McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation Winter 2020 Newsletter

Friends

Our Mission: To receive and administer funds to support the mission of McLaren Northern Michigan and support programs that enhance the well-being of the community.

O F T H E F O U N D AT I O N W INTER 2020

Inside 2 How Your Gifts Help Patients 3 Little Libraries / New Nurses 4 Project Update / Lung Cancer Screenings

Your gifts bring comfort, compassion, and life-saving care “Anything we can do to make patients and their families more comfortable is important to us,” said Andrew Bielaczyc, MD, Anesthesiology, as he peruses the books in the new Little Free Library in the surgery waiting room. This little library is one of hundreds of tangible things your gifts to the Foundation have helped purchase.

The intangible results of your generosity are even more abundant: well-trained nurses, grateful patients, saved lives, healthy families.

For all of these, we say “Thank You.”

How Your Gifts Help Patients Every gift you make to the McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation is important—no matter the size! We use your contributions to meet the pressing needs of our patients and medical team.

Your gifts provide: • Nursing education scholarships • Major medical equipment (imaging equipment, cardiology equipment, surgery equipment) • Minor medical equipment (any equipment under $5,000) • Patient needs (lodging, gas cards, groceries, etc.)

• Facility upgrades (new private patient rooms, operating rooms, and intensive care and cardiovascular unit) • Pediatric rehabilitation programs • Preventative care and wellness initiatives • Programmatic support for all our major specialty areas: oncology, cardiology, orthopedic, neurology • Hospice care throughout our region Give a gift of any amount to our Unrestricted Fund to be used to support the most pressing areas of need at McLaren Northern Michigan and our affiliates.

We appreciate your support—and so do our patients! Thank you.

Dear Friends, Your gifts to the McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation are doing so much to meet the needs of our patients and medical team here at McLaren Northern Michigan and our affiliates. This newsletter shares just a few of the countless ways your contributions make projects—large and small—possible.

Whether you support the new Little Free Libraries, our Nurse Residency Program, or the Building the Future of Health Care construction project, you can be confident that your contribution is improving the lives of patients and their families throughout northern Michigan.

We’re grateful for the many ways you make a difference.

Thank you,

Patrick J. Schulte, CFRE

Elise F. Hayes

Vice President & Chief Development Officer McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation

Board Chair McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation

2020 McLAREN NORTHERN MICHIGAN FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES

360 Connable Avenue Petoskey, MI 49770 231-487-3500 Friends of the Foundation Newsletter is a publication of the McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation and is produced three times a year for contributors. Find out more about our work by visiting mclaren.org/NorthernMichiganFoundation.

Elise F. Hayes, Chair | Robert (Ham) Schirmer, Vice Chair Matthew J. Frentz, CPA, Treasurer | Miriam Hollar, Secretary | Kal Attie, MD Robbie Buhl | Todd Burch, President & CEO, McLaren Northern Michigan Steven C. Cross | Arthur G. Hailand, III | Ellen Hatch | Patrick Leavy Rogan L. Saal | James Schroeder, PhD | Darcie Sharapova, MD Tracy Souder, MA, CCC-SLP | Pamela L. Wyett Patrick J. Schulte, CFRE, Vice President & Chief Development Officer, McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation

Read All About It! Thanks to you, patients and family members now have access to free books.

If you find yourself sitting in one of the waiting rooms around the hospital, look around for a blue box filled with books. Thanks to funding from the Burns Foundation, Inc., five new Little Free Libraries were installed in the busiest areas of McLaren Northern Michigan.

The libraries, which hold 20-30 books each, allow patients and visitors to have free access to books that they can read (and keep if they choose) during their wait or stay at the Petoskey Campus.

Thank You, Burns Foundation Since 1979, the Burns Foundation, Inc. has helped provide our medical personnel with access to important information and resources that improve patient care and support education, research, and publication. Dean C. Burns, MD, was passionate about this community’s education and health, a legacy the Burns Foundation, Inc. continues. Thank you to the Burns Foundation for this wonderful addition to our hospital.

