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Happy 4th of July, HRD! We hope you enjoy whatever you have planned for this weekend, but we also encourage you to be aware of the COVID-19 levels in your area. You can find the COVID-19 County Check on the Be Ready MN website, which will tell you what the community spread level is and give recommendations for keeping yourself and others safe.
COVID-19 vaccine appointment for children under 5 are available at Mall of America: Parents can now book appointments for the Pfizer vaccine at the Mall of America site online by going to: https://my.primary.health/r/vaxmn. Vaccines will also be available around the state at health care facilities and pharmacies; you can search for a location near you on the Vaccine Locations page of the Minnesota COVID-19 Response website, which will be updated as vaccines arrive in Minnesota.
Complete Required Training by July 29, 2022: MMB has created three new policy acknowledgements to make sure staff are aware of recent updates to the Code of Ethical Conduct, the Appropriate Use of Electronic Communication and Information Technology, and the policy around Mobile Device Use. All MDH staff need to complete these policy acknowledgements in ELM by July 29. For more information, see the Employee Training Requirements page on the Intranet.
Have you applied for Frontline Worker Pay? The Frontline Worker Pay Application opened on June 8; if you were unable to telework and worked in close proximity to people outside your household for at least 120 hours between March 2020 and June 2021, you may be eligible for a payment of up to $1500. We know that many HRD staff qualify for this payment, and we encourage you to apply and be recognized for your work. The full list of eligibility requirements can be found on the Minnesota Frontline Worker Pay Program website in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali, and the application is open from June 8 to July 22, 2022.
Coming soon: Compensation increases per 2021-2023 bargaining agreements: The end of the fiscal year is upon us, and that means that FY23 compensation increases will be reflected on paychecks over the next few weeks. The timing of the increases depends on your bargaining unit:
- June 17: Commissioner’s Plan employees
- July 1: Minnesota Law Enforcement Association (MLEA) employees
- July 15: Employees covered by a legislatively-approved plan (AFSCME, MAPE, MMA, MNA, SRSEA, MLEA)
For more information, check out the Minnesota Management and Budget Labor Relations webpage.
The State LCR team, along with our Admin Specialist and State EWS colleagues, have been intensively working on annual licensing renewals. Here are some highlights:
- Speech Language Pathologist and Audiology licenses
- Both licenses expired in May
- Over 82% of the licensed Speech Language Pathologists renewed for 2023 (374 out of 456)
- And 87% of the licensed Audiologists renewed for 2023 (107 out of 123)
- Assisted Living licenses
- The 2022 licenses expire on August 1. The renewal period began at the end of April.
- Over 62% (approx. 1232 providers) have been renewed and their 2023 licenses were printed and mailed
- Approximately 30% (approx. 594 providers) have submitted the renewals are in various stages of the review process
- Less than 8% have not renewed yet. Several providers are in the process of closing or undergoing a change of ownership, which are included in this group
Hats off to the State LCR team, as well as our Admin Specialist and EWS colleagues, for ensuring the applications are thoroughly reviewed and processed so that the providers continue to retain a Minnesota license. We appreciate all you do!
This week, we’re featuring Lori Pokela, one of our State Rapid Response evaluators!
Name / Pronouns / Position: Lori Pokela (she/her), Special Investigator Nurse Evaluator (State Rapid Response)
Location: Metro
Tell us about your background: I have been married to my husband for 33 years and we have raised 3 children, a daughter and 2 sons.
While in nursing school, I was a nursing assistant for 3 years and also worked at a jail for a year as an administrative assistant. I have been a registered nurse for over 30 years. Most of my experience has been in long-term care. I have some experience in health care insurance.
I started my first year of nursing as a long-term care floor nurse then transitioned into various nursing management positions for a couple of years. These positions included: nurse manager, staff development and assistant director.
In 1994, I met an instructor from Anoka Technical College who invited me to instruct nursing assistant classes. Throughout the past 30+ years, I have taught nursing assistants not only at Anoka Technical College, but Bethel College, Pine Technical College and Anoka-Ramsey Community College. I eventually transitioned into becoming a nursing assistant competency evaluator and was employed at the above colleges, as well as, Century College. I absolutely love teaching!
My long-term care background also includes clinical education which gave me a taste of staff recruitment and retention experience. I really enjoyed using my creativity and community outreach to assist others in considering careers involving healthcare. In my clinical education position, I was able to form connections with community programs such as: workforce centers, adult/youth community programs and north metro high schools. This outreach was done in hopes to get individuals who needed/wanted work, a job in healthcare. At times, I was involved in setting up volunteer work for persons who wanted to: “test the waters” in the field of long-term care. My background in education also allowed me to expand on developing skills in course presentation, curriculum, and competency development. I also received also received experience in grant writing and the development of a mentorship program.
I had home schooled all 3 of my children full-time, M-F. This was completed from preschool through the 9th grade, while working as a part-time nurse. As you can see, I had survived this and so did my children, as they are all now adults. LOL!
During the time I was home schooling, our family had a small-scale farm of which we raised sheep, pygmy goats, potbellied pigs (my personal favorite), chickens, ducks, turkeys, and rabbits. Such good memories!
How long have you been in HRD? 1 year and 6 months.
What's your role within HRD? What do you work on?: I now have work in HRD as a Special Investigator/Nurse Evaluator II. WOW! Talk about rolling your experience in one big package!!! Here it is. All of my experience went full circle without any of my knowledge going to waste. I use every bit of my experience of nursing and education in reviewing complaint cases and conducting facility surveys. I have the added bonus of working with the BEST of the BEST in the State of Minnesota. My career has been a success story so far! This is many thanks to all of my mentors and role models along the way!
