May 24, 2005 Today was a wonderful
today. A family member of Family 4 recently passed away. Before he
passed he was working on the planning of a picnic in the park for Family 4.
After his passing, the group got together and finished the planning stages of
the picnic and followed through with it. Today Family 4 had their picnic
in the park and it was a beautiful day. Everyone knew that they had made
Rick's dreams come true. This will become a yearly event for Family 4.
We loved and miss you Rick!
May 18, 2005 Today the HUGS group
met again to discuss future plans. Two people volunteered to work on
shadow boxes in memory of those who have contributed to the Hospital District in
the past. I think that there is a lot of work yet to do to get this group
off the ground again.
May 12, 2005 Today we had a training
session on decontamination shelters and how to set them up and work with
them. It was a very interesting training. I learned a lot about
different things we could use a decontamination shelter for not to mention it
was interesting to see how it all works.
May 10, 2005 Today we did a mock
drill for the Health District to find out where their leaks were in
communication. Hopefully this will help all agencies work better together
in the time of need.
April 21, 2005 Today we had another
Family 4 Meeting where they discussed their next steps. Family 4 discussed
Care giving process ideas like scheduling 1 bath today, addressing special
occasions as a family, possibly cooking dinner for the family, staffing,
scheduling, budgeting, activities, documentation, training inservice and
documentation. Out of these ideas they prioritized the top three which
include in order scheduling, training, and documenting. From this the
group will start to walk through and fix the scheduling situations.
April 19-22 I was covering the
Clinic this week for a vacation and I learned how to scan documents into their
electronic medical records system called Soapware. It was very interesting
to see that the documents could be right at the providers use as soon as I
scanned them. I also believe it is a great way to keep patient's charts
updated. I think it is a lot more efficient and less of a mess using the
electronic system instead of the paper charts.
April 14, 2005 Today I taught the
Caring module. It was very successful and I believe that the staff members
got a good sense of what we are trying to accomplish.
April 13, 2005 Today was a HUGS
meeting. HUGS is Helpers United to Give Support. It is a voluntary
group that works hand in hand with the Hospital District. HUGS does many
projects for and with the Hospital. Some of the many things they are
working on is shadow boxes for memorials, memorial plaques, decorative elements
for resident rooms, and employee appreciation.
March 31, 2005 The Family 4 team had
some great input during the A Way Back Home video. Here are the
notes from the team meeting.
March 31, 2005 Today at the
Board Meeting the Board got a tour of the new van and had many updates.
Click on the link to the right to read the minutes from Board.
March 31, 2005 Today is filled with
meetings. You know everyone says you have to love Mondays, well for me
Mondays are a cake walk its Thursdays that are the hard ones! We have a
board meeting today, then I have a hospital planning meeting and then a Family 4
meeting tonight. I can't wait until tonight when Family 4 will watch the
rest of the A Way Back Home video. I can't wait to see their
reactions to what culture change really is and how we can implement it more in
the family.
March 30, 2005 I worked some more on
the Policies and Procedures today and then started working on this diary to get
it up and current. It seems like things are moving ahead quickly. I
also got the suggestions that staff, community members, and visitors have put in
our suggestions boxes and board and typed them into the Sharepoint sight as well
so that staff can see all the suggestions and find some that they can work on.
It seems like I get a lot done when Andrew is gone:)
March 29, 2005 We have our own
intranet sight that is just for those on campus and today I put a whole bunch of
policies and procedures on the sight. I didn't realize how many policies
that there are. I learned a lot when reading through them and putting them
on the sharepoint sight. It will be nice for all the departments once all
the policies and procedures are put on the sight. Then anyone can go in
and get a policy or procedure at any time. The best part is that they are
easy to access so you don't have to flip through a book to get a specific policy
all you have to do is go to the sharepoint sight and retrieve it by number,
name, or department. It will be nice when they are all available.
March 28, 2005 Today we had Resident
Council in which the Transportation issue was discussed. We had Jan Zorb
here from the Senior Center and we also had Heidi Durfee here to discuss our own
transportation options. It was very beneficial for the Community Members
to hear the different options that are available. I think they were able
to get all their questions answered. I had to leave early for a personal
reason, but it seemed like things were going great before I left.
March 26, 2005 Today the Community
Members had an Easter Egg hunt. I don't think I have ever seen that many
kids show up to hunt Easter eggs here. It sure was nice to see all of the
kids going in different directions and visiting with the Community Members as
they hunted for eggs. The activities team even had prizes in eggs so the
kids were all looking for the prize eggs. They then had a coloring contest
which was nice to see displayed. Each kid got to decorate their own cookie
as a treat and they were even a few that made some for the Community Members.
As I looked around the room their were smiles everywhere. What a great way
to start the Easter weekend off!
March 25, 2005 Today was a busy day.
Our Community Members were getting ready for Easter. Andrew is still gone,
and I am still playing catch up. I finally did get things caught up so
that I could join the community members upstairs with my daughter and color eggs
for a little bit. It was nice to sit and here all about when our Community
Members would decorate eggs with their loved ones. It was also nice to see
my daughter being engaged in the activity. I sat next to one community
member and she must have colored a bunch of eggs in her lifetime thus far.
