LAURA PETRILLA

The pandemic has killed more than 700,000 Americans, a disproportionate number of whom were people of color or the underserved. This crisis has taken a heavy toll on the nursing community — especially those who served on the front lines, supporting patients and helping families communicate with their very ill loved ones.

But as harrowing as this has been, I’ve often felt inspired and hopeful.

Why? Because COVID-19 has shown the world the important role nurses play in health care — not because they have no fear but because they approach their work and care for patients despite their fear with the utmost compassion.

On behalf of the Pittsburgh community, I would like to extend our collective thanks, gratitude and appreciation to all of the nurses and nursing students who responded to those in need. Join me in congratulating the 2021 Excellence in Nursing Award recipients who are recognized in this issue. They have demonstrated extraordinary dedication and courage.

– Mary Ellen Glasgow Dean and Professor, Duquesne University School of Nursing; Chair, Pittsburgh Magazine Excellence in Nursing Selection Committee

View the nominees!

Excellence In Nursing – Pandemic Response Hero: Pauline Hutsler Excellence in Nursing – Leader: Maribeth McLaughlin Excellence In Nursing – Emerging Leader: Jeffrey Bomba Excellence In Nursing – Advanced Practitioner: Maj. William Pileggi Excellence In Nursing – Clinician: Shenoa Jamieson Excellence in Nursing – Community: Alexis Myers Excellence In Nursing – Academic: Ruth Madden Foreman Excellence In Nursing – Researcher: Alison Colbert

HONORABLE MENTION

Pandemic Response Hero

Mark Cashioli, Infusion Nurse, Chartwell Specialty Pharmacy Jonna L. Morris, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Judith A. Shovel, Improvement Specialist, Clinical Improvement Department, Wolff Center at UPMC

Leadership Krista Bragg, Chief Operating Officer, Allegheny Health Network Christin M. Durham, Associate Chief Nurse, Primary Care, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System Nancy Gross, RN Director, Butler Health System Geralyn Lee, Clinical Director, UPMC Home Healthcare

Emerging Leader Ashleigh Anderson, Senior Professional Staff Nurse, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Tammy Barker-Fleming, Unit Director Neuro/Trauma, UPMC Presbyterian Hospital Leanne Feil, ER Case Management Access Nurse, Butler Health System Amber Kolesar, Instructor and Director, Second-Degree BSN Program, Duquesne University School of Nursing Tara Stickley, Unit Director, Womancare Birth Center, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital

Advanced Practitioner Erin Q. Dieter, Palliative Medicine, Excela Health Medical Group Joyce Knestrick, Associate Professor, George Washington University School of Nursing (Visiting Professor; Family Nurse Practitioner from Washington, Pa.) Charles Warner, Nurse Practitioner, Critical Care Medicine, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital

Clinician Mandy Emmick, Registered Nurse/Case Manager, UPMC Home Healthcare Christopher Hornberger, Registered Nurse, 7T Telemetry, Butler Memorial Hospital Catherine “Caty” Thomas, Clinical Education Specialist, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital

Community Mary Jo Bellush and Deborah Schotting, Infection Preventionists, Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital Elizabeth DiLembo, Project Manager, COVID Vaccine Clinic, Quality, Clinical Documentation Specialist, Excela Health

Academic Janet Barber, Standardized Patient Manager, Robert Morris University Richard Henker, Professor, Department of Nurse Anesthesia, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Rebecca Kronk, Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Duquesne University

Researcher Susan W. Wesmiller, Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing

Bloomsburg CRNA Selected for Trauma Critical Care Team

Elite team responds immediately to disasters and public health emergencies domestically and around the globe

Christopher Heiss, who has worked for more than 10 years at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., has been a flight nurse, a flight paramedic, and even the developer of a protective intubation shield, or the Barrier for Respiratory Aerosolization (BRA), equipment that protected frontline hospital workers and ambulance personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And now, after years of trying, he can finally add one more major achievement to his already impressive resume: Heiss has been named to the exclusive U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (US HHS) National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) Trauma Critical Care Team (TCCT).

TCCT is the United States’ special operations medical force that is called on within the first 24 to 48 hours of natural and man-made disasters and public health emergencies to set up field hospitals or augment health systems to provide critical, operative, and emergency care to people in need.

TCCT members are medical professionals who are deployed at the request of local authorities to supplement federal, state, local, tribal and territorial resources, and the only component of the NDMS that is international, going anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice to respond to the crisis and then coordinate with the NDMS Patient Movement System to get U.S. citizen evacuated home or to a safe location for care.

