Will You Contact Senator Franken and Senator Klobuchar to Help Make a Key Improvement to Seniors' Medicare Benefit?

Let's Ask Congress to Eliminate the Worry That Seniors Won't Have Their Rehabilitation Covered

The rehabilitation services that Ecumen and other non-profits provide are critically important to keeping people healthfully independent, especially after they have hip replacement surgery, experience a stroke or have another major ailment.  Right now without the Senate’s actions there will be brutal cuts to Medicare on Jan. 1, 2014 that impact people who need our services.  We need to let our Senators know that we oppose those cuts, and that Medicare should count any time a Medicare beneficiary spends in a hospital toward the 3-day requirement for Medicare coverage of a subsequent stay in a transitional care rehabilitation center.  By doing this Congress would correct a problem known as “observation days” in Medicare that forces many Medicare beneficiaries to pay large out-of-pocket for their rehabilitation stays or go without these services. 

Under the current rules, Medicare beneficiaries must have an inpatient hospital stay of 3 nights to qualify for rehabilitation coverage after they are released. However, many beneficiaries are being denied access to this benefit because they are classified as "outpatients" under observation for all or part of their hospital stay. Bi-partisan legislation to avoid this unjust impact has been introduced, and simply counts all nights that a Medicare beneficiary spends in the hospital toward the three-day stay requirement.  These rehabiltation services are essentially important to a person's well-being and to help prevent more expensive health care services and unnecessary bounce backs to the hospital emergency room.  For more information on this issue, see this National Public Radio story and information from LeadingAge and AARP.

You can help right this wrong by calling your Senator today at the the number below and urge them to support bi-partisan legislation that can correct this. 

 NUMBER TO CALL:  888-277-8686 (You’re going to hear a message from LeadingAge Leader Larry Minnix (We're partnering on this with LeadingAge, our national association that represents non-profit senior services organizations).  When you call, you’ll be prompted to be connected to either the office of Sen. Klobuchar or Sen. Franken if you live in Minnesota.  If you live in another state, you'll be connected to one of your Senators' offices.   After you leave the message that you can personalize below with the staff person, would love if you could call back and leave a message for your other Senator.

Rehabilitation services that non-profit therapy centers provide after a hospital stay help Medicare beneficiaries stay healthfully independent after occurrences such as a stroke or hip replacement surgery. (Feel free to share how you or loved one has used rehabilitation services.)

 

  1. I ask you to prevent the harsh therapy caps on coverage of outpatient therapy from going into effect Jan. 1, 2014.
  2. Secondly, I ask you to count any time a Medicare beneficiary spends in a hospital toward the 3-day requirement for Medicare coverage of a subsequent stay in a transitional care rehabilitation center.  By doing this you would correct the “observation days” problem that forces many Medicare beneficiaries to pay large out-of-pocket for their rehabilitation stays or go without these services.  These essential services often help prevent larger, more expensive health care services across the United States.

THANK YOU!


An Ecumen Resident's Story of Surviving the Pearl Harbor Attack

Gene Erlandson, 94, a resident of Ecumen Meadows in Worthington, Minn., was stationed near Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, and survived the Japanese surprise bombing attack. The Daily Globe in Worthington tells his story in a recent article you can read by clicking here .


Ecumen Lakeshore’s Annette Walkowiak “Just Won’t Stop” for the Snow

The snow is piling up in Duluth. There’s a foot on the ground and another foot or more on the way.  Lots of people are hunkering down, but Ecumen Lakeshore employee Annette Walkowiak is stepping up— big time.

An assisted living community needs staff regardless of the weather, and Annette is out on the road in her 4-wheel drive making sure other employees get to work.  Today she’s volunteered to go to the far end of Duluth to pick up an employee who otherwise would not have made it to work.

Last month Annette got up at 3 a.m. to pick up another employee and give her a ride to work.  That took about two hours before Annette could get back home and go to bed on her day off.  That’s just the kind of person she is.

Rita Walker, the director of assisted living and memory care at Ecumen Lakeshore, can’t say enough good things about Annette.  “She just won’t stop,” Rita says.  “She’s a fireball.  She’s just so willing to help all the time, and she’s such a team player.”