Thank you to those of you who have already donated books to fill these shelves!

Andrew Bielaczyc, MD said “The Little Free Libraries are a wonderful addition to our waiting rooms. The family members are especially grateful to have access to reading material while they wait. Anything we can do to make patients and their family members more comfortable is important to us.”

Each Library is registered on the Little Free Library website (littlefreelibrary.org) with exact latitude and longitude location recorded.

New Nurses Create New Protocols Members of our Nurse Residency Program develop new procedures to help patients.

When new nurses join a hospital team, they often bring with them fresh perspectives and new ideas. Such is the case for nurses in our 12-month Nurse Residency Program.

As part of their training, these nurses are encouraged to examine existing practices and propose new protocols to improve patient care. They present their findings and recommendations towards the end of their residency.

Two members of the recent cohort of nurse residents had their projects selected (from 272 submissions) to be presented at the national 2020 Nurse Residency Program Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Matthew Murray, RN, Psaira Harrell, RN, Nicole LaHaie, BSN, RN, and Danielle Boehm, RN, will present their posters and network with nurses from around the country at the national conference. Their

projects developed new protocols for hypoglycemic dialysis patients and looked into the current fasting guidelines for surgery patients.

Call us for more information about supporting these efforts or creating an endowment fund that will continue to have a lasting impact on patient care.

“We’re so grateful to the donors who have supported the Nurse Residency Program. Not only does it benefit the nurses who come through the program, but the ideas they bring to our hospital benefit our patients,” said Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services Jennifer Woods, MSN, RN, CNML. The Nurse Residency Program at McLaren Northern Michigan was created in 2017 to support recruitment and retention of new graduate nurses. The program, funded in part with earnings from the Robert and Elizabeth Benson Endowment Fund for Nursing, provides participants with coaching, mentoring, and training.

Participants in the McLaren Northern Michigan Nurse Residency Program have an opportunity to receive coaching, mentoring, and training. Here, two residents practice a patient care simulation.

See Your Contributions Building the Future Thanks to you, the construction of the new wing continues to progress.

On December 23, the Building the Future of Health Care expansion project reached a major milestone. The final structural beam was set in place during a topping off ceremony. Now, the building is being enclosed for continued work.

The speed with which our new wing has taken shape is breathtaking, as is the overwhelming support for the campaign. More than 1,300 contributors have donated over $34 million! We thank each and every person and organization that is helping to build the future of health care for northern Michigan.

Progress continues at a fast pace, with doors opening to the new wing in just over a year!

Renovations also continue. Learn more and view more pictures at www.McLarenNorthernBuilds.org.

Early Lung Cancer Screenings Save Lives Thanks to a grant-supported program, hundreds of northern Michigan residents are receiving life-saving screenings.

Lung cancer has a dreadfully low survival rate. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, only 19% of those diagnosed with the disease survive in the five years after diagnosis.

Most lung cancers are caught too late—after the disease has spread and become inoperable.

Joe*, age 55, could have faced a similar scenario. Thankfully, an early detection screening caught his cancer at stage one. Joe was eligible for surgery that removed the cancerous cells and saved his life!

His cancer screening was made possible through a grant from the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

In addition to screenings, the grant provides education for patients and physicians about

early detection and supports a Lung Cancer Patient Navigator to assist patients facing the disease.

Jeanne Melton, RN, OCN, ONNCG, Lung Cancer Nurse Navigator, worked with Joe throughout his process from diagnosis to surgery and post-operative care. She helped him file his insurance paperwork so that he was eligible for short-term disability while he recovered. Today, he is an enthusiastic advocate for early lung cancer screenings. Talk with your primary care provider to find out if you are eligible for an early lung cancer screening.

Thank you to the Prevent Cancer Foundation for your support of this program! *Name has been changed to protect patient confidentiality.

Jeanne Melton, RN, OCN, ONN-CG, Lung Cancer Nurse Navigator, (right) works with patients facing cancer. She will be presenting at the national Prevent Cancer Dialogue: Prevention, Screening, Action Conference in April. She’ll be leading a conversation about increasing lung cancer screenings and sharing our program as a case study.