December - Michael Dunn Center

THE MICHAEL DUNN CENTER
STAFF BULLETIN
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A Three Star Agency
Volume 3 Issue 5
December 2006
edited by Roger Richmond
A Wo r d f ro m M i k e …
Mike McElhinney
R
oger Richmond encouraged me to write this
article as a reminder to
all of our employees just
how large Michael Dunn
Center, the Henry Center
and Dunn Diversified Industries have become.
Many of these figures
come from research the
staff in our Finance Department did in preparation for a speech I gave
to the Harriman Rotary
Club a few months ago.
I want to acknowledge
and thank the Finance
staff, not just for this in-
I
would like to take a
few moments to reflect
upon the past year and
express my gratitude for
everyone’s hard work and
dedication to individuals
who receive services at
the Michael Dunn Center.
It is with much pride and
appreciation that I observe the quality of services that continue to be
provided at this agency.
Having been associated
formation but the excellent work they do on a
daily basis to manage the
funds at Michael Dunn
Center.
All totaled the Michael
Dunn Center serves 300
children and adults with
mental retardation and
other disabilities.
◊
We employ 290 full
and part-time staff
(making us one of
the 10 largest employers in the county)
and operate on an
annual budget of just
Random
Thoughts
Inside this issue:
under $11,000,000.
◊
◊
Our payroll, mostly to
Roane County residents, is $6,500,000.
We spend per year:
• $175,000 on gasoline
• $90,000 on tires
(Continued on page 2)
Roger Richmond
with Michael Dunn Center
for many years, I find it
very gratifying that the
agency continues to be
regarded so very highly
across the state of Tennessee. We have seen
many changes this year,
both in leadership and
management style and
with the physical appearance of the agency,
and we continue to improve in the quality of
care we offer.
We provide services
that rank among the
best in the state, as
(Continued on page 3)
United Way
Worker’s Comp
2
2
Timas is Here
3
Recruiting Excellence
4
Supported Living Mtgs.
4
PCI Recognizes Crew
5
Health Insurance
6
Health Assessments
6
Hand Washing
7
Do you know…
If you witness, suspect,
or discover Abuse,
Neglect or Exploitation,
a report must be filed
within 4 hours.
Report the allegation
immediately to your
Department Director or
contact
Roger
Richmond or Michaele
Butler.
PAGE 2
NOW YOU KNOW
A Word From Mike, continued
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and repairs for almost 90
vehicles on the road daily
$187,000 on food at Kroger
$45,000 on Quill office supplies
$600,000 on health insurance
$300,000 on workers compensation, business and
property insurance
$50,000 on furniture and
electronics, mostly in Roane
United Way
Contributions
Mike McElhinney
It has been extremely gratifying to
see the number of Michael Dunn
Center employees that have
signed up in the past few weeks
for a payroll deduction to support
the Roane County United Way. So
far the number of new contributors is 48, more than doubling our
previous number of 38, for a
grand total of 76 employees all
together. With these additions we
have also almost doubled our contributions to United Way, from
$3351 to $5,946.60 per year!
I realize that many of our employees live on a very tight budget and
have to carefully watch every
penny they spend. That is what
makes people’s willingness to give
to the United Way even more remarkable. Once again I am reminded of not only the wonderful
people we serve and support each
day, but the truly outstanding and
caring staff that work at the Michael Dunn Center, Henry Center
and Dunn Diversified Industries.
It is a great pleasure and blessing
to work with you each and every
day.
County stores
• $200,000 on water, natural gas,
telephones, and electricity
• $35,000 on independent audits
to be sure everything is OK
It is no wonder you may sometimes
feel like you work for a big corporation, because all of us do. However,
if you have ever worked for a big forprofit corporation, and I have, you
may have noticed that often many of
the employees don’t seem to really
enjoy what they are doing. I don’t
get that sense here at Michael Dunn
Center. Yes, we are all part of a
very big team, but it is a team with a
very important mission, and every
staff person I have met knows, believes in and is committed to our
mission of supporting children and
adults with disabilities.
