by Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer

It was a Monday morning when for some reason Eleanor Fuller decided to come to work a few minutes early.
The volunteer at Integris Canadian Valley Hospital still doesn’t quite understand what caused her to arrive at work a few minutes early in late August, but to one pregnant woman and her husband those minutes were just what they needed.
“I was coming down the sidewalk and I heard this ‘Oh, Oh,’ groaning,” Fuller remembered. “I thought maybe somebody had fallen or was hurt. I went over and saw this woman who was really pregnant.”
Fuller had parked in the back of the hospital like normal and had started on her way into the hospital when she encountered the couple in distress.
The woman, who was in obvious pain, could barely move.
Fuller remembered a wheelchair that she had seen tucked inside the west entrance. She rushed to get it and brought it back for the woman to sit down before pushing her inside the hospital and to the waiting nurses.
“We were hoofing it down the hall to the women’s center as fast as we could,” Fuller said laughing. “Later I asked how soon the baby was born after we got there.”
Four minutes was the reply.
“I’m going to start carrying gloves in my pocket,” Fuller joked. “I was in the right place at the right time I can say that.”
After talking with the family later in the day Fuller learned the couple had driven from Corn – an hour away – driving 80 miles an hour the whole time on the highway.
A beautiful, healthy eight-pound baby boy was the outcome and he wasn’t born in the hospital parking lot thanks to Fuller.
“I’m just very thankful I was able to be there at the right place at the right time,” Fuller said.
Fuller doesn’t remember why she was early that day, only that she arrived just when she needed to.
It’s been that way for the last nine years as Fuller has volunteered at the outpatient desk. Before that she volunteered six years at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.
“I do like the patient desk very much, interacting with people,” Fuller said. “I like people. I like to do for people. I tell people I was a preemie and I weighed two-and-a-half pounds. I’m very thankful to be here so that’s why I feel like I’m here to help people.”
More than a few times Fuller and the volunteers at Canadian Valley have been there to provide that reassuring word, a cold drink or just a willingness to listen.
“I try to make them feel good,” Fuller said. “I tell the ladies they look beautiful. I get them a warm blanket, just make them feel good and get their minds off of it.”
The “it” is also different. Maybe it’s the worry before an impending surgery or maybe it’s an unexpected outcome that a family is just starting to sift through.”
Fuller considers being there for people as a blessing. She feels the same way about those she volunteers with.
“They’re very good friends. I’ve made a lot of good friends through the years,” Fuller said. “I really enjoy the camaraderie. They’ll do anything for you.”
Dana Crum serves as the volunteer services coordinator and is Fuller’s boss.
“She’s kind of an icon of the volunteer unit,” Crum says. “People look up to her and she’s easy to talk to. She’s just a big part of the family.”
It’s volunteers that help Integris Canadian Valley run smooth.
“Imperative,” Crum said of how important they are. “They’re just about in every department. They supplement what the health professionals would normally be doing. What they do relieves the professional staff and lets them spend the extra time with the patient. They give them that extra time.”
In her professional life Fuller retired from Moore Public Schools as the accounts payable supervisor. She paid every bill in the district for 25 years before retiring in 1996.
A Moore High graduate, Fuller is one of four generations that have gone through Moore Public Schools.
Fuller has a granddaughter in Indiana in her third year as an OBGYN resident and she plans on listening a bit harder the next time she calls.
“I’ve heard her talking about delivering babies,” she said.

