Atlantic, IA – Officials with the Cass County Health System have announced Tammy Wyman, LPN was honored with the DAISY Award on Monday, October 12, 2020. Her nominators said, “I’m sure to Tammy it was just another day on the job, but to us, her empathy and warmth meant the world. Tammy’s passion for nursing comes through in her compassion for people. I want to thank her for making an extremely painful time, a little more tolerable. We left CCHS that day with permission to grieve a child we never knew, and that was a gift Tammy unknowingly gave us in and of itself.”

Tammy Wyman, LPN w/CCHS. (Photo submitted)

Tammy has been a nurse for 39 years, with the last 24 years spent at CCHS. It is her eleventh year of working with OB/GYN physicians. “I am so grateful every day. God’s allowed me to work in this job and to make a difference in their world. I try to care for women like my own daughters, mother, and it’s so important that we don’t lose that sense of personal connection. I’m the first to admit that I’ve had times that I didn’t do well. I called and apologized and tried to make it right. I’m not perfect! But moments like this, I think ‘I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.’ [The award] is affirmation that there are days that go badly but you can still make a difference. Those valleys in life when you feel like you’re drowning—you pour out yourself into people’s lives in order to make their days better,” said Tammy.

Tammy was initially drawn to nursing out of a desire to make a difference in people’s lives, even if there are difficult times. “Not every day is a good day as far as happy things happening; there are really hard days. I’m privileged to do this, and to be around the people that I work with. I work with so many amazing women that do great things every day. It’s an amazing work family, and there is something to be said for that. We all want to do the best we can.”

Nurses at Cass County Health System are honored twice annually with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses.® The award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s mission to recognize the extraordinary, compassionate nursing care they provide patients and families every day. The DAISY Award committee at CCHS wishes to thank all nominators for their submissions. Each nurse who was nominated will be presented with a special pin and a copy of the nomination.

The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

This is one initiative of The DAISY Foundation to express gratitude to the nursing profession. Additionally, DAISY offers J. Patrick Barnes Grants for Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Projects, The DAISY Faculty Award to honor inspiring faculty members in schools and colleges of nursing, and The DAISY in Training Award for nursing students. More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org. An online nomination form is available at https://www.casshealth.org/daisy.

(Radio Iowa) – A Denison woman has admitted to stealing from the credit union where she worked. Fifty-three-year-old Brenda Jensen pleaded guilty in federal court in Sioux City to embezzling nearly one-point-five million dollars over several years. Jensen admitted in her plea agreement that from at least May 2012 to March 2018, she embezzled money from Consumer Credit Union (CCU) in Denison while working there as the head teller. The credit union served Crawford, Carroll, Shelby, Ida, Monona, Sac, and Harrison counties.

Jensen concealed the embezzlement by creating fake deposits into her personal accounts. The credit union’s cash loss caused it to be insolvent and forced merger with SAC Federal Credit Union. Jensen remains free on bond pending a sentencing date. She faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a one million dollar fine.

(Radio Iowa) – A-A-R-P has unveiled what it calls an online “dashboard” with Covid data from Iowa nursing homes, showing nearly 43 percent do not have a week’s supply of masks and other personal protective equipment for staff. The data is based on Iowa nursing home reports to a federal agency. It shows more than 39 percent of Iowa nursing homes had staffing shortages last month. Anthony Carroll of A-A-R-P Iowa says the data paints a horrifying picture of what’s happening inside Iowa nursing homes. “What’s a more dangerous job in the country than nursing home staff right now?” Carroll asks. “And frankly, an area that we should be getting it right, but our lack of a plan shows how poorly we are getting this.”

A-A-R-P is calling on elected officials to ensure that public funds provided to help nursing homes address the pandemic are being used for testing, P-P-E and staffing. The A-A-R-P dashboard shows that between August 30th and September 20th, more than 700 nursing home staffers tested positive for Covid. “We have to get better,” Carroll says. “This is the first indicator of how far we have to go.” Carroll says without adequate protective gear and an increase in pay, it will continue to be difficult for nursing homes to hire staff in the midst of a public health emergency. “How is it that we’re almost to October and we’re still having staffing shortages? When you think about it, it’s because these are people who are not being paid well at all,” Carroll says. “They don’t have access to sick leave and they may be working between multiple homes, multiple jobs to make ends meet and then unfortunately unknowingly transmitting the virus from nursing homes to nursing homes.”