She got those eggs in the dye and out and they were all perfect. For every
one egg my daughter would do she would do 3. I was amazed she had the
routine set to a tea. It was also nice to hear the stories and listen to
the laughs that everyone was having. A great way to end my day!
March 24, 2005 Andrew went to the
Washington Rural Healthcare Conference today and will be there tomorrow also.
Today, one of our Board Members Pat Richardson will receive the Friends of Rural
Health award at the Rural Healthcare Conference. I am very excited for
Pat, she doesn't know anything about it yet and she also doesn't know that her
daughter is also there somewhere in the audience. It should be a great
time for all that are attending.
Meanwhile here on campus we were
suppose to have our Quality Team meeting and since people are either sick, at
the conference, or at home spending time with their new baby I was the only one
that could be available for the meeting. I made an executive decision to
cancel the meeting since no one was available. Yet I did look at our tasks
and it still seems like the team is staying focused on accomplishing their
tasks. I also was suppose to have a Family 4 meeting this evening, yet
once again their were only 2 people out of Family 4 that showed so we made the
decision to watch the second half of the video next week. It seems like
the meetings today were not accomplishable, yet I was able to get the Caring
Touches out to the staff to provide feedback and I was also able to catch up on
the things that I had missed the week prior from covering the clinic. So
all in all it was a very successful day!
March 21-22, 2005 Today a team
worked together to Rapid Cycle the Medical Records department. I was not
able to work with this team since I had to cover the clinic again, but I can
tell you that when I returned back on campus, I could see the improvements in
the department. I asked the lady that works in Medical Records
specifically what she thought of the improvements that were made and she stated
she was very excited about them. It seems to make her work a lot easier
and she doesn't feel like she is so behind now that she has her department more
organized. Specific proof that rapid cycle really does work.
March 17, 2005 Today during the
Family 4 meeting we watched a video that Andrew and I picked up while we were at
the Pioneer Conference in Kansas this summer. The video is called A Way
Back Home. I love the video because it shows how nursing homes used to
be and then shows how the culture change is taking over. Many other
facilities are creating a more homelike atmosphere and it shows a few. The
best part about the video is it has discussion questions that fit each section
and staff are able to participate in Learning Circles to get their ideas and
feelings out on the table. We have found that Learning Circles are a very
good way to get those who may not want to say anything a chance to speak their
opinion. I think Family 4 really enjoyed seeing the first half of the
video and I can't wait to get their feedback from the second part.
March 17, 2005 Happy St. Patrick's
Day! Today we had our Quality Team meeting again at 9 and we all seem to
be right on track achieving our strategic objectives that the Board of
Commissioners set.
March 16, 2005 Today we had our
monthly Housekeeping team meeting. It seems like things are going very
well in the department and since the housekeeping team also works in the Family
4 area they are excited to see the progress that Family 4 is making. They
also had some very valuable concerns when it comes to the cleaning aspect of
Family 4 that the Family can address later and rapid cycle together with the
Housekeeping team. It seems like we are building a community. It
seems like everyone wants to work together to make improvements. The
hardest part is getting the foundation laid first so we have a set direction to
head for. Next month the Housekeeping Team will focus on the communities
values and how they relate specifically to the housekeeping team. They two
will follow the Family 4's outline in implementing Creating Home and Building
Community. It seems weird that everyone feels like it is taking forever
but Family 4 is already getting things moving forward and implementing it out
community wide starting with the housekeeping team.
March 14, 2005 Today I helped out at
the Medical Clinic since they are short one person all week. It was very
interesting I got to do some scanning into the electronic medical records called
Soapware that they use down there. I did not know that when you get
documentation from another provider you can scan it directly into a person's
medical chart and it becomes instantly available to the providers in the clinic.
Therefore they can pull one's lab results up right in the room as they examine
you. It sure seems like a nice system. It was neat to learn how it
works and how beneficial it is to the patients not to mention how much time it
saves not having to shuffle all the papers in a patients chart.
March 10, 2005 You know Thursdays,
sure are a hard day crammed full of meetings but the best meeting is at the end
of the day and that is the Family 4 Meeting. Today again they worked on
Values and decided what are next steps are going to be. They have some
very valuable information about their community members and they all had a
chance to share their ideas amongst one another which was a great way to learn
more about the community members to provide better care.
March 10,2005 Today we had our
Quality Team Meeting to see where we were with our tasks. It seems like
the group is really focusing on their tasks to improve the quality of care we
provide. What might seem like small steps now when we look back upon will
be huge steps that we took to improve our care.
March 3, 2005 Today we met with a
group of Certified Nursing Aides that work in our Special Care Unit know
specifically called Family 4. Family 4 consists of Residents who have
Alzheimer's or dementia. Family 4 is a secured area where we are beginning
to put the Creating Home and Building Project into play more. We are
trying things specifically in the Family and then we can slowly integrate them
into the entire community if they succeed. Today specifically the family
worked with how our community values specifically relate to the work they do in
Family 4. They are laying the foundation to their family unit and it
should be exciting to see what will happen in the future.
