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Valley City, ND The CHI Mercy Auxiliary is excited to announce it is accepting applications for two scholarships it is offering! Each year, one scholarship is given out to recipients that are enrolled in a Medical Health Care related career. The scholarship is provided by funds raised by CHI Mercy Health’s Auxiliary. The second $250 scholarship is a one-time memorial/donation from the family of Mertice Rood (a Graduate of the Mercy School of Nursing at Mercy Hospital in Valley City and an active Mercy Hospital Auxiliary member) and is specifically for someone seeking a degree as a nurse. Please note on Application you are applying for the “Mertice Rood Nursing Scholarship”.

To be eligible for Auxiliary scholarships the below criteria is required:

• Employees who have completed 2 years of full-time or part-time employment at MH and have been accepted or are furthering their education in healthcare
• Or volunteers who have completed 30 hours of volunteer time during the previous year and are seeking a degree in healthcare.
• Graduating high school seniors who attend school and/or reside in Barnes County, ND, and who are children or grandchildren of current CHI Mercy Health employees or volunteers.

Please contact Lisa Urbatsch in the CHI Mercy Health Administration office (direct #845-6486 or lisaurbatsch@catholichealth.net) to get an application or go online to: www.mercyhospitalvalleycity.org under the Scholarships tab. The deadline to apply is May 27, 2016.

The CHI Mercy Health Auxiliary (CHI-MHA) is a volunteer organization devoted to supporting the hospital and the community it serves. If you would like to become a CHI Mercy Health Auxiliary member, please contact Lisa Urbatsch at 701-845-6486 or email lisaurbatsch@catholichealth.net

Valley City, ND Mercy Healthcare Foundation is excited to announce it is accepting applications for three scholarships it is offering! Each year, two Nursing scholarships are given out to recipients that are enrolled in an accredited nursing program. One of the scholarships is provided by funds contributed by Mercy Hospital’s Nursing Department which is matched by the foundation.

The second Nursing scholarship comes from a fund set up to honor LaVonne Reidman. The family of Lavonne Reidman established this scholarship in 2005 in memory of Lavonne and her dedication to the nursing profession. Lavonne was a wonderful, caring nurse for many years at Mercy Hospital in Valley City. Mercy HealthCare Foundation is managing this scholarship for the Reidman Family.

Finally, there is a third scholarship offered that is open to anyone pursuing a General Medical career, including technician programs. So please share this with your co-workers, friends, family and anyone you can think of that may be able to benefit from these funds. Please contact Stephanie Mayfield in the Mercy Healthcare Foundation office (direct #845-6557 or stephaniemayfield@catholichealth.net) to get an application or go online to: www.mercyhospitalvalleycity.org under the Scholarships tab. The deadline to apply is May 15, 2016.

CHI Mercy Health Foundation is a nonprofit organization to serve the needs of CHI Mercy Health. The Foundation is dedicated to providing support for Mercy Hospital with supplemental funding for capital and program needs essential to the hospital’s growth and development. Through this service, the residents of Valley City and the surrounding communities have access to local, modern, quality healthcare that allows our family, friends and neighbors to stay close to home for their health care needs.

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Some people call them vampires. They come into a room often when the sky’s still dark, are polite, quiet, and take a little blood. Others think they’re nurses who just enjoy inflicting a moment’s pain first thing in the morning. Either way, they disappear until tomorrow leaving the patient a pin-prick of blood lighter. But rather than flying off to some crepuscular cavern, or a room lined with medieval torture contraptions, these individuals head back to their high tech lab and prepare to take that blood sample apart.

Laboratories play a essential role in medical diagnoses. Lab techs analyze virtually all bodily fluids, blood and urine predominantly, looking for various markers that help doctors determine anything from the type of illness or bacterial infection and the course of action needed to heal the patient.

“More than seventy percent of the information a doctor uses for a diagnosis comes from lab work,” said Susan Kringlie, Director of Laboratory Services at CHI Mercy Health, Valley City.

CHI Mercy Health’s lab is a technological marvel. The lab hosts several pieces of automated equipment that analyze blood or other fluids in quickly. But there are still microscopes on the counters for further, closer analysis. Blood testing in chemistry and hematology, are the largest share of the analysis run in the lab.

