Present: Matt Stenger, Amanda Mathiowetz, Lisa Hobday, Scott Grefe, John Knobbe, Pat Marcus, Gus Grau, Deb Burger, Kristine Wahlberg, Marlene Schnichels, Tonia Yates, Diane Andrews, Pat Rodning, Chris Schiffer, Lynda Klersy
1. Introductions
2. Review previous meeting minutes – 3/20/2014
• No corrections to be made.
Management Update
1. CARE St. Peter – Patrick Rodning or designee • There is a new LEDC Supervisory that is not yet fulltime but will be soon.
2. CBHH St. Peter – Chris Schiffer or designee • Violence Prevention meetings have started to meet in March. This team reviews incidents with aggression and look at safety issues. This team will also look at root cause analysis. • Next Steps Project is aimed at changing the time that staff does paperwork. Will be doing this during the shift overlap so staff can be out on the unit during their shift.
3. CBHH Rochester – Tonia Yates or designee • 1 of 3 Intermittent Administrator positions is open. Interviews are being conducted; no one has been selected yet. • Lisa Costello submitted resignation. Tonia will be working this position out of class beginning June 30th. • A .8 RN resigned. This position was replaced with a fulltime HST. The posting closed June 25th. • There has been a lot of follow up with the CMS surveys. Things have been going a lot better; more engagement with staff. • Hoping to enlarge the courtyard to give more opportunity to have outside therapeutic recreational activities. There is a Recreational Therapist on staff now working on this.
AFSCME
1. Pat down and metal detection – ongoing concern • Pat Rodning has sent the policy and how to set up training to Douglas Panser. AFSCME mentioned that this was with Douglas the last Labor Management Meeting in March. Pat stated that the policy has recently been forwarded to Douglas again along with how to move forward with getting training in place. Management has received a list of phone numbers and names of those from MSOP and MSH who can train. Kristine Wahlberg will follow up with Douglas today (June 26th) and get back to union leadership. The list of names will be sent to Pat again.
2. Man down buttons • Batteries have not been replaced yet. Pat Rodning, Sam Arneson, and Brian Rislove went through all of the batteries and kept the ones working properly. 5 more have been ordered but not received yet. Follow up will be provided on this.
3. Still no policy or procedure for smoke breaks and watching clients – ongoing concern • Will be going to “no smoking” in September of this year.
4. Staff being taking about in clinical groups • Received reports on a group setting with clients talking about a particular staff that did not sound therapeutic, more complaining. Staff reported that they could hear it at their desk and it sounded inappropriate. Staff feels that this should be addressed outside of group and that it turned into one patient riling up a group of patients against one staff. • Management’s view on this: This was allowed to take place because in any training received on dealing with conflict, it is taught that in order to de-escalate a patient needs to be given a period of time to vent. It provides validation for what they are struggling with. That patient can then be brought back to using their coping strategies on the unit after they feel they have been heard. Management encourages no names be used directly. Do not encourage shutting down this type of conversation because it will cause problems down the road and would rather deal with it therapeutically. In the honor of safety, there is less of a threat if a patient feels heard. • Brought to AFSCME’s attention that the same staff was discussed in a team meeting. Pat stated that he has always discouraged that type of conversation if the person is not present in the room.
5. Equal distribution of early and late shifts when scheduling • Lynda stated that she tries her best to do this. On staff’s 7 day stretch she tries to schedule them early with the exception of the 3 day before the weekend off. Does not like to schedule a person late shift on that Friday. She is trying to do a 7-3 ration (7 earlies, 3 lates). • There is a staff on medical leave that preferred all late shifts and one staff just retiring has not allowed her to fill a .8 position because of budgeting issues.
6. Scheduling part time up to full time in order of seniority • Request by AFSCME that if holes are being scheduled among part time staff that it be done in order of seniority.
7. 2 LPN minimum • An email was sent out by Lynda that there will be 2 LPN’s on every shift. This is more of a guideline than a rule. There have been many occasions per staff where there has been 1 LPN. As far as management knows, this has happened two times since May 1st. Management will ask the LPN if they are comfortable working by themselves, if not they will inverse.
8. Parking Fee • When taking patients on outings, staff has been paying for parking out of pocket. One staff has reached $54 out of pocket. Is it possible to get a petty cash fund? Pat stated that this is more of an undertaking than thought. They will get something in place to cover these costs. John Knobbe mentioned the policy that is followed in MSH- getting cash ahead of time then submitting the change with receipt once the trip has returned. John will find this policy and submit it to management. MSOP has a prox card in place that is used. • Reminder that when using a handicap sticker you do not need to pay for parking.
9. Wrap up and miscellaneous • Elizabeth Blomberg will be replacing Tracy Johanson starting July 2nd and will be taking the Anoka account. • A staff recently received a promotion without that position being posted. This was not posted because it was a reallocation. The staff was performing higher level duties over a long period of time that filled the description for this position. For an allocation, an audit has to be completed by Central Office that will review the old position description and the new one. This gets compared to see if it is appropriately classified. AFSCME requested to get the name of who signed off on this reallocation from Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB). If it was approved by MMB, this is not grievable because the procedure for reallocation was followed. • Staff are not allowed to write their own job description. This is done in cooperation with the supervisor who must sign off on it.
**Next meeting will be September 25th, 2014 at 9:15 am in Rochester