Category Archives: Did You Know?

August 17^th marked the “Go-Live” of our new Electronic Health Records (EHR) system.We have partnered with Trinity to be able to use their Cerner EHR program and the billing program of McKesson STAR.Focusing on the positives for the future, we are excited to be able to make needed changes to our portal and streamline our check-in and billing statement processes during all of this.The portal will allow more transparency and improve the ability to communicate with your provider.Details will be given once all items are finalized over the next couple of weeks.

Please bear with us as we move ahead with this new program.A few items will be needed at your future appointments at MCMC:

• Insurance cards
• Photo ID
• Updated addresses and phone numbers

We thank you for being patient with us over the past year while we made our way through some muddy waters with our previous EHR program.We are not looking back, but focusing on changes to make things better here at MCMC.

You can find this “Did You Know” and all past ones on our website at www.stanleyhealth.org.  We thank you for your continued support. We are always striving to do better.

Nobody takes care of you like your own.

The Mountrail County Medical Center is currently under an electronic health records (EHR) conversion. One item we need to have people be aware of is that the hospital and clinic are separate entities with services being billed out separately. It’s very similar to the fact that Trinity sends out bills for services rendered at the Hospital under one entity and services provided by the provider under another.

Our old EHR, Healthland, is producing statements for visits prior to June 23rd, 2015. These statements are coming from HRG (Healthcare Resource Group) and these statements will be postmarked from Spokane Valley, Washington.

Clinic services rendered on June 23rd, 2015 going forward are being billed through our new clinic EHR, Athena Health and these statements will be postmarked from Belfast, Maine.

Hospital services rendered on June 23rd, 2015 going forward are being billed through Patient Co. and these statements will be postmarked from our Stanley address.

In the very near future we hope to have our clinic and hospital services combined through Athena Health, with all statements coming from their headquarters in Maine. This billing is a service that is provided by our new EHR, Athena Health.

Due to the sun setting of our old EHR, Healthland, we are finding claims that were not properly submitted for payment and are doing so now. So, you may receive a bill from quite some time ago due to this clean up. Until all our EHR accounts are cleaned up and paid in full, you may get a bill from any of the above billing companies.

If you have any questions on statements you receive from MCMC please call the following:

• Hospital and Clinic Statement PRIOR to June 23rd, 2015 – Billing Company: HRG – Please call the number written on the statement
• Hospital Statements AFTER June 23rd, 2015 – Billing Company: Patient Co. – Please call 628-2424 and ask for the Billing Department
• Clinic Statements AFTER June 23rd, 2015 – Billing Company: Athena Health – Call 628-2505 and ask for the Billing Department

We appreciate your patience during this conversion and thank you for choosing us.

No you do not! The Mountrail County Medical Center in Stanley has a fully staffed Physical Therapy department that is here for any of your physical therapy needs. Our therapists provide hands-on assessment and treatment for patients of all ages with acute, postoperative, or chronic conditions involving the foot, ankle, knee, hip, back/spine, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists and the hands. Some of the most common diagnoses that therapists see are golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow, tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, bursitis, sciatica, sprains, strains, rotator cuff injuries, low back pain and neck pain and or spasms. Treatment is also available for on the job injuries or neurological conditions such as strokes, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.

The Physical Therapy department at MCMC can also offer aquatic therapy at the Ina Mae Rude Aquatic Center. The Center features a state of the art warm water therapeutic indoor pool. Depending on your needs, aquatic therapy may be an option to help speed recovery. The warm therapeutic pool helps to decrease spasm and pain and promote muscle relaxation. A ramp and waterproof wheelchairs make it accessible to all who would benefit from aquatic therapy. It also serves as an environment to perform exercises with less joint compression and irritation to improve success with exercise and rehabilitation programs.

The hospital at the Mountrail County Medical Center can accommodate your recovery needs, right here close to home, from any sort of surgery or illness with our skilled and self pay swing beds. The physcial therapists come to the room to work with swing bed patients to improve their strength and mobility after a fracture, injury or surgery.

Hours for the Physical Therapy Department are Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. To schedule an appointment please call 628-2424,extension 146. All major insurances are accepted. Generally a doctor’s referral must be in place before your first visit. However, some insurance plans do not require a physician’s order.

We thank you for your continued support. Nobody takes care of you like your own.

