Aging population? Not a problem for hospital

Editor’s note: This monthly column is a cooperative effort between The Press and Kootenai Health Foundation to explain how the hospital’s fundraising arm helps enhance medical care in the community.

By JULIE HOLT

Special to The Press

As the community hospital for a growing population, Kootenai Health continues to expand to accommodate more patients and their families. As you walk through the facility, you may notice new additions such as the east expansion and Family Birth Center, a larger emergency and surgical department, and the names of those who helped fund these projects proudly displayed on the walls.

Reading the names of our donors is always a treat because they are the names of our friends and neighbors. They are people like you who care about our community and understand the importance of having a strong hospital that is part of this community.

When the health care needs of a community begin to change or grow, it isn’t just the facilities that need to expand. Health care providers must also adapt to meet the needs of the patients they care for. This need is the reason the Kootenai Health Foundation partners with generous donors to create scholarships and opportunities for the staff at Kootenai Health to pursue additional training and education so they can bring new programs and higher levels of care to our community.

People, age 65-plus, are the fastest growing patient population in our area. Many times as people advance in age, they require specialized care. In 2015 Kootenai began the journey to enhance senior care by enrolling several staff members in the Nurses Improving Care for Health system Elders (NICHE) training program. Together, these nurse leaders have trained 15 additional nurses to become geriatric resource nurses through the NICHE program.

These specially trained nurses provide support to other nurses and family members caring for seniors with unique needs, such as those with dementia or Alzheimer’s. Recognizing the critical role training like this plays in the care Kootenai nurses provide to patients, Coeur d’Alene residents Julie and David Levine decided to get involved. They contacted the Kootenai Health Foundation to talk about how they could help support this very important work. After learning more about the details of the program, the Levines created a fund in their name to support nurse training in the NICHE program.

“The NICHE nurses’ commitment to engage in specialized training to support the growing community of seniors is very impressive and we are happy to be able to support their efforts in this small way,” Julie Levine said.

With this added support, Kootenai will be able to train five additional nurses each year to become geriatric resource nurses and expand the program to all areas of the hospital.

“We’re excited to bring more awareness to our staff and community,” Kara Baron, Kootenai Health NICHE coordinator, said. “With the generous support of the Foundation and local donors like the Levines, we’ve been able to broaden educational opportunities for our staff, resulting in better care for our patients.”

As Kootenai begins construction on the third and final phase of our master facilities plan, it is important to consider the growth happening within the walls as well. Although the space and technology are important, it is the dedication of the staff inside and support from the community they treat, that help our hospital be so much more than just another building along Highway 95.

- • •

Julie Holt is president of the Kootenai Health Foundation. To learn more about the Foundation, call (208) 625-4438, email foundation@kh.org, or visit kh.org/foundation.