A Word From Our Administrator

612 Center Ave N, Ashley ND 58413
Nov/Dec 2014
Resident Birthdays
Velma Iszler
Katie Albrecht
Goldie Nitschke
Claudia Retzer
Bertha Eszlinger
Helen Frisch
Louise Dockter
Clara Martin
Anna Rath
Sally Baumann
Joyce Peterson
Martha Rudolf
11/7
11/7
11/14
11/15
11/18
11/25
11/30
12/1
12/8
12/8
12/14
12/22
A Word From Our Administrator
Jerry Lepp, Administrator/CEO
A few weeks ago we held our Annual Stockholders Meeting. I would like to thank everyone for attending
and thank the board members who have served and the new members who have been elected to serve.
Frank Weisser and Terry Rueb both served the maximum of 3 terms for a total of 9 years! I would like to
thank them for their commitment to Ashley Medical Center. Replacing them through the election process
held at the meeting are Polly Ulrich and Tracy Wishek. Bill Klein was also re-elected to complete another
3 year term and Bruce Speidel was appointed to fulfill a 1 year term vacated this summer. The rest of our
board members consist of Don Kosel, Paul Nies, David Bollinger, Jenny Rohrich and Jean Schnabel.
Please join me in thanking our 9 member board for all they do in keeping our facility running!
The audit this year showed that we lost $135,000 for our fiscal year ending 6/30/2014. We are hopeful
that 2015 will end on a more positive side. With de-licensing 4 of our nursing home beds last month we
are currently approaching a full census with all beds filled. If that does happen, we will be able to continue
to provide care to anyone that would need it on our hospital side as a swingbed patient.
I would like to apologize for any inconvenience that occurred during the de-licensing of the beds and
updates done on the rooms. We will be able to provide better accommodations for those that desire them
and maintain the required 90% occupancy to recoup all of our allowed costs.
Vince Lombardi stated “the achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each
individual”. I would like to thank everyone for their effort in supporting our organization including
community members, staff and most importantly, those that volunteer their time whether that is to serve as
a board member or assist in activities. Your effort and dedication to Ashley Medical Center are much
appreciated.
Thank you to the following families and
friends of AMC for the donations and
memorials made in honor of loved ones!
Business Office News
Bytes
Memorials in Memory Of:
Lillian Iszler
Ida Hagel
Mary Lehr, Rhonda Piatz, Sue Goettle, Marisa
Meidinger
McIntosh County Bank Memorial:
Calvin Jahraus
Donations:
Terry and Polly Ulrich
Patient News!
Linda Pfeifle, Medical Records
The Patient Portal is a secure, online website that gives you convenient 24-hour access
to your personal health information from anywhere with an internet connection. Using
a secure username and password, you or a patient representative can view information
that your provider shares with you such as demographics, lab results, medications,
allergies, immunizations, etc. The Patient Portal also allows you to share Advanced
Directives with your provider. It’s Fast. It’s Free. It’s Easy.
An email invitation to set up a patient account will be sent from noreply@orionhealth.com so keep an eye out for this email if you have a current email in
the AMC system at this time.
Disclosure of Information
For most instances we are required to obtain a Release of Information in order to discuss
medical information with others. There are instances when this release is not needed. The
most common times when information can be released without consent is for treatment,
payment, or operations. This is often referred to as TPO. Any information released is kept
to the minimum necessary for the person to perform their job.
Treatment: The doctor or nurse practitioner can access your medical records in order to
determine the best course of action in your treatment process. If you are referred to a
doctor outside the facility, the doctor you are referred to can request information in
order to continue your care and determine the best treatment.
Payment: Certain information may be released to insurance companies in order to receive
payment or to receive prior authorization for treatment. If someone pays your bills for
you, certain Protect Health Information (PHI) will be on the bill.
Operations: Medical information may be evaluated to determine if we are best serving our
patients and the community. This information may be used to determine where we need to
improve and what services we need to offer.
Please remember to report any circumstance that you feel may be a violation of HIPAA.
Each case will be investigated and will be handled in the appropriate manner.
Trish Smith, HIPAA Officer
Clinic
Connection
Tara Brandner Comes Home to Heal
(Reprinted from Ashley Tribune story October 8th, 2014 edition)
Tara Fey Brandner is not a stranger to the Ashley medical community. Brandner grew up in
Ashley and credits volunteering at the Ashley Medical Center Nursing Home when she was eight
as one of the influences in her life that led her to select medicine as her career. She says that
was only the beginning of her early “medical” training in Ashley though. Next came giving
insulin shots to Dallas and Karen Lang’s dog at the age of 12. Brandner laughs when she says “I
strangely enjoyed giving the injections to their dog.”
Elementary and JH are often formative years for young people and it was no different for
Brandner. By the time she reached HS she was volunteering for the Ashley Ambulance Service.
Already immersed in the health care field, she says “it was only natural that when it was time for
college, nursing would be my path”. Brandner enrolled in the University of Mary’s nursing
school, “but I knew in the back of my mind that I had an interest in becoming a Family Nurse
Practitioner”. She had watched them as they treated patients during her volunteer work with the
ambulance and knew that it was something she aspired to become. “As a floor nurse your time
is spent with patients and is limited due to the fast work pace of the job. I wanted to be able to
establish relationships with my patients and I wasn’t able to do that as much as I would have
liked”. When Brandner was finishing her schooling the majority of her undergraduate and
graduate clinical contact training took place at Mid Dakota Clinic in Bismarck. However she was
able to work at the Garrison Memorial, Coal Country Community Health in Beaulah and AMC
Clinics along the way.
