story and photo by Traci Chapman

Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs administrators say a lot has improved in the VA’s reboot, but there is a long way to go – for patients and employees alike.
“We are very much on a learning curve, working to make the VA experience the best we possibly can for our veterans and their families, while we make sure our employees are happy and fulfilled, because that’s the way to make sure they are dedicated to giving the best care possible to our patients,” Oklahoma City VA Medical Center Director Wade Vlosich said.
The director’s comments were made during a Sept. 21 Town Hall, attended by dozens of veterans and staff members. Aimed at addressing both patient and staff concerns, the meeting was part of an effort to help move beyond years of bad press involving long wait times for care, employee concerns about hospital leadership and more at VA centers across the country. And, while the Town Hall gave individuals a chance to air ongoing issues, it was also a sign of a change in philosophy at the center, staff said.
“We are all working to make sure we are an active part of what we’re calling the ‘New VA,’” said Darrell Long, hospital specialty clinic float nurse. “We all know there is a bad perception out there, and we’re working to change that.”
Vlosich is a big part of that change, staff said. Joining the Oklahoma City VA facility in May, Vlosich is the first “permanent” director named in more than four years. With staff having no stable leadership to look to or lean on, Vlosich said it was difficult to provide both the kind of atmosphere needed for happy and quality employees, as well as the best in patient care.
“You just can’t make it work without stable and dedicated long-term leadership,” Vlosich said. “The quality of care we do offer is a testament to our employees – but now we owe them more too.”
That staff cares for more than 61,000 veterans annually, this year that number jumping by more than 3,000 over the number of patients seen two years ago, Vlosich said. The center’s $460 million budget funds a 192-bed hospital and emergency room operations, as well as a myriad variety of specialty clinics, including extensive mental health facilities. The VA also administers community centered outpatient clinics in north Oklahoma City, Lawton, Ada, Wichita Falls, Blackwell, Ardmore, Altus, Enid and Stillwater.
Employees have worked hard to address issues with wait times in all areas of the facility, something that’s been a longtime problem, Vlosich said. But, while the director has his work cut out for him in his new position, the challenge isn’t anything new. Before coming to Oklahoma City, he served as director of Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, for more than two years – a facility that before his arrival had been under “significant” fire for serious patient care issues.
“It was certainly a challenge, but we made some real improvement, and I know we will do the same – and better – here,” Vlosich said.
Like the Missouri facility, Vlosich said Oklahoma City has a major asset, its employees, and they are the primary key in hastening the forward strides needed to improve service.
“We are very lucky to have people with amazing dedication and talent, people like our specialty clinic chief, Terri Sharp,” the director said. “She and her staff have elevated our nursing services and make a huge difference in the lives of their patients.”
Those efforts have made a difference, with primary care waits dropping from seven days to three days, mental health from three days to two days and specialty care decreasing from 12 days to 11 days, Vlosich said.
“Obviously, that’s an improvement, but we have lots of room for more advancement,” he said.
Another frustration has been aged facilities, including inadequate parking for both staff and patients. Crews are working on a first and second floor clinic expansion, which will add 8,000 square feet and renovate another 16,000 square feet. A major parking addition should add 300 spaces and ease a situation that causes headaches on a daily basis, Vlosich said. The clinic project is slated for completion March 2017, while the new parking spaces should be ready by May 2017.
“We are also working to improve our facilities, which are a direct patient benefit but also is positive for our staff,” Vlosich said. “That allows us to keep the excellent employees we have happy, while allowing us to appeal to quality staff because, of course, we are only as good as the quality of our nursing/medical and other staff.”
That is an area that has seen forward momentum, staff said.
“There is a lot of excitement, a lot of commitment to the VA family,” said Leann Denney, a chemotherapy nurse navigator. “We have the greatest patients, and we are so committed to them because there is that additional component that they have served, they’ve sacrificed for all of us.
“That’s always been there, but there is also a new feeling that we are more of a coordinated team, that we will be able to better work together for the good of our patients,” she said. “We are a family here, all of us – nurses and staff, patients and their families – and we’re looking for things to just get better and better.”

Dear Savvy Senior,

At age 76, my husband has become forgetful lately and is worried he may have Alzheimer’s. What resources can you recommend to help us get a grip on this?  Concerned Wife

