Last year’s response to Door County’s first, off-road, running and walking event was surprising and encouraging for everyone involved in the launch of “Running Green for Crossroads.” More than a hundred competitive male and female runners took up the 5 and 10K running challenges, with an equal number of walkers taking on the 2 and 5K events.

They all experienced something quite different in shifting from the typical pavement to wooded trail running and walking. There were a few natural surprises including a short section of the trail that was a bit wet. Race organizers also sought to provide another shift as they worked to create a 100% sustainable and green event with participants expected to bring and carry their own water. Snacks and prizes will again lean towards the “natural and organic” with donations of products from local businesses. All proceeds from the race provide annual financial support for Crossroads at Big Creek, a non-profit nature-based learning center in Sturgeon Bay.

You can see photos and results from last year, download a race packet and registration form or register in advance online at the official race Website, www.CrossroadsRun.com. The event also has a Facebook Fan Page for Door County Trail Runners, where you can join with others, “if you are not afraid of a little dirt!” Find them online at www.facebook.com/TrailRunners.

Door County Memorial Hospital, Ministry Health Care is providing generous funding and health care support for the event. Evergreen Nursery will again donate fir trees to be given away – one to each and every participant as they cross the finish line.

“Running Green for Crossoads,” is the only eco-aware trail run in Door County. The 2^nd Annual event takes place on Saturday, June 25 starting at 9 am. All of the courses, including a 2Km, 5Km and 10Km trail walk or run are staged on the woodlands and open fields in and around Crossroads at Big Creek. Find out more about Door County’s nature, science and history learning center online at CrossroadsAtBigCreek.org.

The award was made by Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN) magazine, that conducted a recent survey entitled, Health Care’s Most Wired 2010. H&HN is published by the American Hospital Association.

The “most wired” organizations are hospitals that scored the highest on survey questions regarding information technology (IT). DCMH/MHC is one of just 25 small and rural hospitals nationwide to earn the honor.

“This really says a lot about the people who spent so much time working to put together the electronic medical record.  It shows where we are compared to the rest of the country’s small and rural hospitals and that we are in a leadership role,” says Gerald Worrick, DCMH/MHC’s president/CEO. “Our goal is to meet requirements the federal government has set for hospitals to be fully electronic by 2017. Right now, we are ahead of that.”

An electronic medical record (EMR) is a computerized medical record similar in structure to a paper-based record. It is capable of capturing, processing and storing information and is interoperable with other related systems such as billing and administrative applications, according to H&HN.

DCMH/MHC will receive national visibility in H&HN’s July magazine and on the website, hhnmag.com. Also, Mary Lopas, the hospital’s chief information officer, who heads up IT, diagnostic imaging and the laboratory, will accept the award July 24 in San Diego.

Lopas says the “most wired” award recognizes DCMH/MHC for being on the right track.

“Our staff and physicians are being acknowledged by national experts for doing the right things and meeting guidelines and goals out there related to quality patient care,” Lopas explains.

“It’s an honorable distinction for a hospital this size and exemplifies our commitment to the communities we serve,” added Steve Quade, the hospital’s vice president of business and hospitality services.

This is the seventh year DCMH/MHC has completed the “most wired” survey. In 2008, the hospital earned a “most improved” award, a designation which recognizes health care organizations whose IT scores improved the most.

“This year, we have the full award.  We have achieved the goal,” Lopas says.

Some of the more recent IT accomplishments at DCMH/MHC include broadening IT programs to other areas of the hospital. For example, technology is being used to help ensure patients get the right medications in the right amounts. The implementation of safeguards began in inpatient services and has recently expanded to the Surgery Center, Lopas says.

Another area that contributed to the hospital’s high score is the access patients have to their health care charges online and ability to pay their bills electronically. Also, DCMH/MHC employees can access an intranet and a wide variety of hospital benefits and information.

