Update for Week ending
July 25, 2009
Hoonah Medical Center. On Friday, we spoke with the Alaska Area staff from the Indian Health Service (IHS). IHS will fund partial operations of the Hoonah Medical Center through the Hoonah Indian Association (HIA) until September 30th. SEARHC has been asked by HIA to consider ongoing operations beyond October 1st.
Mental Health and Dialysis Study. As part of its annual work plan, the DHHS Office of the Inspector General is conducting a program/service evaluation throughout the Indian Health Services. Staff involved in this review will be in Alaska this next week. As part of their trip, they will be in Sitka on Wednesday and Klawock on Friday. The following is an excerpt of their work plan:
- We will assess the provision of dialysis and mental health services at IHS facilities. Mortality rates for many illnesses, including alcoholism, diabetes, and suicide, are significantly higher among American Indians and Alaska Natives than among other Americans. Provision of dialysis and mental health services pose particular challenges due to the need for specialized equipment and/or staff. If services are not provided at a local IHS facility, patients may need to travel a significant distance to receive services. Additionally, when services are not provided at an IHS facility, patients may rely on contract health services, which are purchased pursuant to 42 CFR pt. 136, subpart C, from other public and private providers. Funding for contract health services is limited and may be exhausted before the end of each year. We will determine the availability of dialysis and mental health services at IHS facilities as well as the distance patients must travel for these services.
Petersburg and Wrangell Visit. Staff from our Community Resources program and Dr. Grasmeder (as medical director) visited Petersburg and Wrangell. Staff met with local providers, referral care coordinators, and hospital administrators to improve referral and care for our patients. While in Wrangell, Dr. Grasmeder also provided a pediatric clinic.
ARMC Staff Meeting. The Alicia Roberts Medical Center staff held a staff meeting with focus sessions on several important topics to our operations. Topics included small group discussion and action plans around confidentiality, stress, respect/customer service, communication/positive reflection, cultural orientation, and feedback/decision making. Donna Jackson provided the following update on the work group she was part of:
- Our group developed a pilot program to orient all new staff to our communities, culture, and people to help us better serve our patients through understanding. A local staff person/ sponsor will be assigned to each new staff to navigate them through this process, and coordinate a cultural orientation with a respected elder/teacher. The sponsor will schedule the cultural orientation, and deliver the new staff to the elder’s home for the orientation. The elder will talk about our Tlingit and Haida culture, and it's totem poles, moieties, clans, the significance of devils club, local subsistence foods-when to pick/collect it and how to prepare it, and about community/clan gatherings such as ku eex's - invitation, attire, bring food, children invited, etc.
Secondly, a large monthly calendar will be posted in our staff lounge so staff can post community events to integrate new staff into the community/become part of the community. Instructions that will be posted with the calendar: 1. Is event by invitation only? 2. attire 3. are children allowed. 4. bring food? 5. date/time. 6. location/directions 7. name of staff who posted in case new employee has questions about the event. Staff have already volunteered to be sponsors, and to create/man the community calendar!
FY2010 Budget Process. Our staff has been very involved in the FY2010 budget process. The budget planning module in the Lawson financial system is a new tool in our accounting system. Staff has worked hard to hammer out the bugs of the conversion and we are nearly complete with a balanced operational budget plan for FY2010. The Board has set a special budget meeting for August 25th.
OS-1 Cleaning System on Sitka Campus. The June edition of the Cleaning Gazette included an update from Patricia Alexander, MEH Environmental Services manager, on the OS1 training and pilot efforts on our Sitka Campus. OS-1 is a cleaning method already adopted in several of our rural clinics across the region. This program is being implemented based on its success in our rural clinics as well as concerns from patient feedback in our hospital.
Just a reminder. . . SEARHC frequently brings in traveling medical specialists to hold specialty clinics at our various facilities. Please click here to view our upcoming specialty clinic schedules.
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