March 2, 2005 Maggie visited
independently with some of our staff members today and gave some wonderful ideas
to everyone. Andrew and her met and talked about the floor plans for our
remodel. She has very valuable input and her ideas all seem to work well
with what we are doing. She truly is an asset to our community. I
think she enjoyed her visit and I can't wait to get some of the articles she
spoke about with our Social Services Supervisor.
March 1, 2005 Today I am getting
ready for Maggie Calkins to visit with us this afternoon. Maggie is from
the Ideas Institute and works with the Rothschild Foundation whom we received our Creating Home and Building
Community grant from. She will be visiting with us today and tomorrow to
see some of the changes that have occurred within our community.
February 28, 2005 Today I attended
Resident Council to find out how things are going for our community members.
They seem very satisfied with the new dining experience and the way meals are
provided. They are a little concerned with the transportation to and from
events and that will be discussed with the transportation department at the next
Resident Council Meeting. They feel that all departments are working well
together and they don't have any problems. One community member made the
comment that this is not a nursing home but instead a place to retire like a
retirement community. The Community Members are also very excited that the
new clothes labeler is in and that their clothes will soon have new labels in
them. They feel that this will decrease the amount of items being lost.
February 24, 2005 Today was the
first meeting with Family Four that will specifically work in our Special Care
Unit. They will be trying new ways of scheduling, budgeting, working as a
unit within themselves, and having the responsibility of the household together
as a team. Tonight we just asked for a complete commitment from all of
those who signed up. Those that attended made the commitment to meet once
a week to find out who things are going and where they should focus their
improvement efforts on first. This meeting seemed like we will finally
figure out how the households will work together and what they will be
responsible for. It's an exciting first step to some wonderful future
progress.
February 23, 2005 Today we had our
monthly board meeting with balance Scorecard updates, the explanation of pocket
protocols that were designed during the admissions process improvements, the
purchase of a van, and a small conversation on the hospital incident command
system.
February 18, 2005 Lois Quinn
provided her Quality training to some of our staff members today. It was a
great training and the staff members were able to see another prospective of
lean process and how to do improvements in our work flow. Lois got much
needed input on how the training was designed and where it could be improved.
There really was not a lot of items that could be changed, it did seem like a
long day with a lot of information that maybe should be broken up into a couple
of training sessions.
February 17, 2005 I held the Quality
training module today and had Lois Quinn as an attendant. Lois has worked
a lot with us concerning our Rapid Cycle processes and our Quality
improvement efforts that have occurred. Lois is developing training and we
preview her training and provide feedback for her. It was nice to get Lois
perspective and input during our Quality module. I feel that staff really
got a great understanding of Rapid Cycle and how to use it in order to improve
their processes.
February 16, 2005 Today was the
monthly housekeeping meeting. This month seems to have less and less
subjects that need to be discussed. It seems they are working together on
a daily basis to fix their situations and also bringing the solutions to the
rest of the team once it is fixed completely. The team themselves are
highly improving and working together.
February 14, 2005 Valentine's Day!
Today was a great day for our community members. Harry Jasper, our Chief
Financial Officer has set up a program with our local grade school classes to
come and visit on a regular basis with our community members. Today was
the first day of them visiting. The second grade class put on a small
presentation to our residents about the 100 days of school and what they are
like along with providing Valentine's cards to our community members. The
preschool class also provided a giant valentine to our community members and
sang songs for their presentation. Then in the afternoon we had Ken Storey
singing love songs via Karaoke to our residents. We even got one of our
front office staff Carolyn Moore to sing a couple of duets with him.
Carolyn is also a member of the bluegrass band Yankee Blue. So it was a
day filled with many talented individuals performing for our community mmebers.
February 11, 2005 Today the dietary
department had a homemaker meeting to explain to those that would like to be
homemakers the rules and regulations of a homemaker. This meeting was very
successful and more members of our team can now assist or volunteer to be a
homemaker to help the dietary department out.
February 3-4, 2005 We attended the
Quality Conference in Seattle. Andrew presented information again on the
Balance Scorecard and had a full group of individuals attending his training
session. There was standing room only. We are definitely getting the
word out on our improvement efforts and how we are learning through our
processes.
January 26, 2005 The Board meeting
today had some major discussion on the medical staff report along with Andrew' s
presentation of the Organizational Scorecard and how it works and provides
information to find out where we are in our strategic plan efforts. We can
actually start seeing some of the progress we are making towards our strategic
plan objectives.
January 26, 2005 During the
housekeeping meeting we discussed revamping the current work schedule,
housekeeping that is being done on night shift, labeling of Resident clothing,
the new dining experience and its affects on the housekeeping team. The
team came up with some wonderful solutions that we can work on throughout the
next month prior to meeting on February 16th. Through this change process,
I can sure see how the housekeeping/laundry staff have really begun to work as a
team and find solutions to things together.
January 26, 2005 Today we have our
monthly Board of Commissioners Meeting to discuss the original agenda.
Before the Board Meeting however the Laundry/Housekeeping staff will have their
monthly staff meeting to discuss the changes in their department. The
housekeeping team is having to switch their cleaning schedule and routine around
to fit the new dining experience. They team is also working on team
centered approaches. This group has come a long way in working together as
a team instead of as independents which is the way of the department for a long
time. It's nice to see a group who has come together and makes choices
together as a team.
