For Fifth Year, Menig Nursing Home Wins Top State Quality Award

For Fifth Year, Menig Nursing Home Wins Top State Quality Award By Hannah Becker

David Ainsworth, a state representative from South Royalton and a member of Gifford Medical Center's Board of Trustees, gives Menig Extended Care Facility resident Helen Billings some cake and a smile at an awards ceremony for the Randolph nursing home on Friday. Billings also lived in South Royalton before moving to Menig. Provided/Robin Palmer

The Menig Extended Care Facility was honored last Friday by receiving two awards and $22,000 from the state—for the fifth consecutive year.

The Menig facility was awarded the Nursing Home Quality Award from the Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living (DAIL), and a Gold Star Employer Award from DAIL and the Vermont Health Care Association.

Only five Nursing Home Quality Awards are available statewide, and only four were given out in 2009.

“There is a lot of competition,” said Joan Senecal, commissioner of DAIL.

The Gold Star employer award was awarded to 18 of the state’s 42 nursing homes. Menig has received the honor every year it has been offered.

“I am excited and honored,” said Cindy Richardson, Director of Nursing at Menig, of receiving the awards. “ I know that our nursing staff gives excellent quality of care.”

The facility was also rewarded a $22,081 quality incentive award to be used to benefit the residents. In past years the award money has been used to provide interest-specific quilts, complimentary haircuts, and flat screen TV’s for both resident’s rooms and the dining room.

Menig Extended Care Facility is an extension of Gifford Medical Center in Randolph. The nursing home opened its doors and 20 beds in 1998, and expanded to add 10 more beds in 2006 due to the increasing demand for local facilities. Menig is the only nursing home in Orange County.

The hospital held an award ceremony Friday to recognize all the people who make the facility deserving of these awards. On hand to present the awards were Senecal, Fran Keeler, director of the Division of Licensing and Protection, and Laura Pelosi, the executive director of Vermont Health Care Association.

The award recognizes “outstanding nursing homes, which have met high standards of quality of care for Vermont’s nursing home residents.”

“I am very proud to say that Menig not only met the bar, it far exceeded it,” said Keeler.

The award is granted based on results of health and life safety surveys, cost effectiveness, a lack of substantiated complaints and resident satisfaction survey results.

Nursing homes must achieve a grade D or above in each category. Menig received an A in all but one in which it received a B.

“When a nursing home gets a quality award it means they really do give great quality of living to the residents, and that reflects the quality of the employees,” said Senecal.

Linda Minsinger, administrator for the Menig Facility, who was also at the ceremony to accept the award, called for “five more years of awards.”

Although Menig has been the recipient of these two awards for five consecutive years, the goal of the facility is not to win awards, but to provide quality care to its residents, said Gifford President Joseph Woodin.

“We actually don’t talk about winning this. We don’t strive to win this. It’s not the goal,” he emphasized.

About 60 people filled the bright, cheerful room dotted with gold star balloons to witness the presentation of awards. Not only did the hospital receive awards, they also recognized many members of the staff.

“I’m very proud to work with you. It’s your dedication to teamwork that make these awards possible,” said Richardson. She proved the point by recognizing, not only the nursing staff, but the housekeeping, maintenance, social services, volunteers, and kitchen staff for contributing to the resident’s quality of life.

“You catch this place at a moment in time when it’s not on display for the public and you realize that this place day in and day out is truly providing quality care,” said Sue Stysma, whose mother-in-law, Dora Bennett, lives in Menig. Stysma also serves on the Medical Center’s Board of Trustees.

The ceremony concluded with country music played by The Peapickers, a resident favorite, as well as cake, and conversation amongst the attendees.

In addition to the two awards, the Menig Extended Care Facility has been awarded five stars on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “Nursing Home Compare” site (medicare.gov).

Menig has also received a 2008 Excellence in Action award from resident satisfaction surveying company My InnerView. Menig was one of only 520 nursing homes nationwide to receive this award.