“Cardiac events, or possible events,” said Kringlie, “are what we see a lot of. We run tests that detect damage to the heart muscle, like Troponin-I. And of course, we test blood for pathogens, too. Sometimes we find markers for other diseases. We have, for example, found abnormal blood cells in patients highly suggestive for leukemia, which neither the patient nor the doctor knew the patient had.”

Larger hospitals, said Kringlie, have more diverse labs and a separation of duties. Some lab techs may perform only hematological testing, others in microbiology, or any other number of specialize testing or equipment that the lab may use. But Mercy’s four lab techs, Maria Flores, Matt Sprague, Angel Casamayor, and Chantal Faul, do it all.

“We’re a small lab,” said Kringlie, “and so our techs have to be proficient at everything. And be willing to put in long hours sometimes. Sometimes we do lab work for the other clinics in town because we can get the results back to them quickly.”

Kringlie said there is a shortage of lab techs nationally, with the average age well over fifty and there are less schools with clinical laboratory programs. “We really need more techs,” she said, “because in a few years lab techs will be retiring.”

Mark Twain: “The news of my death…”; “A lie makes it ’round the world…”; “History is strewn with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill, but a lie well told, is immortal.”

It seems the rumor that CHI Mercy Health is closing is again resurgent, giving a sense of accuracy to Twain’s aphorisms. This rumor comes around through the community almost like a seasonal virus and affects everyone throughout. Our patients, our employees, our Board members, and everyone who depends on us to be here ready to provide unsurpassed care are affected by this rumor.

Last week I was on the local radio station and I mentioned a random conversation I just happened into where a woman said to me, “They’re closing the hospital.” I assured her we weren’t, not telling her who I was. She asked how I knew, and I said, “Trust me, I know.”

This rumor remains because of the changes we’ve made to the hospital over the last number of years. It’s understandable that people will jump to conclusions–I probably would, too, not knowing the factors influencing the changes. At its core, a hospital is a place for caring, healing, and taking care of the community, but it is also a business. When a business suspends some services it certainly can appear that it is in trouble. Let me assure everyone, emphatically, right now: CHI Mercy Health is not in trouble.

A hospital is this center of healing, but it is also a business. The difficulty for any rural hospital is size. When you have a large population base and a large physician referral base, hospitals do very well. But in a community our size, where fewer than half population use our hospital, it’s very difficult to offer a multitude of services. Any business owner will understand and tell you that any product or service has a critical mass needed to make it profitable to carry or offer, and without that critical mass of customers, without that return on investment, you can’t offer services or products that cost money. This holds true for a hospital.

We have closed down services that have been a cost burden or compliance nightmare (with ever changing federal regulatory requirements) so that we can keep the emergency room and other core services of the hospital viable. Offering services that don’t help our bottom line or that require an inordinate amount of time and expense take money directly from other necessary and vital health care services that we need to provide this community.

What we’re doing is working, which is why we won’t and aren’t closing. We offer this community a wide range of health services in a changing, transformative time for the health care industry as a whole. We offer cardiac rehab, physical therapy, sleep studies, swing beds, DEXA, mammography, CAT scans, and a diversity of same-day surgeries (from ophthalmological to endoscopy), and pain management. And we have a Class I trauma center utilizing state-of-the-art telemedicine. Most important, our staff is simply the best anywhere, and comprised of people you most likely know and certainly trust.

This year we are above budget, which, if you pay attention to the news, is the exception nationally. Nationally, most hospitals are losing money. No, we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. There will changes in how hospitals offer health care as we continue to move from acute to ambulatory care. We will adapt to the changes, we will continue to offer wonderful care, and CHI Mercy Health certainly will not be closing.

Keith Heuser is the Market President for CHI Mercy Health, Valley City.

A third shipment of medical equipment and supplies has arrived at the Indigenous People’s Hospital, in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. Thanks to our Second-Year Mission and Ministry Fund award of $25,000, MedShare has shipped another 40-foot shipping container loaded with medical equipment and supplies to this, our sister hospital. CHI Mercy Health was among several CHI facilities to raise and contribute $2,000 to assist in the freight cost of shipping one full-size container.

