Petersburg Medical Center Newsletter |
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▲ Veronica Carter drawing blood for Angela Bertagnoli during PMC Employee Health Fair |
NEWSLETTER BANNER PHOTO: PMC Nurses Elise Kubo, Traci Vinson, Mamie Nilsen, and Mary Kravitz training on PMC’s new cardiac monitoring machine
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MESSAGE FROM THE CEO
A focus this month on the future of local healthcare
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COVID
It is important to continue our vigilance in prevention even though we are seeing fewer COVID cases locally. Being up to date on COVID vaccines, including boosters, is one of the most important ways to decrease risk of hospitalization or death from COVID. According to the CDC in January 2022, adults vaccinated with a primary series but no booster or additional dose were 3 times more likely to be hospitalized than adults who received a booster or additional dose.
Future of Local Healthcare
The Borough was recently awarded $8 million in federal grants to use towards the initial phase of the new hospital project—building design and site preparation. This is a big step forward in PMC’s phased approach towards a new hospital building, which PMC is committed to doing with outside funding rather than tax payer dollars. During PMC’s 2021 Community Health Assessment, the community’s support for PMC’s efforts to maintain a rural community hospital was evident. Of the 186 community members surveyed, 69% strongly supported and 15% somewhat supported these efforts.
Community Events
PMC has been busy hosting community events this month including the first of a three-part community forum on Medicaid Planning and Long-Term Care on March 26th. This forum was done in collaboration with the Petersburg Community Foundation.
PMC also hosted a community breakfast honoring Vietnam veterans and their families on March 29th. Representatives from the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs were in town to celebrate our honored veterans and their families at a community wide celebration at the High School Gym.
PMC is hosting the 2022 Health and Safety Fair on June 4th. Scheduling for blood draws is now open to the community and will occur at the end of April through mid-May. This is a great opportunity to get back on track with preventive healthcare.
— Phil Hofstetter, CEO, PMC
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▲ Becky Turland puts out snacks in the Healthy Snack Carts |
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HEALTH & WELLNESS
Caring for our own
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PMC’s Employee Wellness Program aims to promote a healthy, productive workforce and contribute to making Petersburg Medical Center a great place to work. The program seeks to increase awareness and motivate employees to voluntarily adopt healthier behaviors, and to provide opportunities in a supportive work environment to foster healthy lifestyle choices. The Employee Wellness program has grown significantly in the past 3 years and includes a variety of resources for staff.
PMC has partnered with a third-party vendor called Bravo to offer many wellness resources to employees including online courses, wellness challenges and personalized health coaching programs. Bravo has helped PMC design an Employee Wellness Incentive Program that awards staff with a monetary incentive for participating in wellness activities and reaching or improving upon health outcomes. Last year the incentive program was opened to spouses on PMC’s insurance. Each year, employees and their eligible spouses are encouraged to participate in a biometric screening. Biometric screenings help establish baseline measures for overall health such as blood pressure, body weight, glucose, and cholesterol. Establishing a baseline can help evaluate risk, detect health problems early and help prevent them from developing into chronic diseases. Last year 60 employees and spouses participated in the incentive program.
The Healthy Snack Program was started in late 2020 as a way to take care of staff during the additional stress and workload of the COVID pandemic and has been a great success. Snack carts in each department are replenished with healthy snacks every Wednesday. Having healthy snacks available in the workplace has been shown to improve employee morale, contribute to productivity, and help employees maintain a healthy diet. Staff have come to look forward to “Wellness Wednesdays” and news quickly spreads throughout the hospital when new snacks have been added to the carts. Staff have appreciated the free snacks on days when they work longer than expected or on busy days where they couldn’t get away for lunch.
Another recent addition to the PMC Employee Wellness Program is the partnering with Betterhelp to provide staff free access to virtual mental health therapy. This resource was requested by managers and has proven to be extremely valuable to staff as an anonymous resource for those struggling with their mental health.
