205 East First Street, Corning, NY 14830 November 2017 UPCOMING EVENTS November 2017 A note from the Administrator Oh, the sights and aromas of fall, my favorite time of year! 3 rd Magician 3pm 10 th Veterans Day Celebration 13 th Basket Raffles Begin 21 st Thanksgiving Feast 5pm 25 th Parade of Lights It has been a packed-full year and I expect that the next year will be even more eventful as our whole building renovation, phase 1 has begun. Yah hooo!!! Let me tell you about our renovation plans: Shower/Tub rooms on the east side of the building on both 2 nd and 3 rd floors are being done first and first set of resident rooms: #206 and #208. We will go all the way around 2 nd floor remodeling a set of rooms at a time since they share a bathroom. Once the shower rooms on the east side are done, we will then tackle the west side showers. We expect that 2 nd floor will take a few months. December 2017 1 st Ed Kelce 3pm 8 th Dick Pensyl 3pm 13 th George Mann 19 th Lester Hirsh 3pm 22 nd Resident Holiday Celebration 3pm 23 rd Breakfast with Santa 8am Third floor resident rooms will be done when all of 2 nd floor rooms are done. Phase II a transformation will begin I will save that for later and keep the suspense going. Hope you all enjoyed the Halloween celebration. Thank you, Tina Robbins, Activity Director and team. Watch for a questionnaire to plan for next year s theme. We would like for everyone to be able to dress up. November, we will have our Thanks Giving Celebration which will kick-off the many festivities for December. How exciting! Thank you for your trust and allowing us to be a family with you and your family. Many Blessings, Like us on Facebook Kelly Ann Anderson
2 November 2017 Welcome to the department of activities. A place where we grow, we learn, we reminisce of past times. We smile, we laugh, and sometimes we even cry. This has been a busy year for each of us in many different ways. Some of us are new to our positions, while others are new to our facility. We begin each new day as though it s our first. We mark calendars in pencil knowing nothing is written in stone. We are blessed to have been given the opportunity to provide for the residents whom reside at Corning Centers. To some we are the only faces they see. We have become there family. We have become there trust. Each person regardless the department plays a vital role in maintaining the happiness, health, dignity, and functionality of the residents. It is with a happy heart and open mind I am honored to be the Activity Director. I have walked into an amazing team with a great desire to bring enjoyment and smiles to our residents each day. We can create a calendar with large amounts of effort, and so effortlessly create love and laughter. As the year is quickly coming to an end it reminds me how time flies when you re having fun! From the News years party in January to the months following. Many celebrations have been had. Valentine s Day was filled with handmade cards, St Patricks day brought with it shamrocks as Easter came with colored eggs and celebration. The summer months were no let down with ice cream socials and a summer picnic. We tried something new for Halloween and went all out with the Wizard of Oz. With nearly 250 members of the community walking through the doors to Trick or Treat with our residents. We may have run short on the candy but never short on the fun. Thanksgiving and Christmas ran up on us so quickly. My hopes and goals for this joyous season is that we continue to grow not only within the facility but within the community as well. Sincerely, Tina Robbins Activities Director
November 2017 3 I have begun and erased this article numerous times attempting to find what is of importance to discuss in an article being presented to our residents, their families, and our staff. Usually going from the heart is always the way to go. So I have chosen to spend my year in review article talking about you. Yes, you, the reason we are here, the reason we come in day after day, the reason we choose to fight endless battles and hold meeting after meeting regarding your food. I cannot imagine the day in my life when I am in need of someone else to care for me. The day when my hands grow old, my face begins to wrinkle, my legs forget how to dance, my arms forget how to bend, my back forgets how to hold me up straight. I fear those days, I fear the days that the work has ended, the hustle of life starts to slow and my babies have grown old. But mostly I fear someone forgetting that my hands worked hard, my legs did dance, my face did smile, my heart did beat, and I was someone. Each day I come to work I see each one of you and with these thoughts I continue to learn who you are, who you were, and how I can care better for you. Many of you have come into this facility because you re in need and it is our responsibility to meet those needs. But beyond that, beyond basic care there is the need for dignity, the need for respect, the need for quality of life. I encourage all of you to find pleasure within this facility in the things you do, the people you meet, and the relationships you build. 2016 came with many new friendships, many new laughs, a lot of tears, and some friends that we said good bye to. And in 2017 I hope that each and every one of you finds pleasure in the life you have. We are here for a reason. We did not choose to work in this type of care just to make a living. We chose this path because of the heart in our chest and the feeling in our soul. We chose to be the people that provide you with the best quality care and quality of life possible. If you are finding yourself having difficulty identifying your path, your meaning, and your personal quality please reach out to us to assist you with whatever means are needed to fulfill that void. We cannot fix everything, we cannot assure every detail, but we will most certainly die trying. As the holidays approach us please remember we encourage you to go with your family. Sit at your Thanksgiving table, sit around the Christmas tree, ring in the New Year with those you love. And if that is not able to happen always know, you re home is here and you are always welcome. Warm Regards, Kayleigh Smith Director of Social Work
