Medical center receives PEAK award
Staff writer
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius recently recognized HCMC as one of 10 Kansas long-term care facilities that embraced the idea of culture change in adult care homes. These 10 facilities were winners of the 2005 PEAK Awards.
Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas (PEAK), is awarded annually by the Kansas Department on Aging to long-term care institutions. The department encourages movement away from institutional models of the past toward more resident control in home-like environments.
According to Mike Ryan, CEO of HCMC, the award was in recognition of how the facility is doing in their culture change process.
In order to improve the culture for residents, HCMC has split their nursing home hallways into separate neighborhoods. The groups do activities together, and have neighborhood meetings. More living area has been designed for residents by eliminating a nurse's station. The bathrooms were renovated for improved quality of life, and there have been more resident outings as well as intergenerational visits. Finally, HCMC is working toward streamlining the decision making process to empower front line staff to be more responsive.
"I'm excited that the staff is being recognized by the Department on Aging for the work they're doing. It's really all about them," said Ryan.
