Fall Edition This is the 10th Edition of our Newsletter. If you want to contribute to the next edition,
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email: newsletter@prefhealthcare.com
This Edition’s Important Inserts
Inside This Issue Accreditation
2
Wellness News
2
Don’t Forget Office Hours
3
What Would You Do?
3
Announcements
4
Team Meetings
Linda Madigan Nov. 30
2:00-4:00
Kathy Nov. 24
6:00-8:00
Terrilynne Nov. 10
4:00-6:00
Nora Nov. 16
5:30-7:30
Martha Dec. 1
2:00-4:00
Linda Flowers Linda McKellar Nov. 23
2:00-4:00
It is mandatory to attend 3 of the 6 Team meetings a year.
Benefit Program changes Occupational Health & Safety—Roles and Responsibilities Footwear Policy Timesheets and Telephony
Education Dept. Gets to the Point “Education for Life” is a focus on lifelong learning so that you are able to do your best for your clients and for yourself. At the end of the day, you should feel proud of your work and know that you made a difference. At Preferred Health Care Services, we strive for excellence and quality care and know that education helps to achieve this. Lives are busy and we recognize that this takes extra commitment on your part. We wish to acknowledge this effort and have created an “Education Points System” for all non-mandatory education. Here’s how it works:
Sign up for a course. Attend and sign in for the course at the start time, and stay for the duration. Earn points for each type of class you attend based on the significance related to issues with PHCSs clients. We will track and total your points for the year. The top ten participants will be notified by the end of May. Course value in Points will be set prior t course
Those names will go into a draw for the Grand Prize. Prize value is over $500.00 Prize to be awarded at the Annual Employee Appreciation Event in June. For this year, the ―points year‖ will be August 1 to April 30 th, after which it will be May 1 – April 30th, with points being tallied in May and awards in June. To sign up to education leave your name employee #, voice mail #, and the session your are signing up to extension 7942
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Accreditation Canada – Evaluation 2012 As most of you are aware, we are evaluated every 3 years by Accreditation Canada to confirm we meet the highest standards of excellence in providing home care services. We were successfully accredited in 2000, 2003, 2006 and most recently 2009. This fall we will be assessing how we are doing relative to the standards. There are 3 areas to review: Organization leadership Infection Prevention and Control Homecare services – quality, safety, service In preparation for our 2012 evaluation we would like your feedback on how we are doing as an organization, both in terms of the work environment and are ability to provide safe, outstanding care. At the end of October we will be sending all staff a questionnaire to your home address. We ask that you take the time to complete the questionnaire and return it in the postage paid envelope. Your feedback is important and the results will be used to develop improvement plans for 2012. The quality improvement team, which meets every month, will be overseeing all aspects of the Accreditation process. They will review the assessment results and identify improvement strategies.
If you have any questions about the Accreditation process and/or would like to be more involved please contact Barb van Maris, Director of Quality Improvement and Risk Management at ext. 3256.
Workplace Wellness Committee The Workplace Wellness Committee held their 1st Health & Wellness event. We had a great turn out The reviews from the attendees was fabulous. We had registration for the following education topics for our frontline staff for future dates.
York Regional Police –Elder Abuse Osteoporosis Canada Alzheimer Society Helen Keller Centre York Region – Food Preparation York Region – Stress Management
To see all the photos from this event go to our facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/groups/preferredhealthcare/ To sign up to education leave your name employee #, voice mail #, and the session your are signing up to extension 7942
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Info to Remember! Regular office hours are from 8 am – 9pm, 7 days a week, including holidays. These are the hours when a CCS is present in the office to assist with your calls Please remember to call the office for non-urgent issues prior to 9pm each evening. Our CCS’s leave at 9pm and only urgent calls are forwarded to the Nurse Managers or Director of Client Services. Calling for your schedule for the next day should not be left until after 9pm and should not be an urgent issue. If you are ill and unable to work the next day, then please call. The Nurse Manager can then call your clients. Please also know where you are going the next day. Calling for directions should not be left until after 9 pm
Education Dates
November 28—Hush No Rush Part 1
4:30—7:30 4:30—7:30
October 19—Hush No Rush Part 1
4:30—7:30
November 29—Hush No Rush Part 2
October 20—Hush No Rush Part 2
4:30—7:30
December 6 Crisis Prevention Intervention Part 1 4:30—8:00
October 19—Infection Control N95 respirator fit 1:00—5:30
December 7 Crisis Prevention Intervention Part 2 4:30—8:00
To sign up to education leave your name employee #, voice mail #, and the session your are signing up to extension 7942
Holiday Open House
MSD Training Kudos!
The Social Committee will hold a Holiday Open House on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 at the Preferred Offices. It will be held between the hours of 3pm-6pm. No need to make a reservation, we will be serving some fantastic Hors d'oeuvres, music and some holiday cheer. So make sure to drop by to mingle with your peers and to relax.
Congratulations are in order to all that have completed their mandatory MSD training. PHCS has trained 321 employees! It wasn’t easy trying to fit into your busy schedules but you did it. Well done!
What Would You Do? You over hear your client on the phone telling a charitable organization that they have no help and are quite poor in order to qualify for special services. You know this not to be true. They ask you not to visit on a certain day because the charity is coming over to visit. They also asked you if you could not tidy up so it will look like they need help with homemaking. What do you do?
Do you need to discuss an ethical issue? Ethics Hotline-extension 8000
Completely Confidential
Autumn Treat Candy Apples
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15 apples 2 cups white sugar 1 cup light corn syrup 1 1/2 cups water 8 drops red food coloring
Directions Lightly grease cookie sheets. Insert craft sticks into whole, stemmed apples. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine sugar, corn syrup and water. Heat to 300 to 310 degrees F (149 to 154 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads. Remove from heat and gently stir in food coloring. Do not stir again. Holding apple by its stick, dip in syrup and remove and turn to coat evenly. Place on prepared sheets to harden.
Abigail Naredo On Call CCS
Nazli Eisazadeh filing clerk
Preferred Health Care Services has over 100 nominations for the Award of Excellence. We have more nominations than any other business unit. We should be proud of ourselves and each other. The awards span from our management team to our PSWs working in our client’s home. I hope we can celebrate our success together. The final 25 will be selected and finalists announced at the holiday party. Congratulations team. Tracy Jones President PHCS To view all the nominees:
http://issuu.com/phcs_team_lead/docs/2011_award_of_excellence_nominees HELPFUL PHONE NUMBERS Benefits, Orientation, HR policies: Christina ext. 3250
Look steadily, in a good light, for 30 seconds at the "X" in the eye of the skull, and then at a sheet of paper, a wall, the ceiling or elsewhere, and continue your gaze fixedly for another 30 seconds. An amazing ghost-like skull will appear before your eyes.
Hallowe’en Trix
Payroll, Vacation Poonam/Julia 905-477-4006 ext. 2123 Employee Issues Kiran: ext. 3243 Client Services Manager Aliya Janson ext. 3230
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