Dear Savvy Senior, What can you tell me about incentive trusts? I have two adult children that are financial disasters. Before I die, I want to put some type of requirements in place that they will need to follow in order to receive their portion of my estate. Otherwise, they’ll blow it all in the first year.
Troubled Parent
Dear Parent,
If you want to influence your family members even after you’re gone, an incentive trust is definitely an option to consider. Here’s how it works, along with some tips to help you create one.
Incentive Trust?
An incentive trust is an estate-planning tool designed to help prod your heirs in a direction you desire when you’re no longer around.
With an incentive trust, some or all of your assets are passed to your trust when you die rather than directly to your heirs. Your trustee is empowered to distribute funds from the trust only if and when your beneficiaries do whatever it is you have specified in the trust.
For example, an incentive trust might encourage a beneficiary to graduate from college, enter a particular profession, get married or even have children. They could also reward beneficiaries who do charitable work, or supplement the incomes of those who choose low-paying, yet meaningful careers like teaching or social work. Or, they could penalize beneficiaries who don’t work by cutting off or decreasing distributions, or placing restrictions on heirs with addictions by requiring that payments go directly to rehab centers.
But be aware that these types of trusts can also have drawbacks. A poorly constructed incentive trust can have a high risk of unintended consequences. For example, if your trust provides a financial incentive for your children to be employed full-time, but one of them gets sick or seriously injured in a car accident and can’t work, they would be punished unfairly.
You also need to know that incentive trusts aren’t cheap. You can expect to pay an attorney $2,500 to $5,000 to draft one.
There are also legal limits on what you can do with an incentive trust. While state laws vary, incentive trusts that encourage a beneficiary to join or leave a particular religion, or leave a spouse or not marry at all, can be challenged in court and possibly struck down.
How To Make One
To create a solid incentive trust that accomplishes what you envision, tell your estate-planning attorney that you want to include precise instructions that clearly spells out your wishes, but you also want to include language granting your trustee the right to use his or her discretion and that the trustee’s decisions should be final and binding.
This allows your trustee to make common sense rulings, which will reduce or eliminate the chances of unintended and unfair consequences. It also makes it very difficult for beneficiaries to successfully challenge the trust or trustee in court. When a trust grants final decision-making authority to its trustee, it becomes almost impossible for beneficiaries to successfully argue that this trustee is not correctly implementing the trust’s terms.
The key is to select a trustee who’s smart enough to interpret your intent and has sufficient backbone to stand up to beneficiaries when necessary. You also need to select a successor trustee too if your first choice can no longer serve. Fees paid to a trustee vary widely depending on the state’s fee schedules, the size and complexity of the trust, and conditions laid out in the trust.

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 Bobby Anderson, Staff Writer
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve realized that hospitals are being scrutinized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services like never before.
Care standards such as core measures are by now commonplace and improving Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores are keeping hospital executives up at night.
But for the first time this year hospitals in America who excelled in these areas were eligible for the coveted CMS five-star rating.
Community Hospital CEO Debbie Kearns, RN, recently learned her hospital received five stars.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Kearns said. “It reflects the hard work and commitment all of our team members have to providing safe, quality care.”
Community joins select company in Oklahoma with only Oklahoma Heart Hospital, McBride Orthopedic Hospital and Oklahoma Surgical Hospital in Tulsa earning five-star status.
“Community Hospital is committed to providing safe, quality care for every patient,” Kearns said. “Our physicians, nurses and other clinicians are committed to continually improve care. We appreciate the trust patients continue to place in our ability to meet the highest standards of care and are pleased that Community Hospital has achieved the top rating of five stars.
“The five-star rating is a direct reflection of the hard work and dedication of our team members and shows their true commitment to providing our patients with the best experience possible.
Our work doesn’t stop with this ranking, instead it serves to reinforce our mission of becoming the premier hospital in the country specializing in surgical care.”
The Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating is designed to help individuals, their family members, and caregivers compare hospitals in an easily understandable way. Over the past decade, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published information about the quality of care across the five different health care settings that most families encounter.
The new Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating summarizes data from existing quality measures publicly reported on Hospital Compare into a single star rating for each hospital, making it easier for consumers to compare hospitals and interpret complex quality information.
The methodology for the new Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating was developed with significant input from a Technical Expert Panel (TEP) and refined after public input.
CMS will continue to analyze the star rating data and consider public feedback to make enhancements to the scoring methodology as needed. The star rating will be updated quarterly, and will incorporate new measures as they are publicly reported on the website as well as remove measures retired from the quality reporting programs.
For Kearns and her hospital, which includes a new campus in North Oklahoma City, the five-star ranking was validation of what she sees every day.
“Our culture in our organization is one of hiring the best staff, the best team and to have the best group of doctors,” Kearns said. “Our goal of being a premier surgical hospital, if you don’t continue to maintain those quality initiatives and focus on the customers you can’t maintain that rating.”
Kearns has been notified that Community will receive the quarterly five-star rating again for the next quarter.
“Every employee has to be committed to providing that five-star experience for our customers,” Kearns said. “We don’t have any opportunities to sit back and provide less than an exceptional experience. When we hire employees we set that expectation and raise that bar really high.”
CMS collects the information on these measures through the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program and Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR) Program.
Hospitals are only assessed on the measures for which they submit data. Some of the measures used to calculate the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating are based only on data from Medicare beneficiaries and some are based on data from hospitals’ general patient population, regardless of payer.
“Today, we are taking a step forward in our commitment to transparency by releasing the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating,” CMS said in a statement. “We have been posting star ratings for different facilities for a decade and have found that publicly available data drives improvement, better reporting, and more open access to quality information for our Medicare beneficiaries.
“These star rating programs are part of the Administration’s Open Data Initiative which aims to make government data freely available and useful while ensuring privacy, confidentiality, and security.”

