The Healing Interconnecting Worlds of Acute Care and Sub-Acute Care
Things just work better through collaboration. Health care is one of those things. Kaiser Foundation columnist Howard Gleckman who blogs at Caring for Our Parents recently posted on several examples from around the country of integrated care between acute care (hospital) and sub-acute care (rehabiliation centers/nursing homes). Ecumen colleague Paul Libbon shares this story of the healing intersection between the two settings of care. It recounts the journey of Ecumen trustee and customer Rev. Hank Noordzy, and his wife Nancy (both picture above), who also is an Ecumen customer at our Lakeshore community in Duluth. A big part of changing aging in America will continue to be the increased integration between care settings . . . .
Hank Noordzy and his wife, Nancy, moved to Ecumen's Lakeshore community on Lake Superior on June 1, 2010 after 34 years in their Duluth home. Nancy’s severe Scoliosis had so dramatically affected her mobility that she was no longer able to step off a curb or navigate steps. She lost three inches in height, and when she sat down, her rib cage rested on her hips.
Nancy’s pain became unbearable, causing her constant discomfort to the point that she could only sleep in a reclining chair for the past 1-1/2 years. She turned to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Mayo specialist told her the only option for her condition was a radical new surgery technique which involved two surgeries: the first was to remove the discs and insert plastic spacers, and two days later a second surgery to insert rods and screws and fuse the vertebra from L-9 to the base of the spine (10 vertebra).
On September 14 and 16, 2010, Nancy had the surgeries and on September 23rd returned to Lakeshore, this time to Lakeshore's short-stay rehabilitation center to heal. On September 27th the keen eye of Jennifer Hernandez, a nurse at Lakeshore's rehab center, noticed an infection in the stitches. Jennifer spoke directly to the surgeon at the Mayo Clinic and, after explaining what was happening, Nancy returned to Mayo. Following three more surgeries to clean out the infection (containing 6 different bacteria), Nancy returned to The Fountains on October 8th.
The next step on the journey was to start an extensive therapy program. The therapy plans for the next week were soon scrapped as Nancy quickly exceeded her goals. The therapists were amazed at Nancy’s progress.
“It had only been a very short time, about three weeks since surgery number 5, and already Nancy’s quality of life had dramatically improved,” said Hank.
Nancy has actually gained three inches in height, and her pain has dramatically decreased. Nancy is living life much more on her terms.
How was this accomplished?
Nancy's positive determination and faith combined with a collaborative effort that included doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, dieticians, physical and occupational therapists, social workers, housekeeping and others.
Congratulations to all.
Technology and Home Care Changing Aging
A quick story today from Sue Diekmann, R.N., who leads our Ecumen at Home services in the Twin Cities:
Last night at 11:30 p.m. one of our customers, an 86-year-old woman who lives alone in her Saint Paul home, fell down in the bathroom. She tried to get up, but couldn't. She was, however, able to press the alert button on her unobtrusive medical alert wrist band, which dialed a person she had designated as an emergency contact. But that person didn't answer. So the wireless service called another person she had designated. But that person didn't answer. So the med alert service contacted paramedics. They were at her home by 11:45. They assisted her and prevented a trip to the hospital emergency room. Soon therafter our Ecumen at Home service received an update report from the wireless call service, so we could follow up with our customer on her well-being.
It's a great example of how this simple use of technology is connecting the customer, friends and home care professionals to empower a person to live with peace of mind in her own home. It's changing aging.
New Long-Term Care Financing Recommendations Unveiled in Minnesota
For the last year and a half Ecumen has joined with a diverse group of ideologies and viewpoints at the non-partisan Citizens League to examine the issue of long-term care financing and develop recommendations for how Minnesota can be a leader nationally in transforming long-term care financing so more people can live empowered lives in their senior years without going into poverty and we can preserve a strong safety net for those who cannot escape a life of poverty.
The report entitled Moving Beyond Medicaid: Long-Term Care for the Elderly as a Life Quality and Fiscal Imperative was released at long-term care financing forum last week at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.
It's gained some great media coverage and discussion. Here is a link to the report and some of the media clips.
Aging, Lovebirds, and The List
Betty & Boyd
-- by Jim Klobuchar
The temptation is to insist that Betty and Boyd were thrown together by fate or, if you move in loftier atmospheres, by faith.
Without discrediting either source as an enabler of marital joy in later life, I’ll ask you to accept the facts as they are. The truth needs no apologies.
Let me introduce you to the awesome powers of Boyd’s List.
