Protecting the people behind patient care
For Kelsey Loehr, nurse program manager, caring for patients begins with supporting the people who care for them.
That philosophy inspired her work on UCHealth’s cyber incivility project, an initiative designed to address harmful My Health Connection patient portal communications directed at frontline staff.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, My Health Connection transformed how patients connected with their care teams. Platform usage increased by 350% as it became a primary tool for scheduling appointments, medication refills and provider communications.
While the shift improved access to care, it also brought an unintended challenge: Frontline staff receiving uncivil patient messages, often about issues beyond their control.
Loehr understood firsthand the impact those interactions could have on caregivers, having previously worked as a nurse and charge nurse in the UCHealth Spine Center – Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion.
“Staff must feel supported,” Loehr said. “We don’t want them leaving the healthcare space because of workplace violence issues that aren’t being addressed.”
Rather than accepting harmful patient messages as part of the job, Loehr set out to provide a solution. She helped develop the cyber incivility project alongside the telephone verbal violence research team, the IT department and other collaborators across UCHealth.
The innovative effort uses artificial intelligence and a scoring system developed by the project team to identify uncivil patient portal messages sent to staff. Messages deemed uncivil are routed to clinic leaders who are equipped to de-escalate concerns, coordinate solutions across teams and support employees. The process also creates opportunities for leaders to check in with affected staff.
“Nurses are always trying their best to support patients, and I want to make sure they have what they need to do just that,” Loehr said.
The project — which required nearly four years of research, collaboration and testing — stemmed from earlier work focused on telephone verbal violence.
The project’s workflow has already been piloted at six UCHealth clinics and is slated for systemwide clinic expansion across all UCHealth regions in late 2026. Education is also being developed to help employees understand the new resources available to them.
“It’s important that we shift the culture of nursing and the thought that clinical staff need to accept poor behavior aimed at us,” she said. “We need to flip the narrative.”
The innovative work has gained attention beyond UCHealth, too. In addition to presenting the project at this year’s UCHealth Nursing Leadership Conference, Loehr has been invited to present at Epic’s 2026 User Group Meeting and the Rocky Mountain Interprofessional Research and Evidence-Based Practice Symposium.
The initiative not only helps address difficult patient interactions more effectively, but also reinforces that employee well-being matters and that workplace violence should never be considered part of the job.
In a recent Celebrating You nomination, Karen Fields, vice president of clinic operations, celebrated the impact of Loehr’s work.
“Kelsey, your work on the cyber incivility project is truly remarkable and touching so many lives in a good way,” Fields said. “I’m so excited that you have the opportunity to present your work on the national stage, which will go on to touch more lives.”