By Mary Ann Bowles, Therapy Resource, Endura/Colorado
Quite often leadership will have to take time off, and sometimes it’s lengthy as in a maternity leave. You need an interim DOR!
The questions arise: Who will take charge while you’re gone? Will they know how to do the tasks that are required? Will the systems stay intact? Will the staff they lead follow the direction of interim well? Will the IDT team work well with the interim? Will it feel like there are holes or missing components? Will we still be able to grow our programs??
Well, at the Villas at Sunny Acres (VASA), we can’t believe three months have come and gone! Our DOR at VASA was out on maternity leave. VASA is a busy rehab program that services SNF, ALF, memory care unit, ILF and outpatient.
Jenny Kuehn, PT, DOR, has always been a proponent of “building your next one up.” She did a poster on it for our Annual Leadership Meeting. She has cross-trained many of her staff that have goals of having a leadership role later in their careers. She has sent two therapists through the DORITO program. Jenny takes pride in building future leaders in our company. She prepped and trained Kinga Gianna, PT, to cover while she was gone.
Kinga has been with Ensign since 2013. Kinga started as a tech and then went on to be a physical therapist, an ADOR and now an interim DOR, filling the shoes of the DOR for three months. It’s not often that you have such a seamless transition when the interim DOR takes over. Kinga made that happen at VASA. She made the position look easy and took on all of the challenges and frustrations like a champ.
It honestly was seamless while Kinga was holding the reins as the director of rehab for these last three months. Not only did she maintain the therapy program, but she built the program, too. She added additional scheduled group therapy sessions, and started a managed care meeting with their NP on a weekly basis and a system to get the information to that NP. We couldn’t agree more with Brian Rupert, ED, at VASA, when he told Kinga, “We could not have hoped for a more seamless, smooth transition. Your ability to adapt to the challenges that came at you daily were reflected in how you quickly found ways to overcome and ensure your team and the residents received the care they required. Thank you very much.”