’s
March 4, 2016 edition
The Pulse
Your regular check up on SCKMC activities Share your thoughts, story ideas, and comments by e-mail to claytonp@sckrmc.org.
SCKMC Completes Federal Surveys In the past few weeks, the medical center has received both Federal Fire Marshal and Federal recertification surveys as a requirement to participate in the Medicare program. It is common for hospital’s to receive Federal surveys back-toback by cooperating agencies, although the last Federal survey for SCKMC took place shortly after the new facility was opened in 2011. “Hospitals can slip a lot during that time where they are not being monitored closely by someone, but we did not. We did not let it slip,” said Jane Campbell, SCKMC’s Director of Quality Performance and Risk Management. SCKMC has not received the official report from the recertification, but expect it any day. After the report arrives staff will have ten days to submit a corrective action plan addressing any deficiencies. “She touched every department in the hospital, talked with our staff, talked with our patients, reviewed our policies and looked at our procedures just to make sure we are still performing up to Medicare standards. We know there will be some things that we will need to tweak, but they will be easily correctable,” Campbell said. The Fire Marshal report found deficiencies related to fire system documentation, door closures, and penetrations in the smoke wall related to original construction. All deficiencies have since been corrected by the hospital maintenance department. Hospital Administrators observed as the multi-day surveys took place and received a daily exit interview from the recertification surveyor. “The surveyor said this was the kind of survey where she is really only supposed to talk about the bad things but what she said at the final exit conference was that there were so many good things she just had to mention some of those as well. She specifically spoke to me about the amazing processes we have in place here and things we have to offer that other small hospitals don’t have,” Campbell said. Recertification surveys do not just involve staff, but also take patient experiences into account. Five patients were interviewed during the medical center’s survey. “She received uniformly rave reviews about the care they were receiving here. With one patient the surveyor visited with the spouse who said when they came out (to the hospital) she was dead set against any more sales taxes or anything to support the hospital, but after leaving she would become one of our strongest supporters,” Campbell said.
Dr. Willie Posey II Joins SCKMC Cowley County will have a new physician beginning later this month, as Dr. Willie Posey has entered into an agreement with SCKMC to provide primary care and specialty services locally on a full-time basis. Dr. Posey is an internal medicine and non-invasive cardiologist who has over 25 years of experience and was most recently practicing in Syracuse, KS. He will be seeing patients through SCKMC’s specialty clinic located next to the hospital, as well as at Winfield Medical Arts in Winfield. “We are very excited to have Dr. Posey join our staff, and believe his combination of experience and expertise will be a great asset to the community and to the hospital,” said Clayton Pappan, SCKMC’s Chief Operations Officer. Hospital staff are finalizing Dr. Posey’s practice schedule. He will begin orientation after his arrival later this month with anticipation that patient scheduling will begin April 1.
SCKC Celebrates Dr. Seuss Staff at South Central Kansas Clinic celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday this week by hosting a kids coloring contest. Entries are currently on display at the clinic. Along with the contest, staff joined in on the fun by wearing matching Dr. Seuss shirts.
Pictured: Dr. Rhonda Green
The Pharm Forum with Homer Mah, D.Ph. One of the many symptoms of a common cold is congestion. Here are a few things you can do to help ease congestion. 1. Take oral Sudafed instead of oral Sudafed PE because the latter has poor absorption. 2. Try non-pharm methods first such as increasing fluid intake, humidifiers, saline nasal products, or bulb syringes for young children. 3. If you have controlled hypertension, you could use oral Sudafed for a few days. Avoid using inhaled camphor or menthol, this may lead to irritation and worsening of symptoms. 4. Using an intranasal steroid may be ineffective for congestion due to the common cold.
Give the Gift of Health Consider a gift to the Medical Center. Your donation will benefit our community for decades to come. Giving to the hospital helps us continue to provide the best in medical care right here, close to home. We offer a number of approaches to support our programs. Gifting opportunities range from providing support to name a portion of the new facility, to providing funding that can assist in providing new equipment or sponsoring programs.
Call or visit us on-line and find out how you can share the gift of health.
We are 6401 Patterson Parkway, Arkansas City 6401 Patterson Parkway, Arkansas City
www.sckmc.org
(620) 442-2500