News

Influenza

For the most up to date information on Influenza in Minnesota, visit the Minnesota Department of Health’s website at www.mdhflu.com .

Identifying Influenza
Due to the limited benefit of Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Tests (RIDTs), most hospitals and clinics do not routinely use this test for the diagnosis and treatment of their patients.

Current research shows:

For every 100 people who in fact have influenza and receive the test, only 32 people will show positive results (32% sensitivity).
The test does not distinguish seasonal influenza from H1N1.
The Minnesota Department of Health is able to test for H1N1 but this takes several days and is only done in special circumstances.
If you are diagnosed with influenza, the treatment is the same regardless of the type (A, B, H1N1). Diagnosis of H1N1 does not change your plan of care.

Treating Influenza
The following are recommendations from the Center for Disease Control for taking care of yourself or others at home with influenza:

Keep away from others as much as possible. This is to keep from making others sick. Do not go to work or school while ill.
Stay home for at least 24 hours after fever is gone, except to seek medical care or for other necessities. (Fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)
Get plenty of rest.
Drink clear fluids (such as water, broth, sports drinks, electrolyte beverages for infants) to keep from being dehydrated.
Cover coughs and sneezes. Wash hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
Use fever/pain relievers as necessary and recommended.
Wear a facemask – if available and tolerable – when sharing common spaces with other household members to help prevent spreading the virus to others.
Be watchful for emergency warning signs (see below) that might indicate you need to seek medical attention.

Seek medical care if the sick person at home:

has difficulty breathing or chest pain
has purple or blue discoloration of the lips
is vomiting and unable to keep liquids down
has signs of dehydration such as dizziness when standing, absence of urination, or in infants, a lack of tears when they cry
has seizures (for example, uncontrolled convulsions)
is less responsive than normal or becomes confused

Cancer Care

District One Hospital has been providing oncology services including chemotherapy for nearly 30 years. The most recent addition to our cancer care center is PET/CT, a powerful imaging technique that provides accurate images used for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In partnership with Minnesota Oncology, a medical group dedicated solely to the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers and blood disorders, we are able to provide sophisticated services close to the communities we serve. District One Hospital's oncology team includes Dr. Burton Schwartz and Dr. Paul Thurmes who integrate therapies available at DOH and elsewhere, all to the greatest benefit of the patient.


Dr. Burton Schwartz		Dr. Paul Thurmes

» Back to Top

District One Hospital earns patient safety excellence awards

District One Hospital has earned Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) Patient Safety Excellence Awards for its work on two initiatives, SAFE from FALLS and SAFE COUNT.

The first focuses on preventing patients from falling during hospital stays through the SAFE from FALLS initiative. The second award, SAFE COUNT, acknowledges DOH for its work on preventing retained objects in labor and delivery. The awards are given to hospital teams achieving more than 90 percent of the actions in the initiatives "roadmap" as set forth by the MHA.

Patient safety is a top priority for DOH and other Minnesota hospitals. Because of this, DOH has joined Minnesota Hospital Association patient safety initiatives, where Minnesota teams are working collectively on implementing various safety roadmaps.

“Patient safety is a critical component of patient care and our staff should be recognized for their hard work and dedication to these initiatives” said Joan Boysen, Chief of Patient Services. “It is our goal to prevent adverse health events. The best practice standards as set forth in these initiatives help keep patients safe from falls and ensure that counting processes are used during deliveries.”

For more information about these campaigns, visit the Minnesota Hospital Association Web site at www.mnhospitals.org/index/patient1.

The SAFE from FALLS Initiative

S –    Safety coordination. Hospitals create policies and committees to support the initiative.
A –    Accurate and concurrent reporting. Hospitals develop and implement data tools to allow them to accurately measure the problem and learn from what happened.
F –    Facility expectations, staff education and accountability. Hospitals train and evaluate staff on a variety of falls-prevention methods.
E –   Education for patients and families. Hospitals create materials in lay language to help patients prevent falls in the hospital and while at home.
F –    Fall risk screening. Hospitals develop processes for screening all patients.
A –    Assessment of risk factors. Hospitals develop comprehensive, multidisciplinary ways to assess and treat patients at risk.
L –    Linked interventions. Hospitals develop and evaluate individualized, multidisciplinary care plans that involve patients and their families.
L –    Learn from events. Hospitals analyze falls to find ways to improve.
S –    Safe environment. Hospitals examine the environment (flooring, equipment, etc.) to determine whether changes may help prevent falls.

