Ensigntherapy.com
29222 Rancho Viejo Rd, Ste 127
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
November 2019


Creating a Movement!
By Cheri Prince, Therapy Resource
Have you heard about it? There’s a spark, and it’s starting to catch fire! Last week’s workshops had over 30 participants in total — and this is just the beginning!     
 
PDWELL came from a desire to do more to meet the needs of the Parkinson's community in the Omaha metro area. As a Physical Therapist and Rehabilitation Director at a skilled nursing facility, I had the opportunity to develop a Parkinson’s program over the last six years. Through this experience, we identified a need for a place for Persons with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD) to go for Parkinson’s-specific therapy, exercise classes, education and resources. 
 
While there are Parkinson’s offerings in town, the services are fragmented, with most people attending classes at many different locations in the area in order to meet their needs and/or interests. The same issue exists for support groups. Many PwPD attend multiple groups in order to obtain all of the education and support they and their care partners are looking for.      Read On...
Dignifying Therapy in the Eyes of the World
By Brad Heal, OTR/L, DOR, Desert Terrace Healthcare, Phoenix, AZ  
This past October, Craig Johnson PT, the Lead Physical Therapist at Desert Terrace, traveled with the nonprofit organization Wheels for the World to the Middle Eastern country of Jordan. This is the 11th volunteer journey that Craig has made with this organization. Other trips have taken him to Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica, Haiti, Ukraine and Guatemala. Wheels for the World receives donated broken wheelchairs and refurbishes them through a program with the prison system. Those wheelchairs are then shipped to the country the organization is assisting. Then a team of occupational therapists and physical therapists customize the wheelchairs for needy people in the area. Read On....
WELL (We Embrace Living|Loving Life!) —
We Can Make a Difference!
Incorporating a WELL Lifestyle can help to prevent or halt Diabetes! November is National Diabetes Month, a time when communities across the country team up to bring attention to diabetes.
By Angela Ambrose, contributing writer

Healthy Eating and Exercise to Slow or Reverse Diabetes?
Many diabetics view their diagnosis as a lifelong sentence of taking daily medications and dealing with the complications of chronically elevated blood sugar levels. However, numerous studies indicate that small lifestyle changes have the potential to prevent or halt the progression of this disease.  .  Read On...
On Wednesdays We Wear Pink!
In honor of October being breast cancer awareness month, we celebrated our 4th annual PINK Wednesday at Julia Temple Healthcare, Englewood, CO
Rock Canyon Respiratory & Rehabilitation, Pueblo, CO, is “Rocking” pink to support breast cancer awareness! 
Therapist Profiles
Connie Faulkner, COTA
By Danielle Banman, OTR/, DOR, The Healthcare Resort of Leawood,
Leawood, KS
Connie Faulkner is an OTA with over 20 years of experience who has worked at The Healthcare Resort of Leawood since November 2016. If you ask anyone in our facility about Connie, they will tell you that she is a loving, hard-working and caring person! In the Rehab department, we call her Mary Poppins, as she can almost always come up with anything we need and always has great ideas. Our patients and staff adore her. She has recently gone above and beyond even for her, and we wanted to share her story. 
 
Connie was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and has already started treatments to prepare her for surgery. When she had a busy day of appointments and planned to be off for the day, she called and changed all of her appointments to plan something special for a guest. She came in to work in the middle of oncology and surgery consults to make this special event take place. We had a patient, Buddy, who was having anxiety with getting out of bed and participating in basic daily tasks due to increased oxygen needs. Connie and some other therapists discovered his love for playing guitar and singing country and gospel music and used this to motivate him during sessions, including using our social services director’s guitar. The patient had been in a band prior to his hospital stay, so Connie started making plans. Buddy let her know the date the group usually meets, giving Connie just a short amount of time to pull everything together. 
 
Instead of taking the day off as planned, Connie coordinated with our dietary and activities departments on short notice and brought Buddy’s band to him for a fun musical event! Our lobby was filled with his friends and our guests to hear Buddy play guitar and sing! He plays for us in the therapy gym every time he gets the chance, and we even get to hear Connie sing with him sometimes. Buddy made enough progress with us to admit to an ALF with his wife, which was his long-term goal. Connie is not letting cancer slow her down one bit; she is still working full-time and giving her best to our team and patients. We couldn’t love her more! 
Jason Niemeier, PT, Arvada Care & Rehabilitation, Arvada, CO
Submitted by Jason Niemeier
Our team at Arvada has been such a great learning environment, and I am just happy to be a part of all the exciting things we have been able to achieve in the two years I've been working there. Below are the answers to the therapist profile questions.
 