Workers Compensation
Michaele Butler
Our Workers Compensation claim reporting is getting better every day. I want
to thank everyone for their diligent efforts to make this a priority. Below I have
listed some helpful hints to ensure continued improvements. Please take a moment to read the following tips and to take the opportunity to come by my office
if you have any questions.
Many thanks to everyone for all your hard work!
Workers Compensation- Did you know?
1. Did you know that you should report injuries to your Supervisor immediately
and regardless if you decide to seek medical attention or not?
2. Did you know that you should never give your personal health insurance
information to any hospital, clinic, physician or pharmacy if you are being seen
for a Workers Comp related injury?
3. Did you know that drug testing is a requirement when being treated for a
work related injury?
4. Did you know that MDC will work with you until you are able to return to
work full time after a work related injury? This means that light duty will always
be available to you until you are released without restrictions.
Congratulations to the winners of the Employment Benefits Specialist’s
door prizes during the open enrollment period. Cindy Gouge, Linda
Silvey, Gay Gunter, and Rosa Basalone each won a $25.00 WalMart gift
VOLUME
3
ISSUE 5
PAGE 3
Random Thoughts, continued
evidenced by the recent Three Star
Agency designation. Much of the
reason for the quality of services at
Michael Dunn Center can be directly attributed to the many staff
who provide outstanding support
for service recipients. As another
year ends, I reflect upon our many
successes from 2006, as well as
the growth and success this
agency has seen over many years.
I was very impressed with many
staff I observed at the Christmas
party Friday night. They managed
behavioral problems with ease and
interacted with individuals very
freely. Staff were dancing with
service recipients and obviously
enjoying their evening out together. A similar observance came
later from John Godfrey, the DJ for
the evening. John has worked as
an Independent Support Coordina-
tor, so he knows our population and
services well. He has also worked as
a Disc Jockey for many events held
by agencies similar to the Michael
Dunn Center and has had many opportunities to observe support staff.
John called to say that he was very
impressed with the staff at MDC. He
said that he had never seen staff
from other agencies dancing and
enjoying themselves during an
agency function while providing such
quality care for their Service Recipients. We also received favorable
comments from family members of
several service recipients.
I encourage all of you to do your
best when providing support and
implore each of you to always bear
in mind the importance of proper
care for service recipients. In this
business, even small mistakes can be
TIMAS IS HERE!
By now, most employees should
have at least had an opportunity to
observe the Timas database program. With the exception of those
few staff who do not yet have access, all employees should be
regularly clocking in and out as
their shifts begin and end. We’ll
get to that in a moment, but let’s
look at the process from the beginning, to make sure everyone understands how to operate the system.
First, let’s consider passwords for a
moment. Each employee has two
different passwords. One password
allows access to the computer; the
other allows access to Timas. For
the present discussion, we are only
interested in the Timas access
password and user name. Unless
very costly. Please remember that
we have people’s lives in our hands
at all times. Inattentiveness can
cause major problems for people and
can often have very dangerous results. Both small oversights and serious errors on the part of staff can
result in grave consequences for the
people we support. We are always
only one mistake away from failure.
Always remember that providing top
quality care and treatment remains
our “Prime Directive”. Pay attention
and always think before you act.
Keep up the good work; let’s continue to make Michael Dunn Center
the top quality agency we know it is.
My hat’s off to you all for your continued dedication and devotion to
the people for whom we provide services. Best wishes for a fine holiday
and let’s have another outstanding
year!
Roger Richmond
you’ve changed it, your Timas user
name is your last name followed by
the last four digits of your social security number (eg: richmond6789);
your Timas password is your entire
social security number with no
spaces or dashes (eg: 123456789).
Periodically, you will be required to
change your passwords, and you will
be prompted to do so when you log
onto the system.
To access Timas, employees at the
MDC location will simply log onto
their computers, double click on the
Timas icon, and enter their name
and password. From remote locations (group homes, supported living
houses, Henry Center, etc), a “virtual
private network” (VPN) connection
must be established in order to access the network. Once this connec-
tion is established, you should stay
connected until the computer is
turned off or the VPN is disconnected.
