North Shore Health appoints new hospital board member

Steven Nielsen was named to fill the term of North Shore hospital board member Howard Abrahamson at the boards’ December meeting.

Abrahamson resigned from the board in November due to concerns over his health.

Nielsen is a member of the North Shore Health Care Foundation. He retired in 2013 after 40 years of managerial experience in the field of aging, healthcare, and human service. He holds a Master’s of Business Administration. Nielsen will be sworn in at the hospital board’s January 19 meeting. Following that board meeting, there will be a reception for Abrahamson honoring him for his many years of service to the hospital and care center.

Two local pharmacists, Jill Kort and Deidre Muggley, were each hired at .6 time by St. Luke’s Hospital to work at North Shore Health. The pharmacists were employed near the end of December 2016, said hospital administrator Kimber Wraalstad.

“We will have a pharmacist on staff from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday,” said Wraalstad.

Because the two pharmacists’ contract is through St. Luke’s they will be eligible to pick up vacation hours at the Duluth hospital. They are also eligible to receive training and other benefits through their association with St. Luke’s.

“If they want to learn how to become a chemo pharmacist, they can get that training at St. Lukes,” Wraalstad said, adding that among all of the changes now taking place at the hospital and care center, one of those changes includes the hospital adding a facility to administer chemo. “It would be great to have a pharmacist on board with the skills to administer drugs for the procedure,” she said.

The big news coming out of the ongoing $24.5 million expansion and renovation of the hospital/care center, said Wraalstad, is that the hallway to the kitchen is complete. As of January 11 crews were getting close to having all of the equipment installed and inspected in the kitchen. Hospital patient rooms have been getting wood casework installed; patients’ beds are receiving hook ups for medical gasses, vacuum, nurse call, and lights. Work is also progressing well on the future nursing team care area, and metal door frames are now being painted. A target goal to complete the expansion is the end of September 2017, said Wraalstad.