The Mountrail County Medical Center has currently upgraded their website thanks to a donation from the T.H. Reiarson trust. Our new website (www.stanleyhealth.org) features all the services the facility currently can do for you along with Board and Staff information, hours, career opportunities, new patient paperwork and other resources you may need.

One of the features under the”Patients, Families and Visitors” tab is the Patient Web Portal. This patient portal allows you to communicate with MCMC easily and safely, according to your schedule. Once setup, this portal allows you to view and request appointments, request and refill prescriptions, retrieve test results, view your billing statements and balances, make secure credit card payments and communicate with your doctor by sending secure messages over the portal.

Upon registering for your visit at the T.H. Reiarson Rural Health Clinic, you will receive an email invitation to register for the portal. You may follow the steps within in the email, even on your Smartphone while you wait for your appointment, or register on your personal computer when you get home. Once you have your secure, personal password, you can log into the online patient portal via our website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from the comfort and privacy of your home or office. Please register shortly after your appointment, if possible, to ensure all your test results get downloaded properly. If no portal is setup once the reports are completed, the reports will not automatically go into the portal once you have setup your account.

Informative brochures are available at the front desk of the clinic. These brochures tell you exactly what the portal can do for you and where to log-in for future use. Please note that only one person can utilize an email address for a patient portal. If you want to register your entire family under the same email address, please contact the clinic at 628-2505 for an all family access. We thank you for your continued support and please remember, nobody takes care of you like your own.

A Community Health Needs Assessment is a systematic process that involves the community to identify and analyze community health needs and assets. The process also involves prioritizing needs and laying the groundwork for action to address unmet community health needs. In addition to satisfying regulatory requirements of the Affordable Care Act and accreditation standards, needs assessments:

1. Provide access to timely input from the local community
2. Summarize secondary data related to health conditions and indicators
3. Assemble information to guide decision making, marketing efforts, and the development of an implementation plan
4. Encourage community engagement and local involvement that forms the future of health care delivery

Based on a model developed by the National Center for Rural Health Works, the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota adopted a nine-step process for conducting community health needs assessments.

At the heart of the process is convening a broad-based Community Group that meets at least twice, reviews data and information to identify health needs of the community, and prioritizes the identified needs. Another step is for as many people as possible to complete a CHNA survey. You can do this either online by visiting https://tinyurl.com/MountrailCountyMC or by picking up a paper survey at any of the following locations: Elbowoods Memorial Health Center in New Town, Rockview Pharmacy in Parshall or in Stanley at Dakota Drug, T.H. Reiarson Rural Health Clinic, Upper Missouri District Health, Dr. Anderson’s office, Ina Mae Rude Aquatic Center or Mountrail County Social Services.

As an incentive to meet our goal of 500 surveys completed, the Mountrail County Health Foundation has donated a Samsung 48 inch LED Smart HDTV. You can fill out the entry form that will appear once you have filled out your survey online or return the entry form inside the envelope with the paper survey. Survey results are tabulated by the Center Rural Health at the University of North Dakota.

The survey is open until March 7th. Please find the time to complete a survey so we can improve the services given to you as a patient.

You may visit the Resources page on our website at www.stanleyhealth.org for the survey link listed above or if you need to reference any of the past “Did You Knows”. We thank you for your continued support. Nobody takes care of you like your own.

The Mountrail County Medical Center emergency department (ED) took care of approximately 3,400 patients during 2015, an increase of 1,430 patients from five years prior. Patient care is provided 24/7 by on-call ER providers and a well trained nursing staff. Our professional nurses in the ED are Trauma Certified and trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, CPR and other procedures necessary in an emergency situation. We can care for ANY ER need including such emergent medical events as burns, chemical exposure, stroke symptoms, asthma attacks, chest pain, lacerations, fractures, trauma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

A variety of tests requiring lab, X-Ray or CT Scans can be done right here on-site along with assistance for any medical questions by Avera eCARE Telemedicine. MCMC utilizes the Avera “eEmergency” Program, which is available to the providers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The program is based in Sioux Falls, SD and is provided through the Avera Hospital system. By literally the push of a button, the Avera “eEmergency” program allows MCMC to have access to 19 board-certified emergency physicians, backed up by emergency trained nurses.

If a transfer is needed, ground transportation is provided by the Stanley Ambulance Service or air transport to surrounding medical centers via NorthStar and Valley Med.

