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Tag: service

Coping with COVID: Temporary Dining Changes

Fri, January 7, 2022 Published by

The pandemic taught us the importance of having contingency plans to keep our community whole in a crisis. Of course, the hope is they will never be needed. Yet, Covid combined with a staggering workforce shortage, has brought us to a painful place. As I write this, 19 staff are out with confirmed Covid positives or serious symptoms. In addition, many need to stay home with children who are positive or home due to exposures.

Big Tech, Big Brother and a Bigger God

Sun, May 26, 2019 Published by

George Orwell’s novel, 1984, was so successful at creating an imagined yet potential future reality that seventy years later, one of its most famous phrases ‘Big Brother is watching you’, continues to be used when describing the potential for governments and business to use technology to intrude into our daily lives via technology. This past week, that phrase was used by many journalists writing about another breach of technological security. This time, the text messaging service WhatsApp had been hacked by people who had installed spyware, turning users’ cell phones into a surveillance system by activating its camera and microphone, tracking users movements and extracting information from messages that were sent. As Orwell envisioned, that potential in the hands of those seeking to cause harm or to control others has some very serious consequences and implications. If someone hacked my phone, I suspect the most interesting thing they would find would be my wife and I discussing our dinner plans, but the incident is another reminder of how much we value our privacy. Technology has created a double bind. It facilitates communication to an amazing degree. We can send a message to anyone, anywhere, anytime. But it seems to be coming with an increase in surveillance that makes private communication risky. What are we to do? Throw away the phone and return to sending letters with the Pony Express? I hope not. In Psalm 139, traditionally attributed to King David, we hear a half-complaint and half-rejoicing in the truth that he is unable to escape the omniscient God. ‘Where can I hide from your spirit?’ he asks. He answers his own question by saying that he can’t and that perhaps it doesn’t matter. He knows that God’s gaze not only penetrates the rock of the cave in which he hides, it sees into his very soul. God is able to read his life, decrypt it end to end. To use a modern idiom, David knows he has been soul-hacked. The idea of being soul-hacked would be appalling if the one knowing the secrets of our hearts was a malignant force out to mine the data of our lives and use the information for their own ends to crush and oppress us. But as the Psalmist goes on to say: ‘Your eyes have seen my unformed substance.’ ‘Created my inmost being.’ The God who cracks the encryption of our hearts, created that heart and gives us the code to open it. The One who is watching us, in this instance, is not against us but for us.

Rev. Dr. Culver H. “Bill’ Nelson

Sun, April 28, 2019 Published by

This past Tuesday, the Beatitudes Church and Campus communities, along with families and friends, gathered to celebrate the life of our founder, Rev. Dr. Culver H. “Bill’ Nelson. It was a deeply moving service where we heard of his four great passions- Music, Community, Preaching and Denomination Leadership. Each person shared stories and his role in their own leadership development. The Rev. Dr. Dosia Carlson remarked on his love of song and music; The Rev. Dave Hunting on his profound presence at the pulpit and the reflections and actions he left congregants; The Rev. Dr. William “Bill” Lyons on his leadership in the growth of both the United Church of Christ and Southwest Conference, and Peggy Mullan, my predecessor, on his involvement in not only the Campus Church communities, but the Phoenix community as a whole.

With her permission, below are excerpts from her piece.

Bill always believed that the secular community, our civic lives, should not be separate from the spiritual community. A man of action always, he lived that belief. He was a founding member of the Phoenix Forty, a group of forty businessmen brought together by Eugene Pulliam to envision the Phoenix of the future way back in 1975. Much of what we enjoy today in urban Phoenix came out of their dreaming and designing. Bill was active in the formative years of Valley Leadership; he served as chaplain frequently at our state legislature and worked diligently on too many boards and commissions throughout the state of Arizona to enumerate. Among his many joys were the interfaith relationships he fostered with clerics from every faith community imaginable. He enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the esteemed and beloved Rabbi Al Plotkin, another giant from the spiritual community of his generation.

It’s impossible to talk about Bill without speaking of his beloved wife and partner in everything important – Dee. He loved her passionately and unabashedly. When Dee suffered a massive stroke and then through the years several others, Bill rose to the occasion in a way that honestly surprised us all. She had been the wind beneath Bill’s wings…we feared he would not know what to do. How very wrong we were.