Hello and Happy Holidays from the Corning Center Maintenance and Housekeeping Departments! My name is Jerry Grapevine and I am the facilities Director for Corning Center with a report of our progress for 2017. First of all, I would like to thank my Maintenance and Housekeeping staff for all of the wonderful work they do each and every day to maintain the operations and cleanliness of the building. They truly define the word Team to meet all the challenges that are encountered each and every day! Thank you! This has been a very busy but exciting year for us since we have been able to make some major improvements to the building with the support of our local administration and our Centers Corporate administration. We have replaced 90% of our heating and A/C units in the entire building that are located in our resident rooms and offices to maintain comfort in all seasons. We are on track for completing the last 10% on 2018. We have also rebuilt our major air handlers for the 2 nd and 3 rd floors to maintain heating and cooling in our corridors and interior staffing locations. Each window in the facility has also been replaced with energy efficient and easy to operate double hung for added comfort for residents and staff as weather permits. All lighting in the facility has been replaced with LED lighting to provide magnificent light and is also energy efficient! This accomplishment has really brightened up the place! The entire nursing call light system and all consoles were replaced with an up to date system which allows reliability of calls to be made by residents and answered efficiently. This was a welcomed addition for our nursing staff. Our security cameras and our entire badge and wandergard security systems have been updated for coverage of the entire building to provide safety and security for our residents and staff. Last but not least, we replaced the entire roof of the building which was badly needed to prevent leaks inside and to maintain comfort in all seasons! November 4 2017 November 20173 Whew! There is a lot more to add, but these were the big things that were important to mention. Since the major bones of the building have been updated, phase 1 of our remodeling has begun as of October 23 rd. This remodeling will transform each and every resident room to a newer and brighter area to live in and enjoy time with their family and friends. Please stay tuned for updates as the remodeling starts to take shape. We are very excited to see the final results but that will take some time for completion. Best Regards, Jerry Grapeving
November 2017 5 As our building undergoes its changes, so does our floor. Though some elements of long-term care will remain constant, others are everevolving. As our population changes and ages, we must change our approach. This brings us new people, new challenges, but most importantly an opportunity to be on the cutting edge of what long-term care now means! As a team on the floor we re always looking for ways to think What haven t we tried?. With the help of our terrific activities team we ve been able to encourage more residents in social activities which they very much enjoy. We recently celebrated Halloween here, our residents on the third floor really enjoyed seeing the experience! We hope to have more positive experiences like this as we approach Thanksgiving and Christmas, and our goal will always be to provide the best care for our residents! Best Wishes, Stacie Miller, RN 3 rd Floor Unit Manager News from the 2 nd Floor Second floor has been working on teamwork throughout the unit. As a team we participated in the Chili Cook-Off which was a great success. Everyone brought in supplies and it was put together by all. Every part of the team enjoyed the event. We also have started with the construction and remodeling and look forward to seeing the finished project. Many of the residents enjoyed the Halloween decorations and enjoyed seeing the youngsters dressed up in costumes. Thanks, Terry and Tammie 2 nd Floor Unit Managers Business Office News Hi, I am Carol Marshall of the Finance Office. Many of you already know me and what I do here at Corning Centers. For those who do not know me let me introduce myself. I have been with Corning Centers for 6 ½ years. I have a great relationship with my surrounding Medicaid offices and Elder law lawyers. If you have and questions or concern with Medicaid or other forms of insurance please feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to talking with you. (607) 654-2406 Sincerely, Carol Marshall
