I’m a big believer in getting an annual flu shot, and I checked with Employee Health to see how many of you feel the same way. To date, 62 percent of us have received our flu shot this year. That’s good, but they tell me at this point last year, we were much closer to 90 percent!

So to the remaining 38 percent of you, I highly encourage you to take advantage of the last two sessions for flu shots. You can get a flu shot from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today (Thursday) or from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday in GSH Employee Health. After that, you’ll need to stop by Employee Health during their regular immunization clinics on Monday afternoons at GSH or Tuesday afternoons at RYH.

The flu shot stings for only a second, but it saves a week of feeling really terrible! In our line of work, it’s a good idea to take this proactive approach to our health—and that of our patients. And best of all, this year the seasonal flu shot is combined with the H1N1 immunization, so you get double the protection with one quick stop in Employee Health.

See, it’s not so bad!

Thanks to Hilary Stoner in Employee Health for being such a good sport. It's not every day someone wants to bring a photographer along for a flu shot!

In a couple of the past Weekly Administrative Updates, you may have read about two of our critical access hospitals who recently just moved into brand new facilities. The communities of Ord and Cambridge are celebrating the completion of new hospital building projects, and we offer our congratulations to them.

Critical access hospitals play a very important role in rural healthcare. They are a vital link to medical services for those who live hundreds of miles from larger facilities like ours. They keep healthcare close to home—where it should be. Our role is to offer the specialized care and services that are not able to be offered in rural areas, and give them additional support when they request it.

The folks at Valley County Health System in Ord and Tri-Valley Health System in Cambridge were kind enough to share a few pictures of their new homes with me for my blog. These spaces are spectacular! And not only did they make great additions to their physical space, they also incorporated important technology upgrades that will certainly benefit their patients. To all of those patients, and to everyone at the new facilities in Ord and Cambridge, I say congratulations and enjoy your new digs!

These photos of Tri-Valley Health System in Cambridge were taken just before the project was finished.

And these photos were sent to us from the folks in Ord.

Yesterday was the groundbreaking ceremony for our expansion project at GSH. In addition to the many community members who joined us for the event, I was thrilled to see lots of staff and I understand many of you watched from the windows of the West Tower, as well.

Sister Rita Beason was in charge of prayers for good weather and I think we can all agree that she got that job done in a BIG way. What a beautiful day! I found the comments our speakers made at the ceremony to particularly meaningful--especially those of Sister Clarice Gentrup who travelled all the way from Mount Saint Francis in Colorado Springs to join us. She also brought Sister Carmela Trujillo and Sister Immaculata Park with her for the ride. I included a few pictures from our big event below.

This is an exciting time in the ongoing story of Good Samaritan Hospital. We have a very important mission to carry out and a legacy to carry on here in our community, and I know you all join me in taking that responsibility very seriously. Thank you for all you do in that regard.

Mike

Sister Rita Beason and Randy DeFreece, president of the GSH Foundation couldn't be with us for the groundbreaking ceremony. Instead, they gathered for a ceremony of their own earlier in the week.

Randy DeFreece.

Sister Carmela Trujillo, Sister Clarice Gentrup and Sister Immaculata Park graciously joined us in our festivities.

Kearney Mayor Stan Clouse gave very heartfelt comments during the ceremony.

Dignitaries at the ceremony were Father Joseph Hannappel, Dan Bahensky, vice chairmain of the GSH Board of Directors, Sister Clarice Gentrup, Dr. Bill Vosik, Mayor Stan Clouse, Carol Cope and Bill Oldfather from the Ron and Carol Cope Foundation.

Cath Lab Director Todd Stover.

Dr. John McCammond and Earl Rademacher joined us in breaking ground.

Yesterday, the Good Samaritan Hospital Employee and United Way campaign officially kicked off. You'll be receiving a letter and a donation form from your department director with all the details about this annual fundraising event.

If you've been to one of the employee forums this month, you may have already heard my pitch in support of these efforts. If you haven't heard my pitch: get ready, here it is.

