News & Events

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!

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.