Doctors use voice recognition dictation.  For example, in Diagnostic Imaging, radiologist’s voice recognition dictation is associated with reducing the time doctors and patients spend waiting for information about health care tests.

DCMH/MHC’s achievements also include a picture archiving communication system, which electronically manages and distributes images; computed radiography; digital rather than film images; and e-management systems in the Emergency Department and North Shore Medical Clinic, a multi-physician group practice owned by the hospital.

As to what is next for DCMH/MHC’s IT, Lopas says there are “gaps” that she would like to see filled. For example, she wants to ensure that more information is being electronically captured at North Shore locations, so that it can be promptly available, for example, to the hospital’s Emergency Department.

The modern hospital addition for inpatient services and the Emergency Department, opening in August, will support IT goals and make more initiatives easier, Lopas says.

“The caregivers will be working with patients to electronically capture information about their care in the private practice rooms — instead of writing something on a piece of paper and going somewhere else like a nurses stations to put it in the computer,” she explains.

More information about IT ad DCMH/MHC is online at ministryhealth.org or by calling 920.743.5566.

Earthworks Handmade Wooden Trophy Discs

The local response to Door County’s first “green” running and walking event has been surprising and encouraging to everyone involved in launching the June 26 event, “Running Green for Crossroads.” Sponsors have been enthusiastic in backing it and the public has been excited by a new opportunity to get fit and enjoy the outdoors.

“We’re quite pleased to already see more than a hundred people registered in advance and we’re still a week away,” says event founder Gretchen Schmelzer. “We don’t have any cap on attendance at Crossroads and we expect to see quite a few people register on the morning of the event. This is a great turnout!”

Competitive runners may experience something quite new in shifting from road events to trail running. Since this is a green run, participants are expected to bring and carry their own water vessel. All of the snacks are from local providers. Even the entertainment will be live and local, thanks to Sugar on the Floor Barn Dance Society.

Door County Memorial Hospital, Ministry Health Care provided $1,500 in start-up funding to launch the event and Evergreen Nursery is donating trees to be given away – one to each and every participant. Del Herrbold Insurance Agency is providing liability coverage for the event.

Greg Noldin and Michelle Maras at Earthworks, a local business on Highway 42/57 at the north end of Sturgeon Bay, notable for its wood carvings of bears, furniture and custom signs, is creating a set of custom green trophy disks with the race logo burned and painted on wood.

“Greg had the idea of making the disks,” says Michelle. “When Carol Mullanix came in, she loved them and asked us about doing it for the run.”

Other prizes and awards have been provided by Acme Beads, Door County Natural Ovens, Path and Paddle, Popelka-Trenchard Glass and Dan Swanson who created walking sticks from the wood of an invasive species found on Crossroads land. Other sponsors include Animal Clinic of Sturgeon Bay, Door County Style Magazine, Forbes Funeral Home LLC, Edward Koutnik DDS, Daniel Tomazski MD and Heidi Tomazwski.

The event has even spawned a Facebook support group, the Door County Trail Runners, where you can join with others, “if you are not afraid of a little dirt!” Find them online at www.facebook.com/TrailRunners.

LINKS:

Door County Trail Runners, Walkers and Wanna-Bees Invited to Learn About Running Green at Crossroads Pre-race Training and Orientation Workouts on June 21

“Trail running satisfies a primal need for movement through nature, presumably left over from our days as hunters,” says author and runner Matthew Frazier.
“When things spin out of control in an age of iPads and Droids, running in the woods is one thing we can count on to be pretty much the same as it’s [...]

Door County’s First Green Trail Run, Introducing the Team that Brings You “Running Green for Crossroads,” June 26

The 2Km, 5Km, 10Km trail walk run on Saturday, June 26, will be staged entirely off-road, in and around Crossroads at Big Creek nature preserve.
After Sturgeon Bay runner, Gretchen Schmelzer took part in a trail run at The Navarino Nature Center in Shiocton a year ago, she got inspired to bring the concept back home [...]