January 25, 2005 Today there is a
food committee meeting to discuss how the new dining experience is going and to
find out what direction we need to go towards in the future. It seems to
be a much better environment for the Residents in our community along with their
family and friends. It seems a lot easier on the kitchen staff now since
we have our "homemaker" staffed. The "homemaker" takes orders on demand on
what to cook and prepare for each resident individually and then prepares and
serves that meal. She is assisted sometimes by the rest of the staff
within our community. This allows the Residents to decide what they want
and get it at that time. It's just one more step to creating Resident
Directed Care within our community.
January 18, 2005 Today I met with
the Board of Commissioners President to discuss ideas of enhancing our volunteer
program. We have decided as a community within a community that we would
like to have more volunteers and an actual volunteer program. Our
volunteer program that we use now, is not up-to-date nor is it really carried
through most of the time. Our goal is to get the program back on its feet
and and running in the appropriate direction.
January 10, 2005 Since today is
payday. We will also hold an Employee Action Council Meeting. During
this meeting we will discuss the upcoming elections of new officers and how that
will work out. This has been an exciting year for the EAC, but honestly I
am glad to hand over my job duties as treasurer! I think it is great that
everyone in the facility has a chance to be on the EAC Committee. This way
everyone's voices and ideas are heard.
January 6, 2005 Today I attended the
Chamber of Commerce meeting to find out the latest happenings in the other areas
and to give help give an update of our planning sessions for the Sweetheart's
banquet. It seems like everyone else is also excited about this occurring
and are deciding what they will wear to the "ball."
January 4, 2005 Today I met with a
couple of Chamber of Commerce members to get updates on how the Sweetheart
Banquet planning is going. I am in charge of food for this event.
This should be a fun event for the community to participate in and a great way
for the Hospital to step in and help. I cannot wait until February 26th to
see if all of our planning will work.
December 29, 2004 Today
we had our local paper here taking pictures of our Director of Nursing, Susan
Morrow receiving stuffed teddy bears. This is a wonderful thing that the
Red Cross does to help the children who visit our Emergency Room feel better.
Thank you to the American Red Cross!
December 27, 2004
Resident's held their monthly Resident Council meeting with no major complaints
from anyone. They really are enjoying the new cooking experience that is
occurring in the Living Room. I guess even though this was initially done
wrong, it is turning out to be a wonderful thing for the Residents.
December 21, 2004
Tonight the Resident's had their annual Christmas Party with much fun had by
all. Music was played, the Christmas story was read from the Bible, Santa
arrived and had presents for all, and best of all Residents shared this night
with their family. It was a wonderful night that I really enjoyed with the
Residents.
December 20, 2004 Today
we had our monthly Board Meeting. During the meeting the Board was
presented with information on the collaborative that is being established with
the lab/x-ray department and other Critical Access Hospital Network. It
was discussed about the steps that the management team is going through
concerning the strategic plan. The Board also reviewed the recent Bylaws
and made them current.
December 17, 2004
Tonight the Employee Action Council hosted the annual Employee Christmas Party
at a local facility here in town. Two Residents even attended this
function. It was decided that Residents could attend the employee function
if they would like. One Resident even donated wood from his personal stack
at his residence in town to help with the function. A great time was had
by all!
December 16, 2004 Did
the values training again today with about 8 attending. They seemed to all
enjoy this meeting. Andrew, the Administrator came in to discuss a few
things with the group. The group seemed to really open up and provide
their feedback on the recent happenings of the Community we have here. It
seems we are all beginning to work as a team when it comes to getting the job
done.
December 15, 2004
Today the Housekeeping and Laundry department held a department meeting.
Everyone on staff attended the meeting and provided their input on the recent
changes that have been made in the Resident Living Room and how to improve the
cleaning that is in place at this time. Staff members had some great ideas
on different things that could be done. They will try some of these for a
month and reconvene on January 12, 2005 to discuss how the changes are working
for the group as a whole.
Overall
this meeting went greet and the group seems to be working hard at working as a
team to get the job done.
December 10, 2004 Today
was a busy day. We had an Employee Action Council Meeting this morning to
discuss the upcoming staff Christmas Party which will be held December 17th.
Then from 8 this morning until 4 this afternoon, their was a benefits fair held
for employees to discuss banking options, retirement plans, and health benefits.
We also go to speak with two representatives from the Carlyle Assisted Living
Home in Spokane. This was a very informative meeting. All in all it
was a busy and very informative day! I love when I learn this much, even
though my head is spinning and saying "what just happened?"
December 7, 2004 Today
staff members had the option of attending the food handler's class to receive
their food handler's cards. There were about 10 people who took the
initiative to do this. These 10 people are now able to assist in meal
preparations in the Kitchenettes for our community members. There have
been a few others who have also got their cards on their own. WAY TO GO
TEAM!
