Governor Dayton Visits PioneerCare

 

PioneerCare Center residents and staff were treated to a mid-morning visit with Governor Mark Dayton and members of his cabinet on Wednesday, August 24. About 100 residents and staff gathered in the new care center’s Garden Court to meet him.

Governor Dayton came to PioneerCare and other locations in Fergus Falls to gather information about workforce development issues in Minnesota. He said he had heard about Pioneer’s use of the household model and blended worker concept in its new care center.

Before his informal “meet and greet” in the Garden Court, the Governor spent 45 minutes in a private meeting with PioneerCare Administrator Nathan Johnson and other senior staff.

 “We felt incredibly privileged to host the Governor. He was very interested and engaged in the conversation we had about workforce issues in the skilled care setting,” Johnson says. “We talked ‘big picture’ and at the same time, helped him see a local perspective.”

“Some of the regulations we follow are based on care models from as far back as the 1950s, especially those that define specific job duties for caregivers. Our caregivers at Pioneer want to be more responsive to resident needs, but in some cases their hands are bound with outdated, red tape.”

 “It reminds me of a book on my shelf called ‘The Death of Common Sense,’” said Governor Dayton.

PioneerCare leadership discussed challenges that face aging services caused by chronic underfunding and asked the Governor to support aging services in the state’s budget decisions.

Mark Phillips, the commissioner for the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), noted the absence of representation from someone in aging services on the Governor’s jobs creation initiative group. He also said what he was hearing was “180 degrees different” from what he hears in St. Paul, noting the difference between the health care workforce needs in the Twin Cities and in Greater Minnesota.

“The Governor and his staff were very engaged, took a lot of notes and asked some challenging questions,” Johnson said. “We’re very hopeful that his visit may be just the beginning of a dialog toward reforms that make sense.”

“It’s all about providing the right care at the right time, at the right place, at the right cost,” he said.

Johnson joined the Governor and other leaders later that day, participating on a panel at a public forum on workforce development specific to the needs of west central Minnesota. The Fergus Falls stop is the first for the Governor to address needs for job growth in the state.

PioneerCare provides a spectrum of aging services including skilled nursing care, rehabilitation, memory care, home based services and housing for seniors in west central Minnesota.