October 27, 2022 • 8 mins
Palm trees, beach balls and sun? Kasper and Christy talk to Liz Michalak about the new employee oasis. A place for Toledo Hospital staff to relax, play games, take a mental health break and more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christy (00:13):
so Toledo Hospital just had its first hospital practice counsel meeting,
and one of the things that came up, andwas shared by Cory Leber, the associate
Vice President of nursing here at ToledoHospital was our new employee, Oasis.
Have you heard anything about that, Dr.
Casper?
Kasper (00:25):
I've heard a little bit about it, mainly from Corey.
Yeah.
Sounds really excited and much neededand sounds like it'd be a great place for
employees to grab a little bit of a break.
Christy (00:33):
So we have Liz with us today to kind of give us an overview and share some
information about the new employee Oasis.
Liz (00:39):
Yeah.
I'm not Corey, but I'll do my best.
Kasper (00:42):
But you're Liz.
I'm Liz.
It's great.
You're like on a project, onename basis, like Kobe or LeBron.
That's great.
It's Liz.
Liz (00:49):
yeah, this is a really fun project actually, that, we
kicked off not too long ago.
you know, over the years thiscampus has grown significantly.
We all know that.
We talked about that last time I was on
Christy (00:58):
here.
Liz (00:58):
Mm-hmm.
. Um, so with that, right, we've gottenrequests and requests and request time
and time again from staff about, aplace that they can, slip away, kind
of call their own, get away from,families in the waiting room, right?
Patients waiting out.
busy cafeteria.
and you know, we've never reallyaccommodated that over the years, from
a whole hospital perspective, right.
All of our departments seem to havea little bit of a, of a break room
(01:19):
or something in their areas, but,we really have gotten some requests
about just some decompression zones,across the facility for our staff.
so it's been on the radar for a while.
And, earlier this year our foundationapproached us, about some funds that were
sitting in the Toledo Hospital Foundation,restricted funds that were specifically
set aside and donated, for employee use.
(01:40):
So, in our foundations we've gotrestricted and unrestricted funds.
And so what that means is, an unrestrictedfund would be a donor that says,
Hey, to leave a hospital, I reallyappreciate everything you did for me.
here's a check and recognition of that,and you use that for whatever you need
to use it for a restricted fund, however,is, you know, I'm a grateful patient and
somebody had a really meaningful impact.
(02:01):
So I write a check to ToledoHospital and say, Hey, I really wanna
recognize, so andSo, so please usethis for this exact purpose, right?
I wanna use this to dedicate tothe staff, so please buy them
snacks or a meal or something.
as a foundation, we takethose, requests very seriously.
And we use those funds exactlyhow our donors ask us to.
(02:21):
We have gotten a lot of fundsinto our foundation that just say,
please use this for our employees.
Right.
To do something good or nice foryour employees to recognize them.
And so we had quite a bit ofmoney, in the Toledo Hospital
Foundation to do that for our staff.
So, they approached us earlierthis year and said, Hey, you know,
we really wanna dig into thesefunds and do something different.
Do you guys have any.
Corey and I, put our heads together.
(02:41):
We got a group of frontlineemployees together to say,
Hey, what do you guys wanna do?
And that, employee oasis zone,if you will, came up again.
we've heard about it over the yearsthen, and then it came up again
this year, when we got this request.
So we started to look forsome space around the campus.
How can we make thishappen with those funds?
And, the old c.
It's a pretty large spacethat's, not being used right now.
(03:02):
so we identified that location and workedwith those frontline employees to really
talk about what would be important in thatspace and what they'd wanna see there.
Christy (03:11):
So when you say foundation funds, That's money that's been
donated, as you said, but that'sseparate, completely separated from
like capital funds and operation funds.
So those are not monies thatwe can use for new staff or new
equipment or anything like that.
Right?
Liz (03:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
So, When a donor gives us money, right?
And they say, you know, I wantit used for this exact purpose.
That's what we have to use it for.
you've seen things doneover the years, right?
I'm, and I'm sure Dr.
. Exactly.
You know, you could probably speakto a few of the things that our
foundation has, purchased for jobs.
Right.
And it is very specificwhat they can be used for.
Kasper (03:46):
that's exactly right.
Donor intent.
Yes.
Right.
So that donor makes a donationfor something specific in mind.
But to your point, something likethis, we do get a lot of donations
that go, towards the nurses.
Mm-hmm.
, right.
Or the great experience fromthe staff that they had here.
