DeKalb Times

DeKalb County Health & Human Services Committee met March 2.

Here is the minutes provided by the committee:

The Health and Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, March 2, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. in the Health Facility’s Multi-Purpose Room located at 2574 N. Annie Glidden Rd., DeKalb, Illinois. Chairman Porterfield called the meeting to order. Those Members present were Mr. Scott Campbell, Ms. Rukisha Crawford, Mrs. Karen Cribben, Ms. Maureen Little, Ms. Linda Slabon, Mr. Larry West, and Chairman Chris Porterfield. A quorum was established with all seven Members present.

Others present were Steve Duchene, Jeff Whelan, Gary Hanson, Greg Millburg, Rick Amato, and Pete Stefan.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

It was moved by Mr. West, seconded by Mr. Campbell and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

It was moved by Ms. Slabon, seconded by Mr. West and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes from the February 3, 2020 Committee Meeting.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

There were no public comments made.

ALLIANCE FOR HOPE TRAINING INFORMATION

DeKalb County State Attorney Rick Amato invited the Committee and all of the County Board to a free two-day Strangulation, Childhood Trauma, Hope & Collaboration event that is being provided by Alliance for Hope and sponsored by the State’s Attorney Office, Community Mental Health Board, Family Violence Coordinating Council of the IL 16th & 23rd Judicial Circuit, and the Northern Illinois University Police. The event is taking place at Northern Illinois University’s Holmes Student Center in DeKalb, IL on Tuesday, March 10th and Wednesday, March 11, 2020.

Mr. Amato went on to shared that he believes problems ranging from mass shootings to opioid addiction can be curbed by addressing domestic violence. The two days of training are being offered to help begin discussions on how any professional or community member can help in the fight on domestic violence.

DeKalb County is not immune to the problem of domestic violence. Mr. Amato shared that rarely a day goes by where someone is not charged with domestic battery. 440 people were charged with misdemeanor or felony domestic battery in DeKalb County last year, and the County is on pace to charge 350 people with misdemeanor domestic battery this year. The first day of the training is Tuesday and focuses on strangulation. 70 percent of domestic violence victims have been strangled before, and he says it has ties to other crimes. Mr. Amato noted that both in 2017 and 2018, 75-80% of the intentional homicides against police officers in our country have been at the hands of somebody who has a domestic violence and strangulation background. Likewise, when we have our mass shooters, there’s very often a tie to domestic violence and strangulation. The Pulse nightclub shooting, the Jason Aldean shooting, even the Aurora shooting, the France shooting, every one of those perpetrators have a history of domestic violence and strangulation. That is a call to action for all of us to think about domestic violence in a different way because it affects so many things, Mr. Amato shared.

The second day of training on Wednesday is on the trauma to children who experience domestic violence. Amato says they’re 46-hundred percent more likely to become addicted to opioids and can live up to 20 years less than those who don’t experience domestic violence. He added that these children absorb this trauma, they carry it with them, it carries with them for the rest of their life and we’ve seen that those that are around this type of trauma day in and day out have a future that has health problems, poor decisions, often criminal behavior.

Mr. Amato shared some PowerPoint slides with the Committee that was from the Alliance for Hope presentation.

Lastly Mr. Amato shared that if any of the Board Members can participate in both days that would be great but if they can only do one that is okay too. The training is at the NIU Holmes Student Center on Tuesday and Wednesday. Registration begins at 7:15 a.m. Training begins at 8 a.m. and goes to 4:30 p.m. The training is free.

REHAB & NURSING CENTER PRESENTATION

DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center Administrator Mr. Steve Duchene introduced himself to the Committee. Mr. Duchene provided a brief historic background of himself and shared that he has been with the DeKalb County Nursing Home for about six and a half months now. Three of those months were as an Interim Administrator where he was also working with an Interim Director of Nursing. November 13, 2019, the DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center Operating Board unanimously approved making Mr. Duchene the permanent Administrator.

The Rehab & Nursing Center fluctuates between 88-98% occupancy. Full occupancy is 174. The Facility License is 190 beds but the current difference is due to light renovations and construction that is currently taking place. With the completion of the Transitional Care Unit (TCU), the new number of beds will be 198.

Mr. Duchene’s goals and initiatives for the Rehab & Nursing Center are to provide the highest quality of care possible, to maintain occupancy and retain financial independence from the County, and to continue to provide care for the Medicaid population in the County. The completion of the Expansion Project is also high on the list. The Expansion Project consists of: the TCU, which is an 18-bedroom (private bed) unit for short-term care. There will also be renovation of 13 semi-private long-term care rooms that can also serve as private bedrooms adjacent to the new TCU. Lastly, the project will allow for expanded and modernized common spaces and creation of an Activity Center and “Back-of-House” corridor network.

Mr. Duchene additionally wants to continue to build a strong relationship with Northwestern- Kishwaukee Hospital. They are meeting monthly with Kish to minimize hospital readmissions. Kishwaukee Hospital additionally established initiatives for a Post-Acute Network, which is an opportunity for the facility to further strengthen their relationship with the hospital. He also wants to maintain and build their relationship with KishHealth System Physician Group. Currently, Dr. Thakker (who sees about half of the Nursing Home residents) hired a Nurse

Note: These minutes are not official until approved by the Health and Human Services Committee at a subsequent meeting. Please refer to the meeting minutes when these minutes are approved to obtain any changes to these minutes.

Practitioner (NP) two days a week. The other doctors hired another NP who is at the Nursing Home a varied few days per week. Mr. Duchene also shared that they will continue to improve on their quality measures through Quality Assurance Performance Improvement process and will strive to continue to improve on Compliance initiatives.

Mr. Duchene reviewed his management goals. He reiterated that he was appointed as Interim Administrator on August 12, 2019 and was approved to be the permanent Nursing Home Administrator on November 13, 2019. After that, he hired a permanent Director of Nursing. The team is striving to continue to strengthen nursing supervision out on the units on all three shifts which Administration provides support to all other department managers. In April 2019, MPA (Nursing Home Management Company) brought back their former manager who successfully addressed leadership issues at the Administrator and Director of Nursing positions.

The tendencies of the DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center are now to have organized, systematic management supervision, improved accountability, improved communication, improves customer satisfaction, increased transparency with staff members, residents/families, MPA and County Government, having compassionate resident-centered care, improved relationships, and fewer complaints.

Mr. Duchene believes all of the improvements are due to having all issues addressed immediately and correctly whether they be resident-related, family-related, personnel-related, small or large.

Ongoing challenges continue to be high agency use of staff which causes financial and quality issues, facility census which also causes financial issues, and the need to improve on surveys and improve the 5-star rating for reputation and quality issues.

DeKalb County Rehab & Nursing Center Operating Board Chairman Jeff Whelan and County Administrator Gary Hanson both commented positively on the many improvements they have seen since Mr. Duchene came on board at Administrator. Mr. Hanson shared that he has received a lot less complaints lately which is a key sign of improvements as well as the fact that staff that had previously left under old management is now returning.

TOUR OF THE DEKALB COUNTY REHAB & NURSING CENTER

Mr. Duchene led a tour of the Rehab & Nursing Center for those in attendance. The tour began at 7:25 p.m. and ended at 7:44 p.m.

Chairman Porterfield thanked Mr. Duchene for the information and the tour of the Nursing Center. He also reminded the Committee that next month they will be meeting on Monday, April 6 and Monday, April 13th at 6:00 p.m. for the Senior Services Tax Levy Agency Hearings.

ADJOURNMENT

It was moved by Mr. Campbell, seconded by Ms. Crawford, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 7:47 p.m.

https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/min20-hhsmar.pdf