Category Archives: Did You Know?

We will be doing a three part series highlighting the process of care the Mountrail Bethel Home has in place for its residents.This week we will be highlighting the MDS Coordinator.

The objective of a MDS coordinator is to promote the physical and emotional well being of nursing facility residents. A resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) is used to gather information from residents and their families during initial and periodic interviews.

Information from these assessments helps nursing home caretakers formulate individualized care plans that include support from social services, dieticians, rehab specialists, and medical staff. MDS coordinators then implement and monitor these care plans to ensure their effectiveness. They must also make sure all strategies comply with federal requirements and ethical standards.

There are 48 levels a resident may be in.Each of those levels is set according to specific criteria.The MDS Coordinator has a forty page complete assessment that is done every three months on each resident.This assessment determines which level a resident will fall into.The assessment looks at the resident’s memory and cognitive state, any diagnoses they have that are being treated, how much assistance they require with their cares (dressing, eating, transferring, bathing, mobility, walking, toileting, and personal cares), if they need wound care, oxygen, IV, special cares, dietary needs, have incontinence, order changes, doctor visits, and a comprehensive review of their chart.

The federal government has determined the manner in which MBH does these assessments.It also requires certain questions be asked by the facility and they are not allowed to prompt or lead the resident in answering.An assessment is completed by looking at a seven day window of time.That window of time is determined by the scheduling rules set forth by the government as well.The date is set about a month before it is actually completed.The medical condition the resident is in within those seven days will set the rate for the upcoming three months.Once it is complete, the rate will not change unless they are discharged from the Bethel Home. Then at the readmission, a new rate is established.Once a rate is determined, the resident or their family does have the opportunity to appeal it.The state will request all the records used to determine the rate.They will review that data and decide if the rate is correct or not.The Mountrail Bethel Home always encourages families to do this if they wish.

Rates in the nursing home are determined by the state of North Dakota every year in December based upon cost reports filed by each facility.The reason the government has such a comprehensive influence on the rates is due to the fact that skilled nursing facilities are state and federally funded.State employees come out at least one time per year to survey the facility, going through all of the records and observing the employees caring for residents to make sure the Mountrail Bethel Home is in compliance with the rules and regulations set forth by the government.

We sincerely thank you for your continued support of MCMC and MBH!

Nobody Takes Care Of You Like Your Own.

We are continuing our three part series highlighting the process of care the Mountrail Bethel Home has in place for its residents.This week we will be highlighting the Care Coordinator.

The objective of a Care Coordinator is to manage the delivery of nursing care for each resident as requested by the family.

The Care Coordinator is the central person inside the Mountrail Bethel Home who ensures that quality of care is being given to each resident.She works with the Director of Nursing, MDS Coordinator, Bethel Home Nurses and the CNAs to ensure the daily routine of care for all levels is being completed for each resident.She also works closely with our physician/providers and goes on rounds to ensure for example the following:

• She follows up on care issues to make sure all is being done correctly and noticing if things are not.
• She gets to know the patient inside and out and completes mental health rounds on a monthly basis with each patient.
• She follows up on labs, infections, medication orders and anything else that pertains to the care of a resident.

Our software contains a special segment called “point of care” which records each element of care delivered for our residents every single day of the year. This enables the Care Coordinator to review what has taken place and determine if changes need to be made as well.

We sincerely thank you for your continued support of MCMC and MBH!Nobody Takes Care Of You Like Your Own.And with that statement, we are especially excited to inform the residents of Mountrail County that we are using five percent traveling staff as CNA’s on the floor compared to 99 percent five years ago.This means more local residents are employed by the Bethel Home, enforcing the tag line…..NOBODY TAKES CARE OF YOU LIKE YOUR OWN.

We are continuing our three part series highlighting the process of care the Mountrail Bethel Home has in place for its residents. This final week we will be highlighting the Quality Assurance/Infection Control Coordinator, who not only tracks for the Bethel Home, but for the entire campus.

The QA/Infection Control Coordinator is responsible to plan, develop, organize , revise, evaluate, and direct the overall Quality Management/Risk Management (QM/RM) programs in accordance with current state and federal rules and regulations, and as may be directed by the Administrator and Director of Nursing, to ensure the highest degree of quality care, safety, and confidentiality is maintained at all times for Mountrail County Health Center (MCHC) which comprises Mountrail County Medical Center (MCMC), Mountrail Bethel Home (MBH), and the T.H. Reiarson Rural Health Clinic.

The Mountrail Bethel Home, Mountrail County Medical Center, and the Clinic’s primary functions are to provide optimal service and quality of care to all that are in need of medical attention and care. The facility’s goal is to constantly strive to provide quality, cost effective health care utilizing all talents and resources available. This can be best achieved through policies and procedures designed to monitor the quality of care, identify problem areas and help in the development of new/improved programs, procedures and practices for our facility. MCHC’s QA/Infection Control Coordinator is responsible for ensuring quality of care, a safe environment and facility-wide compliance of state and federal rules and regulations. This is accomplished through many systems including quarterly audits of department procedures. The QA/IC Coordinator is also responsible for tracking infections throughout the facility, identifying any trends, assuring proper treatment and precautions are in place and educating staff on how to properly handle these occurrences.