Iowa CareGivers executive director Di Findley says the median pay for certified nursing assistants who help nursing home residents with daily tasks is less than 14-dollars an hour.  “We’re asking people to put their lives on the line here, and many of them have literally put their lives on the line for $13.80 an hour,” Findley says. “About 10% of them don’t have health care coverage from any source.” Findley says many are struggling with child care costs as well.

The state’s coronavirus website shows there currently are Covid outbreaks at 68 Iowa nursing homes. The state declares an outbreak when at least three nursing home residents test positive for Covid. The website shows more than 17-hundred Iowa nursing home residents currently have Covid. A-A-R-P plans to update ITS dashboard monthly.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds says her administration will try to convince federal auditors to allow its plan to spend $21 million in coronavirus relief funds on a long-planned information technology system. Reynolds said that the state believes spending federal virus aid to purchase and implement a new accounting and human resources system for the executive branch is “an allowable expense.” She said that if auditors disagree, the state will change course.

State Auditor Rob Sand concluded Monday that the use of funds for the Workday project was inappropriate. He warned that Iowa will be on the hook to repay the federal government $21 million later if it’s not diverted to an allowable use

Two Cass County employees were injured during a collision in dense fog this (Wednesday) morning. Iowa State Patrol Trooper Shelby McCreedy reports the crash happened west of Wiota at around 7:48-a.m. on Highway 83 (Whitepole Road) near 656th.

(McCreedy said 38-year-old Lora Kanning and 61-year-old Mitch Holmes, both of Anita, were traveling westbound. Kanning was driving a 2011 GMC Acadia. Holmes was driving a 2007 Jeep Wrangler. When Holmes stopped for a vehicle that was turning south off onto a gravel road, Kanning was unable to stop in time. Her vehicle struck the Jeep from behind, causing the Jeep to enter the north ditch where it rolled multiple times.)

Kanning and Holmes suffered non-life threatening injuries and were transported to Cass County Memorial Hospital by Cass County EMS and Anita Rescue. Trooper McCreedy said Kanning told investigators she could not see Holmes’ vehicle due to the fog, but the accident remained under investigation. Kanning was cited for Failure to Stop in Assured Clear Distance and Holmes was cited for Failure to Wear a Seat Belt.

Kanning is the Naturalist for Cass County Conservation, while Holmes is the Cass County Veterans Affairs Director. No County vehicles were involved in the accident.

The Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a Special Meeting 11:30-a.m. Thursday (Oct. 22nd), for the purpose of acting on “District Guidelines for Use of Face Masks” (Board Policy #908.R1).  The meeting takes place in the High School Media Center.

During their meeting last week, the Board continued with discussion on making the use of face masks/shields mandatory, with two members in favor of a mandatory policy. The district’s current policy says anyone in grades 6-thru-12 are expected to wear masks, when social distancing was not possible. The standard for the PK-5 building is to encourage the use of masks when social distancing cannot occur.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa-based electric utility says it has idled nearly four dozen power-generating wind turbines after huge blades broke off of two turbines in recent weeks. The Des Moines Register reports that MidAmerican Energy has paused the use of 46 turbines it has identified as having similar blades, which are about 177 feet long and weigh 18,000 pounds. The company acknowledged that one blade on a turbine near Paton fell Thursday into an empty field.

In mid-September, another blade on a turbine near Adel crashed into a corn field. Similar incidents were reported in April and in October 2019 at Adair County wind farms. No one was hurt. MidAmerican says it has isolated the issue to blades made by Danish manufacturer Vestas and is working with Vestas.

Students in the Audubon Community School District can expect to continue with the four-day, in-person Return-to-Learn instructional plan. Superintendent Eric Trager said students will continue to attend classes in the District Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday is a remote learning and deep-cleaning day.

He says hopefully by January there will be a vaccine against COVID that will allow everyone to begin getting their lives and learning back to near normal. In related news, Trager said the Audubon School Board, Monday, approved Virtual Snow Days.

Trager said also, the District’s final enrollment numbers are down about 20, putting them at levels seen about two-years ago, but he says other districts have also experienced a decline, typically the result of the COVID pandemic. He hopes it’s just a blip, and not a more long-term trend.

Trager said also, the Board approved refinancing of a bonds, to take advantage of historically low interest rates, and to bond up to $1.5-million for the building renovation project.

Building project plan specs will be presented to the Board for approval Nov. 4^th during a public hearing, with the project going out for bids on Nov. 8^th. A public hearing on SAVE bond refinancing will be held 7-p.m., Nov. 16^th. In other business, the Audubon School Board Monday, approved a Counsel agreement with Ahlers Cooney out of Des Moines. The District’s current attorney is retiring from school law.