Edition 12
Construction Update:
The benefit of slamming my head on my desk is that is also serves as knocking on wood.
The slow march of construction progress is continuing. Access to the MRI trailer and the corridor connecting the Extended Care and Hospital is reopening. Surgery has moved upstairs, and wound care will follow shortly. The Scheduling Team will be moving back downstairs (although to a different office), and ultrasound is moving back in its old space today.
Next week, the containment zone will move and take over the lab hallway and parts of the admitting area. We will maintain access to the elevator, and some work will occur after hours.
Hospital Survey:
Our friends from the Department of Health and Fire Marshal visited last week for our state and CMS survey. Overall, it went very well, and special thanks to Jody, Christa, Cassi, Ray, and Todd, who spent a large part of their week showing the surveyors around.
The official statement of deficiency won’t arrive until next week, but we have already addressed many of the issues the surveyors noticed. Once we receive the deficiencies, we will write a Plan of Corrections and ensure we’ve addressed the issue. In some cases, this will require new training or checklists to ensure we don’t have a reoccurrence on a future survey.
Tonasket City Road Construction:
Starting next week, road construction will begin in Tonasket. The first phase of work will occur on Whitcomb Ave (Highway 97) between Third Street and Fourth Street. Although the work isn’t next to our campus, all of the through traffic will be routed onto Western Avenue.
Graphic Design is my Passion
During this first phase access to campus from the south will require a small detour, but we are not expecting any major impacts to access or parking.
There will be much more traffic on the side streets, so please exercise caution when crossing the roads.
Retirement Account:
I want to encourage each of you to take full advantage of our employer-sponsored retirement plan. Participating in this plan is not just a benefit of working here—it’s an essential step towards ensuring your financial well-being in the years to come.
Our retirement plan offers significant advantages, including tax benefits and 4% employer matching contributions. These matches are a valuable opportunity to boost your savings, essentially providing additional funds to help you reach your retirement goals.
I understand that contributing to a retirement plan can be challenging, especially when balancing immediate financial needs. For those of you managing tighter budgets, it may seem difficult to set aside money for the future. However, I encourage you to consider starting with small contributions. Even modest amounts can grow significantly over time thanks to the power of compounding interest.
Chicken Update:
In my first newsletter, I shared the story of our chickens joining our family. Since then, I’ve completely given up my backyard to them, and they are slowly destroying the lawn. Another fun game we play is that two of the three chickens like to avoid using the laying box we built in the coop and instead hide their eggs in the bushes.
When we are home this isn’t too much trouble, but after we went on a vacation our backyard scavenger hunt ended with with two dozen eggs hidden in a bush.