The SAFE COUNT Initiative

S –    SAFE COUNT teams. Hospitals establish SAFE COUNT champions, and adopt an interdisciplinary team approach for implementation.
A –    Access to information. Teams verify the completion of each step of the process in “real-time,” and audit the effective completion of the process.
F –    Facility expectations. Hospitals set expectations for implementation of the process.
E –   Educate staff. Hospitals provide education for all clinical staff involved in deliveries.

C –    Count sponges, sharps and other items. Teams perform standard counting process best practices.
O –   Obtain post-delivery imaging. Teams reconcile counts.
U –   Use of white board or other visual documentation. Teams visually document counts.
N –   Never use anything but radiopaque (anything that does not let X-rays or other types of radiation penetrate). Teams use only radiopaque soft goods.
T –    Time-out — “Pause for the Gauze.” Staff perform final checks.

» Back to Top

Medication Disposal Program, Slated to Begin in Fall 2009, Will Collect, Incinerate Unneeded Medications

A medication disposal program slated to begin operation in the fall has the potential to improve the health of all the county’s residents — including area wildlife.

“Take It to the Box,” a program developed by Rice County’s Chemical Health Coalition (CHC), will enable residents with outdated or unneeded over-the-counter, prescription, and animal medications to deposit them in locked boxes located in public access areas of the Faribault and Northfield Police Departments. Later they will be transported to approved facilities and incinerated at high temperature, preventing them from being misused and from harming the environment.

“It’s important for people to know how to safely use and store medications,” notes Mary Ho, director of the Rice County Public Health Department and a member of the CHC. “They also need a safe and convenient way to dispose of them when they’re no longer needed. That is what ‘Take It to the Box’ is designed to provide.”

Getting rid of surplus medications reduces chances for accidents, notes Rice County Sheriff Richard Cook. It also keeps “gateway drugs” out of the hands of anyone who might abuse them. Properly incinerating them puts them permanently out of reach, as well as keeping them out of the environment.

“We’re not interested in who’s depositing what or why,” adds Cook. “If you’ve got medicines you don’t need in your home, the boxes will be secure places in which to dispose of them. If you find bags of pills or plant material you can’t identify, you can deposit those, too, confidentially, no questions asked.”

Pharmaceutical Proliferation, Pollution
Almost every household has medicine leftovers of some kind. The directions on the prescription said “take as needed” and your child only needed a few doses. You had an adverse reaction to a medication, your doctor told you to stop taking it immediately, and now you’ve got a month’s supply that can’t be used. You became the caregiver for an ailing relative and found drawers full of out-of-date pills and potions.

And when you wanted to dispose of them responsibly, you were often told to flush them down the toilet, even though wastewater treatment plants are not capable of removing all these compounds. Waterways around the nation now routinely contain trace residues of everything from aspirin and antidepressants to cholesterol-lowering drugs and narcotics. Fish and other wildlife are developing antibiotic resistances and showing signs of endocrine (hormone) disruption and other problems.

Although Rice County guidelines are still being developed, the program plans to accept over-the-counter medications, herbal remedies, and vitamins as well as prescription drugs for people, pets, and farm animals. It will accept inhalers, ointments, and liquids in leak-proof containers. It will not accept medications from businesses.

How should you package materials that you are depositing? You can put them in a paper bag, but leave medications in their original containers whenever possible, says the CHC. Remove personal information if you want (e.g., black out or cut out your name and address), but leave the name of the drug. This will aid sorting (controlled substances have to be transported and treated differently than other materials).

What will happen to medicines that are deposited? The boxes will be emptied regularly by police officers and their contents placed under lock and key. Several times a year the medicines will be sorted and transported to approved incinerators, where they will be safely destroyed.

An information session will be held Tuesday, August 4, during National Night Out activities in Faribault and Northfield.

Additional information will be posted on the Rice County website when the program is rolled out in mid-September.