Annette is a personal care attendant who, in her spare time, makes Christmas presents and ornaments for the residents of her memory care unit.  That’s in her spare time when she is not taking care of her own mother and her grandson.

“She just so special,” Rita says.

John Korzendorfer, the executive director at Ecumen Lakeshore, echoes Rita’s praise for Annette, and all the Ecumen Lakeshore employees who go above-and-beyond when the notorious Duluth weather takes its toll.  “They just pull and pull and pull,” John says. “Bad weather brings out the good in people.”

Today we honor Annette Walkowiak, who has made it a better day for others.


Developers Keen on Minnesota for Senior Housing— But Are They Too Bullish?

A recent article in Senior Housing News poses the question of whether the recent growth in senior housing units in Minnesota is reaching the saturation point.  Julie Murray, Ecumen’s vice president of sales, marketing and business development, weighs in.  You can read the article here.

 


How Carl the Big Friendly Puppy "Saved" an Ecumen Bethany Resident

KSTP-TV reporter Jason Davis tells the heartwarming story of how Carl, a 70-pound St. Bernard puppy, walked into the apartment of Gail Furos, a resident of Ecumen Bethany Community in Alexandria, Minn., and profoundly changed her life-- just when she needed it most.  You can see the video here.


Star Tribune Columnist Tells Ecumen Resident's Inspiring Story of Foster Parenting 125 Children

Star Tribune Columnist Jon Tevlin tells the inspiring story of Larry Bauer-Scandin, an Ecumen Seasons at Maplewood resident who devoted his life to helping kids the juvenile justice system considered hopeless.  He was foster parent to 125 kids, and now the walls of his Ecumen Seasons at Maplewood apartment are lined with their pictures.  There are policemen, soldiers and at least one millionaire.  You can read the column here.


An Ecumen Chef's Perspective on Honor

 Most professional chefs are well trained to cook for lots of different people with different tastes on any given day.  But what if your job is to cook for the same 150 people every day?  Not only do you have to be a versatile chef, but also you have to be a very good listener.  Everybody has an opinion every day—and they’ll surely be back tomorrow. 

Chef Bill Evanoff at Ecumen Seasons at Maplewood is walking down the hall, making his way back to the kitchen, when a resident pops out of the dining room and corners him.  “Chicken noodle soup is noodles—not macaroni!” she says empathically.

“Hey, chef, be careful of that one,” another resident chimes in.  And Bill just smiles, patiently listening.  He knows a guy wearing a chef’s white coat is also wearing a flak jacket.  And he can take it.

Chef Bill politely points out that macaroni and noodles are the exact same thing, just in a different shape, and that macaroni is a lot easier to eat with a spoon.  But she is not persuaded.

And by the way, she says, there are some things she would like to see on the menu and she has some good recipes she would be happy to share. 

“Well, I would love to have those recipes,” Chef Bill says.  “Lots of people threaten to give me recipes, but as long as I’ve been here, I haven’t gotten a single one.  Think about what you would like, and let’s talk about it again.”

Bill Evanoff means it when he says he wants suggestions.  He holds a monthly food forum with residents and makes it a point to walk the halls so he can get regular feedback.  He is a proud professional chef, who has worked at top area restaurants and is passionate about what he does. He knows the key measure of his success is what the residents think of the food he serves. “This is their home,” he says. “This is personal.”

“My challenge,” Bill says, “is to change the dining paradigm to a daily event that resembles a restaurant experience rather than a ritual.”

Bill also knows that as the food and beverage manager of a senior living community he has to overcome the stereotypical perceptions of bland, pureed food lingering on steam tables.

“You will not find any steam tables in my kitchen,” he says.  “And I don’t serve food out of a box.  Fresh, hot food beautifully presented is my passion—scratch-cooked food, prepared on an individual basis.”

Bill’s from-scratch kitchen includes the baked goods.  Especially the baked goods.  Pastry chef Kristy Shelly was a baker at Keys Café & Bakery in Hudson, Wisc., before coming here, and Bill characterizes her talents as “world class.”   He advises never uttering the words “frozen pie” in front of her.

