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EndoPro All Stars

EndoPro All Stars
February 21, 2019 CIEC

EndoPro All Stars

What is the official name of your facility and approximately how many patients do you serve?

We are Central Illinois Endoscopy Center;  CIEC.  We are an Ambulatory Surgical Center located in Peoria, IL.  We serve approximately 10,500 patients per year within a tri-county area.

Which types of procedures do you perform and how big is your staff?

Our team includes 38 dedicated, hardworking staff members.  We have nine physicians that perform colonoscopies and esophagogastroduodenoscopies.  We also do Bravo and Interstim.  We have three procedure rooms and perform approximately 40-45 procedures every day.

staff and doctors of Central Illinois Endoscopy Center smiling for a photo

Please highlight one or two recent successes your team has experienced.

August 2018 our facility changed to a CRNA Model of sedation. Our Nurse Manager, Denise Sophanavong, BSN has worked extremely hard for the past year to make this model successful.  This has been a positive change for our physicians and staff. This change has been much more advantageous for our patients. The patient is given the appropriate amount of Propofol to provide deep sedation by one of our seven Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists. The patient falls asleep faster and wakes up faster in Recovery without the “hangover” feeling of moderate sedation. This CRNA Model has increased Patient Satisfaction, Physician Satisfaction, and Staff Satisfaction.

October 2017 the American College of Gastroenterology announced the winners of the 2017 SCOPY Awards; Service Award for Colorectal Cancer Outreach, Prevention, and Year-Round Excellence.  Our Director, Andy Paulson,  worked incredibly hard for CIEC  and submitted an amazing vignette.  CIEC won for “Best Use of Patient Profile to Increase Colorectal Cancer Awareness”.  A series of three commercials focused on why a local Stage IV colon cancer patient, who sadly passed away, wished he had gotten screened sooner.  Colorectal Cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men and women.  Andy and CIEC set a high bar for community awareness and the need for screening.  The team at CIEC come together to support the warriors, survivors, the departed, and their families at 5K Run/Walks.   We advocate at HealthCare events.  We educate at speaking engagements all to increase colorectal cancer awareness.

How would you describe your team to people outside your unit?

CIEC has an amazing team! We work effectively and efficiently together (and we have fun doing it).  Our team is extremely knowledgeable.  Most of our Registered Nurses have more than 15 years of Endoscopy experience and we have five that are Certified Gastroenterology Registered Nurses.  Our techs do the dirty work and they don’t get enough recognition.  All of techs have received certification through the Society of Gastroenterology Nurses Association and are GI Technical Specialists.  The environment at CIEC is always positive and the patients and their families can feel it.

What challenges do you think today’s endo/GI nurses face?

There are obstacles that challenge nurses on a daily basis.  In an ASC, we are faced often with changing guidelines.  Denise has an amazing networking system to stay one step ahead of accreditation guidelines.  On a daily basis she is keeping CIEC up to date with changing AAAHC, Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, standards and guidelines.  She is changing policies and making sure those policies are communicated to the team.  She hosts a Benchmarking Conference each year with more than 5 Ambulatory GI Surgical Centers from Illinois and surrounding states to further develop her networking system.  Our team goes above and beyond to promote safety and quality of care and to comply with accreditation standards.

doctors and staff of Central Illinois Endoscopy Center smiling for a photo