» Back to Top

Jan Wegner Nursing Scholarships Awarded

“Nurses are privileged to be part of people’ lives at the most significant times” said Rae Ormsby, Infection Prevention Manager, during the Jan Wegner Scholarship Tea in July. “This is one of the rewards of a career in nursing.”

The 2009 scholarship, named in honor of Jan Wegner, a nurse who cared for patients at DOH, was also given in honor of Lenore Ohnstad a Women’s Health nurse and Lynne Monge, a surgical nurse for 40 years who died last February.

The 2009 recipients include:

Tina Nagel, Daughter of Connie Nagel, WHU. Tina is pursuing her BSN at Augustana.
Christina Dittrich, Daughter of Pam Carlson, WHU. Christina is pursuing her BSN at Bethel.
Jennifer Drache, Currently working as Nurse Aid on Med/Surg. Pursuing her RN at South Central College.
Katie Carrels, RN in ICU, Med/Surg, WHU. Pursuing graduate degree to become a n Adult Nurse Practitioner in Winona.

During her speech, Rae likened nurses to flowers, “whose seeds blow off to land who-knows-where, to grow or not, but to affect the future in ways we cannot predict and may never know. The nurses, in whose memories we give the scholarships today, are lives whose seeds have blown off and planted themselves” she said. “We hope that the recipients of the scholarships today will catch currents and fly to places we haven’t’ dreamed of, take root and flourish.”

Board Approves Construction of Additional Operating Rooms

The Board of Directors approved a 1.334 million dollar addition to the 2.8 million dollar Surgery Center expansion already underway.
District One Hospital leadership thought the timing was right to expand the current project. With construction underway in that area the idea of adding shell (unfinished) space was quite compelling. Outpatient procedures already accounting for 93% of the market are projected to grow 20% by 2017, with inpatient surgeries growing 29% said Deb Wrobwleski, Surgical Services Manager. By building now we will experience less disruption to the hospitals overall operation she said. The 4,600 square foot space for operating rooms 5 & 6 will not be completed internally until the need becomes fully apparent.
The hospital currently has four operating rooms. The two new ones will be larger to accommodate the added equipment many surgeries require today, said Joan Boysen, Chief of Patient Services.
The project will also include a mechanical room to provide heating and air conditioning to all the Operating Rooms (new and current).
The Surgery Center expansion is scheduled to be completed by late May; construction of the additional operating room space should be completed by mid-to-late summer.

Surgery Center Project Details
Overall 10,800 square foot expansion
Improved access to Ambulatory Surgery - Currently patients must navigate steps from lower level parking lot and enter through busy Emergency Department.
Patient and family privacy - The new surgery center will provide a dedicated registration/waiting area and surgical conference rooms.
Increase in number of patient rooms
Increase in Operating Room space by 4,600 square feet

DOH Purchases InterQual, Level of Care Criteria

In November 2008, District One Hospital purchased a research based screening criteria tool called InterQual, that was adopted by the physicians and is being used by the Utilization Review Coordinators and the House Supervisors. Beginning December 1, 2008, all hospital admissions are being reviewed to determine each admissions correct level of care.
The two levels of care that DOH sees most often are Observation Status and Inpatient Status. Designating the correct level of care is very important for billing purposes. Observation and Inpatient stays are billed differently. Insurance payers and Medicare are taking extra steps to ensure that we accurately designate each patient’s status.
If a patient is admitted to the hospital, their clinical presentation will be reviewed. Clinical signs, i.e. temperature, heart rate, blood pressure and the patients symptoms, i.e. pain, bleeding, functional status will be used to determine the medical necessity for care and which level of care fits the patient best at the time of admission. An Observation patient may be found in any bed in the hospital. They may be in the Intensive Care Unit, on the Medical/Surgical Unit, or on the Women’s Health Unit. The Observation patient is usually expected to be here less than 24 hours. The provider has the final say on the patients level of care. InterQual is now used as a guideline.
InterQual Level of Care Criteria is found in a book version at DOH. The providers are working hard with the UR Coordinators and the House Supervisors to get more comfortable with this tool.

» Back to Top

200 State Avenue
Faribault, Minnesota 55021

General Information

(507) 334-6451
Toll Free: (866) 773-2022

Emergency Department

(507) 334-8333

Pharmacy One

(507) 332-4797

Executive Offices

(507) 332-4732

TDD

(507) 334-4097