The first thing you should see when
the computer is turned on is a box
that says “system initialization in progress”. Wait until the connection is
completed, then you will see several
boxes. The first one reads “Cisco
VPN” and has a place for you to click
“connect”. The following box indicates the user name of the person
who logged onto the computer, and
requests a password. In this box
you will enter the user name and
password that you use to log into the
computer (not your Timas user/
password) and hit “enter”. That box
will close, leaving the box with which
(Continued on page 4)
PAGE 4
NOW YOU KNOW
R e c ru i t i n g E xc e l l e n c e
I wanted to let all of you know about
our most prominent success story for
internal recruiting. I’m sure all of you
know Melinda Young, an Assistant
Director of Supported Living. She has
been with Michael Dunn Center for
almost 10 years.
Melinda started as a Direct Support Staff in 1997, was then
promoted to manager in 2001,
and again to Assistant Director
in 2003. She exemplifies the
caring, devoted type of person
we are seeking to work with our
service recipients. Lately, she
has been pounding the pavement recruiting. If she sees a
good employee in a store or has
a friend looking for a job, she
sends them our way. She has
directly recruited 5 employees
for her department, in the past
several months, who have
stayed and turned out to be excellent employees.
Melinda will receive $800.00 in referral bonuses and won the October
recruiting contest, earning another
$50.00 (Walmart gift card). Much
of this, she has given back to her
department to buy gifts for the ser-
Ta r a H a n o u s kov a
vice recipients for Christmas. She
has indirectly recruited at least 20
others who had her name on the
front of their application.
Supported Living, as a department,
has by far been the most successful at recruiting. They have recruited 20 applicants, 15 of
which have been hired. That is
5 times as many as any other
department. (editor’s note: Do
I hear a challenge?) Congratulations and Thank You to
Melinda Young and Supported
Living!
If every dept were recruiting
at the same level as SL, we
could save a great deal of advertising funds, money that
could be put to much better
use for wages, benefits or
other uses.
Supported Living Meetings
Tuesdays 2:00 PM
The Supported Living Department will have managers meetings every Tuesday at 2:00 PM. All staff
are welcome to attend these non-mandatory meetings. This is your opportunity to offer your input,
hear the latest news, and to talk about your job. There is no need to RSVP! Take your level of care to
the next step, get involved! We’ll see you there!
Timas, continued
(Continued from page 3)
you log onto the computer. You
will enter your user name, which is
your first name.your last name (eg:
roger.richmond) and your password. All this might sound difficult,
but it is not.
Once you’ve logged into the computer, you can log onto Timas. You
will see the word “IN”, in bold print.
Immediately above that is the current time. Click on “IN” and you
will be clocked in at that time. You
need to always remember to clock
in immediately upon arrival at work.
In case you did forget to clock in,
before you click on “IN”, set the
time to the time which reflects the
time you began your shift. Please
do not make a habit of clocking in
at times other than the actual time
of your arrival. If you make a mistake that needs to be corrected,
please contact your Department
Director for correction.
The Timas system is set up so that
when you log into the database and
then clock in, you must log back
out before you can clock out at the
end of your shift. Your best practice is to clock in at the start of
your shift and then exit the database. You will then be able to clock
out at the end of your shift.
Sounds pretty confusing, but it’s
really not. Once you get the hang
of it, you’ll do it every day without
thinking about it.
Make it your
daily routine now. We will begin
requiring Timas-based time recording for payroll records very
soon.
VOLUME
3
ISSUE 5
PAGE 5
PCI Recognizes Crew
Friday November 17th, Packaging
Corporation of America, a fortune
100 company, a leader in the packaging industry and one of DDI’s largest customers had their annual
Thanksgiving dinner. Even though
the DDI supervisor (Wayne Jones)
and employees (Anne Conlin, Judy
Dunn, Phillina Grove, Tammy Hargis,
Connie Hatmaker, and Leta Hall) are
temporaries working on site at PCA’s
facility in Mascot, they have been
included in functions like this for
some time.