Do something for the staff and, Ithink that's what a great idea to
kind of pool those funds which areavailable, for that donor intent.
(04:06):
That will really kind of tick a lotof boxes as far as helping people
with their day to day stresses.
Day to day environment.
A good place to decompress.
Liz (04:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's interesting, you know,we, worked with staff to ask 'em
what they wanted in there, right?
And it was everything from.
a little library area where Ican sit and read a book for a
few minutes or just decompress.
I'd like somewhere where I cansit down and just color or puzzles
or just something to take my mindoff what's going on around here.
Right.
Somewhere where I can maybe comein early, have breakfast before
I'm running to my shift to start.
(04:34):
Right.
so really the things that we're planningfor that space are, are those things.
we're gonna have a large tv, so.
places to relax, arts andcrafts kinds of things.
You know, you guys, staff developmentput on the, the coloring contest
and people loved that, right?
Mm-hmm.
we're gonna do that on steroids.
we've got a library area, so we're hopingto do like a give and take library.
(04:54):
The staff or the teamthat worked on this also.
one of the ideas was having outdoor games.
So we actually, are purchasing a large,I, I can't remember how big it is, but
a huge, like fake grass rug and we haveall these outdoor games like corn hole
and I don't know, somebody brought uplawn darts and we can't do that anymore.
Yeah,
Christy (05:14):
Jenga.
Big Jenga.
Liz (05:15):
Yeah.
So yeah, we bought big Jenga andso some of that kind of fun stuff
just to take our minds off things.
Hoping to be able to program it a littlebit so, is there, you know, a time or two
a week or a month or something that wecan have snacks down there so staff can
jump in and jump out and grab something.
Right?
Do we have cereal on Tuesday mornings?
when does the popcorn cart, make popcorn?
Can you stop down and get something?
(05:36):
So looking at some of that stuff too.
but we're actively,under construction there.
I say construction, that's kind ofaggressive, I guess I would say.
You know, paint and flooring,
Kasper (05:44):
right?
Remodeling.
Liz (05:44):
Yeah, a little remodel.
so they're doing that right now.
We have purchased furniture for the suiteand, are looking forward to opening it.
We're, we are hoping prior to theend of the year, hopefully, if we can
get the furniture and such in, but,
Christy (05:58):
And so this area will be just for staff?
That's correct.
Correct.
Yeah.
So no family, no visitors, nophysicians, no medical students.
Liz (06:10):
That's correct.
Yeah.
This really is a staff oasis.
It's really dedicated to ourfront lines and, and the people.
you know, just to, to honorour donor intent really
Kasper (06:18):
well and stress reducer.
It's interesting cause I, you know,you talked about some of those things.
You talk about coloring, they addeda poster at job's a few months ago.
Uh, the team did and just put it upthere and there's some markers around
there and do you wanna decompress?
It's stop and color a little bit and it'sjust fun to kind of walk by and watch the
progress of that get filled in, over timeand, and yeah, it's little things like
that that make, can make a big difference.
(06:40):
Cuz what we do is, I alwayssay we don't make gaskets.
We deal with life and deathand, it can be stressful.
Liz (06:46):
Yeah, you know, it was fun, getting the team together, right, because, we
really had like a, a really good groupof, a wide array of employees, people
who have only been here a few years andpeople have been here a really long time.
so a lot of the things that werebrought up to bring back to the
space were, items that we had here.
Years and years and years ago, right?
So, somebody brought up, like, weused to have a board somewhere along
the lines that you would post, like,things for sale or, I need a babysitter
(07:09):
kind of thing that got brought up,like how are, can we bring that back?
That was really great.
Right?
there used to be, Chairs alongthe windows at some point, I think
there used to be an employee breakroom over near that cafeteria.
people really wanted, likesome relaxing chairs that faced
outside in the back of that cafe.
So we bought some of those.
so it's just interesting.
and then, you know, some people whohaven't been here that long, the
important things to them were different.
(07:30):
So, we got some.
Arcade games, people reallywanted that, like ping pong
tables, foosball, stuff like that.
So I think it should be interesting.
Hopefully everybody can find something inthere that they find, in some regards.
Christy (07:43):
yeah, this is really, really good, experience for our
staff and something to, have themtake 15 minutes away from their
floor and just kind of reset andget back to the great patient care,
Kasper (07:53):
recharge
and rejuvenate.
Exactly.
Fantastic.
Well deserved.
Christy (07:57):
Well, thanks so much for being with us and kind of
going over the employee oasis.
