By Jay Ophoven, administrator
Hello from Hilltop Care Center! Thank you to those of you who came to our Christmas open house, it was a tremendous success! The fellowship was good, and the food was great! We served over 10 gallons of punch and went through 51 dozen bars! A special thanks to the Faber Singers for providing the Christmas Carol sing-a-long and entertainment.
We are now in the midst of hosting the Kimball elementary students who come once a week as part of our intergenerational program. A thank you to the PAHCS Foundation donors who through their generosity helped to make this partnership possible this year in the face of school district bus funding cuts. Among the many activities we do each week, we are also in the process of making plans to celebrate National Nursing Home Week in May, and to celebrate our 25th Anniversary next summer.
For those of you who are not familiar with Hilltop Care Center, we are a 65-bed skilled nursing facility built in 1979 by the city of Watkins. Since that time, we have had several changes in ownership, with the most recent being the May 2002 purchase by the Paynesville Area Health Care System from the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society.
Hilltop is more than a long-term care facility. We offer the community the following services: adult day care, in and out patient rehabilitation therapies (occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy), respite care, hospice care, and a foot and blood pressure screening clinic. Our staff has had special training to meet the program and behavioral needs of people with dementia or Alzheimer's, and our facility is equipped with alarms on the exit doors to prevent confused residents from wandering away.
The residents who call Hilltop their home are served by a wide variety of physicians, specialists, and medical practitioners who make rounds from their clinics in Litchfield, Paynesville, Watkins, Eden Valley, Richmond, and St. Cloud. Dr. Bob Gardner is our Medical Director who oversees and ensures the clinical aspects of care are of the highest quality. Currently, we are in the middle of a resident and family satisfaction survey that will measure our performance in this area.
Hilltop employs 80 staff who pride themselves on the culture of patient safety and customer service that is evident from the moment you walk through the door. Hilltop is a place where the employees have fun working together as a team, and have fun with the residents they care for daily. Results from our employee satisfaction survey in October were extremely positive with 92% of the staff saying their expectations are being met or exceeded!
If you are interested in learning more about the family atmosphere Hilltop has to offer, give me or our social worker, Heidi Ampe, a call at 320-764-2300, or feel free to stop in for afternoon lunch. Cookies and coffee are served in the dining room daily at 3:00 p.m.