The Importance of “Champions” In A Market

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By Kelly Alvord, Therapy Resource, Sunstone UT

For OT month, we wanted to highlight two of our Market OT champions who not only provide amazing care to the residents at their own facilities, but also help facilitate support for others in our market.

In Sunstone, we host ongoing champion calls to further the development of these programs. This forum is a great place to share best practices, brainstorm to resolve barriers, and to enhance the interventions to improve the lives of our patients.

Gary Pearson, OT, Pointe Meadows, leads our Abilities Care call. Gary is an occupational therapist and leader of the LTC programming and the CQR (long-term case management) process at Pointe Meadows, where he is also the assistant DOR. He has a passion for skilled intervention for patients with dementia, has participated in several dementia courses, and is the TEACHA for the Sunstone Market. He has also brought this skill set to the community, where he has brought the Abilities Care Approach into several local assisted living centers. Gary has had an impact at Pointe Meadows, in the local community and throughout the market.

Ryan Porritt, OT from Orem Rehab, leads our Heart Math Call. When Ryan started working as a new grad, it became apparent that there was a certain patient group he could not reach because of their self-limiting behaviors and the emotional components to healing. Reducing these emotional barriers to function quickly became his passion, which he has pursued over the past four years. Ryan has found HeartMath and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to be effective means of increasing participation in value-based activities by reducing the emotional barriers to function. He is excited to share his passion with anyone who is interested.

Check out these amazing therapy career opportunities at our affiliated facilities: Occupational Therapist – Ukiah Post Acute – $5K Bonus, Occupational Therapist – Pacific Care and Rehabilitation Center, Occupational Therapist – Wellington Place, and Occupational Therapist – Medical Lodge of Amarillo. Find out more about these amazing jobs and browse our complete list of therapy job opportunities.

Leadership Development Within Our Organization At Its Best!

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Dora started at Sabino Canyon in 2012 as a therapy tech and transitioned to COTA once she completed school and received her license. She was promoted to TPM in 2015 and has now received CTO in 2022, 10 years after she began with Sabino Canyon.

In fact, when you ask Dora what she values most about her job, she says it’s “the ability to allow people to grow in the organization” like herself. “There’s an investment in people to learn — to allow them to develop and get it right.” She also values the ability to be flexible to meet others’ needs: the patients, the team and her co-workers.

Dora is part of an interdisciplinary team that shows the importance of thinking out of the box and of teamwork, especially between nursing and rehab. She and her DNS partner, Quinny Mazzola, work together hand in hand to achieve excellence. They know, understand and respect each other’s goals, and they equate their success in therapy metrics, outcome scores, quality measures, turnover and facility ranking (2nd in Arizona) to this collaboration.

Dora is from Tucson and is married with three kids. Her oldest is currently in COTA school! It’s family first for Dora. In addition to multiple dogs, she recently added chickens, and her husband built the coop! Dora loves music, art and tranquility, all contributing to her work/life balance. Congratulations, Dora!

Check out these amazing therapy career opportunities at our affiliated facilities: Director of Rehab – Catalina Post Acute Care, Director of Rehab – Discovery Care, Director of Rehab – The Garrison, and Director of Rehab – Surprise Health. Find out more about these amazing jobs and browse our complete list of therapy job opportunities.

Therapy positions open at River Pointe of Trinity Healthcare and Rehabilitation

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Trinity, TX is a rural city with a population close to 2500 right between Houston and Tyler. Originally named Trinity Station, Trinity was considered a major railroad station in the late 1800s. Interestingly, healthcare and social assistance workers now make up the highest percentage of persons employed in Trinity at about 25%.

Trinity is a family-centered community. Trinity ISD, home of the Tigers, is a small school district with a low student to teacher ratio. There are several  great private school options nearby as well.

Located right next to Lake Livingston, Trinity boasts many fun water activities including tours and scuba diving through Texan Scuba at The Blue Lagoon in nearby Huntsville which is an actual crystal clear blue “lagoon.” The Texas Prison Museum and Hearts Veterans Museum are also must sees for history buffs and true crime fanatics. With some great restaurant options nearby, you’ll also never be without something delicious to try.