The hospital practice council repsfor each department will be reaching
out to their teams, as we're havinga naming contest for the area.
So more to come on that.
All right, thanks everyone.
so Toledo Hospital just had its first hospital practice counsel meeting,
and one of the things that came up, andwas shared by Cory Leber, the associate
Vice President of nursing here at ToledoHospital was our new employee, Oasis.
Have you heard anything about that, Dr.
Casper?
Kasper (00:25):
I've heard a little bit about it, mainly from Corey.
Yeah.
Sounds really excited and much neededand sounds like it'd be a great place for
employees to grab a little bit of a break.
Christy (00:33):
So we have Liz with us today to kind of give us an overview and share some
information about the new employee Oasis.
Liz (00:39):
Yeah.
I'm not Corey, but I'll do my best.
Kasper (00:42):
But you're Liz.
I'm Liz.
It's great.
You're like on a project, onename basis, like Kobe or LeBron.
That's great.
It's Liz.
Liz (00:49):
yeah, this is a really fun project actually, that, we
kicked off not too long ago.
you know, over the years thiscampus has grown significantly.
We all know that.
We talked about that last time I was on
Christy (00:58):
here.
Liz (00:58):
Mm-hmm.
. Um, so with that, right, we've gottenrequests and requests and request time
and time again from staff about, aplace that they can, slip away, kind
of call their own, get away from,families in the waiting room, right?
Patients waiting out.
busy cafeteria.
and you know, we've never reallyaccommodated that over the years, from
a whole hospital perspective, right.
All of our departments seem to havea little bit of a, of a break room
(01:19):
or something in their areas, but,we really have gotten some requests
about just some decompression zones,across the facility for our staff.
so it's been on the radar for a while.
And, earlier this year our foundationapproached us, about some funds that were
sitting in the Toledo Hospital Foundation,restricted funds that were specifically
set aside and donated, for employee use.
(01:40):
So, in our foundations we've gotrestricted and unrestricted funds.
And so what that means is, an unrestrictedfund would be a donor that says,
Hey, to leave a hospital, I reallyappreciate everything you did for me.
here's a check and recognition of that,and you use that for whatever you need
to use it for a restricted fund, however,is, you know, I'm a grateful patient and
somebody had a really meaningful impact.
(02:01):
So I write a check to ToledoHospital and say, Hey, I really wanna
recognize, so andSo, so please usethis for this exact purpose, right?
I wanna use this to dedicate tothe staff, so please buy them
snacks or a meal or something.
as a foundation, we takethose, requests very seriously.
And we use those funds exactlyhow our donors ask us to.
(02:21):
We have gotten a lot of fundsinto our foundation that just say,
please use this for our employees.
Right.
To do something good or nice foryour employees to recognize them.
And so we had quite a bit ofmoney, in the Toledo Hospital
Foundation to do that for our staff.
So, they approached us earlierthis year and said, Hey, you know,
we really wanna dig into thesefunds and do something different.
Do you guys have any.
Corey and I, put our heads together.
(02:41):
We got a group of frontlineemployees together to say,
Hey, what do you guys wanna do?
And that, employee oasis zone,if you will, came up again.
we've heard about it over the yearsthen, and then it came up again
this year, when we got this request.
So we started to look forsome space around the campus.
How can we make thishappen with those funds?
And, the old c.
It's a pretty large spacethat's, not being used right now.
(03:02):
so we identified that location and workedwith those frontline employees to really
talk about what would be important in thatspace and what they'd wanna see there.
Christy (03:11):
So when you say foundation funds, That's money that's been
donated, as you said, but that'sseparate, completely separated from
like capital funds and operation funds.
So those are not monies thatwe can use for new staff or new
equipment or anything like that.
Right?
Liz (03:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
So, When a donor gives us money, right?
And they say, you know, I wantit used for this exact purpose.
That's what we have to use it for.
you've seen things doneover the years, right?
I'm, and I'm sure Dr.
. Exactly.
You know, you could probably speakto a few of the things that our
foundation has, purchased for jobs.
Right.
And it is very specificwhat they can be used for.
Kasper (03:46):
that's exactly right.
Donor intent.
Yes.
Right.
So that donor makes a donationfor something specific in mind.
But to your point, something likethis, we do get a lot of donations
that go, towards the nurses.
Mm-hmm.
, right.
Or the great experience fromthe staff that they had here.
Do something for the staff and, Ithink that's what a great idea to
kind of pool those funds which areavailable, for that donor intent.