As a non-profit entity, Good Samaritan Hospital doesn't pay taxes (we give back considerably more than our share in quantifiable community benefit, but that's another story for another day). Since we're tax exempt, we don't financially subsidize very important entities in our community like the fire department, police department, schools and more. That's why I feel so strongly about giving to the United Way. Making donations to this organization is a very real way to give back to our community that gives so much to us. And, since I know lots of our staff don't live here in Kearney, giving to the United Way allows you to choose which county and/or community you'd like your donation to support. In essence, we all win.

But I'm not done there. At Good Samaritan, we also have an opportunity for staff to give back to our own organization. Through the Employee Campaign, employees can offer donations that benefit a specified GSH program or department, OR they can give to the general beneficiary of this year's campaign: the new cafeteria project. This year and next year, donations from staff to the Employee Campaign will go toward special enhancements to the new cafeteria that will be part of the expansion project.

These are two very worthy ways to give back to our community, and I encourage anyone who has the means to consider a donation to one or both of these campaigns. Plus, all donations are tax deductible!

Thanks for your time and consideration. Have a great week!

Mike

On Sunday, October 3, GSH hosted its fourth annual Joint Replacement Reunion and invited all of the folks who have had knees, hips, elbows or other joints replaced in the past year to reunite with cohort classes, nurses and physicians. I was unable to attend, but loved seeing the photos and thought you might like them, too. Dr. Chris Wilkinson wowed the crowd as the "physician magician." Dr. John Wright showed that he is multi-talented and truly a servant leader as he bused tables for our visitors.

Last week was not only the week of our much-anticipated Joint Commission survey, but it was also the National Planetree Conference. Good Samaritan is a highly esteemed member of this leading organization in patient-centered care, and our own Carol Wahl is a member of Planetree’s Board of Directors.

At the conference last week, Carol was presented with the Planetree Lifetime Achievement Award. I wanted to make special note of this award because although Carol may not want me to say it, this is a really big deal! As a winner, Carol joins the ranks of past recipients like Angelica Thieriot who founded Planetree, Dr. Steve Horowitz, chairman of the cardiology department at Stamford University Hospital, Harvey Picker who founded the Picker Institute—a pioneering organization in the field of patient-centered care, among others. Wow! That’s some company, Carol.

Carol has been the champion for the comprehensive implementation of the Planetree philosophy at Good Samaritan. She also authored one of the most valuable Planetree educational resources: the first and only manual outlining how to implement the Planetree model in a hospital setting. This piece is utilized by hundreds of Planetree member organizations beginning the patient-centered care journey. 

Before the conference, Planetree made a special surprise presentation of the award to Carol at a department director meeting here at GSH. At that presentation, these comments were made that I thought were particular meaningful:

“You may not know this, but her unflagging commitment has been far reaching, impacting not only Omaha and Kearney, but communities around the world. During her eight years as a member of the Planetree Board of Directors, Planetree came of age, not only formalizing numerous programs, but also expanding internationally to the Netherlands, Canada, Brazil and Japan. Carol assisted in the development of Planetree on a global basis, and she didn’t make recommendations from a mahogany office on a theoretical basis, but provided first-hand practical strategies and new member resources based upon her own experiences implementing the Planetree model of care.”

Congratulations, Carol on your Lifetime Achievement Award. Your passion for patient-centered care makes you a more than worthy recipient.

Mike

Here's a photo from Carol's award presentation last week. We are pictured with Marcie Holmes who was the recipient of Good Samaritan's Spirit of Planetree Caregiver Award. My congratulations to you, as well, Marcie.

The Joint Commission has officially left the building and…we passed! Congratulations to everyone for their preparation and interactions with surveyors.

We have countless processes that guide the care we give and the way we do things here at Good Samaritan. A group of three people dove in to our organization every which way to examine those processes, and the fact that they only found a handful of things to change is not amazing, it was the result of planning and hard work. We’ll take the necessary steps to address the items they noted. Nonetheless, we will maintain full accreditation!

I’m very proud of our performance on the survey, and I’m even more pleased with the great things the surveyors had to say about us. They were very complimentary of our staff and impressed with our “robust” (they said this word a lot) facility. They had great things to say about our medical staff, and noted how everyone was welcoming to them and very receptive when they shared their approaches to care.

Perhaps the greatest compliment came at the closing conference when one surveyor commented that he would come here in a heartbeat for care.