6 November 2017 A note from Kenny In our last issue, I wrote about a heroic young man whose story I found inspiring. Today I have another inspirational example to share, only this one is home grown. Recently, our country was struck by a series of devastating hurricanes - Puerto Rico, the Carolinas, Florida, and the first one of the season, which devastated the city of Houston and the Texas coast. The outpouring of prayers and offers of help from every part of the country were phenomenal. The response by our public officials, first responders and emergency organizations was well crafted and effective. But there s nothing more inspiring than one individual helping another, up close and personal. Our Assistant Director of Nursing at Washington Center, Lisa Clark, is one of those inspirational hometown heroes who stepped up and did exactly that. The rain and wind had barely abated when Lisa and her husband, Charlie, an experienced firefighter, were contacted by the local Red Cross chapter. The Red Cross was assembling a disaster relief team to go to Texas and they needed nurses and other emergency personnel. Lisa and Charley were high on their list. They would be heading to a disaster recovery zone: think cots, cold food, long hours and hard work. Not exactly a vacation trip, and certainly not an assignment for the faint of heart. Lisa immediately asked her administrator, Brooke Daley, if the facility could spare her for a couple of weeks. Brooke s feeling was that you can never spare a caregiver like Lisa, but her answer was an immediate yes. Less than 24 hours later, Lisa and Charlie were at a Red Cross facility for a crash training course in what they could expect, then it was off to Texas. They arrived in Houston on September 2 and immediately began working in a food and supply distribution facility helping families in need. Later, Nurse Clark worked in one of the shelters that had been established for displaced persons, providing medical care and ensuring that any potential medical cases that could have been contagious were properly isolated and cared for to prevent an unintended epidemic from running through the shelter. With the shelter established and the temporary residents cleared, Lisa joined a medical team providing more complex care for the elderly, sick and injured. Whether unloading supplies at the dock, assisting the military s distribution efforts or providing hands-on medical care to victims, Lisa made us all proud.
November 2017 7 Lisa and Charlie unhesitatingly left the comfort of their home and family to go to an unfamiliar, uncomfortable, potentially dangerous situation for no other reason than to provide humanitarian care to strangers in need. Her actions were another shining example of the Centers Health Care spirit of Heart Health Home. They exemplify the kind of unselfish caregivers who see to the needs of our residents and their families every day of the year at homes throughout New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. I found her actions inspirational, and heartwarming. I hope you do too. Kenny Rozenberg, CEO Centers pilots expanded in-house physician network At Centers Health Care, one of our core goals is to elevate the care available on-site in order to reduce the number of occasions where a resident has to be sent to the hospital. In reality, most of the people who are sent from a nursing home to a hospital spend an uncomfortable day in the emergency room, they are stabilized, and then returned to the nursing facility. The majority of those people should, in fact, never have been subjected to the difficulties and discomfort associated with an ambulance transfer, long hours in a brightly lit, noisy emergency room, and the germs that cannot be avoided in a hospital environment. So we began a pilot program of elevated medical care in many of our facilities. We have taken the unusual and dramatic step, of adding full-time staff physicians at many of our homes, where they work side-by-side with our skilled nurses and develop a close relationship with each resident and a fuller understanding of their individual needs. In addition, we are supporting this team of doctors with the renowned team of doctors from the Call-9 network, who use the very latest in telemedicine technology to provide immediate bedside consultations with a physician 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, even if our on-staff physician is unavailable. A proper bedside examination by a physician can avoid most hospital visits. Our nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians assistants have been specially trained in the use of Call-9 technology and tele-medicine equipment. By combining full-time staff physicians and leading edge technology with hands-on care and diagnostics, we are able to provide these residents with a physician s bedside examination whenever it s needed, reducing hospitalizations in some cases by more than 50%. And that s a good outcome for everyone.
8 November 2017 SEASONS GREETINGS!!! Please speak up! If you have an idea, suggestion, or something you feel needs more attention, please let us know. You do not need to wait until meetings. Your opinions, thoughts, and ideas matter! Please check out our monthly calendars posted throughout the facility for upcoming events and activities. Friends and family are always welcome to join us. As the holiday season has approached we will be busy with celebrations, entertainment, basket raffles, baking and crafting. Changing Places To know that little could be done, That there's no cure as of yet. Forgive me, dear, if sometimes I give in to my frustrations. It's just so overwhelming, This change in our relations. Now I'm the one to be on guard, To keep you safe from harm, Protecting you the best I can And not showing my alarm. I hope you still can understand How much you mean to me. Though you curse me, or forget me, I'll accept what has to be. For I will still remember The joys that we once shared. You showed me in so many ways How very much you cared. I pray to God to give me strength To do what must be done, To trust that in the future This battle will be won. Alora M Knight https://www.facebook.com/corningcenter 205 East First Street, Corning, NY 14830 www.corningcenter.net