December 6, 2004
Remember how I said earlier that we did not do Rapid Cycle in the Kitchen before
we began cooking meals in the dayroom. Well Andrew, Pat, and I met this
morning at 5:00 A.M. to go through one of the processes in the kitchen to
establish what exactly went on. The way I was looking at rapid cycle in
the kitchen was to take each person's shift and define what occurs during that
shift. Then Andrew pointed out its not the shift that needs to be looked
at as much as each individual process that occurs in the kitchen.
Therefore, we met this morning and walked through the breakfast process.
December 3, 2004 Today
throughout the community we had a Chocolate Extravaganza Open House.
During this, businesses provide a type of chocolate to hand out to people who
come in. Some businesses have drawings and provide give-a-ways to their
customers. We provided maraschino cherry brownies, hot chocolate, and a
drawing for a Garfield County Hospital District Hat and T-shirt. Jim
Scoggin received the District Shirt, and Judy Landkammer received the District
Hat. Thanks to everyone who came up to visit us and enjoyed some chocolate
with us.
December 2, 2004 Today
we had another Quality Training session for those who have yet to receive it.
This training seemed to go very well and it was helpful to explain to them how I
messed up during the new dining experience process by not doing rapid cycle and
defining the waste.
December 1, 2004 The
Board of Commissioners, President planned a volunteer luncheon today for our
volunteers who assist us in the District. Sixteen volunteers were present
to have lunch and receive a pin for the loyalty to Garfield County Public
Hospital District. This was a great way to express our appreciation for
their dedication. Thank you to all who volunteer!
November 29, 2004 Today
I had a meeting with Pat Boyd, Andrew Craigie, and Susan Morrow concerning the
new dining experience and how it was working. The idea behind it was to
explain to Andrew what had occurred and why during his vacation along with how
to improve what we had started. Overall Andrew was pleased to see our new
progress, but I admit, I messed up! I should have figured out the waste
and eliminated it in the kitchen process, before we built a new kitchen process.
This would have been beneficial especially now that we are trying to pull
resources to staff the new kitchenette. I am glad though, that I learned
so much through this process. It will help in the long run to achieve
process progress sooner.
November 25, 2004 Happy
Thanksgiving Everyone!
November 19, 2004 Today
we are having a risk communication class here on campus for the community at
large. This will help us to communicate better with the public during a
crisis.
November 18, 2004 Today
we had another communication module for staff members to attend who have not
already.
November 17, 2004 I
tried to update this site today. Boy it seems I can't keep up to well with
the daily happenings along with getting all the links to those activities.
It is my goal to have all the links working before Christmas. I figure
that gives me way more then a lot of time.
November 10, 2004 The
Board had its regular monthly meeting to adopt the 2005 budget.
November 10, 2004 I did
the Town Hall meeting again for those staff members who have yet to watch the
A Way Back Home video and to let more staff members have the experience with
Learning Circles. This was the biggest group yet that I have had
participate in the Town Hall since I have done the small group ones. More
wonderful ideas were discussed during the Learning Circles.
November 9, 2004 Susan
Morrow, (the Director of Nursing) and I came in at 3:00 A.M. this morning to
conduct the same Town Hall meeting we did on October 28, 2004. It has been
asked if we could conduct meetings at night or early mornings to cover the NOC
shifts. We had a very nice discussion and some wonderful ideas were
brought up during our Learning Circle conversations. This meeting was
attended by 5 staff members. It was not a big crowd, but I do think it was
very beneficial to see us taking the initiative to accommodate their needs.
November 8, 2004 Today
I held a small group Town Hall to give staff members an opportunity to see the
A Way Back Home video and to have an opportunity to participate in
Learning Circles. The smaller the group the more ideas seem to come.
I hope to share all these ideas with Andrew and possibly our design team for
future use.
November 5, 2004 The
group met again to decide what we needed before Monday to start cooking
breakfast in the Special Care unit and in the Living Room. Maintenance
said that they are going to build a portable island to accommodate counter space
and storage. It was decided that the original stove in the area was not
sufficient and that a new stove would need to be purchased. The
Maintenance guys said they were looking into this. Activities and myself
volunteered to cook breakfast in the morning on a temporary basis to find out
how it works to decide what else needs to be done. Cooking breakfast in
the Living Room and Special Care Unit will begin on Monday.
November 3, 2004 Today
I was involved in a discussion to brainstorm the topic of dining services.
During this discussion, staff members had an opportunity to discuss the problems
they see with meal service and brainstorm ideas on how to fix those problems.
A staff member had made the comment that they would like to donate a
refrigerator that we could put in our dining room. We then brainstormed
what we needed in order to start preparing meals in the Dining Room instead of
the facility kitchen. We realized that we had a lot of things on hand that
we could use during meal times. We then discussed the idea of short term
solutions. It was decided that activities would cook some of the meals on
a trial basis to find out what more was needed. The maintenance guys said
that they could help with putting in the new stuff and taking out the old.
We will try this new idea to find out what more is needed for long term
implementation.
