Category Archives: News

To celebrate Physical Therapy Month in October, MCMC’s PT department will be running weekly challenges for employees in the facility. Patients, both new and old, will be receiving a gift from the department as well.

Heidi Nielsen, PT, DPT, says that physical therapy at MCMC covers a wide range of services, something important for patients in rural areas. They include orthopedic and neurologic therapies. The combination of the services they offer and the ability to use the aquatic center for therapy is something they feel is a privilege to offer in a small town. Nielsen is also certified in dry needling and

LSVT-BIG for Parkinson’s treatments.

Nielsen says that when Dr. Tomjack starts seeing patients in Stanley in November, they believe they will see even more activity in their department, including sports medicine therapy.

The goal in the department is to open as many doors as they can for patients, helping them find healthy, normal function as they recover or rehab.

Husband and wife Nile and Christine Price have been in the PT department at MCMC since May and are under contract through December 18.  Although COVID has caused some decrease in physical therapy needs, they and Nielsen have kept busy and they expect that to increase. As more facilities have resumed surgeries, things have picked up and they expect it will continue to increase as Dr. Tomjack starts seeing  patients in Stanley.

Nile says that they love talking about the benefits of therapy and are quick to return calls. They believe there is always something they can do to help patients. He encourages patients to call them. They want to be a resource for the entire community and to help as much as they can.

Although most insurances are direct access, they do recommend that patients have a referral first before beginning therapy. That way they eliminate the unknown when it comes to billing and costs.

The department is also excited to have an Andago machine for physical therapy. They are currently only using the equipment for residents in the nursing home because of COVID, but once the restrictions are lifted they will be able to offer it for patients who have movement issue related to stroke, neurological problems, paralysis, spinal cord injuries and Parkinson’s disease to name a few.

This machine provides over ground body weight support and gait training, bridging the gap between treadmill and free walking. It follows the patient’s body, picking up on the movements and the way they move and turn. Therapists have the option to change settings so the machine will pick the pathways so the patient can focus just on their steps.

It adjusts completely to the patient using it. That includes how much body weight support is used with the ultimate goal to have the patient not need to use the weight support.

A state of the art machine, it eliminates the fall risk for patients as they walk. It stops and the harnesses will keep the patient up if they do lose their step. It takes the fear factor out of walking for the patient while also eliminating the burden on the therapist. It allows the patient to feel safe while providing them the opportunity to improve their gait.

It also fits through all standard doors in the facility, so there were no modifications needed to use it in the nursing home. Nielsen says it is very user friendly.

MCMC is the only rural facility to have the Andago and the only nursing home. Nielsen says the next closest machines would be at Craig in Denver or in Kansas. The majority of the machines can be found in large rehab facilities on the east or west coast.

Funding for the equipment came from donations, including a significant donation from one family, and the Mountrail County Health Foundation. Hocoma, the company that manufactures it, sent it in expedited shipping without any additional charge.  Nielsen says the Swedish machine, made in Switzerland, was flown over and arrived in March. When it arrived, it rolled out of the box, with PT only having to attach the handles to prepare for use.

Hocoma is watching MCMC and how they are using this machine in a nursing home, helping keep geriatric patients mobile. Nielsen says that it is helping lessen the burden on therapy and the staff as they help residents be as mobile as they can be for as long as they can be.

At the end of October, MCMC will be participating in a webinar with Hocoma, sharing with other doctors and facilities how the machine is being used in Stanley. Pairing with company therapists, they will be sharing the benefits, including reducing the impact on joints with the weightbearing assistance.

A new leadership team is taking the reins at Mountrail Bethel Home as a new Director of Nursing and Assistant Director of Nursing started their positions on Monday, Sept. 28. A new MDS Coordinator started on Monday, Sept. 21.

Alyssa Zaun is the new Director of Nursing at Mountrail Bethel Home. As DON her responsibilities will including making sure that everything runs smoothly at the nursing home, while following all rules set by the state and making sure the home is staffed to take care of the residents there.