With several therapy positions open at our River Pointe of Trinity Healthcare and Rehabilitation, we think you would love to make the fun and family-focused city of Trinity your new home!

Therapy positions open at River Pointe of Trinity:

Sources:

Taking IDT Collaboration to Another Level

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By Asa Gardine, MS OTR/L, Sunstone Therapy Resource

Spearheaded by a tenacious PTA, Jake Dean, the Pinnacle Nursing & Rehab team of Price, Utah, set out to have some fun together outside of the hallways of their facility and at the same time strengthen the relationships within their team. Over the past few years, some staff in the facility found running to be a shared hobby, and they decided to train together for the Wasatch Back RAGNAR race. Their team is comprised of Julz, PTA; Jake, PTA; Haley, RD; Michelle, RN; Asa, OT; and Derek, COTA, and they call themselves “Team Pinnacle — ladas.” During the last year, they have spent countless hours training, pushing, inspiring and coaching each other to help prepare themselves for a successful race. While, of course, the training increased their teamwork and level of cohesiveness, the race day galvanized their relationships.  

Throughout the race, each runner struggled with extreme heat and difficult terrain, but they were able to look to each other for support. Watching as this race progressed, it was amazing to observe the growth and closeness of this team get even deeper. In a RAGNAR relay race, the final stretch at the finish line is to run together as a team. As we crossed together covered in sweat and dirt, there was a new bond forged that will invariably continue into the workplace with similar levels of support and love as each of us seeks to elevate one another. 

Check out these amazing therapy career opportunities at our affiliated facilities: Occupational Therapist – Legend-Greenville, Physical Therapist – Golden Palms, PT Assistant – Golden Palms, Physical Therapist – Keystone Ridge – $5K Bonus, and Physical Therapist – Mt Ogden Health & Rehab. Find out more about these amazing jobs and browse our complete list of therapy job opportunities.

Meet Ethel Praznik, our 100-year-old honorary staff member who volunteered to help stuff envelopes for the recent FlagPOST mailing.

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Ethel was born on August 27, 1921, to immigrant parents (her mother from Hungary and her father from Ireland). She has lived through the Great Depression (and still saves any food not eaten as well as little tiny pieces of soap!), worked in a local hospital and factories during World War II, and has survived all that has come after that. Her husband died on their 70th wedding anniversary on July 6, 2010, at the age of 92. Ethel likes to keep busy, although she suffers from macular degeneration and severe arthritis. She still plays games on her iPad though, like Words with Friends or Gambling Casino on Facebook. She’s also an avid QVC shopper, so giving her something else constructive to do really helps the budget! 🙂

Here’s an interesting story about Ethel’s mother and her immigration from Hungary. When her mother, Mary Timko, arrived at Ellis Island in New York, she had an eye infection and they were going to send her back to Hungary. Fortunately, her relatives were able to scrape up enough money to keep her here and heal her infection. Otherwise, she would have departed for Hungary on a ship that actually sank on its way back. Just think: Ethel and her family might never have been born, and someone else might have been formatting the FlagPOST instead of Marlyn. 🙂

Check out these amazing therapy career opportunities at our affiliated facilities: Physical Therapist – Victoria PARC, Physical Therapist – McCall Rehabilitation, Occupational Therapist – River Pointe, and Physical Therapist – Legend-So San Antonio. Find out more about these amazing jobs and browse our complete list of therapy job opportunities.

The Last Contract Therapy Facility Goes In-House

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Submitted by Cory Robertson, Therapy Resource, Pennant-Idaho
Discovery Rehab and Living in rural Salmon, Idaho, is a smaller facility in a mountainous rural setting that has been using contract therapy for years. Staffing is a large challenge and was seemingly a revolving door of therapy clinicians. Early last year, the contract company brought on a new leader. This leader demonstrated excellent drive and CAPLICO culture but without the same support from the contract therapy company that Ensign-affiliated facilities appreciate. Largely because of this leader, the facility ED Steve Lish, with cluster, market and resource assistance, decided to once again bring therapy in-house. Jolene Hugo, COTA/L, TPM, leads the Therapy team at Discovery Rehab and Living and exemplifies CAPLICO while managing the difficulties of a small rural therapy department like an all-star. Here are some of her reflections on the transition:

“May of this year marked our one-year anniversary for transitioning from contract therapy to in-house therapy at Discovery. When discussing the risks versus rewards of transitioning to in-house a year ago, I was intimidated. I felt nervous because I wanted to be able to prove that our therapy department could perform well. However, during and after the transition, I felt the weight of it all lifted by all of the support that being a part of Ensign Services has to offer our Therapy team and building. Being in-house really helped our Therapy department be part of a team and not just Therapy versus Them. I have a great resource and cluster partners that are readily available to work through difficult moments and the daily challenges. I have amazing opportunities to attend meetings that have helped me grow personally and professionally as a leader. Before being part of Discovery Care Center and our Ensign affiliates, , the challenges of the role really felt heavy, but now I have the resources to confront the challenges confidently.”

Therapist Profile: Jeffrey Montesclaros, DOR, Cloverdale Healthcare

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The Red Bike: A Short Story of Redemption from Depression
My story is not about depression but more about resilience. Through our life experience, my wife and I became very resilient and we developed a problem-solver mindset.

Our story started in 2005 as newlyweds. My wife, Raissa, had this idea of migrating to the United States to pursue her adventure of traveling. Prior to that, I already had a stable job working as a team supervisor for a call center, and my wife was already enrolled by her parents to be a doctor. Our parents were not very hopeful that we would make it in Uncle Sam’s land. But my wife and I are stubborn. Needless to say, we won that battle, as we ended up in a very small town in Guymon, Oklahoma, with a population of less than 10,000. I worked multiple jobs, from a meat packing factory QA supervisor, to Walmart department manager, to liquor store attendant, to mowing lawns and doing carpentry work on weekends while my wife worked at a small hospital as a lab medical technologist. Still in our 20s, we bought our first house in 2009 in a bigger city, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Everything was set and planned, from having a stable job to getting reliable cars and having our first home.

Now we were ready to grow our family. And yes, we did. After two miscarriages, we finally had a child named Justin, and he was our bundle of joy in 2012. Sad to say “had” because the only thing that was not according to plan was having a child with a rare genetic disorder who only lived to be 18 months old. Justin was born with peroxisomal biogenesis disorder, which affects multiple systems in the body. Our little Justin suffered from frequent seizures, hypotonia, liver and kidney issues, blindness and many other health issues. He was fed through a G tube and later had a tracheostomy tube to help him breathe.
Through meeting various medical professionals, I then decided to go back to school to become a therapist. As you probably have an idea already, my child would never be able to walk, talk and experience things, let alone go to school, so I always pretended that I was going to school for him, and I promised myself not to fail him. I graduated Cum Laude but he was not there to see it.

My wife and I got so depressed during his passing. We were very devastated, to the point that we lost interest in doing things. Self-care was not there anymore. Our lawn looked like a scene from Jumanji because the grass was so tall. We were growing apart everyday as we continued to grieve the loss of a child.

One day, I came across a video about an Ironman triathlon, and it inspired me so much that I encouraged my wife to do a triathlon as she was gutsier than I. I got her a red aluminum road bike, and my first awkward, encouraging words were “Ride this or I am leaving.” When I look back, I think these were such harsh words, but hey, try dealing with a loss and it will make you say or do things that don’t make sense.

Fast forward to 2015; we moved to Santa Rosa, California, and I found work as a COTA in Cloverdale Healthcare Center. It paved the way for me in becoming the Director of Rehab, and it inspired me to work harder as we also welcomed our baby girl named Juliana, through adoption at around the same time. This is just the first chapter of my story. And as I continue with this journey with the new role I am taking, I will continue to adopt the CAPLICO culture. I will aspire to build more leaders. And I will continue to be the person that both Justin and Juliana will be proud to call their Dad.

Therapy Dream Team Partnership at La Canada Care Center: Leading with Humility and Ambition

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Submitted by Shelby Donahoo, Therapy Resource, Bandera-Tucson
Meet Annie Combs, TPM, and Jesus Salazar, assistant TPM at La Canada Care Center. Annie and Jesus were hired into their respective roles at the same time in November 2021. Wanting to strengthen La Canada leadership for the facility and for Rehab, ED Mike Bostwick made the decision to bring on both of them to support each other as first-time department managers.