PMC also provides employees and their families a discount at Parks & Rec, a bike check-out program, and employee wellness events throughout the year to encourage healthy behaviors among staff. PMC is proud to take care of our employees in these healthy ways and aims to continue growing the Employee Wellness Program each year.
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MEET THE STAFF
Kaili Watkins
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Kaili Watkins grew up in a small town in Winchester, Indiana and never had plans to go back to small town life. After high school, she went to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and after working for a time in Louisville at a psychiatric hospital, she moved to Chicago to work toward a Master’s in Dance Therapy and Counseling.
When her master’s program was completed, Kaili decided she wanted to move out of the Midwest and wanted to see the west coast, either Washington or Oregon. Before making a permanent move, her brother, Lance, invited her to spend some time in Petersburg in the winter of 2007. She agreed and walked into a town that had just had major snowfall, similar to what we had this year. Kaili had never experienced anything like that winter and it was intriguing enough that she decided to stay a little longer. After a summer spent working on a crab boat, she decided to make her visit into a permanent stay.
Kaili joined PMC in August 2021 in the clinic as a receptionist but it’s not the first time she’s been a part of the team. After she moved here, and after her summer of crabbing, she worked in LTC Activities for three years. Kaili loved working in LTC and is glad to be back at PMC and be part of the work the hospital does for the community. She loves the social aspect of her position and how it affords her the opportunity to interact with the community. She also loves seeing all the new babies! Learning a new electronic medical record system and then another new system when the hospital switched to Cerner has been a challenge but one that has been very rewarding.
Kaili spent some time teaching in Petersburg in a kindergarten class and has been teaching dance in the community off and on since 2007. Kaili also teaches Zumba, loves to knit and crochet and enjoys visiting with her family who are spread out across the US and includes her three brothers and two sisters. Kaili lives in Petersburg with her two sons, Parker who is in fifth grade and Elliot in first grade, and her 4-year-old daughter Wren. She is especially appreciative of the support of this community and loves the way everyone looks out for each other. She loves that she can let her boys bike to school by themselves and the safety that the community gives.
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▲ Kaili celebrating New Year’s eve in style |
▲ Kaili with daughter Wren |
▲ Kaili with two sons Parker and Elliot |
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DEPARTMENT SPOTLIGHT
PMC's Nurses are hardworking caregivers and skillful educators
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Petersburg Medical Center is small, as hospitals go, but that doesn’t mean the nurses in the Nursing Department aren’t kept very busy. A typical day for the nurses is never the same as they are usually working in several departments at any given time. Whether they are with inpatients, outpatients, assisting in the ER, or working in LTC, the nurses and Certified Nurse Aids (CNA) at PMC are rarely idle.
PMC currently has 17 nurses and 17 CNA’s but that number often fluctuates. Traci Vinson, RN, is the CNA course coordinator and runs the 5-week Certified Nurse Aid training program at the hospital. The program is partly online and partly in the hospital where the trainees get hands-on training. The fifth week is a clinical rotation where students work in either acute care or LTC. Once they pass, they are scheduled for the state test to become Certified Nursing Assistants. The program is very successful and includes paid time while training and a raise upon completion of the program.
In addition to the CNA course, Traci runs a program for high school students to get on the job training for the CNA course. PMC has several nurses currently working who started with the high school program and completed the CNA course. University of Alaska Anchorage will also be beginning a new associate of nursing cohort this fall, with PMC nurses as the clinical instructors.
PMC is a small hospital where nurses must be cross-trained and able to help in all areas, including in Long Term Care if needed. PMC usually has two or three traveling nurses assisting their team. During the height of COVID-19, they were assisted by a few more travelers which allowed our local nurses to handle the extra pandemic duties and get a break when needed.