October 28, 2004 We
began our third series of Town Hall meetings. During this Town Hall staff
members were given their certificates and pins for completing the training
modules offered this far. We then discussed Learning Circles and how they
work. The idea behind Learning Circles is that each person in the circle
has a designated amount of time to answer the question and then you move to the
next persons turn. There is no cross talk, you have to wait to comment on
what was said until your turn. This is a very good way to get those who
are shy to become part of the conversation along with not allowing others to run
the meeting. Staff then had the opportunity to view the video A Way
Back Home which shows how the culture change initiative benefits
facilities and it also shows that it does not take a lot of money to create a
homelike atmosphere.
October 27, 2004 Today
was the regular scheduled Board Meeting with the discussion being around the
2005 budget and the changes that are in that budget.
October 25, 2004 I
attended the Resident Council meeting to discuss the dress code. It was
decided that staff should wear shirts with sleeves that are mid upper arm in
length, no gym shorts are allowed, and that hats will be taken off during meal
times. Residents really didn't have that much to say about staff wearing
things that were not appropriate, but they would appreciate if the above was
followed. There comment was "we came from farms, and it really doesn't
matter to us what is worn as long as it was clean and not ripped." We then
talked about the dining experience and how it is going. It was discussed
that the food was still not home cooked. Kitchen staff are still working
on that, but it was mentioned a lot of it has to do with the atmosphere and that
we need to improve the atmosphere during meal times.
October 22, 2004 Today
Board Members, some supervisors, and a Resident spent the day at Rich and Corky
Slaybaugh's cabin located at Stentz Springs in Umatilla National Forest for the
annual Board Retreat. It was a beautiful setting to discuss the strategic
plan for the District. It was snowing outside, but we were all inside
discussing our future. The main idea behind the strategic plan was to
decide which items on the agenda we were going to focus on in the next year.
The meeting was very laid back and yet very worthwhile. Everyone who
attended got a better understanding of where to focus their attention in the
next year.
October 21, 2004 Today
was the values module with only 4 participants, but I believe everyone got a
better understanding of our vision for the future and how to go about receiving
it. Everyone at this training, had wonderful ideas and seemed very excited
to put some of their ideas into play. I think this was the best training
ever. People are really understanding that the culture change initiative
takes place with those that do the work one on one with Residents instead of
supervisors explaining what to do. People are getting the understanding
that they are the ones responsible to make the changes. It has taken a
year to get where we are just in training, but after this module today, I feel
that we are headed in the right direction from here. We are finally
getting the messages through to people. As we all know Change Takes Time,
but it sure did seem beneficial after today's class.
October 20, 2004 Today
I spent the day in Moscow, Idaho at a Volunteer Workshop. We have a
volunteer program here on campus, but to me it needs more effort put into it.
This workshop was a wonderful one that gave me tools and lots of information on
how to get a good volunteer program up and running again. I am very
excited to start working on this project. We even have a community member
who would like to help get this program established so between the two of us we
should see an improvement in our volunteering by next year.
October 15, 2004 Today
was a first to me. I invited the residents up to my cabin located in
Umatilla National Forest for lunch. With the assistance of Doug in
Maintenance and Sheila in Central Supply I was able to get a ramp built for the
wheel chairs to gain entrance into the cabin. Doug also put on his chef's
hat and bar-b-quid hamburgers for all of us. One resident even made potato
salad for everyone. Everyone had a great time with stories, songs,
mementos, and even a good ole' game of poker. Hopefully we can do this
again when the weather gets better again after the snow has melted.
October 7,2004 Today I
taught the Quality module with only 2 staff members attending. The groups
that have attended these recent trainings have seemed to have a real drive to
make improvements around the community. I hope that the enthusiasm will
now continue through the upcoming culture change process.
September 30, 2004
There was a Nurses Assistant Meeting today. It was discussed that the
approach to care criteria will be put into play during shifts and how the Nurses
Assistants can help with the culture change initiative. People are really
getting the idea that culture change has to start with those who are dealing
with residents/patients first hand, not from those at the top of the facility.
September
30, 2004 It was discovered that more process improvements had to be
made to the clinic Lab procedures. Today a group of individuals met to try
and improve this process by eliminating the waste in the procedures. The
group was very successful.
September 29, 2004 We
held our annual Wellness Fair today at the Hospital. This was a great
opportunity to receive free health screening, bone density scans, and to get
insurance questions answered. There was much enthusiasm during the day
about being healthy and staying healthy. Even two volunteers from the
community shared their success stories with staff members. This was a
great way to kick off this years wellness committee's activity which will
include a competition between those staff members who join to become the
healthiest. Wonderful prizes will be given out to those members that have
changed their lifestyles to a healthier one. The results of this groups
efforts are posted outside the Hospital Front Office. They soon will also
be posted to the website. Stay tuned for more information.
September
23, 2004 We started the training modules again. Today was the
first one in the series of four which was communication. There were only
about 4 people that attended the session, but it went very well. With a
small group it was easy to be able to open the floor up for discussion. It
seems that those that attended this training are really excited about the
Culture change initiative that we are trying to accomplish and that they would
like to be involved and possibly lead some of the initiatives that are being
looked at. It only took a year to get this much enthusiasm behind the
trainings, but now its seems to really be a part of our everyday work
environment.
September 22, 2004 I
have been working on revising the new employee handbook. This handbook is
updated frequently with everything changing. The handbook will provide
staff with a better understanding of how things work throughout our community.
