The two have also become avid e-bicyclists and have found the trail system in the Triangle to be ideal for local rides. The two are passionate about boating and, with the pandemic continuing, expect to hang out quite a bit on their 27-foot pontoon boat, grill out with family members and continue to entertain their grandchildren.
He stayed on for 10 years – helping to manufacture special shaped balloons for Disney World and other major companies, but also for the private sector, including individuals such as Malcolm Forbes (they built him one in the shape of a Harley-Davidson).Ĭhmielewski’s wife Kathleen expects to retire from Duke early next year.
The two hit it off and Carl was brought on board first to help build the plant, and then to build hot air balloons. While at the lumber company, he met a customer who was launching his own balloon manufacturing company. Michigan happens to be a hot spot for the ballooning industry, which was his next career move. During this time he honed enough skills to build his own home, which he says took him six months to do, but it was something he had always dreamed of doing. He moved to the lumber industry, working for a local lumber company. His first career was in mobile home repair, but when he and his wife began to have children, the extremely long work days he had been putting in were no longer satisfying. Prior to Duke, Carl’s family had been based in Michigan. It was a project that many would agree was transformative.Ĭhmielewski refers to retirement as his 4 th and final career change. The project he is most proud to have worked on, however, is the implementation of QGenda, which allowed him to work with faculty members like Jimmy Tcheng in order to take faculty scheduling fully electronic, with greater accessibility to key contact information. Through his involvement there, he found he enjoyed listening to the CGR recordings and learning more about what the faculty and fellows were working on. Chmielewski has helped various faculty members over the years, including Tom Bashore, by ensuring the Duke Medical Center archives team had access to older materials that could be of historical value.Ĭhmielewski was also instrumental in working with cardiology leadership to develop the PODS system and an improved wording grid for paging operators to use for reaching cardiologists.Īt one time, Carl was actively involved with Cardiology Grand Rounds and helping to plan the travel and itinerary for guest speakers. Inevitable in any academic medical center is the accumulation of important records, papers, photographs, instruments, illustrations and other artifacts. It might not apply to everybody, but it will apply to a lot of them.”Īnother long-term project he enjoyed working on is related to Duke Cardiology’s historical records. “Every time a staff member came up with an idea that was a shortcut or something, I put it on there for everybody to look at. Carl created that as a centralized means of sharing knowledge throughout the group. “My motto has always been, ‘work smarter, not harder’ so when people would come to me with issues or ideas – especially the staff, I started documenting them so that we could share these great tips,” Chmielewski says.Īll cardiology administrative staff is likely familiar with the Help Documents folder, now in Box. Over the course of 29 years, he has certainly worked on a very large number of projects, but the ones that stand out the most for him are those that have arguably made the greatest difference to others by making their lives a bit easier. Most who know Carl recognize him for his superb troubleshooting skills most of us have either uttered or heard the refrain, “Go ask Carl,” when some administrative complexity could not be figured out. “It has always been something new every day, or what might work today will not work tomorrow, so the days have always been challenging.” One of the things Chmielewski says he has enjoyed the most about working for the division is that things never got stale. He was soon brought into an administrative role that would basically evolve over the years into something akin to ‘chief troubleshooter’. “It has been an amazing ride that is for sure,” he said.Ĭhmielewski, who started at Duke as a temporary file clerk was assigned to Duke’s division of cardiology to help with the purging of old files “back when all we used were paper records,” he says. We had the opportunity to speak with Carl about his Duke experience over the years. He has worked with the division for 29 years. 30 after 29 Years of ServiceĬarl Chmielewski, administrative assistant in the division of cardiology, will retire from Duke Heart this week on Sept.
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