In fact, what got Kristy interested in working in this senior living kitchen was a bad experience with another senior community.  “My grandmother was in a care center,” Kristy said, “and she just hated the food.”

Bill’s monthly food forums with the residents help ensure that any issues with the food or dining experience are addressed immediately.  He encourages the residents to be very specific about things they didn’t like.  “I want names and dates,” he says.

His most memorable criticism came back in August when the kitchen featured 16-ounce T-bone steaks grilled to order and residents complained that the steak was too big.  “If the size of a perfectly grilled steak is the greatest concern coming from the residents,” Bill says, “I’ll definitely listen—and privately wear it as a badge of honor.” 

Bill has 30 years of kitchen experience.  Before moving into the senior living sector, he worked at restaurants such as Tejas, Bar Abilene and the Blue Horse, a special-occasion Saint Paul restaurant no longer in business that many of the residents remember.  He has also catered some high profile political campaign events for Walter Mondale, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

At Ecumen Seasons at Maplewood residents order from a menu and everything is prepared to order.  There are two seatings a day with a standard menu and one special each meal. But if you want something not on the menu, he will try to accommodate. As far as he is concerned, residents can have “anything they want within reason.” Once a month, there is a theme night.  In October it was prime rib and popovers.

“We strive to create meals and desserts that people really enjoy,” Bill says.  “It’s one of the best ways we can honor them.”


Ecumen Nurse Maria Reyes’ Personal “Awakening” and Triumph Over Adversity

 Ecumen Quality Improvement Nurse Maria Reyes learned valuable lessons taking care of her grandmother as a young teenager in Puerto Rico—lessons that still guide her today as she teaches other professionals about honoring and empowering the seniors in their care.

Maria’s own determined journey to becoming a nurse was full of challenges, and her inspiring story recently was chronicled by her alma mater, Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College.  

“There was something special about that girl,” recalls Ann Charbonneau, an academic affairs assistant who remembers the day Maria showed up at WITC. “I knew in my heart of hearts that Maria would become a leader in the medical community someday.”

Click here to read the moving story of how Maria found strength in adversity, found her calling and came up through the ranks at Ecumen, where she now champions the “Awakenings” program that uses non-pharmaceutical approaches to caring for those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.


The Story of JFK and PT 109 You Haven't Heard

Very few men can say they have run a race with a U.S. President—and won. Father Vincent Healy Arimond, a resident at Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth, has that fond memory.

The President was John F. Kennedy Jr.  The race was a PT boat scramble in the South Pacific during World War II.

JKF was then a young Navy lieutenant, commanding the now famous PT 109, which as PT boats go, was something of a heap.  Fr. Vincent, before he became a priest, was the quartermaster on the much more seaworthy PT 60.  The two boats were paired for night patrol near the Russell Islands.

In his memoirs, Father Vincent, recalled that night this way:

“After the night’s patrol duties, Jack (Kennedy) challenged our skipper to a race back to our Russell Islands base.  We readily agreed, knowing he couldn’t possibly win.  The flatter hull of our 70-foot PT 60 boat was lighter and faster than the PT 109, an 80-foot boat.  An incentive was that our required refueling was first-come-first-served, in order of arrival, after which the crew would be free to take a swim in the bay to cool off. 

“As we expected, we won the race easily.  Jack did not like being beaten in a race.  When we got into the harbor, he gunned the engine and plunged past us, a forbidden harbor practice in the Navy.  As he headed for the docks he asked his motor-mac to put the motors in reverse.  The intensity of the speed killed the motors, and he headed straight towards the dock with no way to check his speed.  We watched as the boat plowed into the dock with a crash.  The dock broke into pieces, the PT boat stopping when it hit the pilings that supported the dock.  We heard Jack was in real trouble.  The authorities assigned Jack to duty on the beach for a spell.  This couldn’t last long, however, as we were all needed for the patrols.”

And, of course, the rest of the story has been widely publicized and made into a movie. Sometime later, operating from a different base, Lt. Kennedy went on patrol in PT 109 and the boat was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer.  In a narrow escape from the crash, JFK led his 10 surviving men in an exhausting and heroic swim to a nearby island.