Our eleven bed hospital can admit patients either through the ED or Clinic. Acute care and observation services are provided along with skilled and self paying swing bed. The term “swing bed” is used to describe the use of an inpatient hospital bed for either acute or skilled level of care. A Medicare swing bed patient must have a prior qualifying hospital stay of at least three days and require skilled medical care from an RN or skilled rehabilitation from a Therapist.

Remember, for any emergency dial 911. For the MCMC emergency department and outpatient services call (701) 628-2424.

Please visit our newly designed website at www.stanleyhealth.org for resources not covered above or if you need to reference any of the past “Did You Knows”. We thank you for your continued support. Nobody takes care of you like your own.

It is crucial to keep your medical records, personal information and insurance information up to date.  Providing complete and accurate information will benefit you, as a patient, because it makes billing flow more accurately and allows us to contact you with tests results in an efficient manner.

We, like any other medical facility, need to request your insurance card and ID along with updated contact information to ensure our records are accurate and will need to update your records annually.Filling out the patient paperwork in its entirety is vital in preventing errors, and will decrease the risk of a medical visit denial for payment, in turn making it possibly your responsibility for payment.If you have moved, changed phone numbers or insurances please notify the T.H. Reiarson Rural Health Clinic by calling them at 628-2505 so your billing/chart information is correct.

If you get a new insurance card, please bring it in so we can make sure it’s current in your records, even if it is the same policy, for the billing information may have changed.If you and your spouse have separate insurances, please bring both cards in.Also, you as a patient should be ready to pay your
co-pay either in the clinic or emergency department at the time of your visit.That is your arrangement with your insurance company.

A patient can always visit our website at www.stanleyhealth.org and under the “Patients, Families and Visitors” tab access our Patient Web Portal.This patient portal allows you to communicate with MCMC easily and safely, according to your schedule.Once setup, this portal allows you to view and request appointments, request and refill prescriptions, retrieve test results, view your billing statements and balances, make secure credit card payments and communicate with your doctor by sending secure messages over the portal.

We thank you for your continued support.  Nobody takes care of you like your own.

As we have stated before, the Mountrail County Medical Center is currently undergoing an electronic health records (EHR) conversion. This has turned into a complete overhaul of our billing systems. As we are sun setting our old EHR, we are finding claims that were not properly submitted for payment and are doing so right now. Until all of our EHR accounts are cleaned up and paid in full, you may get a bill from any of the below billing companies.

Our old EHR, Healthland, is producing statements for visits prior to June 23^rd, 2015. These statements are coming from HRG (Healthcare Resource Group) and these statements will be postmarked from Spokane Valley, Washington.

Clinic services rendered on June 23^rd, 2015 going forward are being billed through our new clinic EHR, Athena Health and these statements will be postmarked from Belfast, Maine.

Hospital services rendered on June 23^rd, 2015 going forward are being billed through Patient Co. and these statements will be postmarked from our Stanley address.

As part of the service with our new EHR, a reminder call is going out after your first statement has been mailed out. Please note this IS NOT a call from a collections agency; it’s an electronic “reminder to pay” call. As a business that collects the majority of its money after the fact, we need to be as proactive as we can to collect as much as possible in a timely fashion.

If you have any questions on statements you receive from MCMC please call the following:

• Hospital and Clinic Statement PRIOR to June 23^rd, 2015 – Billing Company: HRG – Please call the number written on the statement.
• Hospital Statements AFTER June 23^rd, 2015 – Billing Company: Patient Co. – Please call 628-2424 and ask for the Billing Department.
• Clinic Statements AFTER June 23^rd, 2015 – Billing Company: Athena Health – Call 628-2505 and ask for the Billing Department.

We thank you for your continued support. Nobody takes care of you like your own.

The Mountrail County Health Center campus is connected by many doors and hallways and one could possibly get lost maneuvering their way around. But it has so much to offer!

Attached to the north we have Centennial Court. Centennial Court is a 12 unit independent living facility. Light housecleaning and different activities are provided to the residents. They can also partake in any daily activities that are being provided in the Bethel Home. One daily meal can also be provided for an extra monthly charge.

Connected directly to the south of Centennial Court is the Mountrail Bethel Home. MBH is a 52 bed skilled nursing facility that is dedicated to providing quality care to its residents. It prides itself in 24 hour care with high staff to resident ratio. The Bethel Home offers one of the largest comprehensive activity programs in the state focusing on person-centered activities designed to meet the needs of each individual.