(04:06):
That will really kind of tick a lotof boxes as far as helping people
with their day to day stresses.
Day to day environment.
A good place to decompress.
Liz (04:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's interesting, you know,we, worked with staff to ask 'em
what they wanted in there, right?
And it was everything from.
a little library area where Ican sit and read a book for a
few minutes or just decompress.
I'd like somewhere where I cansit down and just color or puzzles
or just something to take my mindoff what's going on around here.
Right.
Somewhere where I can maybe comein early, have breakfast before
I'm running to my shift to start.
(04:34):
Right.
so really the things that we're planningfor that space are, are those things.
we're gonna have a large tv, so.
places to relax, arts andcrafts kinds of things.
You know, you guys, staff developmentput on the, the coloring contest
and people loved that, right?
Mm-hmm.
we're gonna do that on steroids.
we've got a library area, so we're hopingto do like a give and take library.
(04:54):
The staff or the teamthat worked on this also.
one of the ideas was having outdoor games.
So we actually, are purchasing a large,I, I can't remember how big it is, but
a huge, like fake grass rug and we haveall these outdoor games like corn hole
and I don't know, somebody brought uplawn darts and we can't do that anymore.
Yeah,
Christy (05:14):
Jenga.
Big Jenga.
Liz (05:15):
Yeah.
So yeah, we bought big Jenga andso some of that kind of fun stuff
just to take our minds off things.
Hoping to be able to program it a littlebit so, is there, you know, a time or two
a week or a month or something that wecan have snacks down there so staff can
jump in and jump out and grab something.
Right?
Do we have cereal on Tuesday mornings?
when does the popcorn cart, make popcorn?
Can you stop down and get something?
(05:36):
So looking at some of that stuff too.
but we're actively,under construction there.
I say construction, that's kind ofaggressive, I guess I would say.
You know, paint and flooring,
Kasper (05:44):
right?
Remodeling.
Liz (05:44):
Yeah, a little remodel.
so they're doing that right now.
We have purchased furniture for the suiteand, are looking forward to opening it.
We're, we are hoping prior to theend of the year, hopefully, if we can
get the furniture and such in, but,
Christy (05:58):
And so this area will be just for staff?
That's correct.
Correct.
Yeah.
So no family, no visitors, nophysicians, no medical students.
Liz (06:10):
That's correct.
Yeah.
This really is a staff oasis.
It's really dedicated to ourfront lines and, and the people.
you know, just to, to honorour donor intent really
Kasper (06:18):
well and stress reducer.
It's interesting cause I, you know,you talked about some of those things.
You talk about coloring, they addeda poster at job's a few months ago.
Uh, the team did and just put it upthere and there's some markers around
there and do you wanna decompress?
It's stop and color a little bit and it'sjust fun to kind of walk by and watch the
progress of that get filled in, over timeand, and yeah, it's little things like
that that make, can make a big difference.
(06:40):
Cuz what we do is, I alwayssay we don't make gaskets.
We deal with life and deathand, it can be stressful.
Liz (06:46):
Yeah, you know, it was fun, getting the team together, right, because, we
really had like a, a really good groupof, a wide array of employees, people
who have only been here a few years andpeople have been here a really long time.
so a lot of the things that werebrought up to bring back to the
space were, items that we had here.
Years and years and years ago, right?
So, somebody brought up, like, weused to have a board somewhere along
the lines that you would post, like,things for sale or, I need a babysitter
(07:09):
kind of thing that got brought up,like how are, can we bring that back?
That was really great.
Right?
there used to be, Chairs alongthe windows at some point, I think
there used to be an employee breakroom over near that cafeteria.
people really wanted, likesome relaxing chairs that faced
outside in the back of that cafe.
So we bought some of those.
so it's just interesting.
and then, you know, some people whohaven't been here that long, the
important things to them were different.
(07:30):
So, we got some.
Arcade games, people reallywanted that, like ping pong
tables, foosball, stuff like that.
So I think it should be interesting.
Hopefully everybody can find something inthere that they find, in some regards.
Christy (07:43):
yeah, this is really, really good, experience for our
staff and something to, have themtake 15 minutes away from their
floor and just kind of reset andget back to the great patient care,
Kasper (07:53):
recharge
and rejuvenate.
Exactly.
Fantastic.
Well deserved.
Christy (07:57):
Well, thanks so much for being with us and kind of
going over the employee oasis.
The hospital practice council repsfor each department will be reaching
out to their teams, as we're havinga naming contest for the area.
So more to come on that.
All right, thanks everyone.
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