Three of the five members of the North Shore Hospital Board took the oath of office on January 20, 2011 after being re-elected in November. (L-R) Sharon Bloomquist, Howard Abrahamson, Ann Rosenquist, Kay Olson, and Tom Spence.
The first order of North Shore Hospital Board business on January 20 was for board members Howard Abrahamson, Sharon Bloomquist, and Tom Spence, all re-elected, to take the oath of office. Once that was done, Kay Grindland talked about Care Partners, a “palliative care” program that helps coordinate services for community members with severe and advanced illness.
Thanks to a grant of $104,000 from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, this new program is off on solid footing.
Care Partners is an outgrowth of attempts to bring a hospice program to Cook County several years ago. The community’s limited population made a licensed hospice program unlikely, but this program is able to reach out even further than a hospice program could.
Both hospice programs and palliative care use a team approach and focus on relief of pain and discomfort in order to enhance quality of life, but palliative care is provided at any time during a person’s illness, not just at the end of life. Palliative care can help patients remain in their own homes if they desire and offers support for caregivers as well.
Grindland, the program director, gave a PowerPoint presentation about Care Partners that said, “Unlike hospice, it is not only for those who are dying. It is ‘not giving up.”
The program’s clinical care coordinator is registered nurse Jeannette Lindgren. The program office is in the lower level of Sawtooth Mountain Clinic. Grindland and Lindgren can be reached by phone at (218) 387-3788 or by email at carepartners@boreal.org. More on the program can be found online at www.northshorehealthcarefoundation.org/carepartners.php.
What to do with care center
Tom Spence recommended that the hospital board spend a portion of each meeting this year examining options for dealing with significant ongoing losses at the care center. Discussing the issue at each meeting would help bring the issue before the public and keep them informed, he said.
Howard Abrahamson agreed. “We need public input,” he said, “and the public needs our input back.”
Spence suggested bringing in outside groups to present various models for ownership and operation of the facility. Several years ago, he said, they sought input from the community and found that the care center is highly valued. “Unfortunately,” he said, “it’s been four years and we just haven’t come up with a sustainable model. …This can’t go on any longer. We have to deal with it.”
Hospital Administrator Kimber Wraalstad pointed out the irony that more “business” in the care center results in greater financial losses.
John Strange, president of St. Luke’s Hospital, which has an administrative partnership with North Shore Hospital, pointed out that one thing that makes this care center unique is its remoteness. No other care center is close.
The operating losses at the care center led the board to authorize a large increase in the hospital levy in December. “The community was amazingly patient with us and our levy increase this year,” he said.
The board scheduled a work session at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, February 15 to discuss strategic planning. This meeting will be open to the public.
In other news:
. As the hospital seeks to provide better care through the development of an information exchange system with other health care providers, patient confidentiality concerns are being weighed carefully. Administrator Wraalstad and Controller Yvonne Gennrich reported that Sawtooth Mountain Clinic is being cautious about giving the hospital emergency room access to their client records, even with the required patient authorization.
John Strange indicated that access to things such as medication lists can be helpful to emergency room doctors, especially since ER patients are often inaccurate when they report such things.
. Tom Spence and Kay Olson reported on a health care conference they had attended. Spence said that with budgets tightening, staffing ratios are becoming a discussion involving OSHA, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Olson stated that if trends continue, health care costs would exceed wages by 2020.
. County Commissioner Jim Johnson reported that the Human Development Center needs a board member from Cook County. The mental health agency is expanding its presence in the local school system, he added.
The new state legislature is talking about reducing all state agency budgets by 15 percent over the next five years, Johnson said. It will try to do this largely through attrition, he said.
Johnson also reported that Lake County sold its nursing home.
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