When asked about their favorite things in the nursing department, Mary Kravitz, nurse supervisor, and Traci were both quick to praise the nurses, saying that they had a really great team who all have fantastic teamwork. The nurses also come from a variety of different backgrounds, so they can bounce ideas and issues off each other which is beneficial to everyone.
As to what comes next for the nursing department, the PMC nursing department continues to strive for the best quality in patient care. The nursing team will be taking a 2-day Emergency Pediatric Nursing Course in May to enhance their ability to assess pediatric patients rapidly and accurately in emergency situations. PMC also recently obtained new cardiac monitors which will greatly improve patient care.
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▲ Elise Kubo, RN, trying out the new cardiac monitoring machine. |
▲ Mary Kravitz, Traci Vinson, and Angela Menish, PMC's Flu Shot Fairies giving vaccines downtown last Fall. |
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CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
SEARHC CEO speaks to PMC hospital board
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The Petersburg Medical Center hospital board hosted Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium CEO Charles Clement at its meeting on March 24 to give the public an opportunity to hear from him about SEARHC's current plans and opportunities for collaborations between the two entities.
The assembly chamber was packed during the meeting and even more people logged in on Zoom to hear Clement answer questions sent by board members and hospital staff regarding the future of health care in Petersburg.
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▲ SEARHC CEO Charles Clement during the March 24 hospital board meeting.
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▲RN Traci Vinson with Ray Olson getting in the St. Paddy's Day Spirit
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▲ Pie Day Pies provided by PMC Staff
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▲ Before photos of Room 214 ▼ and After |
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LONG TERM CARE UPDATE
March in LTC
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As the days get longer and the snow starts to fade, the feelings of spring have begun to set in. March has been filled with excitement in Long Term Care as we have enjoyed several in house events and for the first time since the onset of COVID-19 our residents have begun to return into the Petersburg community.
In Long Term Care, our residents have enjoyed a few special events this month. March 14th is national Pi Day (3/14 for the mathematicians out there), so many PMC staff members donated homemade pies for a pie tasting contest adjudicated by our residents. Each resident enjoyed several pieces of pie; however, it was Emma Gates’ French Silk Pie that took home the win! Our residents also enjoyed some St. Patrick’s Day festivities. The PMC Dietary staff provided a beautiful corn beef and cabbage lunch, and we were grateful for the visit from the community parade to the patio outside PMC.
As community wide spread of COVID-19 has shown a decline, a few of our residents interested in resuming participation in community events have had the opportunity to do so. Some events have been big for our community—Ray Dugaqua had the opportunity to attend a homecoming basketball game. Although the girls did not come out with a win, Ray was excited to have this momentous opportunity for Long Term Care. Other outings have been smaller, yet equally as exciting. Myron Lyons had the opportunity to go to the store and assist with errands. While this may seem small, something as simple as grocery shopping is a huge sign of hope that our Long-Term Care community is headed back to normal. This has been possible thanks to the willingness to mask and test exhibited by our residents, staff, and community.
In other LTC News: Over the past month, PMC has had the opportunity to work with temporary maintenance assistant, Kim Kirby. Kim has filled in in several locations across PMC over the past several months; however, her most recent contribution has been the facelift of Long-Term Care’s Room 216. Planning, coordinating, researching, and remodeling, Kim took the LTC room and transformed it from a hospital room to a home-like space. Ideally the plan is to take Kirby’s concept and with time apply it to each of our resident rooms.
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MEET THE STAFF
Three PMC staff celebrated the addition of new babies within three weeks in February! Congrats to these staff and their families:
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Lauren Thain (Nurse), her husband Tyler and big sister Libby welcomed Beckett Buchan Thain on 02/02/22. |
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Liz Thompson (Radiology Technologist) and her husband Nyle and big sister Sophia welcomed Kira Jane Thomas on 2/18/22. |
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Brandon Wagemaker (Dietary Cook), his wife Maria and big brother Raiden welcomed Stasia Maybelle Shirley Wagemaker on 2/25/22. |
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