“Running Green for Crossroads,” the first annual eco-aware trail run in Door County, takes place on Saturday, June 26 at 9 am. All of the courses, including a 2Km, 5Km and 10Km trail walk or run are staged on the woodlands and open fields in and around Crossroads at Big Creek. You can download a race packet with trail maps and registration form online at CrossroadsAtBigCreek.org.

The Women’s & Children’s Health Center of Door County Memorial Hospital is proud to announce their newest initiative called “Reach Out and Read.” The program helps children from the ages of 6 months through 5 years by training physicians to read to these children during their well child visit and then give them a book to take home. Pediatricians and medical professionals throughout the United States are participating in the program to help children prepare for school.

There are currently 4,535 hospitals and over 26,000 medical providers participating in the Reach Out and Read program nationwide. Recent statistics show that over 35% of American children entering kindergarten lack the basic language skills needed to learn how to read.

Parents of children living in poverty may not have the money to purchase books for their children and may not have easy access to children’s books. Reach Out and Read helps solve these challenges by providing books to children when they come in to see their pediatrician. As often as possible,, the medical caregiver will also take the time to read excerpts of the books to their patients.

Reach Out and Read is a national, nonprofit, school-readiness organization founded in 1989 at Boston City Hospital through a collaboration of pediatricians and early childhood educators. Through both public and private funding, the Reach Out and Read National Center provides funding for books, as well as training to programs nationwide.

When asked why the program starts at 6 months of age, Dr. Amy Fogarty, a pediatrician with Door County Memorial Hospital explains, “We start children at 6 months because this is the time when they become interested in objects rather than faces only. At this age, the idea is not that they sit and read with their parents 20 minutes at a time, but to expose them to books and get them excited about the physical and emotional contact that reading provides.”

“This has been a phenomenal program to enhance our care of Door County’s children and their families<” says Jenny Fischer, Director of the Women’s & Children’s Health Center. “Literacy skills are so important to our children’s overall well-being, so being able to incorporate reading into a well child visit has been exciting for us. The Reach Out and Read Program not only provides us with a way to select the best in children’s books, but makes the program financially attainable by offering the books at a very low price. But, even at low prices, the program requires a significant cash outlay. We are extremely fortunate to get funding two years in a row from the Archibald Douglas Foundation to help us make this program happen”

For more information about the Reach Out and Read program, visit their website at www.reachoutandread.org or contact the Women’s & Children’s Health Center of Door County Memorial at 920.746.3666.

Subconsciously influenced by the composers of Christmas carols written in snowy European countries, most of us imagine the first Christmas as occurring on a midnight clear in the deep of midwinter… in a marshmallow world… sort of like within a scene on a greeting card. We at Crossroads are consciously dreaming of a White December.

In spite of their name, snowshoe hares probably do not dream of snow. It is unlikely that most hares have even experienced snow. Mortality rates are dismal for members of the rabbit family Fewer than one of three snowshoes survive to their second winter. But were it not for snow, survival rates would be even smaller.

These winter-white mammals are perfectly adapted to days when snow lays all about, crisp, and thick and even. In fact, crisp snow is offers a real advantage to hares. Their hind feet are enormous and covered with coarse hair which enables them to bound over the snow, while their numerous predators get bogged down in the drifts.

Ruffed grouse , similarly, can walk on snow. These chicken-sized birds sometimes even sleep in drifts.Their feet are not that large, but this time of year, funny little projections grow on their toes, sort of like the teeth of a comb. The projections act like snowshoes.

Whether we are talking about mammals and birds with large, wide feet, or people who strap on snowshoes, the principle is the same. An enlarged surface area distributes weight across a larger area so that snow can support the weight of a body.

