Sunnyside Health Care Center: ideal for friendly, personalized care

Sunnyside Health Care Center is a 44-bed long-term care facility nestled in a relaxing North Woods setting, conveniently located next to Community Memorial Hospital. We encourage our residents to bring personal items from home for their comfort and enjoyment, and we strive to create a warm, home-like atmosphere in our facility and in everything we do.

Residents and their families appreciate the consistent, personalized care offered by our experienced team of healthcare professionals. In fact, one of our best-kept secrets is that Sunnyside is better-staffed than many other long-term care facilities in the region. This will ensure your loved one receives the tender loving care they deserve.

Visitors

Visitors are welcome at any time. For the health of our residents, we ask that anyone with signs or symptoms of a communicable illness avoid visiting our facility.

Admission requirements

• A prospective resident may be referred by their physician, family, or other interested party.
• Residents are admitted only upon the recommendation of a physician. The physician will provide resident information including current medical findings, diagnoses, and orders for the resident’s healthcare. While residing at Sunnyside Health Care Center, each resident will be able to choose their primary care physician from those who conduct all resident rounding. Residents are seen by their doctor every 30 days for the first three months, then every 60 days, and then on an as-needed basis.
• Medicare/Medicaid guidelines are used to establish the level of care needed and the daily cost per resident.
• The resident and/or their family will participate in a series of assessments completed on admission and throughout the resident’s stay. The information obtained will be used to establish an individualized plan of care. The plan of care is designed to help each resident achieve and maintain an optimal level of self-care and independence. The assessments include but are not limited to: nursing care, nutrition, psychosocial status, activities, and rehabilitation.
• If the scope of care needed is beyond our abilities, the resident will be transferred to a more appropriate care setting.

Billing

The daily room and board rate is established by the State of Minnesota. Current rates are posted in the facility, and the State will notify each resident of their care classification.

Questions should be directed to the Business Office at 218-878-7069. Extra services ordered by a resident’s doctor will be provided for an additional cost. These services include: physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy, radiology, specialized equipment, emergency room, laboratory, and pharmacy.

SHCC Licensed Social Worker

Sunnyside’s Licensed Social Worker can help residents with any concerns they may have of a social, emotional, or financial nature.

Upon admission, the social worker will meet with the resident and/or their family to review the admission packet. The Resident Bill of Rights and the Sunnyside Health Care Center Handbook are included in this packet.

The social worker is part of the Interdisciplinary Team, attends all care conferences, and assists with discharge planning, securing any needed equipment, and services to ensure a smooth transition back to the community.

Nutrition and dining services

Meals are served in the Centennial Square dining room at these approximate times:

Breakfast — 7:15am
Lunch — 12:15pm
Dinner — 5:15pm

Resident nutritional care is monitored by a staff of registered dietitians. Meals include fresh produce, meats, and baked goods. Resident preferences are very important and substitutions are offered upon request. Dietary restrictions are liberalized to encourage enjoyment at meals and good nutrition. For a modest charge, guest trays are available for family and friends during regular mealtimes.

The Riverside Café is also available for dining and located on the ground floor. Hours are Monday through Friday from 7am to 6:30pm. Our café is closed on holidays and features reduced hours during the summer.

Life Engagement Department

The Life Engagement Department is crucial to our residents’ quality of life. We design hundreds of unique activities, at various levels, to support our residents’ interests and cultural preferences. This, we believe, is integral to their physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being.

The Minnesota Department of Health calls Sunnyside’s Life Engagement Program “excellent and outstanding”—well beyond what is offered in many other facilities. Our licensed Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants (COTA/L) view each resident as an individual with many needs outside of their physical care, and they adapt to each person’s unique abilities.

Ultimately, our team encourages residents to live meaningful, engaged lives. We promote both independence and interaction in the community through opportunities in Centennial Square, the Hauskaa Room, Riverside Cafe, individual resident rooms, the outdoors, and the community.

Resident Library. Sunnyside residents can immerse themselves in novels, educational books, magazines, movies, and more. Our Life Engagement professionals promote individualized, person-centered care, and they can help residents get to the library if needed.

Hauskaa Activity Room. This room honors our local Finnish culture. It translates to “fun and merry” in English, and—when the space is not being used for group activities—it is available for residents and their families to enjoy.

Certified Music and Memory program. We are the only Certified Music and Memory nursing home in Northeastern Minnesota. Our caregivers recognize the therapeutic benefits of music, are trained in the program, and will help residents listen to their favorite songs at any time of day or night.

For our residents’ comfort

• We encourage our residents to make their rooms as homelike as possible. Residents are invited to keep personal items such as pictures, toiletries, books, sheets, blankets, and comforters in their room. If you aren’t sure about a specific item, please inquire with us.
• We provide a television in every resident room.
• We have a telephone in the lobby for residents and their families to use. A cordless phone is also available so residents can accept personal calls. Residents may have a telephone in their room; this cost will be billed directly to the resident by the telephone company.
• Rooms may be decorated, but residents are asked to consult staff if they would like to put anything on the walls. We provide a bulletin board in each room to display cards, photos, and other items.
• Beauty and barber services are available to all residents for a nominal fee. Other personal services are offered by our volunteers and include letter writing, companionship, sewing, shopping, and reading.
• Large family gathering rooms are available for use at no charge.
• The Community Memorial Hospital Gift Shop is located on the first floor. The gift shop offers a wide range of gifts and personal items.