They were a team from day one: no ego, just respect for each other, sharing new ideas for the department and responsibilities. While Annie had completed the DORiTO program, Jesus had not, and he started in February 2022. Annie made sure Jesus was applying and doing the DORiTO lessons in real-time at the facility as they occurred. Jesus said this made a world of difference in his learning experience.

The facility was having some issues with Nursing and Rehab communication, impacting group and LTC treatment sessions. Missed visits, low group, productivity, and tension affecting morale were issues. Brainstorming with Annie for his Capstone project, Jesus created a structure for scheduling and communicating individual and group sessions. He involved Nursing in patient goals and group participation. From February to May, productivity, group and concurrent, and most importantly GG outcomes improved tremendously.

Recently, Annie and Jesus took it upon themselves to go out to their Alma Mater, Pima Community College, and market for every single building in Tucson, not just their own. And they had a blast doing it! While learning herself, Annie supported her partner in his success, thereby multiplying leadership growth. By being a humble leader, she showed what true leadership qualities look like.

Moments of Truth

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Submitted by Angie Taylor, COTA/TPM, Shawnee Post Acute Care, Overland Park, KS
Moments of truth come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it can be a moment of truth that shines through in our normal day-to-day job duties and roles that we have. As therapists, we are constantly advocating for our residents, but sometimes this advocacy goes above and beyond others. Our PTA Buddy Eblen did that for one of our residents. Kacie came to us initially with a fracture, then developed COVID pneumonia and had a long road to recovery to return back home with her Mom and daughter. Due to all these conditions, Kacie had a slow recovery where, at times, we were not sure if she would rehab home.

Buddy was the voice and champion who kept fighting for Kacie and encouraging her not to give up. He was able to consistently work with her to make the functional progress with stairs and ambulation that she needed to achieve to return home. It is hard to put into words how far she came from dealing with her clinical issues, depression, anxiety and fears. Buddy was the one constant voice of encouragement, drive, motivation, and compassion that she needed to overcome all those issues.

We all need someone to be that voice for us. Buddy was that voice for Kacie, and the result was she was able to rehab to the point of returning home, something she felt early on she would not achieve, in large part due to the relationship between Buddy and Kacie with his insight and dedication to be her champion! We are blessed to have a therapist like Buddy who truly embraces his ability to positively make a difference in people’s lives and has the strength and determination to work through challenges and never give up on others.

Flag Celebration: Meadowview Nursing and Rehabilitation

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Submitted by Dominic DeLaquil, PT CEEAA, Therapy Resource, Idaho & Nevada

Meadowview Nursing and Rehabilitation in Nampa, Idaho recently celebrated winning the facility’s first Flag!

Prior to acquisition in May 2017, Meadowview (formerly Midland Care Center) was struggling. The reputation in the community was poor, culture in the facility was lacking, and Therapy was contract and had a strong “us versus them” mentality. Since then, Meadowview has undergone a complete transformation. The building has been remodeled, and an 18-bed skilled unit was added with a new and improved therapy gym. Therapy moved in-house, the culture throughout the building is one of the best throughout the organization, and Meadowview is now a facility of choice in the community.

In addition, Meadowview has become a leadership development powerhouse. Two of the nurses have gone on to become DONs in cluster facilities, and another nurse has become the ED at a cluster facility!
At the recent Flag ceremony, it was a true celebration. The ED, Melissa Truesdell, thanked the staff for all of their hard work and dedication. The DON, Jeremy Withers, gave a heartfelt speech where he kept coming back to how incredible the staff has been at “loving on the residents” and how that has been the driving factor in Meadowview’s transformation and success. And Tess Hurley, Physical Therapist, asked for a minute with the mic so she could heap praise on their DOR, Kristen Bailey. She thanked Kristen for supporting the therapists in being creative with treatments and growth ideas as well as positively challenging them to always be the best versions of themselves.

It was a touching celebration and even included the ED Melissa trying her hand at ice-sculpting under the tutelage of another ED in the market that is an accomplished ice-sculptor! Congratulations, Meadowview!