Kanabec
Hospital and KBEK Radio Give Weather Emergency Kits
Kanabec
Hospital and KBEK 95.5 FM joined forces to provide
drawings for custom-made weather emergency kits during
the Kanabec County and Pine County fairs.
In
addition, Kanabec Hospital pharmacists were at the
KBEK tent on each Friday to meet community members
and answer pharmacy-related questions. Free
pillboxes and handouts were available as well.
The
weather emergency kits include an emergency multi-function
AM/FM/weather band radio, bottled water, granola bars,
trail mix, mini first aid kit, flashlight, tissues,
wet wipes and 911 telephone stickers in a large, sturdy
bag with enough room left for additional supplies.
Five kits were provided for each fair.
Winners
from the Kanabec County drawing are Carl Buchanan,
Renee Motschenbacher, Marge Nelson, Kim Picha and
Alice Sogn. Pine County fair winners are Sami
Barstad, Heidi Benoit, Sandra Effertz, Tracy Holt
and Carrie Stromberg.
Winners
may pick up their prizes at Kanabec Hospital’s
main desk. Kanabec
Hospital is located at the junction of Highways 65
and 23 in Mora.
Listen
to news, weather reports, disc jockey chats and “Songs
from the Best Times in your Life” at KBEK by
dialing to 95.5 FM. The station’s telephone
number is 320-679-6955. Get more information
at www.besttimes.com.
Kanabec
Hospital expands Safe Sitter® program, graduates
41 more
 |
| Safe
Sitter®
instructors Lynne Van Hale-Whiteford, Julie Johnson
and Ronda Jannett. |
Kanabec
Hospital has doubled the capacity of its hugely popular
Safe Sitter® program through the addition
of two more instructors. As a result, two classes
were offered this summer providing 41 young people
with the information and skills necessary to be safe
babysitters.
The
new specially trained instructors are Lynne Van Hale-Whiteford
of Mora and Michelle Volk of Rush City. They
supplement the two instructors who have been with
the program since its adoption at Kanabec Hospital
in 2005 -- Ronda Jannett and Julie Johnson, both of
Mora.
Forty-one
students from Braham, Brook Park, Mora, Ogilvie and
Pine City graduated from the two summer courses held
in Mora and Pine City.
 |
Eighteen
students graduated at this summer’s Pine
City
Safe Sitter®
class. |
 |
| The
most recent Safe Sitter®
class graduated 23 students. |
“It
is an absolute pleasure to be teaching these classes,”
exclaimed Jannett, who is also Kanabec Hospital’s
Youth Volunteer Coordinator. “All of our
students have been bright and eager to learn.
It’s wonderful to know we have so many wonderful
young people in our community.”
Kanabec
Hospital is the only local provider for the Safe Sitter®
program and just one of five throughout Minnesota.
To date, there have been a total of 9 classes with
175 graduates from Mora, Ogilvie, Pine City, Isle,
Hinckley, Braham, Milaca and Onamia.
The
medically accurate, hands-on class teaches girls and
boys ages 11 to 13 how to be safe, nurturing babysitters.
Safe Sitter® students learn how to respond appropriately
to medical emergencies, how to keep themselves safe,
when and how to call for help, and how to understand
and deal with children of different ages. They
also learn about the business aspect of babysitting.
Safe Sitter®graduates are more confident and capable
caregivers.
To
successfully complete the program, students must pass
a rigorous practical and written test to show they
have mastered the key concepts and have the skills
necessary to handle an emergency.
Kanabec
Hospital’s next Safe Sitter®class is tentatively
planned for October. Details will be made available
early so students can pre-register. To get on
a sign-up list, call Ronda Jannett at 320-225-3321.
Johnson
Earns Emergency Nurse Certification
 |
Emergency
Department Manager Dorothy Kohl with Shawn
Johnson, Kanabec Hospital’s second CEN
credentialed emergency nurse. Johnson
and Kohl are Kanabec Hospital’s CEN
credentialed nurses.
|
Kanabec Hospital is proud to
congratulate Shawn Johnson, a registered nurse, on
recently earning Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) credentials.
Johnson’s achievement
is a result of months of study and successfully passing
a nationally-recognized examination administered by
the Board of Certification for Emergency
Nursing.
“This is a very big deal!” exclaimed
Dorothy Kohl, Kanabec Hospital’s Emergency Department
manager. “It’s a tough process and
not something just anybody attains. It is a
real accomplishment.” Kohl should know
she’s the only other nurse at Kanabec Hospital
who has earned CEN credentials.
“Earning my CEN was hard and I’m still
a little awed to have made it, said Johnson.
“I couldn’t have done it without Dorothy’s
help and encouragement.”
The CEN credential represents a commitment of the
individual nurse, as well as the emergency department
that supports CEN credentialing, to quality state-of-the-art
emergency care. Emergency nursing incorporates
a wide spectrum of patient care that requires highly
specialized skills and extensive knowledge, as well
as the unique ability to care for people of all ages
that have illnesses or injuries ranging from the very
minor to extremely critical.
