The Best Relationships Start With Trust

The Cherryville Cherry Blossom Festival is returning! So much has happened since our last festival appearance, way back in 2019. We will have our tent set up downtown with the other vendors and this year we'll be bringing the library with us, so stop by and see us!

(photos by Michael E. Powell/The Eagle/CF Media or provided) nounced on Monday, April 10. Good luck to all the characters!

Finally, we want to remind everyone that we have switched phone providers. We are experiencing some issues with this change, and

From Page 2

Demand for long-term care is expected to climb over the next decade as the baby boom generation ages. Willett said his industry supports changing immigration laws to allow more workers from other countries. “That’s got to be part of the solution,” he said.

The nursing home in Postville, Iowa, was one of 10 care centers shuttered in the past year by the Good Samaritan Society, a large chain based in South Dakota.

“It’s an absolute last resort for us, being a nonprofit organization that would in many cases have been in these communities 50 to 75 years or more,” said Nate Schema, the company’s CEO.

The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, the full name of the company, is affiliated with the giant Sanford Health network and serves 12,500 clients, including residents of care facilities and people receiving services in their homes. About 70 percent of them live in rural areas, mainly in the Plains states and Midwest, Schema said.

Schema said many frontline workers in nursing homes found less stressful jobs after working through the worst days of the covid pandemic, when they had to wear extra protective gear and routinely get screened for infection in the face of ongoing risk.

Lori Porter, chief executive officer of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, said nursing home staffing issues have been building for years. “No one that’s been in this business is in shock over the way things are,” she said. “The pandemic put a spotlight on it.”

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Porter, who has worked as a certified nursing assistant and as a nursing home administrator, said the industry should highlight how rewarding the work can be and how working as an aide can lead to a higher-paying job, including as a registered nurse. Care industry leaders say that they have increased wages for front-line workers but that they can’t always keep up with other industries. They say that’s largely because they rely on payments from Medicaid, the government program we ask for everyone’s patience. If you cannot reach us, please keep trying! That new phone number is (704) 769-8190. In-person visits are also good! Stop by and see us at 605 E. Main Street. Our public service for low-income Americans that covers the bills for more than 60% of people living in nursing homes.

In recent years, most states have increased how much their Medicaid programs pay to nursing homes, but those rates are still less than what the facilities receive from other insurers or from residents paying their own way. In Iowa, Medicaid pays nursing homes about $215 per day per resident, according to the Iowa Health Care Association. That compares with about $253 per day for people paying their own way. When nursing homes provide short-term rehabilitation for Medicare patients, they receive about $450 per day. That federal program does not cover long-term care, however.

Willett said a recent survey found that 72 percent of Iowa’s remaining nursing homes were freezing or limiting admissions below their capacity.

The Prairie View nursing home in Sanborn is one of them. The facility, owned by a local nonprofit, is licensed for up to 73 beds. Lately, it has been able to handle only about 48 residents, said administrator Wendy Nelson.

“We could take more patients, but we couldn’t give them the care they deserve,” she said.

Prairie View’s painful choices have included closing a 16-bed dementia care unit last year.

Nelson has worked in the industry for 22 years, including 17 at Prairie View. It never has been easy to keep nursing facilities fully staffed, she said. But the pandemic added stress, danger, and hassles.

“It drained the crud out of some people. They just said, ‘I’m done with it,’” she said.

Prairie View has repeatedly boosted pay, with certified nursing assistants now starting at $21 per hour and registered nurses at $40 per hour, Nelson said. But she’s still seeking more workers.

She realizes other rural employers also are stretched.

“I know we’re all struggling,” Nelson said. “Dairy Queen’s struggling too, but Dairy Queen can change their hours. We can’t.”

David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday. at Harvard Medical School, said some of the shuttered care facilities had poor safety records. Those closures might not seem like a tragedy, especially in metro areas with plenty of other choices, he said.

So…Happy Spring to all of our faithful friends and readers!

“We might say, ‘Maybe that’s the market working, the way a bad restaurant or a bad hotel is closing,’” he said. But in rural areas, the closure of even a low-quality care facility can leave a hole that’s hard to fill.

For many families, the preferred alternative would be inhome care, but there’s also a shortage of workers to provide those services, he said.

The result can be prolonged hospital stays for patients who could be served instead in a care facility or by home health aides, if those services were available.

Rachel Olson, a social worker at Pocahontas Community Hospital in northwestern Iowa, said some patients wait a month or more in her hospital while she tries to find a spot for them in a nursing home once they’re stable enough to be transferred.

She said it’s particularly hard to place certain types of patients, such as those who need extra attention because they have dementia or need intravenous antibiotics.

Olson starts calling nursing homes close to the patient’s home, then tries ones farther away. She has had to place some people up to 60 miles away from their hometowns. She said families would prefer she find something closer. “But when I can’t, I can’t, you know? My hands are tied.”

(KHN [Kaiser Health News] is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).

KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.)

Spiker

From Page 1 time now, he enjoys, “… hunting, hiking, working out, messing about on the farm, and leather work.”

The Cherryville High School grad (2010) began his march toward a career in the military while at CHS, he said recently.

Said Spiker, “I joined the N.C. Army National Guard in May of 2010, my senior year of high school.