FYI the picture of me flying is me testing out the comfort level of a new harness system I acquired for our gym.
 
What inspired you to become a physical therapist?
Unfortunately, I never had a single moment that inspired me to go to PT school and become a therapist. I have always enjoyed teaching others, challenging myself and being active. I began running out of appealing options to pursue with my bachelor’s degree and decided PT school was my last option. Only once I was in PT school did I realize that this profession encompassed all of my passions together and ended up being a perfect fit for me. Read On... 
Highlights on Nursing and Therapy Partnership
Teamwork — Therapy/Nursing Partnership
By Patty Fantauzzo, COTA, CTO, TPM, Julia Temple Healthcare, Englewood, CO
I often get asked the same question regarding the success of our LTC programming here at Julia Temple. My answer is always the same: You need to have the support of your DON first and foremost. Imagine going to work every day with great ideas for programming. Your Therapy team endorses your great ideas, but frustration sets in when there isn’t any carryover or follow-through after Therapy steps out. The struggle is real and can lead to burnout, not only for DORs, but for therapists as well. 
 
A huge part of our programming success is the result of our DON, Wendy Power (pictured Left) , sharing the same goals and seeking the same outcomes as Therapy for our residents. Of course, it’s a two-way street and both the DOR and DON need to be open to hearing the cold hard facts and collaborating on ideas for solutions, whether it be related to a Nursing or Therapy concern. Mutual respect and trusting one another opens the doors for trial and error without judgement on both sides.  Read On...
Collaboration at St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Rehabilitation
By Dennis Baloy, DOR/ OTR/L /OTD/s
St. Elizabeth was one of the facilities recently acquired by Ensign in May 2019. Coming in new to the facility as a rehab director in a team that has been together for a significant number of years, I had both feelings of uncertainty and excitement. This was until I met our Director of Nursing, Madelyn Tan. I’ve heard of her reputation to be one of the best in the industry — clinically, operationally and personally. The first time I met her, I instantly felt her warmth and genuine compassion. She openly welcomed me to our team and even prepared and cooked a special chicken dish (which we both grew up eating). Talk about hospitality!
 
Ever since then, I’ve held the highest regard on how she and our administrator manage the Nursing department and also the entire facility. The collaboration and open discussion during our stand-up meetings are efficient, healthy, and straight to the point and patient-centered. She always upholds the best interests of our residents and staff. Our interactions have always been professional and informative and at the same time enveloped with respect and love.   Read On...
The Importance of a Strong Partnership with Dietary
By Emily Clark, RD, Endura Nutrition Services Resource, &
Tamala Sammons, MA CCC-SLP, Therapy Resource
Dietary and Therapy have a very meaningful partnership in our facilities. Communication between the two departments is critical. Here are a few areas where Dietary and Therapy can work together for patient success.

PDPM
It’s important to partner with the Dietary team when capturing information for section K on the MDS for the SLP Case Mix. Dietary and Therapy will work together to accurately assess for a swallow disorder and mechanically altered diets. Examples include: referring to SLP documentation to capture a swallow impairment in therapy notes during the seven-day look back when on a mechanically altered diet; referring to SLP documentation to assess for a swallow impairment if a patient is NPO; and clearly documenting needs for mechanically altered diets.

Diets
In addition to partnering with traditional modified diets, there is a new IDDSI diet classification system. Some facilities and vendors are moving toward changes per the IDDSI system. The new diets are also now available in PCC. Collaboration will be imperative when integrating any changes and training facility staff. A good partnership also helps when trialing new diet textures or new foods — having a good relationship and communication helps everyone get what is needed for the patient in a timely and efficient manner.  Read On...
SLPs' Role in Fall Prevention
Submitted by Tamala Sammons, MA CCC-SLP, Senior Therapy Resource
Contributed from the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA.org)
 
Factors such as depression, hearing loss, medication management, cognitive impairments and poor sleep all impact a patient's risk for falls as well as their ability to report them in a timely fashion. Good clinical practice dictates determining whether these risk factors play a role in the care of the patients in SNFs. Approximately 60% of older adults with cognitive impairment fall annually, almost two times more than their peers without a cognitive impairment (Eriksson, et al., 1993). Among individuals with dementia, fall frequency can even reach as high as 80% (Shaw et al, 2003). The high prevalence of falls among patients with dementia, despite relatively intact motor function, highlights the idea that falls are often not just a motor problem (Van Iersel, et al, 2006). Risk of persistently high expenditures for fall-related injuries among older Medicare community-dwelling fee-for-service beneficiaries is significantly higher for individuals with cognitive impairments, which leads to hospital/facility readmissions (Hoffman, et al., 2017).   Read On...

