Leaders from four Good Samaritan locations are accepting 2025 Silver – Achievement in Quality awards at the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living Convention and Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. The recognition is for organizations that meet high performance standards while improving the lives of long-term care residents and staff.
“To be recognized at a national level is a huge honor,” says Laura Salonek, administrator for the award-winning Good Samaritan Society – Howard Lake location in Minnesota. “Our team takes such great pride in what we do. This is a recognition of not an application, it’s a recognition of many days, weeks, months and years of hard work.”
Howard Lake joins fellow Silver recipients Good Samaritan Society – Albion in Nebraska, Good Samaritan Society – Fargo in North Dakota and Ridge View Estates Assisted Living at Good Samaritan Society – Pipestone in Minnesota.
“It was no surprise to them that we were awarded,” says Albion director of nursing Shalynne Hohnholt about her residents. “We had a resident’s wife, she was so proud of our facility and our team, she cut out the local newspaper article announcing the award and scrapbooked it and put it on display outside her husband’s room.”
‘Every single team member impacting their residents’ lives’
Only 142 skilled nursing and 31 assisted living locations earned Silver across 40 states. The National Quality Award Program has three progressive levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold.
“It’s an amazing program that AHCA has,” says Aimee Middleton, Good Samaritan Chief Operating Officer. “There are over 45,000 skilled nursing facilities (and assisted living locations) across the nation and about 1,000 are what qualify for this awards program.”
“It really is what we do every single day, that quality in the building. Every single team member impacting their residents’ lives to really offer that quality.”
Pipestone senior living administrator Melissa McCorquodale says her location is now actively working on its Gold application. She also adds serving as a quality award examiner is helping her team keep up with changes in the industry.
“Health care is highly regulated. Therefore, everything is constantly changing,” says Melissa. “Understanding that as things change, the measures and the metrics that we utilize to measure our goodness of quality (need to) change.”
My Care Line ‘huge hit’ with staff
Technology will play a major role advancing quality care in nursing homes in the next decade.
“It’s part of the reason why I come to these conferences, to see what is the latest and greatest. How can we find the technology to help our workforce be the most efficient to impact residents’ lives every day?” Aimee says.
Good Samaritan is already leveraging technology to support and strengthen care delivery.
With the new My Care Line program, Sanford Health is expanding virtual care services to 27 Good Samaritan skilled nursing and assisted living locations in 14 South Dakota communities.
“It is a way for a nursing staff member or anybody at the campus to connect with some clinical (staff), or potentially a physician, for a resident need in the off hours,” Aimee says.
“If I need to talk to a physician, in an integrated health system, we have a physician available for them to talk to. It’s been a huge hit with our team members.”
The goal is to expand the My Care Line to other centers. It’s part of a continuous pursuit to improve tools for caregivers and quality for residents.
Quality is ‘about the mindset’
While they’re proud of the honor, Laura and Shalynne admit they’re doing what they love.
“It’s a no-brainer. It’s my hometown,” Shalynne says. “I am getting to care for my old preschool teacher, my husband’s grandpa. My grandma comes to do therapy at our facility. It’s a family.”
Laura adds, “for a small 32-bed location in a rural community, it just shows we can have amazing quality of care there. It’s about the people, it’s about the processes. It’s about the mindset. Put a star on the map next to Howard Lake, Minnesota, because if you ever need great care or services or want to be part of something special, you’ll know where to go.”
Sanford Health News caught up with a few of the award recipients to recap their experiences. Watch them here:
…
Posted In Awards & Recognition, Company News, Senior Services
