Toward the end of January, the Administrator for Avamere Crestview of Portland, Nate Dawson, received a letter of thanks from the son of a recent patient. Infinity Rehab therapists work within the Crestview facility, so we were delighted to read that one of our employees, Amy Hietpas, OT, was mentioned as a reason why the patient’s stay was an exceptional one. Amy’s actions truly personify the core values of Infinity Rehab:
- Integrity Above All Else
- Passion for the Quality of People’s Lives
- A Culture of Respect
- Reaching to Learn, Grow and Embrace Change
- Quality that is Obvious
Kudos to the entire staff at Crestview for doing an outstanding job. We are proud to be able to share in the experience of providing the highest caliber of care for each of our patients. Below is an edited version of the letter of appreciation that was sent to Mr. Dawson.
Recently my father stayed at the Kaiser Rehab wing at Avamere Crestview of Portland. From the afternoon that I brought him to the facility until the afternoon that I picked him up and brought him to his new home at an assisted living facility, he was treated with respect and kindness that is seldom seen in this day and age. When the Charge Nurse, Karen Gunter, noticed that he wasn‘t being processed into Crestview as quickly as he should be, because all of your employees were busy taking care of other patients, she stopped what she was doing and made sure that he was fed, had cold water to drink, and got all of his orders together from the hospital to make sure he didn‘t go without any of his prescriptions. I spent a portion of every day of his stay there visiting him and I was amazed at the kind of people that are employed at Crestview. In these days of a bad economy and hardship by almost all of us as citizens of Oregon and the United States, apathy and uncaring people have become commonplace in both management and the working ranks of most places of employment. It immediately became apparent to me that is not the way that Avamere Crestview does business.
From the helpers and assistants, to the nurses, the nurse‘s aides, the people responsible for preparing and serving the daily meals, the physical therapists and everyone else that I encountered during my father‘s stay, every single one of them went overboard to make sure my father was well taken care of, looked after, and treated as though he was a family member instead of a customer in your facility. During one visit on the weekend, I observed the administrator of the entire facility helping to serve meals to the patients when he noticed that things were falling behind and the food was in danger of becoming cold before it was served.
Also in particular, Bree Weber, the patient coordinator, and Amy Hietpas both went totally out of their way to help me and my father with some concerns that came up regarding his state of mind during his visit. Amy retested him in several different ways after listening to my concerns about his cognitive test scores and was able to determine that he had just been asked things in such a way that he wasn‘t understanding of the questions.
When we received notice that a room was available at the assisted living facility he would eventually move to, the head nurse was worried that the Kaiser staff might not be able to complete their paperwork and orders quickly enough to make a smooth move out of Crestview. However, when she expressed her worries to Bree Weber, Bree went out of her way to personally move the paperwork through the chain and got it all completed in less than two days; plenty of time to ensure there were no hang-ups during his discharge from Crestview. The head nurse from the facility he moved to told me she had never seen Kaiser paperwork and orders move this quickly and that was 100% due to the extra effort Bree put into making sure my father wasn‘t left in never never land with no place to stay for a couple of days.
I just want to express my gratitude for the care that my father received while he was at Crestview and to commend your entire staff for their, empathy, their kindness and caring, their professionalism, and their obvious commitment to ensuring my father was not treated like an uncared-about old man, but like a valued human being. I cannot express how much I appreciate this. Thank you and your entire staff, it’s obvious that at Crestview, caring for people is not just a job, it’s a company philosophy!