When asked why she was interested in the  position, she said she knew she wanted to advance her career, and this was an opportunity to do that. It will allow her to move to the management/business side of nursing.

She says that she is excited to learn about this side of nursing. As they start everything new with the new leadership positions, it will be a clean slate as they “introduce a new positive attitude into the nursing home” to make it a happy place for staff and residents.

Originally from Minnesota, she has been in North Dakota for a little over three years. For the past two and half years she has worked in the Emergency Room at MCMC, having worked in Minot for a year and as an LPN and CNA at her hometown Nursing Home. Her degree comes from Moorhead State in Moorhead, MN.

She and her husband Zach live by Van Hook. He works for Petro Hunt. They have a ten month old baby boy and she is stepmother to his two daughters, ages 5 and 8.

Jill Zurawski will be the new Assistant Director of Nursing. As ADON, her job is to support Zaun. That means helping in any way she needs. It also allows Zaun to spread responsibilities so that neither is spread too thin by the job. She will take over scheduling for the CNAs and nursing staff.

A nurse for ten years, she attended school in Minnesota. She moved to North Dakota in 2014 with her husband as he worked in the oil field. They started in Watford City and Dickinson before calling Stanley their home. She has been working in the ER at MCMC and also as an MBH nurse for the last two and a half years. She has been cross-trained between the two facilities, which she says has allowed her to get to know more people.

She says that she enjoyed working at Bethel Home, saying it has such a good crew and relationships with the residents they served. It was nice getting to know people and build those connections. As ADON, she says that she would like to see everything run smoothly enough that when employees go home, they are not stressed or worn out. She says that one goal is to set up systems to make it easier for all the nurses, CNAs and residents.

Jill and her husband Rick have two daughters, ages 24 and 25, that live in different parts of the country.

Carissa Sorenson will be the new MDS Coordinator at Bethel Home. MDS stands for Minimum Data Set, a federal system that sets forth the information on level of care for nursing home residents. The information is entered into the forms and creates a payment model.

Sorenson is originally from Minot, but moved to Berthold after the flood. She has worked at Trinity for 26 years, starting at the old St. Joseph’s hospital. She worked through the buyout and transfer and then went to work at Trinity Nursing Home. She was there for fifteen years, which she says was awesome because she found she loves “old people”.

When asked why she was making the change, she said that things she heard about MBH excited her. The team atmosphere and positive changes were things she wanted to do and be part of. She says that bringing a clean slate to the table with all three positions means they will be building together. Teamwork is important on all levels of nursing and she says it will be nice to be part of building a new team.

She says that she is really excited to be at MBH. After 26 years it can be scary to make the change, but she says that she finds herself weirdly at peace with it and ready to take on the challenge.

Carissa’s husband Travis owns a small construction business. They have a daughter age 17, son age 14 and foster son age 14.

All three of these RNs taking on these leadership positions are cross trained to the floor. That means if they are needed, they can go from the office and be a part of the services needed as fast as possible.

MBH Administrator Steph Everett says that she is excited for the growth and camaraderie in the building. These three new leaders are not afraid of growth and taking things to the next level while thinking outside the box.  She says they will be an amazing addition to the current leadership at MBH, as well as working with the other leadership in the building; LaRae Rudolph, DON at the hospital, Lauren Hysjulien, DON at Rosen Place and Janel Borud, DON at the clinic.

The three also share that excitement about the friendship in the facility, where they are not just co-workers but also friends that have each other’s backs and share a passion that has them there for the right reasons. They look forward to growing in their positions and making MBH that much better, saying the residents will thrive because of it.

For patients with hearing aid needs or services in the Stanley area, a new service will be available starting on October 6. Hearing Dynamics, formerly The Hearing Aid Co. of Minot, will be utilizing space at the Mountrail County Medical Center Clinic.