And at Crossroads – once we have snow – grouse and hikers will be walking on the surface of the snow. Again this year, Friends of Crossroads will continue to administer Community Ski program. Between 1 and 3 pm on Sunday afternoons, visitors are invited to borrow skis or snowshoes and to celebrate the beauty of winter on our trails.

Thanks to a grant from the Door County Memorial Hospital Ministry Health Care, our trails are and will continue to be in great shape. Ski trails will be groomed for traditional and skate skiing. Designated hiking trails will be groomed for dog walking and hiking.

If you’d like to know more about snow, Crossroads will present a lecture called, “Snow” on Sunday, December 6, at 4 pm (by which time we will no longer be loaning skis, though many do enjoy skiing by the practically full moon. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Crossroads is a donor supported preserve welcoming learners of all ages for programs in science, history and the environment. The Collins Learning Center, located at 2041 Michigan Street in Sturgeon Bay, is open 2 – 5 pm daily. Trails are open. Pets (on leash and under control) are permitted but once we have snow, hikers and dog walkers are asked to use the designated trails.

Wednesday, December 2,
Friends of Crossroads Deck the Center Party
The Friends of Crossroads will gather at the Collins Learning Center to Deck the Halls. After preparing the learning center for the holidays, the Friends will hold a short meeting, while sharing merriment and holiday goodies. Visitors are encouraged. Collins Learning Center.

Sunday, December 6, 1:00-3:00 (snow permitting)
Community Ski
Friends of Crossroads will loan skis and snowshoes to children and adults who wish to use them on a first-come-first-serve basis. This is our gift to the community. Come to the Collins Learning Center. If in doubt about snow conditions, call 746-5895.

4:00
Lecture: “Snow”
This slide presentation will show the amazingly varied shapes of snow flakes and describe how snow forms under different conditions. The lecture is free and open to the public. Meet at the Collins Learning Center.

Door County Memorial Hospital’s (DCMH) Skilled Nursing Facility, located in Sturgeon Bay, recently received these highest marks during their 2009 annual inspection.

“We were told that it’s been a long time since our particular inspector had been able to tell a facility that they were deficiency-free,” says Judy Sinitz, Director of Nursing at DCMH’s Skilled Nursing Facility. “I am extremely proud of my staff.  I don’t recognize their efforts nearly as much as I should. The day of the inspection it was business as usual, which goes to show that care at our facility is consistently superior.”

Nursing homes must meet certain criteria in order to participate in such health inspections. First of all, the facility must participate in Medicare and/or Medicaid programs. Secondly, the facility must provide a level of care called “skilled” care which is defined as care given when skilled nursing or rehabilitation staff is required to manage, observe, or evaluate a patient’s care. Examples of skilled care include intravenous (IV) injections and physical therapy.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, all certified nursing homes must meet over 180 regulatory standards designed to protect nursing home residents. These standards cover a range of topics, from proper management of medications, protecting residents from physical or mental abuse and inadequate care, to the safe storage and preparation of food.

The teams of trained individuals that perform the health inspections consist of at least one registered nurse. Using the regulatory standards, these teams evaluate each nursing home based on the following standards: the care of residents and the processes used to give that care, how the staff and residents interact with each other and the overall nursing home environment. In addition, inspectors review the residents’ clinical records, interview some residents and family members about their life in the nursing home, and interview caregivers and administrative staff.

In accordance with Medicare Nursing Home stats derived from the www.medicare.gov Website, DCMH’s Skilled Nursing Facility achieved a 5 out of 5 star rating for its overall quality rating. A facility receiving 5 stars was described as having a “Much Above Average” quality rating.

For more information on the Door County Memorial Hospital Skilled Nursing Facility visit DCMH’s Website at www.dcmh.org or call 800.522.8919. Door County Memorial Hospital is a fully accredited, acute-care hospital and outpatient medical center with four separate locations throughout Northeast Wisconsin.