This high level of expertise is especially important
at a rural hospital where there are fewer nurses and
thus a higher rate of encountering a wide variety
of medical needs. CEN credentialing improves
the quality of care for emergency patients.
Although nursing is very dynamic, and a nurse at
Kanabec Hospital probably learns something new every
day, CEN credentialing requires continuing education
in order for the nurse to maintain the credential.
100 hours of education must be completed every four
years, 80% of which must be clinical experience.
Johnson has been a registered nurse at Kanabec Hospital
for 7 years. She has 13 years of medical experience.
Kohl has been with Kanabec Hospital for 33 years
and has been a registered nurse for 42 years.
She has been the Emergency Department Manager for
15 years.
Knowledge
Improves Patient Safety
 |
CEO
Randy Ulseth |
Kanabec Hospital
is constantly working to improve the quality of the
care we deliver and share meaningful information about
that care with you -- the residents and visitors of
this area.
While many patient safety efforts are
unique to Kanabec Hospital, they also happen through
a variety of partnerships and forums, including the
Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety, the Minnesota
Hospital Association’s (MHA) Patient Safety
Task Force, and Minnesota Hospital Quality Partnership.
Joining these efforts is part of the
hospital’s commitment to “transparency”
– an openness to share quality, price, patient
safety and community benefit information. We believe
you deserve to know what your healthcare costs and
how good it is. This information should also be easy
to access. That kind of information will allow patients
to make more informed decisions about the most important
aspect of life – their health.
Now, residents have access to price
information on common procedures performed at Kanabec
Hospital as well as other Minnesota hospitals thanks
to the MHA's new Web site, Minnesota Hospital Price
Check. This marks the first effort by hospitals to
share price information to the public.
By visiting www.mnhospitalpricecheck.org,
you can find hospital-specific price information on
the 50 most common inpatient procedures and the 25
most common outpatient procedures.
At present, the figures listed are the
hospital's prices to provide care for each listed
diagnosis. Each price incorporates the costs associated
with providing nursing care, high-technology medical
equipment, supplies and other services necessary for
providing care.
It’s important for consumers to remember these
costs are not typically what a patient will pay out-of-pocket
for a hospital visit. A discount may be applied to
the price, based on negotiated rates with insurance
companies or on the hospital's discount for the uninsured.
Variation in health-plan coverage and discounts often
account for differences in patients' out-of-pocket
costs. Also, the listed prices do not include charges
by hospital physicians or specialists, who usually
bill hospital patients separately. Realize, too, that
variation in hospital prices can indicate differences
in the cost of labor, real estate, etc. across different
Minnesota regions and markets.
To determine out-of-pocket costs for
an upcoming procedure, residents with health insurance
should contact their insurance companies directly.
Patients without health insurance who know ahead of
time they will need hospital care should contact the
Kanabec Hospital business office for a cost estimate.
Increased transparency is also apparent
in a consumer-accessible report on healthcare quality
and safety in Minnesota. The Minnesota Hospital Quality
Report is available at www.mnhospitalquality.org.
This website contains information on how frequently
“best practices” were implemented by Minnesota
hospitals for cases involving heart attack, heart
failure or pneumonia.
It’s valuable to know that many
of the practices being measured are hard for someone
who isn’t a physician or nurse to understand.
What’s important is that these are practices
that are well accepted nationally as steps that should
be taken in the care of the conditions. For example,
some measures include whether a heart attack patient
was given aspirin upon arrival at the hospital, or
if a blood test was taken on a patient with pneumonia,
or if a patient received an assessment of his or her
heart function for heart failure. You can read more
details on the site.
All hospitals have voluntarily
reported their data to be posted on this site, which
is updated every quarter. The site displays the data
reported for the most recently available 12 months.
The commitment to make health-care quality
and price information publicly available and accessible
is complicated and time-consuming and is still in
the early stage. The goal is to eventually have all
information on quality, price, patient safety and
community benefits integrated for consumers. When
taken as a whole, the information will portray a more
comprehensive picture of the hospital’s performance
than any one element can provide.
Kanabec Hospital supports the goals
of transparency – consumers should know in advance
the costs for an entire episode of care, as well as
the quality of their care and how safe they will be.
To get there, we will continue to work internally
and to collaborate with health care organizations
across the state.
Ryan
Achieves Diabetes Educator Certification
 |
Ellen
Ryan,
Kanabec
Hospital’s
Certified Diabetes Education
Nurse Coordinator. |
Kanabec Hospital’s Diabetes
Education Nurse Coordinator, Ellen Ryan, has earned
the highly valued status of Certified Diabetes Educator
(CDE®).
Achieving the CDE credential demonstrates to patients
and the hospital that Ryan possesses distinct and
specialized knowledge, thereby promoting quality of
care for patients with diabetes.
The certification is obtained through the successful
completion of an examination through the National
Certification Board for Diabetes Education (NCBDE).
Candidates must meet rigorous credential and professional
practice experience requirements to be eligible to
take the test.
Ryan, a registered nurse, has been with Kanabec
Hospital since 1995. She has been the Diabetes Education
Nurse Coordinator for almost 5 years.