by Traci Chapman
Staff Writer

Chronic dialysis is difficult for any patient; when that condition is compounded by a wound or tracheostomy, it’s even worse – and for many families those conditions could mean separation and loss, because local treatment options have been so limited.
Not so anymore, as Oklahoma City’s New Direction Home Dialysis brings treatment to the heart of the patient’s life, in the process making it possible for them to stay with their families and continue their lives, in a way never before possible.
That means people who before had to go to Texas, to Ohio or to some other far-flung medical facility for long-term, frequent dialysis treatments now can receive those services at home, where they can continue their day-to-day routine and remain with the family and friends they love.
“The bottom line is outcomes, it’s quality of life, it’s being able to keep families together,” New Direction Administrator Leslie Whiles said. “For a patient to have to go far away, to another state in many cases, is such a hardship – physically, financially, emotionally.”
“For example, we had a patient who was forced to go to Cleveland for treatment, and she was at the end of her rope – she didn’t even feel like it was worth it because it was just too much for her to bear,” she said. “No one should ever have to go through that, and we want to make sure no one has to.”
Whiles knows a lot about dialysis, with almost 30 years in the field. As administrator for Sooner Acute Dialysis, Whiles sees every day how the right program can make a difference in the lives of patients needing inpatient services; with New Direction, Whiles strived to bring the same level of care – and caring – to those who can take part in a long-term treatment option at home.
That’s why finding the right nurses is paramount, Whiles said. As the company grows – New Direction’s staff of three recently grew to six nurses – it’s important to look not just at medical skills, but also at what lies underneath.
“Because we are independent, we are able to focus solely on taking care of our patients, knowing them, knowing about their lives and their families,” Whiles said. “Of course, it’s about care and nursing, but there’s also the deeper ability to bond with people who are going through a very difficult experience.”
Home dialysis means freedom to New Direction’s patients, whether they’re 20 or 80 – and the company has patients of all ages, backgrounds and temperaments. They might be retired, a student or someone working to support their family while undergoing regular treatments. However they might be different, what Whiles and her staff have seen with all was the benefit of home dialysis.
“There is such a transformation because our patients can take control of their lives again, they aren’t isolated in treatment,” Whiles said. “It removes much of the stress and makes their treatment more effective.”
New Direction offers both Peritoneal and Home hemodialysis treatments. Both have more advantages than allowing patients to take treatments at home, Whiles said.
“There are fewer dietary restrictions and we’ve seen less negative side effects like nausea, cramping, weight gain and vomiting,” she said.
A benefit of Peritoneal dialysis, or PD, is that patients can have treatments, even at work and on vacation, Whiles said. Home hemodialysis – HHD – is broken into traditional and short daily treatments.
Traditional patients usually undergo three four-hour, or more, weekly sessions, while short daily HHD features shorter treatment times more often.
“With that, we would probably see two to three hours per session four to seven times a week,” Whiles said. “It really is a matter of choice for the patient.”
While New Direction nurses are an integral part of each patient’s care, so too are each individual’s “care partners,” family members or friends who, along with the patient, are trained on dialysis equipment use and care, as well as other ancillary information.
“Care partners can be involved in setting up the machine and supplies, inserting dialysis needles, helping to record medical information and post-dialysis care and machine maintenance,” Whiles said.
“It’s very important that the individual have a support system in place and they need to have a caregiver, or partner, who can go through the competency evaluation and who is willing to do the work involved in successful treatments,” Whiles said. “Without that, home dialysis really isn’t a viable option.”
But, for those who can take part, home dialysis can mean a whole new life just waiting around the corner.
“It’s important for us to do all we can – we’re an Oklahoma company and we’re going to take care of our people,” Whiles said. “That’s what we’re meant to do, what we’re dedicated to doing.”