The celebration began with a traditional Thanksgiving feast. While employees ate a delicious meal, Debbie
Redmond, Production Manager, reviewed how well the company had
done this past year. Debbie said of
the Dunn workers, “They are just
one of us and a big part of our success. We can count on them being
here and doing a good job.”
Debbie then handed out certificates
of appreciation first to three PCA
employees then to each of the six
DDI employees. When Connie Hatmaker, who is deaf, received her
award, Debbie signed “Thank you.”
Connie bowed, turned to face the
group of 80 strong, then gave her
acceptance speech. Even though
they could not understand her
words, the audience smiled. There
Melanie Harmon
was no doubt in anyone’s mind what
she was saying.
DDI has been providing personnel
labor services for PCA since September 1997.
Work performed has
evolved from simple, hand labor
tasks to operating a $45,000 Pioneer
die cutting machine. The Pioneer
machine die cuts corrugated cardboard sheets for companies such as
Nissan, Rubbermaid, Lodge Cast
Iron, and Ingersoll Rand. The successful partnership between PCA and
DDI has contributed to PCA winning
several environmental and safety
awards and being chosen as Plant of
the Year in 2004.
PAGE 6
NOW YOU KNOW
C h a n g e s i n H e a lt h I n s u r a n c e
Effective December 1, 2006 the Michael Dunn Center is
initiating a wellness program for all employees and
spouses covered by our group health insurance policy
with United Healthcare.
Michaele Butler
These two items must be completed by all employees and
spouses covered by the MDC Plan before March 31, 2007.
A copy of your receipt or other evidence that you had a
physical should be provided to me, Michaele Butler by
March 31, 2007.
The first two elements of the program are:
• A complete annual, age-appropriate physical.
• Complete the United Health Care Health Risk
Appraisal (see following article).
We will accept receipts dated as far back as April 1, 2006
for those of you who have recently had a complete physical.
On April 1st the cost of health insurance coverage will
increase by $50 per month ($25 per pay period) for each
covered employee and spouse. However, you can save
money and avoid the increase for each person who completes the physical and health risk assessment by March
31st. If you miss the deadline and the increase goes into
effect, it will stay in place until you provide evidence of
your physical.
The purpose of this wellness program is to provide each of
you with information about your health and health risks.
You can use the information to discuss with your doctor
how to improve your health and reduce your risks. The
results of your physical and the health risk assessment will
not be available to Michael Dunn Center. It is confidential
between you and your Doctor. It will have no effect on
your ability to be covered under our Health Plan.
H e a lt h R i s k A s s e s s m e n t
Michaele Butler
In the memo that went out on 1129-06, we stated that all employees
and spouses who are covered by
our health insurance plan will have
to show proof of an annual physical
as well as complete the Health Risk
Assessment (HRA) in order to keep
your insurance premiums the same.
Unfortunately, the web address
where the HRA was supposedly
located was reported inaccurately.
United Healthcare, our insurance
provider, owns and operates another website called Healthforums.com. This is where you will
be able to complete the HRA.
as proof of an annual physical will
need to be turned in to Michaele Butler, Director of Human Resources,
before March 31, 2007. If these
items are not turned in, your insurance premiums will increase by
$25.00 per pay period per covered
individual. This means that if you
receive insurance through MDC, and
you do not provide proof of these
items, your portion of the insurance
will increase by $50.00 per month.
This amount will double if your
spouse is covered and he/she does
not turn in the required items as well.
The steps needed in order to access
this assessment are as follows.
1. Go to www.healthforums.com.
2. Click on the tab called Health
Tools.
The first health tool listed is Health
Assessment. Click Go and proceed.
Your HRA will not be saved; therefore you will have to print a copy
for your records at the end of the
assessment. You are not required
to bring in the entire report to receive credit for completing the HRA.
