Archives for 2014

Ortonville Area Health Services welcomes Grant Botker, M.D. who joins our professional staff of practitioners. Dr. Botker will begin seeing patients at Northside Medical Clinic in September 2014.

Birth records are a necessity for every patient. Every hospital is required to complete birth registration forms for every baby born in the facility. The data contained within the forms is collected by  Minnesota Department of Health Office of Vital Records and submitted to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The MDH Office of Vital Records monitors the timeliness and completeness of birth registrations in all Minnesota facilities. Ortonville Area Health Services was notified that the Health Information Management department received the Excellence in Birth Registration Award.

The standard the MDH establishes is that all birth registrations are completed in full and submitted within five days of each birth. The medical facilities that fully complete and submit 98 percent of birth registrations within five days of birth receive the Excellence in Birth Registration Award. For the calendar year 2013, 57 of 104 medical facilities that deliver babies in Minnesota were honored with this award. A greater accomplishment is that of the 57 facilities that received the award, only 19 of those facilities submitted 100 percent of birth registrations within the five day time frame. Ortonville Area Health Services is one of the only 19 medical facilities in Minnesota that submitted 100 percent of birth registrations within the five day window.

This award highlights the Health Information Management team and the excellence of their work. The primary person at OAHS responsible for birth registrations is Kristen Ohm, and her back-up is Joett Nicholson. This award, and achieving 100 percent of our birth registrations completed in full and submitted on time, highlights the teamwork and dedication of Kristen and Joett. Congratulations!

From Stacy Longnecker, MD

As a physician at Northside Medical Clinic/Ortonville Area Health Services, I see many pregnant women who are a few weeks from a full-term pregnancy and are feeling really uncomfortable. Some are ready to schedule a delivery by induction or cesarean section before they have reached their 39^th or 40^th week of pregnancy. They know friends or family members whose doctors have agreed to schedule such a delivery.

But I know that healthy babies are worth the wait. At least 39 weeks of pregnancy are crucial to a baby’s health – and I won’t schedule a delivery before that unless there is a medical necessity. Here at Ortonville Area Health Services, we’ve made a pledge to give babies a healthy start in life. In December 2013 we were recognized by the March of Dimes and Minnesota Hospital Association for this work. We have reduced the number of early deliveries that are medically unnecessary. When the award was received at the beginning of December, OAHS had 67 total births (more since that date) and 15 deliveries of those births were prior to the 39 weeks and only 4 of these were inductions or 6% of our deliveries. All 4 of these inductions were medically necessary.

Development of critical organs, including the brain, lungs, and liver, occurs during the last weeks of pregnancy. Research published last year shows the risk of infant death doubles when a baby is born at 37 weeks of pregnancy as compared to 39 or 40 weeks.

I have been working with the March of Dimes and our hospital to eliminate the medically unnecessary c-sections and inductions before 39 weeks of pregnancy because all babies deserve the best opportunity for a health start in life. We are proud of this recognition of our work by the March of Dimes and the Minnesota Hospital Association.