by Traci Chapman
Staff Writer

Nursing has always been a way of life for Tina Singleton, her chance to bring healing and comfort to others.
With a heart for helping seniors, Singleton has always drawn on a personal experience more than two decades old, a painful memory that has spurred her to do everything she could for those in the twilight of their lives.
“What faces so many seniors is so awful – they want to stay in their home, but they might not be able to, assisted living can be so expensive and so impersonal, then there are nursing homes, something I will never forget,” Singleton said. “My grandmother went into the nursing home and in less than a year, she was gone – she just gave up.”
Singleton’s wish to give others the hope her grandmother lost was what spurred the Oklahoma LPN from the start; now, a new concept called Home Choice, aimed at bringing that comfort home could change Oklahoma’s home health care landscape.
“This is a completely different way of looking at things, a way to give more people an opportunity to have a real home, while they still get the best quality care,” Singleton said.
To get to Home Choice, Singleton had her own path to follow. After working for private care agencies, she in 2009 founded Right Choice Personal Assistance, a company offering traditional home health services to seniors and other home-bound patients. With more than 50 employees serving about 90 home health patients, caretakers assist individuals on a daily, weekly and as needed basis.
“The service is completely tailored to each individual need,” Singleton said.
Helping those who needed Right Choice’s home health services has been gratifying, a way of providing not only medical services, but also a helping hand to others – but something was always missing, Singleton said.
“It just seemed like there was so much more, something beyond the services we have been providing all along,” she said.
As Singleton thought and prayed about it, she was joined in April 2015 by Rhonda Baze, who would join the Right Choice team as community liaison. It was then a plan slowly came into focus – a house that could be turned into the home so needed by many seniors.
“It can be so difficult for seniors to remain independent – if they don’t have someone to help, there is so much to keeping up a house or even an apartment,” Baze said. “The maintenance, the cooking and then the healthcare they might need.”
“This is a solution, something that is not just a service but a home,” Singleton said.
Home Choice is just that, a home located in northwest Oklahoma City, large and specially fitted and ready for seniors to move in. While the house features some amenities found in assisted living facilities – things like 24-hour common area video monitoring, fire sprinklers, emergency lighting, an above-ground storm shelter and even a small salon – it is a private house with large living areas, private, fully accessible bathrooms and a sunny patio and backyard.
“It really is a home, like any home, where everyone has their own room – couples together or in adjoining rooms, if they like, roommates, singles on their own,” Singleton said. “They can garden if they like, play games, have companionship or just be on their own when they like – but they will always have the medical care and support they need, every hour of the day.”
Because the home houses only nine people, that means caregivers can give everyone everything they need, Singleton said. From nursing services to help with everyday issues like hygiene, exercise, transportation, meal preparation, housekeeping and more. Costs will include rent, utilities, home and yard maintenance, food and all care.
“It really is completely their choice,” Baze said. “They can be part of meal planning and cooking if they like, or they can be pampered and served.”
“Everyone needs to feel useful, to feel needed and some people will want to do things like gardening, like helping with other aspects of the house, they might want to volunteer somewhere, they want to be independent as long as they can, and that’s all possible here,” Baze said. “From the most independent of seniors, those who can drive and are very active to those bed-bound – everyone is welcome.”
Caregivers will be on duty 24 hours a day and will be chosen from long-standing Right Choice employees with a proven track record.
“In fact, anyone wanting to be part of this had to submit a separate application and go through a separate interview process,” Baze said. “We want people who are on the same page as us and who truly understand what is expected of them.”
“It’s always been most important to me that caregivers treat those we serve the way they would expect to be treated,” Singleton said. “We provide companionship, care and what they need to have a full and happy life – and that’s what’s important.”

73 year old Side Saddle Sisters of Oklahoma member makes trip to Kentucky

Jo Rench a savvy 73 year old senior and her horse, Snapper, recently returned from a 12 day trip to Kentucky with the Side Saddle Sisters of Oklahoma. The SSSO is an equestrian drill team of 6 horses and riders, who ride the old fashioned, elegant way-aside. Jo has resided in Edmond for the past 36 years.
The “girls” who range in age from 9 to 73 started their trip by attending the Rolex, at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington for the 1st 3 days. The Rolex is the only 4 Star 3 Day Event held in the western hemisphere. International and U.S. riders and their horses try to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. They then traveled to Louisville, where they worked at the Pegasus Preview, and rode in the Kentucky Derby Pegasus Parade, with their parent group, the American Sidesaddle Association. On Friday, they were back at the KHP to start their performances at the Breeds Arena. In the evening they attended the ASA awards banquet, where the girls won numerous awards for their activities during 2015. The Saturday and Sunday performances were well received by the audiences. It was a tired but happy group that made their way back to Celtic Cross Equestrian Center in Norman, Oklahoma, with dreams of another trip in the future. They will be appearing in local parades, rodeos, and other exhibitions.

Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn [email protected]

Branson, Missouri has long been identified with top notch entertainment and entertainers. Over the years Branson has changed and updated, but the quality has continued. If you have visited there in the past with it being the home of iconic performers, you might be disappointed to find out that those entertainers have either passed on or moved out of town. Don’t be alarmed as the Branson, Missouri reputation is still intact. As Branson likes to say, “Branson is not your grandmothers anymore.” True, but fun and family entertainment still survives, and is well suited to senior tastes.
Recommended for your new Branson visit is your home base accommodations. The Hilton has two locations offering the Hilton familiarity and both are in the downtown area. Off at Table Mountain Lake is the Chateau resort, complete with views of the Ozark lake, and options for your boating pleasure. The 15 minute drive out of Branson’s entertainment strip is a small price to pay for this elegant peaceful retreat. Both hotels offer ample self-parking, some with a fee.
Food can be entertainment as well. The Level Two Steak House inside the Hilton, offers the very best in quality steaks. One real surprise is the display and choice you might be offered by your server with a cabinet collection of steak knives with varying handles and steel blade varieties from which to choose your cutlery. The superior steak and beverage served from your instructions may surprise you, for you’d never expect such luxury in an Ozark tourist location. Another surprise is the dining at the Chateau Grille Restaurant at the Chateau resort, where again top of the line beverages and meals assure you of no regrets.
Steamboat Branson Belle, is a combination of food, excursion and entertainment. The food quality was surpassed by the friendly wait staff, and the entertainers again, were of the highest quality with comedy and a variety of song styles to suit a variety of tastes. The evening Steamboat cruise on the lake is hard to take in at night as you are cruising the lake so calm and dark that you hardly believe you’ve left the dock. A daylight cruise is recommended.
Other food venues not to be missed are Mel’s Hard Luck Diner in the Grand Village shopping area conveniently located on Highway 76. Your servers sing live to recorded background tracks with extreme precision and talent as they move about the dining rooms. The vocal talent exhibited there is equaled with the Happy Days style of food and ice-cream, in a setting fit for a movie set. The Grand Village with plenty of free parking also offers several upscale shopping opportunities, with the two Christmas shops a real favorite. As one of the largest Christmas selections in the area, you are sure to be tempted with a purchase or two of items not found elsewhere. I happily succumbed to the holiday decor temptation.
The main street of Branson entertainment is Highway 76, which is undergoing a several year renovation to improved sidewalks and the removal of high wire utility lines that obscure the elaborate exterior attractions of: King Kong, a giant Chicken and even a large meatball. Along this strip you can find the recently added Ferris wheel and the expertly presented Titanic experience.
Sitting back and letting the many entertainment options take over may be the best enjoyment of Branson. A few of the best of Branson talent and entrainment is the Raiding The Country Vault, where iconic country songs are performed by talented performers; the magic of Illusionist Rick Thomas, where his expertise at fooling the eye is truly mind boggling and admired; and Legends at the Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Theater, where while watching impressions of well-known celebrities do their act, you can enjoy food and beverages at the upstairs VIP balcony during their performances.
A short drive away, a visit to Silver Dollar City can offer a meaningful experience, especially during one of their festivals.
At the National Harvest and Cowboy Festival; the Wilde West Show, the display of the 1880 restored Journey Stage Coach and a meeting of artist and Gunsmoke co-star, Buck Taylor, was an unexpected treat.
Many other notable attractions await your visit in Branson, as a long weekend in Branson may not be enough time to take in all it has to offer. Find your options at: http://www.explorebranson.com

Mr. Terry Zinn – Travel Editor
Past President: International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association
http://realtraveladventures.com/author/zinn/
http://www.examiner.com/travel-in-oklahoma-city/terry-zinn
www.new.okveterannews.com – www.martinitravels.com

José M. Olivero
Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 65 million Americans will increase 0.3 percent in 2017, the Social Security Administration announced today.
The 0.3 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits payable to more than 60 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2017. Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 30, 2016. The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some other adjustments that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $127,200 from $118,500. Of the estimated 173 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2017, about 12 million will pay more because of the increase in the taxable maximum.
Information about Medicare changes for 2017, when announced, will be available at www.Medicare.gov. For some beneficiaries, their Social Security increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums.
The Social Security Act provides for how the COLA is calculated. To read more, please visit www.socialsecurity.gov/cola.

What are you looking forward to this holiday season? Integris Canadian Valley Hospital volunteers

Having my family come from Washington State and St. Louis to visit. That will be the highlight.  Carolyn Furgeson

A visit from Santa Claus would be wonderful. Becky Horn

My son lives in OKC and I’ll be here with him and his family. Eleanor Fuller

My family is having a reunion in Colorado so there will be 14 of us traveling to Pueblo. Morna Martinez