You will only need to produce the
first page. Since the website does
not ask for demographic information during completion, you will
need to write your name at the top
of the page that you are turning in.
The first page of the HRA, as well
*If you carry family coverage, you
are not required to provide this information on your children.
The Supported Living office would like to announce the winner of the raffle which was held to raise money for Christmas presents for service recipients. Candy Wright, of Thermofisher Scientific, won the $50 gift card to Wal Mart.
Also we would like to thank some special people that helped make this possible: Carolyn Reid, Trula Pelfrey, Darlene Trew, Bertha Phillips, Margaret Thompson, Wanda Herman, Connie Reyes, Carol & Jack Smith, Robin
Turpin, Brian Johnson, and all of the staff that helped sell tickets. We would also like to thank Roger Richmond
for drawing the winning ticket.
Thanks to everyone that bought tickets and biscuits. Special thanks for supporting the service recipients.
VOLUME
3
ISSUE 5
PAGE 7
An Ounce Of Prevention Keeps Germs Away
reprinted from the Center For Disease Control
How much do you know about hand washing?
Answer each question True or False
• Always wash with HOT water. ____ T ____ F
• Using soap is not usually necessary. ____ T ____ F
• Public toilets have many germs, but your bathroom at home is relatively germ free. ____ T ____ F
• Disease germs can live in meat, but seldom in fruits or vegetables. ____ T ____ F
• Washing hands frequently can weaken your immune system. ____ T ____ F
Frequent hand washing is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of disease.
The most important thing that you can do to keep from getting sick is to wash your hands.
By frequently washing your hands you wash away germs that you have picked up from other people, or from contaminated surfaces, or from animals and animal waste.
What happens if you do not wash your hands frequently?
You pick up germs from other sources and then you infect yourself when you
• Touch your eyes
• Or your nose
• Or your mouth.
One of the most common ways people catch colds is by rubbing their nose or their eyes after their hands have been
contaminated with the cold virus.
You can also spread germs directly to others or onto surfaces that other people touch. And before you know it, everybody around you is getting sick.
The important thing to remember is that, in addition to colds, some pretty serious diseases -- like hepatitis A, meningitis, and infectious diarrhea -- can easily be prevented if people make a habit of washing their hands.
When should you wash your hands?
You should wash your hands often. Probably more often than you do now because you can't see germs with the naked eye or smell them, so you do not really know where they are hiding.
It is especially important to wash your hands
• Before, during, and after you prepare food
• Before you eat, and after you use the bathroom
• After handling animals or animal waste
• When your hands are dirty, and
• More frequently when someone in your home is sick.
What is the correct way to wash your hands?
First wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. Place the bar soap on a rack and allow it to drain.
Next rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
Continue for 10 - 15 seconds or about the length of a little tune. It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action
that helps dislodge and remove germs.
• Rinse well and dry your hands.
It is estimated that one out of three people do not wash their hands after using the restroom. So these tips are also
important when you are out in public. Washing your hands regularly can certainly save a lot on medical bills. Because
it costs less than a penny, you could say that this penny's worth of prevention can save you a $50 visit to the doctor.
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All the answers to the Hand Washing Quiz are FALSE.
THE MICHAEL DUNN CENTER
STAFF BULLETIN
Our Mission:
Empowering individuals with disabilities
to pursue their choice of livelihood
by providing them with opportunities
Phone Numbers:
Poison Control…..…1-800-222-1222
Abuse Investigator….1-800-579-0023
to increase their contribution
to the community in which they live.
I now have completed my first year of employment at Michael Dunn
Center. Many of you have heard me say this before but it is worth
repeating – I feel very fortunate and blessed to be working with each
one of you and living in East Tennessee. My wife Jeanette and son
Adam feel the same way also.
I hope each of you, your families and the very special people we
support every day have a Merry Christmas and a safe,
happy and healthy New Year.
Best wishes,
Mike
Michael Dunn Center will be closed for the holidays from December 25 through
January 1. We wish everyone the best for an enjoyable holiday season and hope the
New Year brings you much success and happiness.