For our residents’ care and safety

• Each resident’s healthcare is individually planned based on the nature of their illness or disability, the treatment prescribed by their doctor, and their needs and interests. We also want family members to have a part in planning their loved one’s care. Our staff will consistently reevaluate each resident’s condition and adjust their care needs.
• TVs, radios, and other electronics are given a maintenance check by our engineering department prior to use.
• Medications—including over-the-counter medications—must be ordered by the resident’s physician.
• Residents can open an account to fund their personal needs. Quarterly statements are provided to all residents with personal accounts. Funds from these accounts can be accessed from 7am to 8pm, seven days per week, through the business office located in the hospital. Residents are advised not to keep large sums of money or valuables in their rooms.
• Sunnyside Health Care Center is a non-smoking facility.
• Sunnyside Health Care Center employees and volunteers receive education on dementia management and resident abuse prevention training upon hire. More information is available here.

Resident Council

The SHCC Resident Council is an organized group of residents who meet monthly for the purpose of voicing their needs and concerns, stating their preferences, planning projects, and making decisions. Co-facilitated by the social worker and the Director of Life Engagement, our residents are encouraged to have a say in what happens in their lives.

Pharmacy

Sunnyside Health Care Center maintains an in-house pharmacy where we provide physician-ordered medications for our residents. The pharmacy has unit-dose services by which residents will be charged only for those medications they receive.

The pharmacy offers the convenience of availability on a daily, 24-hour basis, along with routine medication delivery. If a resident chooses not to use our pharmacy services, they will need to use a pharmacy that provides our unit-dose system.

Floor telephones

Family members can dial 218-878-7039 to speak to our staff. Specific department contacts include:

Sunnyside Health Care Center — 218-878-7039
Senior VP of Long Term Care — 218-878-7618
Interim Director of Nursing — 218-878-7042
Director of Life Engagement — 218-878-7634
Social Services — 218-878-7074

Chaplain services

There is a full-time chaplain at Sunnyside Health Care Center and Community Memorial Hospital.

The chaplain is available for the spiritual needs of our residents. Spiritual care is offered in a variety of ways: personal visits, Holy Communion as requested, memorial services, a listening ear, and friendship. The chaplain is available Monday through Friday and on call.

End of Life Program

The End of Life Program is implemented when a resident approaches the end of their life. The program includes quiet, soothing music for the resident and their family, a soft light on the bed stand, and a basket of personal articles (i.e., toothpaste, mouthwash, tooth brush, hand cream, and more) that a family member may use as they spend more time at their loved one’s bedside. A chair that folds out into a bed is also provided when a family member spends the night.

When a resident reaches the end of their life, if their family so desires, our chaplain will conduct a bedside memorial service. A Sunnyside Health Care Center/Community Memorial Hospital Memorial Service is conducted by the chaplain every other month in the hospital chapel.

Rehabilitation services

A full spectrum of rehabilitation services are available at Sunnyside Health Care Center, including onsite occupational and physical therapy, as well as speech-language pathology. Residents are monitored by interdisciplinary team members to ensure they receive appropriate, individualized, beneficial treatment.

Occupational Therapy practitioners are important members of the healthcare team. They work with people who hope to increase their independence.

Our skilled and caring professionals provide specialized training, helping residents to learn or re-learn strategies that will increase their independence and general satisfaction. This may involve:

• Managing daily tasks such as self-feeding, dressing, and bathing.
• Increasing endurance and physical strength via therapeutic exercises.
• Compensating for loss of sensation or vision.
• Implementing techniques to decrease pain and improve mobility.
• Suggesting environmental adaptations to make functioning easier.
• Referring the resident to devices or aids so they can ease back into activities that have become difficult.
• Assessing the potential for discharge to home, and addressing potential home hazards that could compromise the resident’s safety.

The Occupational Therapy Department is open Monday through Friday.

Physical Therapy practitioners help residents obtain their highest possible functional mobility level. Upon their physician’s referral, the resident will receive an evaluation with follow-up treatment options from the Physical Therapy Department. Physical therapy services include:

• Therapeutic 
exercise
• Mobilization, transfer, and gait training following injury or surgery
• Stroke rehabilitation
• Muscle/joint pain therapy
• Balance training
• Vestibular rehabilitation

Physical therapy services are available up to seven days per week depending on the rehab plan of care.

The Speech-Language Pathology Department helps Sunnyside Health Care Center residents maximize their communication, cognition, and swallowing skills for an improved quality of life and independence. Our therapists assess the resident’s communication and update the caregiving team about appropriate communication strategies. If the resident is staying at Sunnyside Health Care Center for rehabilitation, we will provide therapeutic activities and compensatory strategies such as memory journals or visual aids to improve their cognitive linguistic skills.

The Speech-Language Pathology Department will also assess and rehabilitate the muscles involved in swallowing to enhance intake and reduce the risk of choking. In some cases, a modified-texture diet or thickened liquids may be recommended to make chewing and swallowing safer and more efficient.

Our speech-language pathologists regularly screen residents to make sure their communication, cognition, and swallowing needs are met. A physician referral is needed before a full speech-language pathology evaluation and rehabilitation course can be completed.

Speech-language pathology services are available Monday through Friday.

Short-term rehabilitation

So many conditions require short-term rehabilitation, including joint replacement, fracture, stroke, fall, and many other situations.

Sunnyside Health Care Center may well be the perfect place for your short-term rehab. Our facility offers 24-hour care from an interdisciplinary team that consists of specialists like physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, nurses, social workers, registered dietitians, and Life Engagement staff.

Above all, our team will work to ensure you are ready for a safe and successful transition to home.