Business Briefs

For The Journal

Published 12:00 p.m., July 14, 2008

Three employees join Lakeland Hospice and Home Care:

Lakeland Hospice and Home Care of Fergus Falls announces the appointment of three employees.

Debbie Grimes CSW, will be working as a bereavement social worker. She completed her master's degree in community counseling at the University of Nebraska at Kearney this spring. She previously worked as the director of social services for the Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home in Ravenna, Neb. Grimes is a native of Willmar.

Kirstin Drexler, BSW, was hired as a hospice social worker. She graduated in 2007, with a bachelor of social work degree from Bemidji State University. She formerly worked at St. Williams Living Center in Parkers Prairie. Drexler is a native of Alexandria.

Mary Widiger is the new public relations coordinator. She previously worked at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Fergus Falls. She graduated from North Dakota State University with a bachelor's degree in communications. Widiger is originally from Fargo and now lives in Fergus Falls.

Allergy, pulmonary specialist to join LRH and FFMG:

Dr. Patrick Stoy, an allergy and pulmonary medicine specialist who has previously done outreach work in Fergus Falls, will join the medical staff at Lake Region Healthcare in early September.

Dr. Stoy has practiced at MeritCare in Fargo for 29 years and at one time saw patients at the Fergus Falls Medical Group through MeritCare.

As an allergy specialist, Dr. Stoy will treat patients with conditions including asthma, hives, hay fever, drug allergies and reactions, bee sting allergies and food allergies. The pulmonary facet of his practice will focus on patients with emphysema, lung cancer and other chronic lung conditions.

Dr. Stoy attended the University of Notre Dame in Lafayette, Ind., and graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School. He completed an internship at St. Paul Ramsey Hospital and an internal medicine residency at the University of Minnesota Hospitals. He is a native of Little Falls, where his father was a long-time family practice physician and his brother is a physician.

In addition to his specialties in allergy and pulmonary medicine, Dr. Stoy will also work with Lake Region Healthcare's sleep center, which treats patients for a variety of sleep disorders, including sleep apnea.

Dr. Stoy and his wife, Margie, moved four years ago from Fargo to Big Cormorant Lake in Becker County. They have three adult children, including daughter, Heather who is completing an ear, nose and throat internship in Sacramento, Calif., and son. Sean. who recently graduated from medical school and is doing a surgical residency in Denver. Son Daniel is a mechanical engineer/MBA who works at Microsoft in Fargo.

LRHC recognized for safety campaigns

Lake Region Healthcare Corporation is among 46 Minnesota hospitals receiving a new award recognizing superior efforts to prevent the most prevalent types of adverse health events.

The Minnesota Hospital Association’s inaugural Patient Safety Excellence Awards were distributed June 27. The program honors hospitals that are participating in at least one of the association’s four safety campaigns and achieve at least 90 percent of a campaign’s requirements.

“These awards set the bar very high,” said MHA Patient Safety Vice President Tania Daniels. “Hospitals that qualify have achieved measurable and meaningful progress toward implementing best practices to drive down adverse health events, and we truly commend their outstanding efforts.”

The initiatives work to prevent pressure ulcers, or bedsores (“SAFE SKIN”); patient falls (“SAFE from FALLS”); wrong-site invasive procedures (“SAFE SITE”) and retained foreign objects in labor and delivery (“SAFE COUNT”). Improvement measures in the SAFE SKIN campaign, for example, call for repositioning patients at least every two hours to keep pressure ulcers from developing. Each campaign included thorough sets of improvement steps based on national and state best practices, and on information gleaned from hospitals sharing information about adverse health events that occurred at their facilities.

LRHC was recognized for its SAFE SKIN and SAFE SITE campaigns.

Reed joins Tastefully Simple:

Amber Reed of Fergus Falls has become an independent consultant with Tastefully Simple Inc., a national direct-sales company featuring easy-to-prepare gourmet products.

As a consultant, Reed offers the company's gourmet foods and beverages to guests at home taste-testing parties. Guests receive samples, easy meal ideas, recipes and serving suggestions.

“The Tastefully Simple opportunity is designed to be life friendly,” says Jill Blashack Strahan, Tastefully Simple Inc. founder and CEO. “Consultants find a great deal of satisfaction through its fun nature, flexibility, unlimited earning potential and top-notch products.”

Tastefully Simple is an ideal opportunity for those seeking new or additional business options, supplementary income, more time with children, or simply control and freedom, Blashack Strahan says.

Salon Eclips offers new makeup line"

Salon Eclips has launched the Youngblood Mineral Makeup, a natural makeup line, with a flawless finish, that is healthy for the skin.

Educator Rebecca Sauerer was in house for a class on makeup analysis and application. Professionals present were Beth Watson, Tammy Raph, Tracey Lindberg, Lori Good, Elaine Schultz and Dianne Biss.

Meder joins Edward Jones in FF:

Marcus Meder has joined Edward Jones as a new financial advisor for the Fergus Falls branch office located at 108 N. Cascade.

Edward Jones is headquartered in St. Louis.

Werner appointed to task force:

Peg Werner of Fergus Falls, director of Viking Library System, a regional public library system serving six West Central Minnesota communities, was appointed by Gov. Pawlenty to serve on the High-Speed Boradband Task Force.

Werner will represent regional public libraries. Nineteen residents from across the state will also serve on the task force until March 2010.

Meyer named CEO of Adaptive Path:

Adaptive Path, Inc., an experience strategy and design firm out of San Francisco, announced last week that it has selected Michael W. Meyer to serve as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective July 21, 2008. Meyer is the grandson of Carlton and Esther Mortensen; Carlton served as Otter Tail County Sheriff for many years.

Meyer comes to Adaptive Path from frog design, where he led the company’s California studio as General Manager, overseeing the firm’s physical and digital product design offering. Previously, he started and led the Product Strategy practice at IDEO’s Boston office.

Before Meyer's move to product development consulting, he served as a Lieutenant in the US Navy, running a Naval telecommunications facility in Naples, Italy as General Manager. Prior to that, he managed the production and testing of shipboard nuclear power plants as a Navy engineering officer.

Meyer has a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He holds an appointment as a Fellow of the Batten Institute, Darden GSBA, University of Virginia, where he has taught early-stage innovation and product development. He currently instructs at the Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego.

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