Updates
By Mahta Mirhosseini, Therapy Resource
Now that you have kept calm and PDPM’d all October long, let’s review Optima’s PDPM reports. Optima has three new reports to help with PDPM management:

PDPM Estimated vs. Actual Report
Are you adding estimated PDPM assessments in the projection screen and then converting them to actual assessments? The PDPM Estimated vs. Actual Report is a new report which provides comparison at a patient level on Estimated 5-Day PDPM Assessments vs. Actual 5-Day PDPM.
PPS Billing PDPM Report
Did you use the PPS Billing Report to get information about your RUG categories and wondering if a similar report exists for PDPM case mixes? A new PDPM report has been added, to closely mimic the existing PPS Billing Report for RUG-IV. The Billable Days are covered by the Case Start and End Dates.
PDPM Calculation Worksheet by Patient
Are you wondering if there is a way to batch print the PDPM Calculation Worksheet for a certain time frame? This new report allows us to print the PDPM calculation Worksheet for all residents included in a specified time frame parameter.

Since we are talking Optima reports, did you know you can save “favorite” reports in Optima?
Optima allows you to save parameters on reports so the report will show the saved parameters the next time you run the report. This cuts down on time spent adjusting the same parameters every time you run a report. Simply open the Report, set the preferred parameters, and click Save at the top. Give the Saved Report a name and click Save. Select the option “Show User Reports Only” to quickly find the saved report from the Reports Menu. 
Productivity Corner
By Ciara Cox, Therapy Financial Resource
It has been inspiring to see the way our therapists are embracing appropriate group and concurrent therapy, and we are experiencing our patients coming alive with joy and renewed engagement. These new efficiencies are making a big impact on our patient outcomes, with the added benefit of improving our therapy metrics.

Did you know? Overall productivity increases 1% for every 2.3% increase in overall group/concurrent* treatment delivery. 
 
*Based on an average of 3 clients being treated at the same time.  
Keystone Receives $700K Grant to Implement Award-Winning Technology to Improve Senior Care
By Jon Anderson, PT, Therapy Resource
Technology makes life better in so many different ways. It could be robotic surgery, skipping the toll booth on the highway or paying for groceries with your phone. It’s also helping Keystone seniors have a safer, healthier life. Thanks to a generous $700K grant received, Keystone has selected It's Never 2 Late® (iN2L) to provide senior-centered digital engagement technology throughout 10 of its communities that will impact nearly 1,000 senior residents across Texas.
Keystone facilities residents and caregivers will have access to the full breadth of iN2L systems. These include iN2L Engage, which supports the company's continuously updated library of personalized engagement content, and allows caregivers to reach seniors where they are, regardless of physical or cognitive abilities. In all, nearly 200 systems are scheduled for implementation, as gateways to iN2L's vast applied content library.
How does it work? Read On...
Celebration!
Celebrating PT Month!
By Mira Waszak, Therapy Reource
Thank you to Rena Hawkins, DOT/DOR at Pacific Care Center, Hoquiam, WA, for giving these backpacks to our PT staff. 

There are so many messages that could go with this picture, but my first feeling is optimism that Washington State will continue to do great things because of our staff!



Lou Antiquiera, PT and Jerome Betonio, PT Tech wearing their backpacks
Halloween 2019
Check out #capliconation to see some SPOOK-TACULAR photos!

A special shout-out to our Northern CA facilities that managed, in spite of the dangers of the wildfires there, to reach out with love to their patients and team members this Halloween. Pictured is the Summerfield Healthcare team in Santa Rosa, CA. Some of the therapists had to evacuate. However, this group of individuals not only went above and beyond to make sure that their residents had the best care possible, but also went to the next level to put on a smile and happy costume to cheer up their patients and coworkers.