One more added note: You are never too old to go back to school! Just recently I have obtained my bachelor’s degree in health care management. This degree diversifies my knowledge in the areas of healthcare administration.
Describe a current project you're excited about, or an accomplishment you are proud of: I am super excited about joining the Collaborative Safety Team! I think this project is very much necessary not only for HRD, but the providers and ultimately the most vulnerable in our community. I am just waiting on the edge of my seat to see the positive impacts this plan will make in healthcare.
What do you like to do when you aren't working?:
Tons!!! Garden, yoga, swim, bike, moped rides, travel, our pets, our chickens, walks, antiques, crochet, book club, our kids and the list goes on…
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This week, we have the following positions available, and more are coming soon. Please share them with anyone that you think would help make HRD a better place to work!
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Health Program Manager Senior (Federal Operations), Job ID: 56129: This position will act as the Federal Subject Matter Expert (SME) and provide strategic input into the overall direction of the division based on Federal direction, requirements and actions requested by the Federal regulators. This role manages state and federal regulatory requirements that include the preparation of services associated with evaluations and other work related to achieving the organization’s mission and long-term goals in supporting Minnesotans. Closes July 5, 2022.
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Health Program Representative Senior (Federal Enforcement), Job ID: 56712: This position will serve as an expert technical resource to provide advice on State and Federal standards, rules and regulations and development and determination of regulatory enforcement remedies for licensed and certified providers. This position will also provide primary quality assurance function in the implementation of a comprehensive statewide system for regulation of licensed and certified health care facilities and services. Closes July 8, 2022.
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Nursing Evaluator (Federal Operations), Job ID: 53255: These positions will provide onsite surveillance and guidance to health care providers in an effort to assure a level of quality care based upon compliance with Federal and State laws and rules which directly relate to the provision of nursing and health services. Closes August 1, 2022.
These positions are open to both internal and external candidates. If you would like to apply, please follow the steps below:
- Sign into Employee Self Service
- On My Homepage, click on Careers and enter the Job Opening ID in the Search Jobs box and click >> (Search).
- Click on the Job Title to view the job posting.
- Click Apply for This Job in the top right hand corner.
With summer holidays upon us, lots of HRD staff are taking time off, which means lots of ‘out of office’ calendar notifications. This week, Assistant Division Director Lindsey Krueger suggested that we revisit an article from a few months ago to help you set up your calendar like a pro!
Setting up your out of office notifications is a two-step process:
- Blocking your calendar (so people see that you’re out when they are trying to schedule something with you)
- Letting your teammates know you’ll be unavailable (without blocking their calendars)
Step 1: Block your calendar
Start by blocking off your calendar, so that people who are looking at it know when you will be unavailable. You can set up an automatic reply message for emails you receive, but that doesn’t tell people ahead of time that you are out – it just sends them an email after they have already sent a calendar invite.
- To set your calendar to show when you are out of the office, click the New Appointment button in the top left corner of your Outlook calendar.
- Fill in a title and select the date(s) you will be unavailable. Select the All day checkbox (circled in blue); it’s easier than filling in specific times if you are going to be gone for one or more days.
- In the Appointment tab of the ribbon, set the Show As option to Out of Office (outlined in red).
- Click Save & Close. The day(s) you selected will now have a purple crosshatch pattern in your calendar, so people will see that you are not available.
 Step 2: Inform your teammates
Now that your calendar is blocked off, you can send a message to let your team know that you’ll be unavailable. To start, click the New Meeting button in Outlook.
- Fill in a title and select the date(s) you will be unavailable. Select the All day checkbox (circled in blue), so that your meeting shows at the top of your team’s calendar, rather than as an item with a specific time.
- Add the list of people you want to send the message to. You don’t need to differentiate between “required” and “optional” since this isn’t a real meeting.
- In the Meeting tab of the ribbon, set the Show As option to Free (outlined in green). If you don’t set the Show As option to Free, your invite will block out the calendar of everyone you have sent it to – which makes it difficult for anyone trying to schedule a meeting with those people. Make sure that Reminder is set to None as well.
Add any important information in the body of your message, and click Send.
 That’s it! You’ve now successfully communicated to your teammates, and to anyone who looks at your calendar, which days you are unavailable in the most convenient way possible.
For the Adventurous
If you read the above steps and thought, “But I already know that – I read this back in April,” that’s awesome! If you want to take your skills to the next level, here are some other things you might try:
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Turn off “Request Responses”: For lots of meeting invites, you probably want a response, so you know who is coming to the meeting. In this case, it’s more of an FYI, so a response really isn’t necessary. You can uncheck the “Request Responses” option under the Response Options button (directly to the left of the Options section that’s outlined in green above).
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Creating a Contact Group for your OOO messages: If you have a lot of people who might need to know when you’re out, you might not want to always type in everyone’s name. Outlook allows you to create contact groups, which are like personalized email lists, that you can then use to send your messages to. Then, when you need to send your meeting invite out, you can just type the name of the group into the “Required” field, and away you go! Here’s how it works: Create Contact Groups (Outlook Essential Training, Microsoft 365).
Now, go enjoy your time off!
This week, HRD welcomed the following people to the division. Send them a message to say hello!
- Alex Huls, Federal Operations (Evaluation)
- Kelly Lawson, Federal Operations (Evaluation)
- Deb Jackson, State Operations (Evaluation)
- Michelle Adler, Federal Operations (Evaluation)
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