GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP OFFERED

Orange City Home Health & Hospice is offering a Grief Support Group five consecutive Monday evenings from October 1 through October 29 from 6:30 to 8:30pm in the lower level meeting rooms of the health system’s downtown campus at 400 Central Avenue NW in Orange City. Bereavement support groups offer a safe place and supportive environment for those who are grieving a recent death, to talk about their feelings of loss. The five-week program provides directed group support within an educational format. There is no cost to attend the Grief Support Group, but donations are accepted and appreciated. Pre-registration is required. Call Orange City Home Health & Hospice at 712-737-5279.

“Powerful Tools for Caregivers” offers six week training

Caregiving is rewarding, but can also be stressful – physically, emotionally, and financially. “Powerful Tools for Caregivers” is a 6-week class designed to provide caregivers with the tools and skills needed to help take care of themselves as they care for a loved one. Certified, experienced class leaders will conduct the six two-and-a-half hour class sessions, Wednesdays from 5-7:30pm, September 19 and 26 and October 3, 10, 17, and 24, at Orange City Area Health System main campus lower level meeting room at 1000 Lincoln Circle SE in Orange City. The cost is $30 and includes all course materials (value of $25) plus a light meal. In-home Senior Companion assistance is available for participants’ dependents during class time. Class size is limited and registration is required by Sept. 14 by calling Barb Gerling, Senior Companion Program, 712-476-2628, or online at ocHealthSystem.org/educational-programs. This valuable class is sponsored by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, the Senior Companion Program of Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Plymouth, and Sioux counties and Orange City Area Health System.

Therapeutic Health Services (THS), providers of Physical and Occupational Therapy serving Orange City Area Health System since 1979, announced the return of Orange City native Nicholas Adams, Physical Therapist (PT), to their team. Adams is a 2012 graduate of Des Moines University with a Doctorate of Physical Therapy after graduating from Northwestern College in 2008. THS also announced expanded hours for Dan Foreman, PT, and Tanya Rowenhorst, PT. Foreman has been with Therapeutic Health Services for five years and has recently expanded to full time hours. Rowenhorst joined Therapeutic Health Services in 2008 and is now working expanded part-time hours. Therapeutic Health Services has eight therapists specializing in various areas, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, and aquatic therapy in their warm water pool. They are located on Orange City Area Health System’s main campus at 1000 Lincoln Circle SE in Orange City. To schedule an appointment or speak to one of the therapists call 737-5234. For more information about THS or Orange City Area Health System visit ocHealthSystem.org.

Landsmeer Ridge residents share decades of crafts

Opal Johnson, age 98, has decades of memories to share with her fellow residents of Landsmeer Ridge Retirement Community in Orange City. Some of those memories are in the form of her embroidery handiwork. She just completed her 15th set of dish towels. Resident rooms at the retirement community, owned and operated by Orange City Area Health System, are filled with art, crafts, and handiwork from the past and present, holding dear memories of a life lived creatively. To share that handiwork with others, Opal came up with the idea of displays in the public hallway. Through August 6, fellow residents, family, friends, visitors, and the public could view rugs woven by Martin Raak on a loom that is now on display in the historical museum, knit hats by Lee Roos that are donated to Bibles for Missions to raise money for Haiti, and several other beautiful hand-made arts and crafts.

 Pull-behind RV offers safe mobility for nursing home residents
Orange City Area Health System (OCAHS) recently purchased a seven-passenger RV — referred to as a “trip trailer” — to give seniors rides around town to various outings and community events. According to Char TenClay, OCAHS Director of Senior Care, “I learned about these trailers from an activity coordinator, and when I saw one in use at another nursing home in the region, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread!” OCAHS is building a new nursing home, Prairie Ridge Care Center, and TenClay planned on getting a trip trailer for the residents to coincide with the opening of the new facility. “Why wait?” she thought. So the trailer, and a new ToolCat utility work machine — which will be used for snow removal and lawn-mowing at Prairie Ridge — was purchased in time to give residents of the health system’s two current nursing homes fun, safe transport around Orange City this summer. The trailer seats seven residents and a staff person, and accommodates four wheelchairs. Volunteers drive the ToolCat, and communicate with the staff person on board via radio, taking residents to picnics, out for ice cream or dinner, and to band concerts in the park.

$1.2 million in Uncompensated Care and Health Care Services Given Annually
 
Orange City Area Health System provides over $1.2 million in community benefits to the region, according to a recently completed assessment of those programs and services.  That amount, based on 2011 figures, includes over $700,000 in uncompensated care and nearly $510,000 in free or discounted community benefits that Orange City Area Health System specifically implemented to help residents in Northwest Iowa and the region.

Community benefits are activities designed to improve health status and increase access to health care. Along with uncompensated care (which includes both charity care and bad debt), community benefits include such services and programs as health screenings, support groups, counseling, immunizations, nutritional services and transportation programs.

The results for Orange City Area Health System are included in a statewide report by the Iowa Hospital Association (IHA) that shows Iowa hospitals provided community benefits in 2011 valued at more than $1.4 billion, including nearly $600 million in charity care.  All 118 of Iowa’s community hospitals participated in the survey.

The programs and services accounted for in the survey were implemented in direct response to the needs of individual communities as well as entire counties and regions.  Many of these programs and services simply would not exist without hospital support and leadership, said IHA President and CEO Kirk Norris.

“It takes more than a pretty building to take care of folks,” reports Marty Guthmiller, CEO for Orange City Area Health System. “We are blessed to have competent, caring physicians and staff that enable us, financially and clinically, to care for those in need regardless of their ability to pay.  It is both an obligation and a privilege.”

Iowa hospitals continue to implement strategies that increase value to their patients and communities by offering high-quality care to individuals, addressing the health needs of identified populations and implementing process improvements that bend the cost curve.  By seeking out ways to raise quality, reduce waste and increase safety, Iowa hospitals have become value leaders, as shown in multiple studies by the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care and the Commonwealth Fund.

More information about Orange City Area Health System and the services offered can be found at ocHealthSystem.org.