We sincerely thank you for your continued support of MCMC and MBH! Nobody Takes Care Of You Like Your Own.

Most people probably do not know the relationship between MCMC (our hospital and clinic) and Trinity Health.The fact is that ever since MCMC was founded back in 1997 Mountrail Bethel Home and Trinity Health have been the sole members of this corporation.The six board members are made up of two directors designated by the board of directors of MBH and two directors designated by the board of directors of Trinity Health. The remaining two board members are designated by the other four board members selected above.

Both partners have worked harmoniously together prior to and after the new hospital opened in May of 2002.Having a partnership with a tertiary hospital has enriched our ability to provide the best care possible in our rural community.It enables us to have specialists come to our clinic each month; link our diagnostics such as radiology (x-ray, CT) and lab equipment directly with their radiologists and pathologists for faster medical diagnostic determinations; and is currently allowing us to transition to their software system after MCMC’s computer disaster this past year.This software migration will finally put us in the best of both worlds with 1) an electronic health record that is accessible by both our providers and theirs, when required, to provide optimal care delivery and 2) it allows us finally to get our billing systems straightened out after struggling this past year.Modern times practically mandate a relationship with a larger health system versus the days of old when there was an independent hospital on almost every main street in America.Unfortunately, those days are in the past and fortunately, MCMC is strategically positioning itself to be viable well into the future through our working relationship with Trinity Health.Stay tuned for further developments.

We thank you for your continued support.

Nobody takes care of you like your own.

The Mountrail County Medical Center wishes to extend a big thank you to all who participated in the recent community health needs assessment (CHNA).Additionally, we want to thank the community members who volunteered their time to provide input through one-on-one interviews and participated in the community meetings. Your participation helped make this process collaborative and we greatly appreciate the insights you provided.

In an effort to gauge overall health needs and identify health concerns of the community, a survey was distributed throughout the county between February 15, 2016 and March 7, 2016. MCMC has released the results and findings of the recent study about community health needs in the Stanley area. You may visit the RESOURCES tab on our website at www.stanleyhealth.org for the report detailing the findings.This 2016 report, along with the last report which was completed in 2013, will remain available on our website for several years.

The assessment process used a variety of methods to gather information and data about the health status and needs of the local population. These methods included a survey which was distributed to community residents and health care professionals, one-on-one interviews with community leaders, focus groups, and an in-depth study of county-level statistics regarding health outcomes, health behaviors, clinical care, and the local physical environment.

More than 208 area residents provided input to the study by completing surveys, giving interviews, and participating in focus groups. In addition to helping identify community health needs, a group of community members also provided guidance to the hospital by ranking and prioritizing the identified needs. The group collectively ranked the top five health-related needs facing the community as:

(1) Ability to recruit and retain primary care providers
(2) Cost of health insurance
(3) Adult alcohol use and abuse
(4) Adequate childcare services
(5) Obesity/overweight

These prioritized needs will guide strategic planning and implementation, encourage collaboration to address these needs, and set the stage for improving our community.In the coming months, we will be creating our implementation plan to address these needs.

“We are here to serve our community and the CHNA provided us with valuable input and direction as we prepare for the future,” said MCMC CEO, Rocky Zastoupil.

A periodic community needs assessment is one of the new requirements of the Affordable Care Act.The law requires non-profit hospitals such the Mountrail County Medical Center to assess the community’s health needs periodically.MCMC received assistance in conducting the assessment from the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.To learn of other North Dakota communities’ prioritized needs and ideas to address them, go to www.ndchna.org for a complete list of CHNA reports and implementation strategies.

We thank you for your continued support.We are always striving to do better.

Nobody takes care of you like your own.

Since the late 1970s, the Reiarson Trust has been very supportive and generous to the Stanley Community Hospital and now the Mountrail County Medical Center.Most visible is the $2.4 million dollars the trust spent in building the T.H. Reiarson Rural Health Clinic.And recently given were donations for the CT scanner upgrade and help with a down payment for MCMC’s new EHR software migration with Trinity.These two donations totaled $377,000.

Mr. Reiarson was a life-long farmer who lived south of Ross. In his Last Will and Testament, he created a trust for the benefit of the Stanley Community Hospital (SCH). Mr. Reiarson was specific in his will that the trust be prudently managed by the SCH board and be used solely for improvements and equipment.The SCH board and the trust’s trustee review every money request that comes to the trust from MCMC with care and consideration, for they have the responsibility to safeguard the viability of the entity. From the clinic décor, signage, technology and furniture to the new MCMC website to newly purchased hospital equipment such as a portable ultrasound, whirlpool bath, Radiology CR reader and the new Nurse’s Call Station, the Reiarson Trust has donated, in addition to the money listed in the first paragraph, a little over one million dollars since the beginning of 2015.

“We are eternally grateful for the foresight of Mr. Reiarson,” says Derald Hoover, President of the SCH Board.“We have sat in many meetings and said, ‘How could we survive in today’s medical world without the Reiarson Trust?’”

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.