About 50 people attended CentraCare’s Report to the Community last week at River City Extreme in Monticello.
It was a chance for CentraCare to connect with the community, share their goals and talk about what has transpired over the past year.
The event started with a health and wellness fair, where members of the public could get free health screenings and learn more about CentraCare programs.
After a brief lunch, Dr. Ken Holmen, CentraCare CEO, spoke about how they are working within the community to improve health.
He said the most important aspect of healthcare is the relationship between providers and people.
“The future is sometimes cloudy. There’s no crystal ball in healthcare. But there are a lot of things we do know,” he said. “Technology improves. Lifespans are lengthening. The demands for healthcare we provide increase with age. Miracle drugs will continue. Life-saving techniques will continue. But at the end of the day, healthcare is about a personal relationship between a nurse, a physician, a caregiver, a team and you the patient and the community.”
Holmen said CentraCare is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the patients and the community.
“You are our shareholders. Our community board members govern us,” he said. “The notion of making a profit within the context of CentraCare is reinvesting that money into our community. It’s the ability for us manage our bottom line.”
He said the profits of 3.5% to 5.5% are reinvested in facilities, people, programs technology and equipment.
Holmen said keeping costs down allows CentraCare to better serve people and the community.
“We took $35 million out of the equation last year by buying better, by using our folks to create better work processes and by standardizing how we provide care,” he said. “Monticello CentraCare took $3 million out of the cost equation by doing the same thing. So this is really important work going forward.”
CentraCare Monticello Administrator Mary Ellen Wells talked about improvements over the past year.
She said the annual survey was just completed and the facility had high marks. She said the nursing home received a five star rating.
“Only 10% of the nursing homes in the country have this rating,” she said. “And we have one right here.
She talked about the spiritual center that was just completed this year.
“We recognized there’s a lot more to healthcare than the clinical, medical health of people,” she said. “We made a commitment to build a spiritual center and have a place of calm, reflection and prayer if people so wanted.”
She also mentioned the healing garden located outside the cancer center.
“As people are going through chemotherapy, they can look out and see the garden and walk in the garden,” she said. “It’s a beautiful experience.”
Wells said CentraCare also added a number of new physicians and nurse practitioners to help serve the growing community.
The emergency room sees about 14,000 patients a year, said Wells. And it’s about to be upgraded this year to be able to meet growing demands.
She said CentraCare recently purchased a building at Hwy. 10 and Hwy. 25 in Big Lake.
“It’s being renovated now,” she said. “That will serve as the new ambulance headquarters. But we’ll still have ambulances throughout the district.”
Wells said as part of her commitment to serving the community, she insists on meeting every new employee the day they start.
“I tell them while they’re going through orientation, if you’re not here to care, you’d better go,” she said.
“And I ask all staff to get rid of all the concerns they have before they walk through the door and think about two words - “I care”. That’s all they should focus on,” she said.
Wells said it’s so important to have that mantra. “We save lives and we make them better. That’s who we are and what we do,” she said. “I can’t think of a bigger and better calling.”