Don’t ask me for Boyd’s last name. There’s an outside possibility that he has access to a shrewd lawyer. Neither of the partners, however, objects to the open publication of his 14-point magna charta to guide aging lovebirds in search of a suitable mate after the loss of an original and fondly-remembered spouse.
What I can tell you about Betty and Boyd is this: Both were in their 80s when they met seriously and are still there. They both lost their mates after long and fruitful marriages. For a time they separately considered resigning themselves to the limited thrills of Thursday night bridge games and senior tours of the Russian Art Museum, not to discount Betty’s flurries of action directing a bell ringing society. They had actually met each other over the course of some of these recreations, and it was at about this time that Boyd recalibrated his list of “Required Qualities or Characteristics of New Wife,” after losing his first. The list led him unerringly to the woman who became his second and equally-admired wife, who unfortunately died not long afterward.
After a respectful mourning, he reviewed the now fully-accredited Boyd’s List.
As a public service, he has allowed me to share it with people of interest, including those who might appreciate some informal strategies. The potential partner, according to the list:
1. Must have had a very happy marriage to deceased spouse..
2. Must be mentally and physically active.
3. Must have good physical health.
4. Should have positive, upbeat personality and outlook.
5. Must have good sense of humor.
6. Should have compatible religious and philosophic outlook. Must accept diversity.
7. Must be compassionate and committed to charitable giving, both personal and financial.
8. Totally honest and open.
9. Financial: Not in need of financial help. “Things” not important. Generous in support of charities and non-charitable good causes.
10. Within 7 years of my age.
11. Preferably good relations with own children and likelihood of good relations with my children.
12. Good “people” person.
13. Comfortable with physical affection, preferably in any form.
14. Preferable to have common friends.
My first reaction to this manifesto was to suggest sending a blind copy to all unspecified age classifications, including all Medicare brackets and interested Baby Boomers. Doctor Phil was an imposter. Boyd’s list has legs!
You should know that Boyd and Betty, married now for five years, were last seen scheming to lead a square dance on a Semester at Sea world cruise beginning Jan. 12, ending April 24 and including Nassau, the mouth of the Amazon, Cape Town, Singapore, Hong Kong and Yokohama.
The timetable is ideal, avoiding a cross-country bike ride Betty had been planning for the spring.
With some prodding, I can get you an addendum to Boyd’s list
Ecumen Nominated for Best of the Web Award in Senior Living - You can Vote
We invite you to take two seconds and cast a vote for Ecumen's web site:
We're honored . . . Ecumen.org and Ecumen's Changing Aging blog have been nominated for The 2011 SeniorHomes.com Best of the Web award. The national contest highlights the best senior living and caregiving websites, blogs, and resources on the web for consumers and senior living professionals. The top nominee sites by popular vote will proceed to the round of finalists and will be rated by our expert panel. Final rankings will be decided the expert panel ratings.
To vote, go here, and click "Like" Voting ends Dec. 15th . . . THANKS!
Reducing Antipsychotic Medications in Nursing Homes - Ecumen Awakenings Initiative
In six months, Ecumen colleagues at Sunrise nursing home, working with physicians, residents, and family members in Two Harbors, Minnesota eliminated the use of psychotropic drugs and decreased use of antidpressants by half. Eva Lanigan (above, left), an Ecumen clinical director who led this work, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in a article yesterday:
"The chaos level is down, but the noise is up -- the noise of people laughing, talking, much more engaged with life. It's amazing."
Now based on the work of Eva and her team, Ecumen is bringing this drug-reducing strategy to Ecumen's 15 other nursing homes. Helping make the work possible is a multi-million dollar grant from the State of Minnesota. The initiative is called "Awakenings," because people are literally awakening.
This is important work (see stats below) and hard work. But we know it will make lives better and provide insights for our entire profession. It is changing aging.
Did You Know?
- In 2005, Medicaid spent $5.4 billion on atypical antipsychotic medicines, which is more than it spent on any other class of drugs, including antibiotics, AIDS drugs or medicines to treat high blood pressure.
- According to a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, more than half are prescribed inappropriately to control dementia-related behaviors even though there is no mental illness diagnosis.
- According to a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, more than half are prescribed inappropriately to control dementia-related behaviors even though there is no mental illness diagnosis.
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Visit our YouTube channel to learn more about this initiative and others at Ecumen.
You're Invited as Minnesota Unveils New Ways to Pay for Long-Term Care - December 14
“In only a few generations, ‘old age’ has gone from limited survival after retirement to ‘middle age’ with almost twenty years of life ahead at retirement. But we’ve not prepared as individuals or as a state on how we’ll pay for the huge costs that accompany old age. With the first baby boomers retiring in 2010, the time has come.”
