PERHAM MEMORIAL NURSING HOME RECEIVES EXCELLENCE AWARD FROM STATEWIDE ASSOCIATION

Minnesota Health and Housing Alliance (MHHA) presented an Excellence in Practice Award to Perham Memorial Nursing Home in Minneapolis on Feb. 9. The award honored the way the staff devised a new way to provide residents with their medications. Denise Ellis, R.N. and Teresa Stoderl, LPN, accepted the award on behalf of the facility. The event was attended by 3,400 professionals in long-term care and senior housing.

Perham Memorial Home has been on a culture change journey since January 2000. The conversion to a household model and movement away from a medical model of care meant that the medication carts were among the things that had to go. On the old routine, residents were given their medications at a specific time, just as their meals were given on a schedule. A cart could be heard clattering down the hallway and there were other noises, such as pills being crushed and drawers and cabinet doors opening and shutting. Medications could not always be passed at times that were a match to a resident’s schedule for naps or meals.

The goal was to find a way to put medications in residents’ rooms. Their ingenious solution has been a hit with residents and staff alike. Inexpensive, unstained kitchen cabinets were purchased from a local dealer and Perham Memorial Home’s maintenance staff put on a seal coat, added locks and secured them to the walls sideways, so that when the cabinet door is open, it became a work surface for staff. The medication administration records were placed in a binder by the cabinet.

The staff’s willingness to share their good idea was one reason judges chose them for the award. Since the original in-room medication system worked so well, Perham Memorial Home incorporated the idea into their new construction and remodeling. The result has been that medications can be given to meet a resident’s own schedule without interruptions for medication administration. They also have more time to discuss their questions and concerns with the nurse in the privacy of their own room. Staff, too, have benefited. They are available to assist residents at mealtime now that they aren’t passing meds at that time. They are able to focus on one resident at a time, further reducing the potential for errors.

Excellence in Practice awards are intended to help all MHHA members learn new ideas and replicate practices that help improve the quality of care to residents. MHHA is Minnesota’s largest membership association representing faith- and community-based providers of aging services. MHHA represents the complete continuum of services for odler adults including nursing home care, senior housing with supportive services, independent senior housing and community-based services.

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