I enlisted as a Military Police Soldier and served in the 211th MP Company in Clyde, N.C. I conducted One Station Unit Training (OSUT) at Fort Leonard Wood (Missouri).”

He continued, “OSUT is Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training (specific job training) combined. My OSUT lasted well into the fall semester of 2010, so I had to delay college until January 2011. I attended Appalachian State University and earned a BS in Political Science. While at App, I enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corp. I also served as a Resident Assistant for three years in University Housing. I have always wanted to fly.”

Spiker noted he remembers when his father brought home their first desktop computer, it had Chuck Yeager’s ‘Air Combat’ on it.

“I loved that game,” he said, adding, “My interest in aviation grew during Mr. Gilbert’s technology class at John Chavis Middle School. In his class, there were different modules that the class broke up into groups to work on. I chose the balloon and aviation modules as soon as I could. We made paper balloons, paper airplanes, small gliders with toothpicks and cardstock, and even got to use Microsoft Flight Simulator. Other activities in the Boy Scouts of America also fostered my interest.”

Cody elaborated on his earlier statement about wanting to be in the military,

“As far back as I can remember, I knew I was going to serve in the military, except for that time in first grade when I was going to be a major league baseball player. I chose the Army because I felt it gave me the best opportunity to fly and to lead. Believe it or not, the U.S. Army has a large Aviation Branch. I did everything in my power at App to earn an Active Army Aviation assignment. I commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in August 2014. I began the Basic Officer Leadership Course at Fort Rucker, Alabama, in January 2015, followed by 18 months of rigorous flight training.”

Spiker said he began flight training, known as Flight School XXI (FSXXI), on the TH-67 Creek or Bell 206 Jet Ranger, where he learned basic flying skills, stage field operations, and instrument flight. He then flew the OH-58 A/C in Basic Warfighter Skills training.

Said Spiker, “In this course, students learn to plan tactical routes, navigate, and use terrain flight to mask the aircraft from enemy threats, for example, flying ‘nap of the earth’. I then chose my, ‘Go to War,’ airframe. I chose the venerable UH-60 Blackhawk. In FSXXI, I flew the UH-60 A/L/M variants in an abridged version of the previous training structure.

“Following FSXXI, I was stationed at Hunter Army Airfield, 3rd Infantry Division (3ID), Savannah, GA, where I served as an Assistant Operations and Platoon Leader. While in the 3ID I had the honor of lead- ing Soldiers in combat from Jalalabad Army Airfield (FOB Fenty) an d Camp Dahlki (FOB Shank). I also deployed to Romania with 3ID for Operation Atlantic Resolve, a NATO operation in place to deter eastern aggression.”

Cody said he was promoted to Captain in 2019 while still in 3ID. Between 3ID and Korea, and in the midst of the COVID-19 scare of 2020, he noted he attended the Captains Career Course at Fort Rucker, AL.

“In late 2020 I was stationed at Camp Humphreys, 2nd Infantry Division (2ID), Korea,” he said. “I served as my Battalion’s Logistics and Supply Officer before taking command of the only U.S. tactical air traffic control (ATC) company the Republic of Korea (South Korea), F CO, ‘Skymasters’. At any given time, I was responsible for the training, health and welfare, and fitness for duty of around 50 Soldiers. Our responsibility was to establish and maintain ATC procedures in remote and austere environments along with other responsibilities, should hostilities initiate from the north. I also served as a MEDEVAC Pilot in Command, providing Aerial MEDEVAC coverage for NATO forces in the Republic of Korea.”

Life after the military Spiker said he separated from the Army in November 2022. In January 2023 he received a Conditional Job Offer from Frontier Airlines as a First Officer under their Rotary Transition Program (RTP).

“Following my transition from rotary wing to fixed wing, I will begin full time with Frontier. I will be the junior pilot in the cockpit, or second in command.

I am conducting my RTP at Infinity Flight Group, a partner of Mercer County Community College, in Trenton New Jersey. I already possess a Commercial Instrument rating for rotary wing, and a Private Pilot’s License for single engine land airplanes. I will be earning my Commercial, Multi-Engine, and Instrument ratings at Infinity,” he said.

When asked if it was harder to transition to fixed- wing aircraft than a rotary aircraft, Cody answered, “Yes and no. The physics and principles of flight do not change. What changes is/are the vehicle/vehicles and the way you interact with it/them. Aviation is a cerebral field that uses a great deal of the brain’s processing power while you are learning. Because of my prior flight experience, some of my brain’s onboard systems are already running efficiently. I am not saying it will be a ‘cake walk’, because there is much to learn and in a short period of time. I am confident though, having done it before, that I will have no problem completing this flight school successfully.”

As for where he will be working out of (Charlotte, or another airport), Spiker said, “Unfortunately, Frontier does not have a base in Charlotte. The airline in- dustry operates on a seniority basis for scheduling and choosing your home base. I won’t know until I officially begin working for Frontier where I will be based. I am hoping for Tampa Bay, Florida. It isn’t too far, by airplane at least, and I like the climate and area. I own a house in Cherryville and will maintain it. My family and roots are here, and I have a beautiful piece of property in the country.”

As for any future plans, Cody said, “I do want to start a family someday, but I have no immediate plans. The busy lifestyle of the Army has kept me moving almost every year for the past decade, and now while I am building a foundation in a new industry, I am focusing on my career. I have much to do in the next few months.”