The handbook was proposed today at the monthly Board Meeting.
September 22, 2004
Today the Board of Commissioner's held their monthly meeting. They
approved a new tuition assistance program. This is great news to anyone
currently enrolled in school or considering returning to school to further their
education in healthcare. The program provides tuition assistance of $1000
for certificate programs up to $5000 annually for advanced degrees.
Assistance is available in the form of a loan that is repayable to the district
upon completion of the program. Interested students must maintain a "B"
average and make a commitment to work for the District one year for every year
of education funded.
September 21, 2004 We
had our Mandatory reporting meeting today. In this meeting it is explained
to staff members that everyone is Mandatory reporters and how to go about
reporting abuse if suspected. It was a very informative meeting.
September
16, 2004 Set up for the Garfield County Fair.
Every year the
Hospital District sets up a booth at our local fair. We display upcoming
projects, provide free blood pressure checks, provide an information table, and
also have something for the kids to take. This year we even set up an area
where the kids could lasso those wild and crazy hay bales. Everyone in the
District chips in for this event whether it is laying the groundwork, donating
materials to use at the fair, setting up, volunteering to sit at the booth, or
tearing down; the entire staff tries to get involved. It's a great way to
see how team work in progress.
September 7, 2004 Today
the staff opinion survey was handed out to staff members to be filled out and
returned by Friday, September 17, 2004. It will be exciting to find out
the Staff's input this year with everything that has been going on. As
soon as the results are compiled I hope to put them on the site for those of you
who are following along to see.
September 2, 2004
Tonight was the Clinic Open House from 4 P.M. to 7 P.M. There were about
30 attendees. Our kitchen staff was nice enough to put together a
wonderful macaroni salad, a vegetable tray, a watermelon bowl, along with assist
in the serving during the Open House. Along with this one of our Lab/X-Ray
technicians was nice enough to Bar-B-Queue hot dogs and German Sausages.
Overall I believe it was a huge success and everyone enjoyed themselves.
August 30, 2004 I
attended Resident Council today where the main discussion was over whether or
not to have a Memorial Service for those that have passed that have lived in the
facility. It was decided that we should have these Memorial Services, but
instead of having one the same for everyone, the council would meet after a
death and discuss what they would like to do for that specific person. It
was also decided upon that instead of just electing a President for Resident
Council that a Vice President should be elected to.
August 27, 2004 Today
the Annual Report had to be mailed. It took a lot of time to put together,
but I finally got it in the mail. Our Annual Report is a small report on
the newest happenings here at Garfield County Hospital District. This
report is mailed to everyone in Garfield County. It is designed and
printed here at the Hospital. I enjoy putting them together, but printing
takes forever!!!! But it is well worth it, so the community knows how
things are going at the District.
August 13, 2004 Since
the Clinic has completed its remodel it is time we have a Clinic Open House.
I met with our Community Care Coordinator to discuss the details of putting one
together and we have decided that September 2, 2004 would be a great day!
August 3-6, 2004 We
left on the 3rd in route to Overland Park, Kansas. There we attended the
Pioneer Network Conference. WOW! What an experience. I met so
many people who are experiencing this culture change idea. It brought a
lot of answers to many questions that I had. It was also nice to discuss
with others going through this process the trials and errors that they have
experienced. I learned a lot of new quality measures, new approaches to
Resident Centered Care, ways to improve staff satisfaction, ways to increase
morale, and even ideas for design. It was so Awesome. After each
day, my head was just buzzing of new things to do. First though once I get
home is to create the annual report and get it in the mail. But, the
Kansas trip will be a trip I will never forget.
July 29, 2004 Today was
a fun day. The Resident's had a Hugs for Bug Social. I was asked
along with the supervisor for Central Supply, Sheila Porter, to dress up like
bugs and perform bug jokes along with singing bug songs. It was enjoyed by
all those that attended.
July 26, 2004 I
attended Resident Council were we talked about the future levy and the
possibility of a Bond issue in the later years. We discussed how
this would effect the Creating Home and Building Community Project and why it
has seemed to slow down in the eyes of Residents. The reason being, we
decided to improve our work processes, before we do the construction. To
me it only makes sense, why spend a whole bunch of money when some of the things
people have been doing all along are not working in the environment anymore.
We should look at our efficiency and improve that first and then do remodeling
to fit those efficiency needs and improve the Resident's experience.
July 23, 2004 Through
our Quality efforts we have met with Lois Quinn and shared our processes with
her. Lois has designed a curriculum to teach others Lean Processing.
Today a group of staff members from Garfield County Hospital District attended
her first training module in order to critique the module. Lois will use
this curriculum for educating others in Quality improvement.
July 21, 2004 Today the
board met for the monthly board meeting.
The topic for discussion was the upcoming levy, the possibility of getting a new
boiler system, and the new quality improvement efforts going on.
July 12-23, 2004 About
every 3 months we create a report for the Rothschild Foundation on the latest
happening during the Creating Home and Building Community Project.
This
report goes along the same lines as the Project Diary where all the information
is compiled into one area. We also share this report with other facilities
who are going through a culture change process. I have been working on
this throughout the past couple of weeks.