In addition to 800 boxes of supplies, the shipment included:

• 1 laptop computer
• 1 LCD video projector with carrying case and small external speakers
• 4 portable suction units
• Surgical and delivery instruments
• 1 hospital-grade countertop freezer for Laboratory
• 2 hospital-grade countertop refrigerators
• 4 wall-mounted air conditioning units
• 3 vinyl patient recliner chairs
• 3 patient gurneys

Support for this Mission project comes from everyone who has bought a purse, wallet, or pencil cup holder, or who came to the Filipino lunch in October, where we served 69 people–it was such a success we’re thinking of making it an annual event!

Thank you to everyone who has helped support this Mission project, together we can make a difference around the world!

“Not too many people know we do mammograms right here,” said Barbara Waite-Clark. “We have the latest in digital technology right here in this hospital, and it’s a lot more comfortable and personable right here.” Waite-Clark is a Mammographer and Radiologic Technologist at CHI Mercy Health in Valley City, ND.

One in eight women in the U.S., will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lifetimes, Waite-Clark said, and is emphatic that women have a mammogram once a year. “The fact is that women should begin having mammograms when they turn forty,” she said, “because by the time they turn fifty, it could be too late. Breast cancer needs to be caught early. It’s not the number of women who develop breast cancer, but it’s how young they are when they do. We need to catch it early.”

CHI Mercy Health has offered mammograms for a number of years, but in Valley City this is a hidden gem of a health service offered right at the hospital. The equipment used for mammography at Mercy is all digital. The room large and private. And it all is easily accessible, especially for the handicapped.

Women should get their yearly screening from their primary caregiver, and then call as no referral is needed, to CHI Mercy Health to make an appointment. Just ask us to schedule you an appointment.

CHI Mercy Health has a host of events scheduled for Breast Cancer Awareness. Go to our Facebook page to see what’s going on during the week of Oct. 26-31.

For more information on mammography and mammograms and CHI Mercy Health, call the Radiology department at 701-845-6441. And Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter for events and timely and topical health tips.

And with fall comes flu season. CHI Mercy Health began flu shots for their employees, Monday, Oct. 5. It’s a good time to remember to get yours this fall if you’re in one of the categories for those at risk of developing flu-related complications or with certain medical conditions.

For more information on flu vaccines, call CHI Mercy Health, 845-6400.

Suicide is not a pleasant topic. It is a trammeled subject in polite conversation; a personal scar born of knowledge the name of whom is seldom spoken. More than 41,000 people kill themselves annually in the U.S., but more than 1 million people attempt suicide. Thirteen years ago, Barnes County had the highest suicide rate in the state, and for eleven years Debbie Anderson has tried to lower that number to zero.

Wellness in the Valley is the program Anderson runs through CHI Mercy Health, and she is dedicated to the program which is dedicated to suicide prevention. “Thirteen years ago we received a Health Resources and Service Administration grant,” said Anderson. “There were many suicides in Barnes County, but the real impetus was a man holding his family hostage and ultimately ended his life. We were able to get this started with the five-year HRSA grant.”

Wellness in the Valley began with three full-time employees, and by its third year had trained nearly 3,200 people in suicide prevention and awareness training. Today, the only employee is Anderson, and the program is funded through CHI Mercy Health. A condition of the HRSA grant was that “Wellness” could not charge for services. Health and Human Services, the granting agency, thought that businesses would keep the program running.

“Funds are drying up,” said Anderson. “Mercy tries to fund this, but community support has fallen short due to economic difficulties in our community. Other causes have taken suicide prevention’s place, so instead of the $5,000 grants we once got, we may get only a few $500 grants. But Mercy’s fighting to keep this alive. Keith Heuser’s fighting to keep this alive because there are no other behavioral health services in Valley City that can offer the service in the community that we offer.”