While each state has at least one or multiple Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, with thousands of members nationwide, all working under the umbrella of Health & Human Services’ NDMS, TCCT is an elite operation, even serving at every presidential inauguration and State of the Union address. The United States has just one TCCT with 70 to 80 members spread across the country --- and Heiss is one of them.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do, something that has been a long-time goal of mine,” Heiss said. “It’s incredibly humbling.”

Heiss applied in August 2020 and more than a year later finally was interviewed by a TCCT pioneer who was on the scene after earthquakes in Haiti and Iran, during flooding from Hurricane Katrina, and at ground zero after the 911 terrorist attacks on the United States. Just like crises emerge without warning, so did that interview. The trauma surgeon called one random Sunday afternoon asking him if he could talk “right now.” Yes, of course he could, he said.

Heiss was offered the position in October and takes his oath in January.

Heiss will continue to work for Geisinger. Like other TCCT members, he will keep his civilian job but have periods when he is on call for deployments and must serve out his mission before returning home.

As excited as he is about fulfilling this dream, Heiss says he is excited that eventually he will be able to serve the TCCT as a CRNA from Pennsylvania --- something that simply would not have been possible without Act 60 of 2021.

Before the enactment of that law on June 30, Pennsylvania had been one of just two states that failed to recognize “certified registered nurse anesthetist” in some form. With no definition for nurse anesthetists under the state’s Professional Nursing Law, CRNAs were recognized only as registered nurses.

That means Heiss had to secure credentials from another state to serve on the TCCT as a CRNA, which he did. By granting formal title recognition to nurse anesthetists, Act 60 changes all that --- for him and thousands of other CRNAs in Pennsylvania.

Heiss is already providing lifesaving and life-sustaining care to people where he lives and works. But now, through TCCT, whether it is deploying in the wake of a tornado or responding to a terrorist attack, he can put those same skills to work to help people across the United States and around the world.

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Spotlight PA: At last minute, Pa. lawmakers vote to extend dozens of COVID-19 waivers

This article was originally published on Spotlight PA.

by Danielle Ohl of Spotlight PA | Sept. 29, 2021

📷 FRED ADAMS / FOR SPOTLIGHT PA

HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania legislature unanimously voted Wednesday to extend dozens of regulatory waivers put into place last year to help health-care providers fight COVID-19.

Without action, the waivers would have expired Thursday, potentially exacerbating ongoing staffing crises in hospitals and long-term care institutions, which are again facing rising COVID-19 cases. Health-care workers and their advocates had warned any lapse in the relaxed rules would have renewed administrative burdens and made fighting the ongoing pandemic more difficult.

Wednesday’s action will keep the waivers in place until March 2022 while the legislature considers a number of bills that would make the regulatory suspensions permanent. Gov. Tom Wolf will sign the bill.

“The governor is thankful the legislature engaged the administration and stakeholders and ultimately agreed with most of the administration’s recommendations on extending COVID-19-related waivers that are still in use,” spokesperson Lyndsay Kensinger said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Wolf approved nearly 100 waivers to ease some of the rules governing health-care workers and ensure as many professionals as possible were on the ground in hospitals, vaccination clinics, and long-term care facilities.

The temporary changes were made under a disaster declaration that later became a target for legislative Republicans unhappy with the administration’s business closures.

Buoyed by two successful constitutional amendments that curtailed the executive’s power, the GOP-controlled General Assembly ended Wolf’s emergency order in June, while allowing the waivers to remain in place until Sept. 30.

Under the bill passed Wednesday, all suspensions under the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, and the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs will remain in place until March unless Wolf and the agencies decide to terminate them sooner.

Among the waivers extended are those allowing out-of-state practitioners to treat patients in Pennsylvania, permitting retired or lapsed professionals to return to medicine, and expanding who can give a vaccine.

The waivers also allow patients to access care via telemedicine, which as of now is neither allowed nor prohibited in Pennsylvania law, creating a gray area for health-care providers and insurance companies.

Lawmakers have introduced bills in both the House and Senate to provide rules and regulations surrounding telemedicine, but past efforts have broken down over partisan disagreements. Wolf vetoed a telemedicine bill last year because it would have prevented health-care providers from prescribing abortion-inducing medicine.

As a number of other bills that would make regulatory suspensions permanent await consideration, two removing administrative barriers for physician assistants passed Wednesday.

The Joint State Government Commission is studying the impact of the waivers and which should stay in place to remove barriers to employment in the state. Glenn Pasewicz, executive director of the committee, said a report should be out by late October.

Separately, lawmakers on Wednesday directed various state agencies to post a report listing which waivers were and were not extended by Nov. 1.

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