Newsworthy

Dear Community Partners,

Here are today’s updates:

• We Care, We Vote – Today is Election Day!
• Magnet Document Advances
• Celebrating 10 Years in Manhattan this Month
• Sports Physicals at Cotton O’Neil Express Care North
• Cotton O’Neil Express Care’s Midtown Location Opens Aug. 17
• Current Status at Stormont Vail Health

We Care, We Vote – Today is Election Day!

Today is the primary election. All registered voters, 18 and older, are encouraged to go to the polls. At Stormont Vail Health, we encourage team members to vote. We also have a process in place to help hospitalized patients get their ballots to vote. Thank you to our Patient Experience Team for assisting 20 patients who requested help with this process today.

Polls are open for the primary election from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today. If you want to confirm your polling place, you can visit, find my polling place, and enter your residential address. To see what’s on your ballot, you can visit, find my ballot, and enter your first and last name and date of birth, to see your sample ballot.

Magnet Document Advances

Stormont Vail Health’s Magnet accreditation document has been submitted to the American Nurses Credentialing Center. This is the fourth time Stormont Vail has applied for Magnet designation. Magnet is the gold standard for nursing programs and is an indicator of overall quality of a health organization. Stormont Vail was awarded the accreditation in 2009, 2014 and 2018.

Leading the effort on the current Magnet accreditation process are Sue Iverson, RN, Director, Clinical Nursing Excellence, and Paula Sanders, RN, Magnet Program Manager. The team also includes Kassadee Clark, Magnet Department Assistant, as well as the Magnet steering committee comprised of Kim Bales, RN, Dena Brake, Dawn Garcia-Brinker, RN, Brian Coover, RN, Kim Dick, RN, Tammy Newberry, RN, Erika Parker, RN, Jessica Pfrang, RN, Allison Reid, RN, and Julia Wiebler, RN.  Many others have also contributed to providing information contained in the document, which cover standards that must be met in order to have a site visit by Magnet surveyors. The surveyors conduct a final assessment that the organization meets all Magnet criteria.

We are very proud of the tremendous work done by this team. The document showcases the wonderful care and initiatives being provided by nursing and our entire interdisciplinary team.

In addition, the great work of Stormont Vail will be highlighted Aug. 30 at the Magnetize KC Symposium at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City. Stormont Vail team members were selected for one podium presentation and two poster presentations. These include:

• Podium: Ashley Florez, RN, and Yvonne Hartner, RN – Enhanced Primary Care
• Poster: Jordan Christenson, RN, and Chelsey Rake, RN – Discharge Lounge Workflow Improvement
• Poster: Melinda Theis, RN, and Kim Dick, RN – Enhanced Recovery for Cesarean Sections

Stormont Vail is also sponsoring the keynote speaker at the event, Christopher Kohler, RN, Nurse Administrator, Department of Nursing, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., through our affiliation with the Mayo Clinic Care Network.  Christopher will be presenting “In It to Win It:  Redefining Nursing Success after COVID-19.”

Celebrating 10 Years in Manhattan this Month

Stormont Vail Health is celebrating a decade of providing health services in Manhattan. In 2012, Stormont Vail invested in Medical Associates of Manhattan to become Cotton O’Neil Manhattan. Dr. Scott Coonrod is a primary care physician and was part of the transition from the start.

“We were just a fairly small, local internal medicine group and made group decisions in the hallway, between appointments,” Dr. Coonrod recalled. “Dr. Palmberg and Deb Yocum led us by the hand through the transition and helped us tremendously.”

Over the last 10 years Stormont Vail has grown to have more than two dozen providers in Manhattan offering services in family medicine, internal medicine, and medical specialties. We have partnered with Manhattan Surgical Hospital to support and strengthen surgical and procedural health services, while also helping start a spine surgery program there.

Stormont Vail formed an academic partnership with Kansas State University and the College of Health and Human Sciences to support the Physician Assistant program which will help Kansas educate future health care providers and care for generations to come. We are also the primary donor for the Stormont Vail Health Simulation Lab and furthermore, welcomed additional gastroenterology practices in Manhattan to join Cotton O’Neil Digestive Health Manhattan.

Over these 10 years, Stormont Vail’s momentum of growth in Manhattan has increased access to care and enabled many patients to receive care in, or near, their home community. Investing in quality, patient-centered care is the reason Stormont Vail is nearing completion of the new medical campus that will be finished next summer and house all of our services together.

“We are really looking forward to working in the new building, having everyone and everything under one roof with X-ray, lab, and specialty medicine all together. It will be really great,” said Dr. Coonrod.

Thank you to all of our team members who have been around for the last decade including, Dr. Gilbert Katz, Dr. Scott Coonrod, Dr. Sandra Killingsworth, Dr. Preeti Singh, Dr. Roger Peck, Tiffany DeWalt, LPN, Jennifer Leonard, RN, Alianna Bowers, LPN, Linda Harris, Lana Swoboda, Kim McDiffett, and Kevin Flickinger. We are also so grateful to see our Manhattan team grow into what it is today. We appreciate all your hard work and are excited to see what we will be celebrating in the next 10 years!  Check out this blog to read more about how Stormont Vail’s growth in Manhattan over the last 10 years.

Sports Physicals at Cotton O’Neil Express Care North

Is your child ready for the upcoming sports season? Have they gotten their annual sports physical yet? If not, our team at the Cotton O’Neil Express Care North will be performing KSHSAA sports physicals on Aug. 6-8. Swing by between Noon and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, or from 3 to 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 8. Click here for more information!

Cotton O’Neil Express Care’s Midtown Location Opens Aug. 17

Cotton O’Neil Express Care’s new “midtown” location at 1516 S.W. 6^th Ave., will open Aug. 17. The Express Care location at 909 S.W. Mulvane closed Aug. 1 and equipment is now being relocated to the new S.W. 6^th and Horne building. Those needing urgent care services can visit any of our other Express Care locations in Topeka during this two week period.

Current Status at Stormont Vail Health

The weekly COVID-19 scorecard is posted on the Stormont Vail website. Here are highlights are from the scorecard:

• 13 inpatients are COVID-19 positive. That’s down from 17 last week.
• 86% of recent COVID-19 admissions are unvaccinated or had last dose/booster more than 6 months ago.
• COVID-19 inpatient discharges (previous week): 28. Deaths: 0.
• 1 COVID-19 positive patient in the outpatient Enhanced Primary Care program.
• 25.6% of people tested for COVID-19 at Stormont Vail facilities the past seven days were positive. That is down from 29% last week.
• 59 team members and 6 providers on contact leave for COVID-19. The total of 65 people on contact leave this week is similar to 69 out last week.
• 105,906 vaccinations (included boosters) administered.
• To schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment:
  • Use online scheduling assistant at stormontvail.org/covid19/vaccine
  • Call (785) 270-4786.

We together,
Dr. Kenagy