The Ina Mae Rude Aquatic Center is attached to the Mountrail Bethel Home. The aquatic center has a state of the art warm water therapy pool. A member’s only gym is also housed in the aquatic center. A small kitchen and conference room are available for rental for any event you may have.

Attached to the southwest of the Bethel Home is the Mountrail County Medical Center Hospital and Emergency Room. Patient care is provided 24/7 by on-call ER providers. The nursing staff is trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, CPR, are Trauma Certified and are well versed in other procedures necessary in an emergency situation. Avera eCare Telemedicine, ground transportation provided by the Stanley Ambulance Service or air transports to surrounding medical centers via Northstar or Valley Med are special services MCMC has to offer for quality patient care.

Our eleven bed hospital is set up for acute care and observation along with skilled and self pay swing bed.

Located right next door to the ER, MCMC features a full lab and radiology department that is here for your lab and X-ray needs. We offer all labs, including urine and blood, along with in-house X-Ray, EKGs and CTs. MRIs and ultrasounds/echoes are available weekly through DMS Health, and Mammograms are available monthly through Trinity.

The T.H. Reiarson Rural Health Clinic is on the west-side of the building. Daily provider appointments are available with our local providers along with monthly specialty doctors. Audiologist Dr. Kelci Kilthau with Professional Hearing comes the first Wednesday of every month. OB/GYN Dr. David Amsbury with Trinity comes the second Thursday of every month. Podiatrist Dr. Tyson Williams with Trinity comes the third Wednesday of every month.

And let’s not forget the lovely basement! MCMC’s Physical Therapy department is located underneath all of this. Our therapists provide hands on assessment and treatment for patients of all ages with acute, postoperative or chronic conditions needing therapy.

An informative booklet outlining all of the above is available at the front desk of the clinic. We thank you for your continued support and please remember, nobody takes care of you like your own.

The Mountrail County Health Foundation’s bylaws state that the “corporation shall collect, receive and maintain funds and apply income and principle thereof to promote the advancement and preservation of the health care services for Mountrail County, without limitations, providing equipment, services and research and all other charitable and benevolent purposes to promote the well-being of the Stanley Community Hospital or its successor corporation, and Mountrail Bethel Home.”

The Mountrail County Health Foundation was established November 22, 1991 and received their non-profit status a year later. The foundation was originally organized to generate charitable dollars from community members to assist with the increasing shortfalls of Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross reimbursements.

The Foundation provides avenues through which donors can share in the philanthropic goals of the Mountrail County Medical Center and Mountrail Bethel Home. This can be done by cash gifts, endowments, memorials, special projects or other gifting arrangements.

The Foundation was instrumental in raising funds in the early 2000s that enabled the construction of the new Mountrail County Medical Center to open its doors in 2002.The recent “Partnering for the Future” Capital Campaign has raised 6 million dollars to date.This money has allowed Phase One to go forward, which included the expansion of the Emergency Department that included an enclosed ambulance bay, full time CT Scanner, Decontamination Room and a Trauma Room.Also, these funds have allowed Phase Two to be constructed, which greatly expanded the T.H. Reiarson Rural Health Clinic.Phase Three, which will provide for the expansion of the Mountrail Bethel Home, is being redrawn with the start date of that project being backed up a year.The new focus will be the construction of a Chapel and the rebuilding of the resident rooms.

The Foundation board members are area residents who are committed to the future of the region’s healthcare providers, the services provided locally, while acknowledging the economic impact generated from MCMC and MBH.The Foundation has $2 million dollars currently in its Building Fund account that is specifically earmarked for the Phase Three project.This money will not be utilized for anything else but the Bethel Home expansion project.With every dollar the Foundation raises, that is one less dollar that would be taken out as a loan for this final construction phase of the Mountrail County Health Center.

The Mountrail County Health Foundation and its board members from SCH, MCMC and MBH are extremely grateful for the financial support provided by present and past area residents and local businesses.As in the words of Ray Rude during the 1999 Capital Campaign, “We hope the residents in the area understand the importance of looking ahead, understand the changes in healthcare, and will also get behind this important effort and make it successful.”The Board can see how evident that this community support is so many years later by simply looking at the Donor Wall inside the T.H. Reiarson Rural Health Clinic.There is much truth in the saying that “nobody takes care of you like your own”. We sincerely thank you for your continued support of MCMC and MBH!