Trustees learn Park Place receives prestigious award

By BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

The Henry County Health Center Board of Trustees had a ?good news? agenda Tuesday, Sept. 16.

First piece of good news came from board member Ron Clouse. Clouse recently performed a hospital inspection and said that although things looked great overall, the registration area was in need of some work to reduce clustering and patient confusion.

?I walked through the whole hospital and everything looks great,? said Clouse. ?I spent about 20 minutes outside the registration area trying to figure out a solution to the problem we have there. When there is a line of people waiting there, you can?t see all the ladies that are registering people, and nobody is sure who is next in line. We have to find out some kind of system other than what we have now.?

Clouse said he is committed to brainstorming ideas that could help the situation in registration, and will try to implement some changes in the future.

Perhaps the best news discussed at the board meeting was the recognition of the staff at Park Place Elder Living. Recently, Park Place was recognized as the first nursing home in the country to complete Milestone 3 of the Eden Alternative?s Path to Mastery.

The Path to Mastery is a resource tool used by Eden Registered Homes to encourage and track growth for all who live and work in Park Place.

Over the past several months, the faculty at Park Place has been working on compiling information to answer the questions and accomplishments posed on the Milestone survey. Accomplishments are grouped into three areas of growth: personal, organizational and physical.

In addition, the Iowa Healthcare Association recently awarded the Quality Team Award for the state of Iowa to Park Place. This is the second time Park Place has been given this award.

?This is an amazing honor,? said hospital CEO Robb Gardner. ?The Iowa Healthcare Association is a large association that represents about 600 nursing home facilities in the state, and we got the quality team award two years running. That is just remarkable.?

Todd Ralls, the director of Anesthesia and Pain Management at HCHC, gave the board an update on how his department is doing. Overall, Ralls also had positive things to report.

The Anesthesia and Pain Management Dashboard reported markings in the 100th percentile in almost every category, which is something Ralls? department is very proud of. According to the dashboard, there have been no outpatient complaints received this year.

?We set our bar very high,? said Ralls. ?We want every patient to give us a top rating every time. We do the things right the first time and make people our priority.?

The department scored above average on patient and departmental education, overall efficiency and also scored high on overall patients serviced.

Construction on the hospital is mostly complete according to reports from Robb Gardner.

?Construction is basically done except for minor things. We are using the canopy over by radiology, which has been helpful...Overall, numbers-wise, we are still breaking even on the project.?

Jodi Geerts, HCHC?s Chief Nursing Officer, gave an overview on how the hospital ran during this year?s Old Threshers. As to be expected, HCHC typically sees an uptick in patients during the week of Old Threshers and the weeks leading up to Old Threshers. This year was no exception.

?We had the highest volumes, I think, that we have experienced in quite some time,? Geerts explained. ?But most of that volume was local people coming in, and wasn?t related to Old Threshers.?

Geerts also announced that the hospital has another ambulance to use as a resource. This new ambulance is much taller and wider than other hospital ambulances and is built to provide a smoother ride for patients and paramedics alike.

Last on the docket was a CFO report from Dave Muhs. Nothing major was reported during his report. An audit was recently performed at HCHC for the 2014 fiscal year. According to the auditor, overall opinions were favorable. The health center also reported that it was functioning within state and federal guidelines.

The next HCHC Board of Trustees meeting will be Tuesday, Oct. 21, at noon in the HCHC Board Room.