Father Vincent, who recalls frequently riding to Mass with Lt. Kennedy, is now 92 and living at Ecumen Lakeshore, where he has written his memoirs that recall the Kennedy story. After the war, Father Vincent returned to the States to become a priest. He did pastoral service in Duluth, Brainerd, Sandstone, Proctor and Morgan Park.

After 25 years in the priesthood, Father Vincent changed course.  “Ultimately, I realized that I had promised God that I would serve in the Missions,” he wrote.  He spent the rest of his career in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador before returning to Duluth, where he retired.

Lt. Kennedy returned from his ordeal to become a Congressman and the 35th President of the United States.  He was assassinated 50 years ago today.

 

 


A Volley Across the Generations Between Gustavus Adolphus College and Ecumen in Saint Peter

 At a girls volleyball game at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., there is a rowdy group of ladies on the front row cheering enthusiastically.  They might be mistaken for volleyball players’ grandmothers. But they are just very good older friends who have come from their assisted-living residence at Ecumen Sand Prairie, also in St. Peter, to show their support for these girls who have given them so much friendship and joy.

The Gustavus volleyball team has made sure their friends have the best seats in the house and have brought them roses to make them feel welcome and special. In return, the older women are cheering their hearts out.

This special relationship started about three years ago when Gustavus girls volleyball Coach Rachelle Sherden talked to her team about doing community service work—something the team could do as a team that was bigger than volleyball.  The coach threw out the idea of a pen pal program with young kids.  But the girls countered that they would rather exchange letters with senior citizens.  After all, since they have gone away to college, they don’t get to see their grandparents all that much.

So Coach Sherden approached Becky Tapper, the activities coordinator at Ecumen Sand Prairie.  Becky loved the idea.  So did the residents.  Now three years later, the program is still going and deep relationships abide.  Some of the volleyball team members have been involved the entire three years.

The program began with the residents and the team members exchanging letters.  Yes, actual letters—those nearly obsolete things from bygone times now displaced by texts and emails.  It turns out that there is still something special about getting a letter, written by hand, coming from the heart.  Coach would hand them out at practice, and the distance between the 20-year-olds and the 80-year-olds would rapidly shrink.

“The residents’ stories just blew the girls’ minds,” Coach Sherden said.  “They wrote about how they grew up and all they have done in their lives.”

After a few letters, it was time to meet in person.  The team went to Ecumen Sand Prairie for a visit. Coach Sherden recalls that she didn’t know quite what to expect from her team in this new situation.

“It was just so cool,” she said. “The girls were so excited when they met their pen pals for the first time.  They were giddy like little kids.  You couldn’t pull them apart.  It was a hoot.”

“The chatter was overwhelming,” Becky Tapper recalls. 

Clearly, this was not going to end when volleyball season was over.  They made plans to stay in touch. The residents went to a volleyball game. They all followed up with a pizza party.  And the next season came and the program started all over again, with some new volleyball players and some from the year before.

This is now the third year of the pen pal program, and Coach Sherden says she’s committed to keeping it going.   The team loves it.

“One of a kind” is how sophomore Becca characterizes the relationship she has formed.  “My pen pal is Doris, and I can’t tell you how thankful I am to have met her.  Her beautiful spirit and tenacious attitude is inspiring to me, and I am so appreciative of the opportunity to connect with the elderly in my community. I love hearing about her life, her stories and her experiences.”

Amber, also a sophomore, says the program “creates this unique connection” that probably wouldn’t happen on its own.  “It allows college kids and the residents to talk to someone over the best kinds and most rewarding forms of communication—writing on paper and talking with them face to face.”

The feelings are mutual with the residents.  “It keeps us young!” says Marvel. “It’s invigorating. It’s wonderful to be a part of this.”

And Michele adds, “It gives me a feeling of being respected and a part of things—not invisible and left out.”

Marvel and Michele have plenty to share with their pen pals.  Marvel was a teacher for 29 years, retired, started a new career in social services, became the mayor of her community and worked actively in politics.  Michele was a music major who had a career working at a music store in Minneapolis before she took up photography and writing and co-authored two books.

“The girls want to know about everything,” Michele says.

That’s probably because stories of lives well-lived never get old.