Most workers at the Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center will receive a 2.25 percent raise this year—retroactive to January 1, 2016—and a 2 percent raise in 2017, said Cook County Hospital/ Care Center Administrator Kimber Wraalstad to the hospital board at its March 23 meeting.
Some office and management employees and RNs are not covered under the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) contract, said Wraalstad, working instead under other negotiated agreements.
The contract provides employment raises as well as a call pay increase from $4.75 to $5 per-hour. Work schedules are posted 14 days in advance, and funeral leave was reclassified as bereavement leave. “We cleaned up a lot of the language in the contract,” said Wraalstad.
Workers covered include cooks and dietary staff; radiology; lab; maintenance, housekeeping and laundry; physical therapy; business office; licensed practical nurses; and nursing assistants.
“Do you have any idea if the contract is in line with what other hospitals offer?” asked Board Member Tom Spence.
“Yes, this compares very well with what the other hospitals offer their employees,” Wraalstad said.
With that the board voted 5-0 to approve the two-year contract.
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota represents more than 60,000 healthcare and long-term care workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and home care throughout the state of Minnesota.
Strategic planning
Spence said he had spent considerable time thinking about the board’s approach to strategic planning, and then outlined his reasons for requesting change.
What the board has done to date, said Spence, doesn’t always allow board members to address their vision of the organization, come to consensus and then leave implementation to management. He said the current practice has been to set a lengthy list of goals at the board’s yearly strategic planning session and then get monthly updates about them, with the board given a chance for input or to ask questions along the way. Instead, Spence made a case for using the strategic planning session as a place where the board can identify two to four areas it wants management to work on, “and then we can back off and leave it up to management to do its job,” he said.
“We could get updates. But I think it’s imperative we have it in a written motion,” said Spence.
He gave some examples, such as: “Telemedicine. We’ve been talking about it for at least five years. We know it’s good, but we have no vision, no model to follow. We are the most rural hospital in Minnesota, maybe the entire Midwest. If telemedicine doesn’t make sense here, it doesn’t make sense anywhere. If we can eliminate trips to Duluth or the Twin Cities or Rochester for our residents, we have done a good thing.”
Spence pointed out that the hospital’s examined forecast called for increased growth at the facility, and telemedicine would be a good way to promote that.
“How do we develop a model? How do we make it work here? We send a message to the community that we are working on this by giving a directive to management to make it a priority.”
Wraalstad said the board has been trying to have strategic planning sessions once a year. “One of our Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requirement is to have an annual plan review. This is when we should look at statistic trends, financial trends, quality information and trends, etc. With the Annual Plan review we have added SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to the discussion and the determination of strategic goals for the next 12-18 months. This year’s strategic initiatives are: quality, facilities and communications and community relations.”
All of the above topics are good, said Spence, but he called for a narrower approach with defined outcomes.
Spence mentioned three other areas he felt should be examined at the board’s next strategic planning session: senior health services, a marketing plan for the remodeled facilities with emphasis on new services (chemotherapy, etc.) and quality.
As far as the marketing plan, Spence said it was a great chance to, “reintroduce the hospital/care center to the community.”
The board discussed Spence’s suggestions and agreed to pursue them, calling on Wraasltad to schedule speakers who were knowledgeable on the areas outlined by Spence so they could speak at the upcoming strategic planning session. BOLDT gives construction report
Work on the first phase of the North Shore Care Center has been progressing very well, said Boldt Superintendent Mike Knudsen. Knudsen appeared with fellow Boldt employee and manager Mike Ellingson and John Geissler of DSGW architects.
Sheetrock has been going up in the new common areas, and in more than a half dozen care center resident rooms, each equipped with their own bathrooms and showers. A crew from 1010 Interiors is tiling the showers.
Crews are also running ductwork and hanging electric panels and the drywall is being taped, sanded and primed to be painted. The goal is to have the first phase done by May 15, said Knudsen. Care Center training on “household” model
Wraalstad said staff training for the new “household” model for the Care Center is going well.
“Only 10-15 percent of care centers in Minnesota are using this model,” said Wraalstad.
Under the new standard, each resident will have his or her own private bathroom and shower. Rooms are divided into “households,” with each featuring a kitchen and dining area, living rooms, seating areas and bedrooms, with the hopes to add fireplaces in each of the households.
Residents will be allowed to sleep in and get up when they like, and ask for a snack when they like. In the past, that would have been the duty of the kitchen staff, but under the household model, someone else on duty could do it.
An example would be if a resident wanted soup, in a traditional model the nurse would have to get someone from the kitchen staff to make it, or wait until kitchen staff arrived for work. Under the household model the employee and the resident have more power to make decisions leading to better care.
Under the old model, employees are often expected to perform one role only. This new system emphasizes person-centered care and inclusiveness to all workers on duty to watch and care for the residents. Financial update
Vera Schumann, director of finance gave the February financial report.
While the hospital and care center generated a loss from operations of $82,978 in February it is still $15,681 ahead of the budget. Gross hospital patient revenues of $968,107 are $17,987 or 2 percent greater than budget. Care Center revenues are running 20 percent greater than budget.
Cash on hand remains strong at 192.6 days, meaning the hospital has enough money to remain open that long should no income come in.
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