That says it all, my friends. Congratulations, Good Samaritans. Great job!

Also, I’d be remiss not to mention that TCU also went a four-day regular unannounced state survey this week at the same time as our Joint Commission survey. They also passed with flying colors. Super job!

Mike

I love to hear about the fantastic people that make up our staff here at Good Samaritan Hospital. Yes, we’re all here doing our jobs and doing them well, but we all have lives outside of this place too—and the stories I hear about our employees and the causes they champion in their free time are nothing short of inspiring.

Case in point: Peg Dethlefs. Have you seen the pink ambulance parked across the street from the ED yesterday? I have seen it around GSH, but had no idea if it belonged to GSH (maybe we changed our standard colors?) or an individual. Well, if you raise such a question around here to anyone, you will get an answer. Behold, I received an email from Mary Stevenson (her closest friends call her Mort—I believe she has told me that I can call her Mort!) telling me that this pink ambulance belongs to Peg Dethlefs.  Peg is a communication specialist here at GSH (comm spec for short), and an on-call paramedic. She’s also one of our ACLS and BLS instructors. And if that’s not enough, she’s the captain of the volunteer fire and ambulance department in Ravenna. AND, she’s a tireless advocate for breast cancer awareness. (This is where the pink ambulance comes in.)

What I learned about Peg was that her sister is a breast cancer survivor and her pink ambulance is in honor of her sister’s fight. It’s also a local extension of a nationwide breast cancer awareness campaign led by fire engines painted pink. Her ambulance bears a combination firefighter/EMS shield, breast cancer awareness decals including her sister’s name, and it’s covered—and I mean covered—in signatures. They’re signatures of survivors, supporters, and those honoring loved ones affected by breast cancer. It’s powerful, to say the least.

Peg led her volunteer squad in raising thousands of dollars for Susan G. Komen for the Cure through the sale of breast cancer awareness T-shirts. And she takes her show on the road, especially now during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, to other fire and EMS crews in Nebraska who are interested in doing something similar in their communities.

Wow! Talk about passion for a cause! Peg’s a great example of how so many people here are part of something much bigger than themselves. I’m honored to be in your midst.

Mike

Here's a couple more shots of Peg's ambulance.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that we’re hosting some visitors from The Joint Commission here this week. This is an intense and demanding time for us here at Good Samaritan, but I have no doubt that you’ll all do well when approached by surveyors.

These helpful hints have gone out already, but they’re very good, so I’ll repeat them here:

§         Reply to surveyors’ questions directly and concisely.

§         Do not be tricked by leading questions, such as “What is your work-around for this process?”

§         Do not embellish answers or volunteer unnecessary information.

§         Be truthful; don’t try to “snow” a surveyor.

§         Don’t tell everything you know. If you provide additional information that is not asked for, it may lead to more questions.

§         Do not argue with surveyors; keep the conversation professional.

§         Ask questions if you don’t understand something or need clarification.

§         Don’t give surveyors more documents or more information than they ask for.

§         Don’t mention past surveys or the former management of the department.

Another reason I’m confident in our performance on this survey is because we have very good people working each day to make sure we’re up to snuff. One way we’ve been maintaining our ongoing readiness is daily huddles like this one:

(That's Paul O'Connell, Karen Thomas, Betty Lou Smith, Larry Surmeier, Kathy Schmitt, Fia Feese and some others who managed to stay out of camera view.)

Take a deep breath everyone. We’ll do great!

Mike

It’s the first Friday in October. Did you remember to wear your cancer awareness T-shirt? If you didn’t, you have four Fridays left to show your support for the fight against cancer by wearing a “Kearney Tackles Cancer” or “Fight Like a Girl” T-shirt to work—if you'd like.

We’re all on board in Administration…

And speaking of cancer awareness, our Cancer Center’s Simply Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Style Show is coming up next week, October 5. Hats off to the folks who are putting this event together. The message of breast cancer awareness—especially prevention and early detection is an important one. I’m proud of their efforts to showcase survivorship, as well. The style show is free and starts at 7 p.m. at the Merryman Performing Arts Center. Call the Cancer Center at 7985 for more info.

Have a great weekend!

Mike