The "Queen of Mean"; her dog and Wahpeton

We all know the front story – when Leona Helmsley, the so called “Queen of Mean” died in August,  2007 she left the bulk of her estate to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.    Her own dog in was also provided for in her will but the trust, valued at around eight billion was to be used the benefit dogs.  Her grandchildren saw it differently and petitioned the court to change the focus of the trust.  As the request to use it to benefit dogs was done separate from the trust the courts allowed that functioning as a Foundation it could have alternate focuses.  The Foundation now supports health, medical research, education, social services and conservation.  That, explained Michelle Eberhart the Director of Acute Care Nursing at the Saint Francis Health Care Campus, is where Wahpeton come in.  She explained to the members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton during their regular lunch meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, March 12th that the one of the focuses is rural health care and that Saint Francis applied for and has received a three hundred forty-two thousand dollar ($ 342,000.00) three year rural health care grant from the Foundation.  She commented that during the process the Foundation staff has been very accessible and easy to work with.

Three major items have been acquired by Saint Francis as a result.  One is a portable life pack.  They had life packs prior but this addition is very portable and can be moved anywhere to where a person may have a problem, for example the lobby not usually equipped with a life pack.  The second piece of equipment is a glide scope, a lighted endoscope to make difficult intubations easier.  It worked so well that they asked the Foundation for, and received a variance to allow them to purchase a pediatric one.

The largest change is the addition of direct audio/visual connection for three rooms in the Emergency Department with the Avera medical people in Sioux Falls that can be used in a variety of ways.  Fundamentally it adds personnel in crisis situations.  This may include consultation by the local physicians with specialists at Avera all accredited to Saint Francis, personnel to handle all the communications and paperwork needed in a transfer allowing the local physicians and nurses to focus on the patient.  They also have call lists so they can call in local physicians when needed by the emergency department physicians, again freeing the onsite physician to look after the patient.  They have also used the system for medical education and in particular practicing procedures by simulation that any one staff member may not do that frequently such as handling a cardiac arrest.  Currently, during the three year period of the grant, none of these Avera services are charged to the patient.

Without question the new equipment has brought improved care to Saint Francis patients.  However, the audio/visual link to Avera may ultimately prove to do the most good.  During the three year grant period there will be innovation as to other ways the system may be used while things such as insurance and Medicare billing procedures are worked out.