Owner Lisa Risovi brings the ability to test hearing in Stanley. She sells Audibel, a Starkey family, hearing device. She can also repair and clean all brands of hearing aids. She says that she is proud to be selling the Audibel brand hearing aids, a USA made product manufactured in Minneapolis, MN.

Born and raised in rural North Dakota, Risovi started working in the hearing aid business with Arlynn Hefta at The Hearing Aid Company from 2013 to 2016. While he continues to own the location in Devils Lake, he offered her the Minot business. With twenty years of other business experience in customer service, she was excited to take on this new venture. Since taking on the business, she has been looking forward to not only serving customers in Minot, but also expanding that business to rural areas.

The Minot office is located in the Renaissance Center. By also expanding to other communities, she says she believes she can reach people in need in not only Stanley but also the surrounding areas. Risovi says that as a company, they have territories. Her territory is from Rugby to the Montana border and north to the Canadian border.

When asked how she connected with Stanley and MCMC, she says that she is friends with Doctors Joshi and Brewster. In conversations, they discussed the opportunity of adding to the services offered to Stanley area patients. She reached out to MCMC and is now renting space as an independent office in the clinic. She will handle her own billings and insurance if applicable, although most insurances do not cover hearing aids.

She will be in Stanley at the clinic two Tuesdays each month, with October 6 and 27 set for dates next month. She takes patients by appointment only. You can call 701-839-8964 to schedule an appointment.

“Hearing services is something we have been trying to get back into our clinic for quite a while,” says Steph Everett MCMC CEO.  “With the rapport already built with Doctors Joshi and Brewster, we are confident that Lisa will be the perfect fit for our patients and the residents of Mountrail County and we look forward to a long lasting relationship.”

This article is republished with the gracious consent of the Mountrail County Promoter.

When the Coronavirus hit North Dakota, schools closed, and businesses closed or altered their business model. Daycares were impacted and many in Stanley chose to close. This created a challenge for staff at Mountrail County Medical Center. A cooperative effort between Ragamuffins Ranch Daycare and the Mountrail County Health Foundation worked to fill that need over the last two months.

MCMC Administrator Steph Everett says that the process started on March 23. She began receiving texts from staff expressing their concerns about what they would do as they faced closing schools and daycares. She said that she reached out to Carol Maurer at Ragamuffins Ranch who opened their arms to the staff’s children.

Everett says that each request was met with a “we’ll figure it out” response that was amazing. As they began the conversations, Everett says they had no idea how many staff members would need daycare. Based on the texts from staff, she knew it would be more than just a few.

As they received the guidelines from the state regarding daycares, working together the daycare was ready to start taking students by the weekend of March 27. Working hand in hand, they were ready for the first children on March 30.

Ragamuffins Ranch Daycare owner Carol Maurer says that working on the Bright and Early curriculum and achieving the Step 3 designation made the process easy. The assessments and training she says that by the blessing of God helped them be prepared to take on the challenges.

She says they were already set up to the new standards and guidelines set up by the state for childcare facilities in response to the Coronavirus. That includes the way they use spaces in the daycare, their sanitizing processes and the separations for age groups they already had in place.

They already were separated to eat in smaller groups and play in smaller groups and different areas. The babies, toddlers and older children already interact in their own groups on a regular basis.

Maurer says that the biggest challenge was to bring in children that didn’t know them or their environment. She says they wanted to make sure that each child felt safe and comfortable during this stressful situation. They wanted them to feel at home and happy, knowing this was a safe place to be.

The children coming into the daycare have moms and dads that work on the frontline during this virus fight. Life can be stressful, and children often pick up on that stress.

The staff put their heads together, even knowing it might not be easy, but knew they could do it and come out for the better. Maurer says they really stepped up to the plate and did a great job.

As they got ready to add new children to their groups, Ragamuffins reached out to their parents. For some, they were already planning on keeping their children home with schools and businesses closing or reducing staff. Others offered to keep theirs home to make room, saying that it was important to take care of first responders’ families. She says she gives credit to those families for giving the okay to use their spots.