July 9, 2004
Today I worked on the website, wait I have been working on the website all week.
Trying to get everything current. It's hard to remember how to do
everything since it has been down for so long, but I think slowly I am getting into
the hang of it. We have had a lot of people checking this site out and I
truly am sorry for not having it updated like it should be. We had been
experiencing some major technical problems. I hope now it will continue to
run smoothly, but wait I said that huh, I guess next week it will break again.
Hopefully not! I have all the links to these sights to put in. Oh
well, at least today's Friday. Have a great one!
July 4, 2004 Garfield
County Hospital District's Employee Action Council sponsored the annual 4th of
July in the Park for the community.
The day was filled with a parade,
karaoke, games, prizes, pie eating contests, cooking contest, and a community
potluck to end the festivities. This is the first year that the Hospital
District has done this event. It is an event we can provide for the
community for all the support they have given us through the years. A
great time was had by all.
June 24, 2004 Today we
had the Washington Rural Health Rotating Meeting
. This meeting originated
in Dayton and then moved to Pomeroy and ended in Colfax. Members of
Washington Rural Health Association visited and helped to flush out ideas in
healthcare in Garfield County. We also got to listen to Kathleen O'Conner
who is advocating to change healthcare state wide. She is a wonderful
speaker. She starts touring next week around the United States to provide
information on her campaign CodeBlueNow. I encourage everyone to check out
her website
www.codebluenow.org and see the wonderful ideas and provide your own ways to change
things.
June 21-23, 2004 Well
now that meeting is done, time for another. We did a process improvement
meeting that lasted three days
. We initially wanted to look at the
admission process from the time of the first inquiry until the time care was
received. Once we got into the process we realized it was much more work
then 3 days so we broke it up. We then just focused our efforts on the
time of the first inquiry until the time the resident comes into our facility.
Those involved in the team had some wonderful ideas on where and how to
eliminate waste. We came up with a "to do" list for those involved in the
process
. We will now start implementing the new ideas that were brought up
and test to find out if we are improving the experience for a new resident.
Hopefully our efforts in the past 3 days will improve both the resident
experience along with the staff members work area.
June 18, 2004 Today was
a day I have been working on for about a month. I actually did it!
We had our Community Forum today where we invited
our vendors, our regulators,
community members, residents, and staff members. We ran a little over on
scheduling
, but all in all
it worked out. Everyone was available to share their ideas with the
process improvements that are happening and what types of process improvements
they would like to see. Everyone seemed very impressed with what is going
on and many provided some wonderful ideas that we really hadn't thought about.
The Community Forum also gave our architects a chance to get a real feel for the
community and vice versa. They did show a small presentation
It was a meeting that I was
scared to death would flop, but it turned out wonderful. I am very
grateful that more community members are becoming involved in our improvement
efforts, after all this is their facility!
June 4, 2004 Staff
members attended the Caring Module today. Many thought that it was a great
training, even though it is very long and full of detail. I think it sheds
a new light on the way we are caring for the Residents in our community.
June 1, 2004 The Board
of Commissioners attended a Financial Training on the future budget led by our
own CFO, Harry Jasper. All know understand that reports that have been
given at previous meetings. This was a good training for all involved.
May 28, 2004 Today we
had the values module again. Many more staff members seem motivated in
this workplace. I believe this training is benefiting everyone in our
small community.
May 26, 2004 Today we
had a mandatory all staff meeting to discuss HIPAA compliance. It was very
interesting and most staff members felt like they are in compliant when it comes
to HIPAA. HIPAA are regulation regarding payment treatment and operations,
patient privacy, confidentiality, sending faxes, emails, electronic billing, and
security issues, along with many other daily tasks we all encounter.
May 25, 2004 Lois Quinn
who is involved in the Washington State Quality Award visited the facility today
to see all the quality improvement efforts that are taking place. She
first heard about the improvement efforts when a group of us went to Spokane to
hear about the Baldridge Award Criteria
www.baldridge.nist.gov . She was very excited to hear and see
more so we invited her to come and visit for herself. While she was here,
she questioned the staff about what they think about the improvement efforts
taking place. Many staff members agree with what is in place, while there
are still a few asking why? All in all I think it will all work itself out
more and more staff members are coming on board and helping the improvements
move forward. After visiting today, Lois asked if there was a few of us
that could go to her training and critique it once it is done. She is
designing a training module for other facilities like our own to do their own
improvement efforts. It is pretty amazing to think that we are having such
a huge impact on Garfield County, Washington State, along with the United
States. We are going in the right direction and cannot wait to see this
District when the improvement efforts are complete.
May 21, 2004 Today we
had the Quality Module again. A group of staff members learned how to
rapid cycle their work environment
.
Many of a lot of enthusiasm in the change process and the improvement efforts
going on. I expect that staff will soon all become involved after some
direction in what they can do. I believe this module gives staff the
direction to go where they can provide their own input in the process
improvements.
May 14, 2004 To end National Nursing
Home week our Employee Advisory Committee held a luncheon for our dedicated
staff members. Everyone enjoyed the wonderful home cooked meal including
our residents. A great time was had by all.