Pictured from L to R are: John Acker, Shaun Melarvie, MD, Gerald Worrick, Barb Kletzein, Ron Mahorek, Cory Dahl, LaVonne Callsen, Joe McMahon, Pat O’Hern, Jody Boes, Mike Herlache, and Jack Jackson.

Groundbreaking September 23, 2009

The 31,080 square foot two-story addition, being attached to the north side of the existing Sturgeon Bay hospital facility, will include 28 private rooms for medical/surgical, intensive care, birthing and women’s inpatient health on the second level.

The new Emergency Department, on the first level, will have eight private treatment rooms. Centralized nursing areas, enhanced visitor amenities and many other features are also planned.

Cost is $20.5 million with completion expected in September 2010. It will replace a part of the hospital facility built in 1964.

“That was 45 years ago, and reflected how medicine was practiced then. This project is about ensuring the community has a state-of-the art facility, and we are responding to patients and their needs. And one thing they have asked for is private rooms,” says Gerald Worrick, president and CEO of DCMH, a part of Ministry Health Care.

The building is necessary because infrastructure needs to keep pace with other improvements the hospital has made in patient care and technology, adds Jody Boes, vice president of patient care services. “We have excellent physicians, nurses and ancillary staff – laboratory, radiology, rehab and others. We have come so far, especially in the last ten years. But what limits us is the shell of the building,” Boes says.

The inpatient services/Emergency Department addition culminates updates DCMH/MHC has undertaken since 2003. DCMH/MHC built a new Surgery Center in 2003, the Door County Cancer Center in 2005 and, most recently, opened the Women’s and Children’s Health Center in 2007.

The current project is being paid for through donations from the community, operations as well as financing. ”We would not be able to accomplish this replacement of the hospital without the community seeing the importance of a fully integrated hospital in a small rural setting like Door County. They have really stepped up to the plate, and we are so thankful,” says Mike Herlache, executive director of the DCMH Foundation.

The 28 private rooms are allocated to patients as follows: 18 rooms for medical/surgical patients, six rooms for birthing and women’s inpatient care and four rooms for intensive care patients.

Each patient room is designed with zones for the patient and family as well as a work zone for hospital staff.

“Most of the supplies we need to take care of patients on a day-to-day basis will be right within our reach,” says John Storms, director of inpatient services.

Patients will find items—telephone, television control-within their reach, too. And the family zone area is furnished with a sofa and chair. Situated on the outside of the building, the rooms will have windows affording natural light. Each room will also have a bathroom with shower, shower sitting area as well as sink and countertop space.

Still other features include multiple centralized nurses stations and a curved hallway.

The new Emergency Department will have eight private treatment rooms. During peak times, such as the summer, the Emergency Department staff will be able to open up two more rooms to accommodate patients who come in with minor illnesses such as sore throats, fevers and flu-like symptoms.

Staff will see into all treatment rooms from a centralized nurses station and, therefore, better respond to patients’ needs, Boes says.

“I think the design that the staff developed is wonderful. They will truly have the patients in their line of sight at all times,” Boes says.

And technology enhancements include integration of vital signs monitors with the computer charting system. Registration will take place in an enclosed area, affording patients privacy and security.

“Our staff is energized and really looking forward to this. It will be a brand new state-of-the-art Emergency Department,” says Susan Zywicke, director of specialty services.

Also planned is the new Birthing and Women’s Inpatient Center, situated on the second floor of the new addition. It will serve expectant families as well as newborns and women who are recovering from surgery.

Included will be four new Birthing Center rooms for labor/delivery/recovery/postpartum (LDRP). “After the birth, it will be more like a living room than a hospital. The rooms will have all new decorating,” said Jennifer Fischer, director of the Women’s and Children’s Health Center.

The new center will also have a nursery, a triage/observation room and a surgical suite for cesarean section procedures. Two private rooms for women who had procedures such as gynecological or orthopedic surgery are also planned.