Brandner received her Family Nurse Practitioner degree from George Washington University
earlier this year. On August 25th Brandner began working at AMC Clinic as one of three FNPs on
staff. She sums up her lifelong intersest in medicine by saying “there is no greater feeling than
knowing you have helped someone”.
Shirley Thurn, Heidi Beach & Charles Dockter
The Activity Department is gearing up for the holidays and
would like to inform you of some upcoming events for the
residents.
On December 4th from 2-4pm will be our annual
Hanging of the Greens! Come on up and help your loved one get his/her room ready for
Christmas! Coffee and cookies will be served and fun will be had by all. The residents enjoy
making sure Christmas spirit is seen in their rooms and throughout the nursing home and
would definitely enjoy your company. Please keep in mind when decorating the rooms that
space is limited and there are regulations that must be followed in regards to electronic
décor. Now is also the time to start thinking about the Christmas list and putting presents
under the tree for our residents. Santa will be here to deliver gifts to everyone and if you’d
like Santa to deliver your gift to your loved one please have it to the Activity Department by
Dec. 19th. Stay tuned for a Christmas mailing in a few weeks to give some great ideas of
gifts that are loved by our residents!
Lastly, the Activity Department would like to keep track of how often the residents are
being visited by family and friends. We will now be keeping a “Visitor’s Log” in each of the
resident rooms for you to sign when you are here to see a resident. This will help us to
know when residents have visitors on weekends or at night when we are not always around
and can visit with them about their time with you as they really enjoy talking about their
time spent with company.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns related to activities please call the Activity
Department at 288-5252. Thank you!
As the year comes to an end and the snow begins to fly I’d like to thank all of the families and
friends of our residents at AMC SNF for being so supportive and involved and helping us to provide
quality care for the residents. We truly think of the residents as family and we couldn’t do that without
your help and insight into who they are and how they lived their lives prior to their admission here.
The end of the year can be a busy and stressful time for many with the endless errands to run,
shopping to do, cleaning and cooking, but it is also a time to remember the importance of family and
togetherness. This time of year can be a time of much joy for our residents as family comes home to visit
for the holidays and they receive many cards and pictures of loved ones far away. The residents enjoy
every minute of a visit with their loved ones and friends so even though you are very busy with things in
your own life, take the time to come up and visit with a resident or two even if only for half an hour. It
will make their day and we enjoy seeing all of the visitors during the holidays too!
Now onto some “housekeeping” matters. As you may know, Dr. Raju is no longer seeing patients
in Ashley and therefore, we must update another form for each resident. Yes, more paperwork, but it must
be done! Therefore, if you are the listed POA/guardian of a resident you will have a “Change of Primary
Care Provider” form included in your envelope to complete and return to AMC for us to update our
records and place in resident charts. Also, as mentioned in the previous Patient News section of the
newsletter, the Patient Portal is now going into effect. In order to gain access for this each patient needs
to have an email address in order to become entered into the system. We realize that most of our residents
do not have an email address as most do not know how to operate a computer. In order to become
compliant with this new system for our residents, there is an additional form included to be completed
and returned to AMC in order to either decline access to the Patient Portal on behalf of your loved one or
to grant yourself access as a personal representative for your loved one to the Patient Portal. Please
complete both forms included as soon as possible and return to AMC. This will be greatly appreciated!
If you have any concerns or questions related to Social Services please feel free to call either Tia Kiefer @
701-288-5257 or Virginia Kaseman @ 701-288-5258.
Tia Kiefer, LSW & Virginia Kaseman, SSD
Employees of the Month
Virginia Kaseman is being recognized this month because she “goes
the extra mile” in the care she gives the residents at SNF.
Spoken by a fellow employee, “I have watched her with the residents.
She is always kind and loving towards them. She talks to them, holds
their hands, reads to them, and walks them.” Virginia goes above and
beyond! The things she does at SNF makes the load a little bit lighter
for the other staff, mainly the CNAs. One staff member stated “I
personally appreciate all that Virginia does”.
Humbly stated by Virginia, “I just do what I can to help the CNAs. They
work so hard.”
Virginia works as the Social Service Designee. She makes
appointments for the residents and arranges bus service when
needed. She works very specifically with the residents as she
interviews them when their MDS is due. She always attends the
behavior care plan meetings and has input related to the day-to-day
functions of the resident’s care. She also assists the LSW with
admissions. Virginia is also in the dining room passing trays and
helping any way she can. As a past employee of the Activities
Department she has carried some of those traits over to her current
position.
Thank you Virginia for going the extra mile!
AMC SNF is taking this opportunity to recognize Mary
Schlepp. Mary is being recognized because she “goes the
extra mile” in the care she gives the residents at SNF.
Spoken by a fellow employee, “She is an angel!”
Mary works both at the hospital and at SNF. “Over the
weekend she helped out with a resident providing her with
one on one care, that really helped us out. Thank you
Mary”.
Mary is an LPN who has been employed at the facility for “a
few years”. At the nursing home she would be considered
either the charge nurse or the medication nurse. Mary is
very conscientious about her work and her experience at
the facility is an added plus.
Thank you Mary for going the extra mile!