Anderson, however, seems inexhaustible working more hours than possible and staying on-call for interventions or counseling. She has, through “Wellness,” provided over 62 unpaid counseling sessions; taken part in 48 immediate threat suicide interventions in the last twelve months; taken part in two cancer groups; two depression groups; conducted two “gatekeeper” (interventionist) trainings; and two Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST). And she has given the teachers in the Valley City School District their mandatory two-hour state-mandated suicide training. She’s also a resource for the police and fire departments.

One of the most important tasks of her work through Wellness in the Valley is her concern for the families of suicides. They go through a very difficult time, and she offers help if they need. “I contact them, and I send the families a book from the American Society of Suicide Prevention,” she said. “It’s called ‘After Suicide Loss.’ And I enclose a card with my name and number.”

The big event and fundraiser for Wellness in the Valley is the annual Out of Darkness Walk. This year’s walk is October 10, 2015, at 12 p.m., the same day as the Dakota State University-VCSU game and on the VCSU campus.

“The students and faculty are really involved,” Anderson said. “I hope this will fire up the community again, too. We have 109 regular donors to ‘Wellness,’ and I hope this will help because the college students are very excited and working hard. I don’t have many community businesses involved with the walk, but I hope that when the community sees all the college students they’ll want to get involved again, and help Wellness in the Valley and Valley City State University help save lives and families.”

For more information about the Out of the Darkness Walk, or Wellness in the Valley, call 701-845-6436, or log on to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention AFSP.org/walk.

O, to sleep, to dream, and to wake up without feeling beat up , exhausted, and ready for a nap. Sleep apnea, restless legs, insomnias, parasomnias–there are categories and subcategories of all that steals sleep. Quite a few sleep disorders will actually affect good health: sleep terrors, REM disorders, obstructive sleep apnea can with frequency affect mental as well as physical health. Fortunately there are sleep study centers today, and in Valley City is lucky enough to have one.

CHI Mercy Health has opened a sleep center in the hospital. The center is run by Whitney Sleep Diagnostics & Consultants of Detroit Lakes, and coordinated by Karen Burchill for the hospital. The studies are conducted right in the hospital and patients receive follow up from a Board Certified Sleep Specialist.

“Traditionally in a smaller town,” said Jim Dunn, “the patient and his or her healthcare provider saw the results of the sleep study for the first time together and had to figure out what it all meant. Now the patient can talk directly to the Sleep Specialist who interprets their study via telemedicine right at CHI Mercy. We are able to diagnose, treat and provide continued follow up for most sleep disorders right in Valley City.” Dunn is Whitney Sleep’s Director of Business Development, and a Whitney Sleep success story himself.

There are eighty-four different sleep disorders, said Dunn, with insomnias the most prevalent, but Obstructive Sleep Apnea are the most commonly worked with.

“Obstructive Sleep Apnea,” said Dunn, “is a condition where the muscles in the back of the throat fail to keep the airway open despite efforts to breathe. People with sleep apnea have these pauses in breathing anywhere from 100 to 300 (or more) times each night. In most patients that are referred for a sleep study, we are able to do what we call a split night study. This is where we use the first half of the night to evaluate the patient’s sleep. If the patient displays enough breathing disturbances, we will use the remainder of the night to put the patient on CPAP therapy and manipulate the pressure to make sure the patient is breathing properly in all phases of sleep and in all body positions. Follow up with the Sleep Specialist takes place in a separate appointment.”

Dunn understands the full benefit of healthy sleep. In 2007, he had his sleep study done and learned he stopped breathing 25 times an hour. After starting CPAP therapy, he immediately noticed he had more energy, was more productive at work and at home, and was just in a better mood all day. “You don’t know how bad your sleep is until it is corrected,” he said. “I have never met anyone who said they wish they had waited longer to address their sleep.”

There is a simple diagnostic chart that may indicate a need for a sleep study. Snoring, excessive daily fatigue, hypertension, a large neck size are among the symptoms and an individual who exhibits two or more should consult a doctor, who may then refer the individual for a sleep study. Patients for the sleep studies are all referred by a healthcare provider.

For more information, contact CHI Mercy Health at 845-6400. Or ask your physician to refer you to Mercy for a sleep study with Whitney.