After the new addition opens, the current emergency space will become a new Outpatient Center, housing services that do not require an overnight stay at DCMH/MHC. The hospital’s Sleep Laboratory will move to the current Birthing Center space, and the medical/surgical unit will eventually become an area for community classrooms and staff offices. More information is available at dcmh.org or by calling 920.743.5566.

Dr. Dan Tomaszewski

Door County Memorial Hospital (DCMH) is proud to welcome a new member to the Orthopedic Surgery Team.  Dr. Dan Tomaszewski will be joining DCMH in July as an Orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Tomaszewski is moving back to Wisconsin (his home state) after spending the last 5 years in Danville, PA working as a resident surgeon for Geisinger Health Systems.

Originally from Tomahawk, WI, Dr. Tomaszewski and his family are pleased to be coming back to Wisconsin. In particular, they’re excited for the opportunity to raise their kids in a smaller community.

Tomaszewski remarks, “My wife and I chose Sturgeon Bay because of its beauty, its people, and our impression that it will be a great place for us to raise our children (3 boys). I didn’t want to go to a city and be the person who only fixes left hips in a large metropolitan hospital. I want be a part of this community along with helping to promote and advance the great work Dr. Davis and his team have been doing here for years.”

DCMH will begin scheduling patients for Dr. Tomaszewski starting in early July.  Call ahead to schedule time with him at 800.522.8919.

Bill Hartman

During those 27 years in the military, Bill had the opportunity to serve in many roles related to the nursing profession, both in traditional hospital settings and in a multitude of extended roles unique to military nursing.  It was those non-traditional roles that provided many exciting times throughout the years. Liking to keep his boots muddy, Bill accepted many assignments in support of combat units.  During the Gulf War, he was a member of the 101^st Air Borne (Air Assault) unit out of Fort Campbell, KY.  He was one of seven members that made up a Forward Area Surgical Team (FAST).  The mission of this elite unit was to provide life saving surgery to wounded soldiers on the front line.  Bill was awarded the Combat Medical Badge, a coveted award given to medical providers who rendered medical aid while under direct enemy fire.  At the time, he was 1 of only 4 nurses in the Army with that award.

Bill deployed to Somalia with the 86^th Evacuation Hospital in charge of the Emergency Treatment section.  Being dropped in the middle of a civil war provided plenty of non-stop trauma care experience.  Because of the nature of many of these injuries, a magnitude not seen in many Emergency Rooms within the United States, he was asked to present to medical and surgical staff within many teaching hospitals throughout the US.

Hartman eventually returned to school as a student and received his Masters Degree in Nursing from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN graduating as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Trauma/Emergency Nursing.  He completed his Army career as the Director of Training Support at Fort Sam Houston, TX, home of the Army Medical Command and Academy. With a staff of 275 people, his department was responsible for all medical related training throughout the world.  After Colonel Hartman retired from the US Army, he and his wife, who is also a Registered Nurse and retired from the Army Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel, moved to Door County where he joined the staff at DCMH as a Director and is now taking on the additional duty as a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS).  A CNS is a very unique role typically only found in large metropolitan hospitals but because of Bill’s decision to live in Door County, DCMH is very fortunate to have a CNS on staff here in Sturgeon Bay.

What does a Clinical Nurse Specialist do?
A Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) fills many roles including expert clinician, educator, consultant, and researcher.  A CNS acts as a liaison between the patient, the hospital, and medical staff.  If a patient has questions, Bill will be at their bedside to provide answers and comfort.  A CNS works closely with the medical staff and nursing staff, to monitor the clinical care of patients and provide clinical support to improve patient care and patient outcomes.  And, finally, a CNS is also instrumental in developing and implementing educational information, materials, and programs for discharge planning and teaching of DCMH patients.

When asked about what he enjoys most about being a CNS, Hartman replied, “Being able to help a staff member understand and learn when they have a question; being able to comfort and help a patient to feel at ease by providing a gentle touch and a genuine smile.”