- Stacy Becker, Citizens League Long-Term Care Collaborative
For the last year and half the non-partisan Citizens League's Long-Term Care Collaborative has been working on developing new strategies for Minnesotans to pay for long-term care. The Citizens League Long-Term Care Collaborative is comprised of multiple sectors and diverse ideologies, including senior services, health care, non-profit, business, government, social services and philanthropy.
The group's recommendations will be introduced by the Citizens League's Stacy Becker at a free long-term care financing solutions conference at the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute on December 14 from 8 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at the Humphrey Institute's Cowles Auditorium. The discussion will also include insights on the CLASS Act from Washington, D.C. Partners in presenting the conference are: Aging Services of Minnesota, the University of Minnesota's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, and AARP.
Registration: Registration is limited due to auditorium size. To register: Contact Kellie Carlson of Aging Services of Minnesota at kcarlson@agingservicesmn.org. See you on the 14th. Here is the event brochure.
How is Senior Living Going to Change?
Technology . . . "Granny Pods" . . . community involvement . . . Home Services . . . all are subject of a front-page article in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune on the future of senior housing.
How do you think senior living is going to change?
A Bumper Sticker Shaped By Experience
A gem from Ecumen colleague Kurt Hansen who knew American hero Don Singlestad well . . . . Don, whose story is profiled here, had an awesome bumper sticker. It read:
"Life is Tough, Wear a Helmet"
Read Don's story and you can see he clearly knew the truth in that quote.
Honor: War Hero and Ecumen Customer Don Singlestad Led a Life of Service in Park Rapids and Far Beyond
Ecumen Changing Aging readers will recall the remarkable story of Don Singlestad, a resident of Ecumen-managed Heritage Community in Park Rapids, who was honored last year for his WW II heroics by the Italian government. Don died just prior to Thanksgiving.
Jeremy Olson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote a beauitful obituary on Thanksgiving Day that highlights several of the key moments from Don's life, a life that had a tremendous impact on many on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Following is Jerermy's article. Thank you, Don!
The blessed life of Don Singlestad ended last
week when the decorated World War II
veteran and Minnesota National Guardsman
died at age 93.
A man who rarely discussed the war until he
wrote a 2009 memoir, "The Fighting Fool,"
Singlestad was one of the U.S. military's most
decorated noncommissioned officers and
one of three Americans in the war to earn the
Italian Military Medal of Valor Gold Cross.
Singlestad expected to die on the battlefields
of North Africa or Italy, said his nephew,
Bruce M. Johnson. "There was no fear and
when things got very difficult, he just went
into instinct. And instinct worked. He lived
through it. He didn't think he would."
Singlestad earned the Distinguished Service
Cross for heroism during a 1944 battle in
Italy. The citation said he used grenades and,
when out of ammo, his rifle butt to break
through an enemy blockade and bring
intelligence to his commanders.
A Lutheran, he later was blessed by Pope Pius
XII for working behind enemy lines before
the liberation of Rome to direct air and
artillery bombardments away from the
Vatican and other sites.
Singlestad was part of the National Guard's
Red Bull 34th Infantry Division, which
suffered heavy losses in a pivotal battle to
drive Germans from mountain strongholds in
northern Italy. Last year, at 92, he traveled to
Vernio, Italy, to commemorate a highway in
the division's honor.
"Don beamed with pride as he unveiled a
marker in front of townspeople and Italian
World War II partisans dedicating a mountain
pass as 'Via 34th Divisione di fanteria Red
Bull,' " said Maj. Gen. Rick Nash, adjutant
general of the state National Guard.
After the war, Singlestad was a traveling
salesman for a clothing company and opened
a diner in Litchfield, Minn., with his wife,
Florence. They later owned a girls' clothing
store in Bloomington and sold real estate in
Arizona. The couple retired in Fort Collins, Colo.
Singlestad moved to Park Rapids, Minn.,
to be near his daughter after his wife's death
He struggled with memories of the war and
men he killed. His daughter, Debra Sharkey,
said it showed in his wanderlust.
"That's why he was on the road as a
salesman," she said. "He had to be out, he
had to be about. He had to be active."
Singlestad lived with zeal and a twinkle in his
eye, relatives said. He once rigged a bathtub
on a motorized raft so he could putter
around the lake, singing in the tub. "When he
was around ... people laughed," Johnson said.
Singlestad was active in retirement, planning
a veterans' memorial in Park Rapids, serving
Thanksgiving meals to the needy. Just this
month, he drove elderly voters to the polls.