With some of their kids not coming because of the virus, Maurer said they missed their kids. It was hard emotionally on everyone, but at the end of the day they came back and grew a whole new family with these new children.

As for helping out staff at the medical center, Maurer says that they knew the needed the help and they were ready to do it. It was amazing to watch, she says, and now as the two months come to a close, they will be missing these children that will be going back to their former providers.

Looking back now, Maurer says that everything was a learning curve with stepping stones at the right time with the right help to set up this difference to succeed. She said, “I do it this way and it works. Sometimes you pray and ask God to show you the way. My heart is put into this and we have invested so much of ourselves.”

Everett says that for the two months Ragamuffin met their needs, they were a lifesaver. Eight families with eleven children were helped during this time. Mountrail County Health Foundation, along with grant funds from the NWND Community Foundation helped cover some of the costs.

While many families will be returning to their previous providers this week as daycares resume operations, a few will be staying at Ragamuffins Ranch enjoying the new relationships they have formed.

Steph Everett says that they just knew at the beginning they had to do something to help their staff. All of this was so new to medical facilities. They had heard about the first stories with coronavirus coming from a nursing home in Washington. The focus became on what if it happened here.

“For medical staff, there is no choice but to be at work. The last thing we wanted was for staff to have to make a hard choice. We needed them here, for Health Centers never shut down. Some of our Staff made shifts from their clinic positions to helping at the nursing home, for they were needed there to ensure our nursing home residents were cared for,” said Everett.  “The partnership with Raggamuffin Ranch allowed us to take one huge stressor off our staff. Especially through this, maneuvering through unchartered territories over the last few month,” Everett said.

The two month partnership between the medical center and Ragamuffin Ranch is just another example of small towns pulling together to help each other through these challenging times. It is also an example of meeting critical needs through collaborative effort.

This article is republished by the gracious consent of the Mountrail County Promoter.

May 4th, 2020

As we all work together to reopen “North Dakota Smart”, we here at the Mountrail County Medical Center want to let the public know how we will be reintroducing our services starting the week of May 4th. Due to the encouragement of Governor Burgum, we as a facility did mass testing of our county, our employees and our residents the week of April 20th. Over 450 tests were completed in 48 hours, with only one new positive emerging from this testing. With these results, we feel confident to slowly reopen our clinic, our outpatient services and bringing our specialists back to Stanley.

Details

Inpatient Services: The providers in the clinic will slowly start working at seeing their normal patient load the week of May 4th. Telemedicine will still be utilized, when seen fit. Respiratory issues and COVID-19 symptoms will still be seen through the ER, along with traditional ER patients. We are doing all COVID testing through the ER also.

Outpatient Services: We will start providing mammograms the week of May 4th. Christine and Nile will be rejoining the physical therapy team, with Heidi. MRI’s will begin to be scheduled again starting May 11th.

Specialists: Dr. Joshi and Dr. Amsbury will start seeing patients again on May 14th. Dr. Williams will start again the following Wednesday, May 20th.

Checking in Process: This will look a bit different for everyone. All patients will still be screened per the CDC COVID-19 guidelines. All clinic patients, outpatients and specialists’ patients will check in through the clinic. When you arrive please call 701-628-2505 and you will be given instructions on how to get registered. Please sit in your vehicle until your appointment time, so we can maintain social distancing. Special arrangements will be made if this is not possible for the patient. We also will require each patient to wear a mask, so please bring one to your appointment.

COVID—19 Screening and Cleaning Process: All technicians, specialists and their staff will follow the same screening protocol the rest of the Mountrail County Health Center staff follow. They will come in door 11 and get their temperature, change into MCHC scrubs and go through the basement to get to the clinic, avoiding the Mountrail Bethel Home. Our cleaning process in the clinic will be expanded and door knobs, desk areas, seating areas and clinic rooms will be sanitized between patients. For any questions, please call the Rural Health Clinic at 701-628-2505