Kanabec Hospital offers prestigious American Diabetes
Association (ADA) certified education and a free monthly
diabetes support group. For more information, contact
Ellen Ryan at 320-225-3641.
Three Generations
at Kanabec Hospital
 |
Three
generations work at Kanabec Hospital:
Fran
Kacon, Kris Kemp and Katie Kemp. |
Working at Kanabec
Hospital has become almost a tradition for one area
family. Grandma Fran Kacon of Isle, and daughter
Kris Kemp and granddaughter Katie Kemp of Mora are
all active in the inner functions necessary for the
patient-centered hospital to provide excellent care
to area residents.
It all started 30 years ago when Fran
was hired as the Environmental Services Manager (called
Housekeeping back then), a position she has maintained.
“I am a cleaning nut!’ Fran exclaimed.
“I just love to clean and nowhere is cleanliness
more important than in a hospital. It’s
so rewarding to know I am contributing to our patients’
health.”
Fran manages a staff of 15 people with
shifts encompassing every hour of every day and night.
State requirements are a constant factor in her duties.
Her daughter, Kris Kemp, became an employee
of Kanabec Hospital in 1998. Starting as a ward
clerk, but with some nursing education in her background,
Kris eventually went back to school and became a Registered
Nurse (RN). She is now a nurse and works in
Chemotherapy, Obstetrics and Emergency.
“With my mom working here, I grew
up with the hospital as part of my life, but getting
a job at Kanabec Hospital really convinced me to get
that degree,” Kris explained. “Kanabec
Hospital is a wonderful place to work, and now I am
in the position that makes me the happiest.”
It wasn’t an easy road, either. Kris and
her husband Alan had two children, Katie and Will.
Kris worked full-time and attended school part-time
for four years. During that time, she also became
pregnant and gave birth to their third child, Jack.
This year Kris’ oldest, Katie,
aged 13, became a Kanabec Hospital Youth Volunteer.
Like her mom, Katie has been very aware of Kanabec
Hospital, so when she needed community service hours
for her National Honor Society membership, the hospital
immediately came to mind. “My mom and
grandma always say good things about the hospital,”
Katie said.
In addition to working at Kanabec Hospital
together, the three make it a point to participate
in the annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life
conducted every June.
Family life is very important to the
Kacon and Kemp family. They always schedule
family activities and outings such as snowmobiling,
hay rides and crafts. According to Fran, “Working
together is a natural!” Kris and Katie
smile in agreement.
Kanabec
Hospital Advances Emergency Care with New Ambulance
 |
Kanabec
Hospital Emergency Medical Service professionals
Cathy Dial, NREMT-I, Ron
Kurtz, RN,
and
Ambulance
Service Manager Adam Stout,
NREMT-P, proudly display their new
ambulance.
|
In its continuing quest to
provide community members with the highest quality
of care, Kanabec Hospital has improved its Emergency
Medical Services with a new ambulance.
The new rig features safety aspects that provide
increased protections for patients, crew members and
community members. A Tomar traffic signal device
allows the ambulance crew to change traffic lights.
By being able to switch traffic lights to the ambulance’s
favor, the transportation of patients can be shortened.
This is especially important when transferring critically
ill patients to other facilities. According
to Ambulance Service Manager Adam Stout, NREMT-P,
a trip to the metro area can be shortened by 20 minutes
or more.
Brighter exterior emergency lighting (L.E.D.s) make
the ambulance highly visible to pedestrians and automobile
traffic, reducing the likelihood that the rig may
be involved in a traffic-related incident.
Incorporating a solid wall between the ambulance
driver and the patient area keeps the driver safe
from possible attack from violent patients.
It also insures that an ambulance driver can focus
all attention on driving safely and not be distracted
by any commotion in the back.
In addition, the new ambulance is bigger, allowing
the transport of more patients at one time.
Up to three patients can be safely transported and
cared for while in a prone position (laying on a stretcher
or backboard). This is important where several
people at one location may be injured, for example
a car crash.
There are seatbelts in the back area for up to eight
people – seven patients and one medic –
if all are able to be in a sitting position.
This would prove advantageous in the event of a local
disaster with many people needing emergency medical
care.
The increased space also provides room for additional
medical supplies. Most of this space is dedicated
to keeping a larger supply of emergency medical supplies
in the ambulance in preparation for the possibility
of multiple patients, but it also allows the rig to
carry more oxygen, specialized trauma equipment and
a Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) machine
for those with special breathing needs.
A feature that contributes greatly to the comfort
of patients is the heavy-duty suspension. This
makes the ride smoother on rough roads and during
cornering.
Kanabec Hospital maintains a fleet of three ambulances.
The new ambulance replaces the oldest which
was in need of repairs and no longer meets the hospital’s
goal of providing the most advanced level of medical
care possible. The 1994 ambulance has been transferred
to the Kanabec County Sheriff’s Reserve Unit
where it will be restored and retrofitted as a mobile
command post. It will be used by the Sheriff’s
Office and the Reserve Unit in search and rescue missions,
disaster response and other remote activities.