Dear Concerned,
Many seniors worry about memory lapses as they get older fearing it may be the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia. To get some insight on the seriousness of your husband’s problem, here are some resources you can turn to for help.
Warning Signs
As we grow older, some memory difficulties – such as forgetting names or misplacing items from time to time – are associated with normal aging. But the symptoms of dementia are much more than simple memory lapses.
While symptoms can vary greatly, people with dementia may have problems with short-term memory, keeping track of a purse or wallet, paying bills, planning and preparing meals, remembering appointments or traveling out of the neighborhood.
To help you and your husband recognize the difference between typical age-related memory loss and a more serious problem, the Alzheimer’s Association provides a list of 10 warning signs that you can assess at 10signs.org.
They also provide information including the signs and symptoms on the other conditions that can cause dementia like vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and others – see ALZ.org/dementia.
Memory Screening
Another good place to help you get a handle on your husband’s memory problems is through the National Memory Screening Program, which offers free memory screenings throughout National Memory Screening Month in November.
Sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, this free service provides a confidential, face-to-face memory screening that takes about 10 minutes to complete and consists of questions and/or tasks to evaluate his memory status.
Screenings are given by doctors, nurse practitioners, psychologists, social workers or other healthcare professionals in thousands of sites across the country. It’s also important to know that this screening is not a diagnosis. Instead, its goal is to detect problems and refer individuals with these problems for further evaluation.
To find a screening site in your area visit NationalMemoryScreening.org or call 866-232-8484. It’s best to check for a screening location at the end of October, because new sites are constantly being added.
See a Doctor
If you can’t find a screening site in your area, make an appointment with his primary care doctor to get a cognitive checkup. This is covered 100 percent by Medicare as part of their annual wellness visit. If his doctor suspects any problems, he may give him the Memory Impairment Screen, the General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition, or the Mini Cog. Each test can be given in less then five minutes.
Depending on his score, his doctor may order follow-up tests or simply keep it on file so he can see if there are any changes down the road. Or, he may then refer him to a geriatrician or neurologist who specializes in diagnosing and treating memory loss or Alzheimer’s disease.
Keep in mind that even if your husband is experiencing some memory problems, it doesn’t necessarily mean he has dementia. Many memory problems are brought on by other factors like stress, depression, thyroid disease, side effects of medications, sleep disorders, vitamin deficiencies and other medical conditions. And by treating these conditions he can reduce or eliminate the problem.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

by Traci Chapman

Yukon’s annual Oklahoma Czech Festival is a celebration not only of heritage, but also of history and tradition. Perhaps more than anywhere else that is illustrated by a decades-long practice – the traditional Czech pastry known as Kolaches.
Those delicacies are made by a group of people known for their love of history and a passion for baking, men and women who have been part of the effort, in some cases, their entire lives.
Janice Van Brunt is one of those veterans. Always known as an organized person, someone who always gets the job done, Van Brunt is a major piece in the puzzle that is the “Kolache Crew,” a group of bakers who have worked for more than 38 years to make sure their Czech delicacy is ready for the October festival.
“Janice is so good at bringing us all together and she has always had so much enthusiasm and love for what we do – it’s really difficult to imagine doing this without her,” Gloria Hlinicky said, as she scooped Kolaches off baking trays and onto cooling racks at Yukon’s Oklahoma Czech building.
Van Brunt and Hlinicky have both been part of the Kolache Crew, officially known as the “Tuesday Night Baking Club,” for decades – “longer than I’d like to remember,” Van Brunt said. While younger crew members have joined the effort over the years, many of those involved are, like Van Brunt and Hlinicky, bakers who spend hours upon hours annually preparing their regional pastry.
It’s no small effort – the group creates more than 30,000 Kolaches in the months leading up to the Czech Festival each year.
Kolaches first begin as balls of dough which raise three times before being flattened and stuffed with fillings. They bake about 20 minutes and then are brushed with butter – a lot of it – while still hot out of the oven. From there, the Kolaches are cooled and put into an industrial freezer until October.
The group begins baking in July, completing 100 dozen creations each Tuesday night, Van Brunt said. Incorporating traditional Czech recipes, they utilize only fruit or cream fillings for their delicacies – 15 different varieties, ranging from peach and apple to cherry and raspberry and any kind of flavor imaginable in between, Van Brunt said.
“We have a specific list of how many of each kind we make and we have lots of people who come back every year to get their favorite kind,” she said. “While we have many of the same group making them year after year, we also have many return customers the same way.”
While bakers put hundreds of hours into creating their Kolaches, the consumption of them can be quite different, Van Brunt said.
“We start selling them in the morning and many times they are gone in an hour, maybe a little bit more and sometimes even less,” she said. “We are always amazed at the line that forms even before anything opens.”
“If you think about 30,000 – 30,000! – Kolaches and they are gone in such a short time – it’s really a little overwhelming to me that they are that popular every single year,” baker Shirley Reed said.
June Calahan has also been a staple of the group for years, working on any project that needs to be done – rolling the dough or putting in the filling, taking trays out of the oven, even washing dishes and just giving moral support.
“June is one of our backbones, she is someone who just always makes our effort more fun and enjoyable,” Julia Mason said. “She’s someone who I’ve always looked up to and so do my children, which is really something wonderful – we are bringing in a new generation who sees the older generation and all it has accomplished.”
Many crew members were part of the original effort 38 years ago. Back then, they didn’t work together in an organized kitchen, but rather created pastries at home, bringing them to the festival individually. While that got the job done at that time, they said it’s a plan that would never work today.
“There’s no way – it’s just too much,” Reed said. “And I really think it would take away from what we are doing, the companionship we feel.”
“We are a fun group, but we get a lot done and we work together very well,” Janice Van Brunt said. “We are very serious about getting this done right and making sure we have what we need each year.”
As this year’s efforts come to a close, the crew is already looking forward to next year.
“It does get tiring and it is a lot, but it truly is a labor of love, and we’re very lucky to do it,” Calahan said.

What advice would you give your younger self? Emerald Square Assisted Living

It would be to treat people the way God wanted, don’t be selfish and don’t let others take advantage of you. Mark Sloan

To be more honest and have a good relationship with God. Not ask but to listen to what God asks you do. Martha Sneed

Stay out of trouble and read more. William J. Warner

I’d be more careful about what I got myself into and involved in. Wanda Galpin