It will always be a point of pride for me and every other employee of the Campus that we were part of Bill and Dee’s lives as they grew older.

I’d like to close my comments today by presuming to speak for someone who is not able to be at this lectern today—Bill’s good friend and my predecessor that I mentioned earlier, Rev. Dr. Ken Buckwald. When Ken would give a eulogy for someone he particularly loved and admired, he always closed with these words from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, verse 23.  I’ll speak them now in tribute to the friendship that the two men shared as they worked together over fifty plus years: “Well done, good and faithful servant…now enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

Amen

I hope you can join us at Wednesday’s Town Hall meeting where we will begin with a special time of remembrance honoring our Founder, The Rev. Dr. Culver H. “Bill” Nelson.

New Elaine’s Fine Dining Menu Offers Residents More Variety

Sun, January 13, 2019 Published by

We are excited to announce that, on January 31st, we will be migrating to a 52-week menu in Elaine’s Fine Dining to continue our commitment to variety.

Elaine’s format will have new and exciting offerings weekly and will be part of your Roadrunner each Monday. We will have changing options in seafood, appetizer, salad, soup, chicken, pork and others while maintaining our most popular dishes on our weekly menu.

We are very excited to bring this new option to you and, hopefully, you will come to Elaine’s Fine Dining and experience a night out, away from the bustle of our other venues, in a quiet, sophisticated atmosphere providing excellent food and service and featuring a new drink menu to add to the variety.

The Bistro moved to a 52-week menu a couple of months ago and has been very successful in bringing you variety with menu changes on a weekly basis. In the past, we changed our menus twice a year  and added variety by offering multiple specials in each venue. These specials were advertised weekly in the Roadrunner and quickly became the only options you saw in our venues. Many people said to me, “Joe, why do we only have these choices available to us” when indeed, there was an entire menu to choose from on top of the advertised specials. Moving forward, we will create all of our menus on a 52 week menu platform and provide you exceptional variety of choice, not only on the menu selections but make each venue varied and make your choice of where to dine much harder for you. This is a good thing, right?

We look forward to this change as much as you do and cannot wait to hear your reactions about the variety offered in our restaurants.*

New Medicare Cards

Sun, January 6, 2019 Published by

Medicare has recently changed their health insurance cards.  If you have traditional Medicare, you will notice that previously your Social Security number was used as your medical identification number as well as your Medicare Number.  As we know, over the past several years there has been nationwide concerns with identity theft and this is one way Medicare is addressing the concerns to minimize the risk of future identity theft.

Most of you should have already received your new Medicare card in the mail.  If you have not, please contact the Social Security Administration to ensure your address is correct.  You may contact them at ssa.gov/myaccount or by calling 800-772-1213.

It is important that when you receive your new card that you destroy your old card and replace with the new one which has a unique combination of letters and numbers and provide a copy to all of your health care providers. Please see the example below.

In addition to replacing your card, we are requesting all residents/responsible parties to provide accounting with a copy of your new card.  You may take it personally to their office in Agelink or it can be sent in with your monthly payment so that the new information can be updated in your Electronic Record here on campus.  Accounting’s office is open from 7:30AM to 4:30PM Monday through Friday.

Having the most up-to-date information will assist with transition so that if you are sent to the hospital we can provide them with the most current and up to date information.  Additionally, it allows a smooth billing of Medicare if you are admitted to the Health Care Center for a short stay or need to utilize Home Health or Outpatient Therapy services on campus.

Please be advised that only health care professionals should be requesting your Medicare card.  The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) also wants beneficiaries to beware of anyone who contacts you about your replacement Medicare card, as scammers have already targeted recipients with new ploys. CMS officials say they will never ask a beneficiary for personal or private information or for any money as a condition of getting a new Medicare number and card.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at x16111. *

LifeLong Learners Update

Sun, January 6, 2019 Published by

You’ve been asking—when is the new catalog coming out? When do classes start? I hope we’re having a short story class again. What’s Tom Denny teaching this time? Your questions are answered. You have your catalog. The schedule is set, and so are the registration dates—Jan. 14th and 15th. If you have questions, join us today (Jan. 7th) at the back of the Plaza Bistro from 10:00AM to 2:00PM.

A quick look at the schedule shows old favorites such as Poetry, American Art, Arizona History (that’s the Tom Denny offering), Spanish, French, TED Talks, Movies, Word Playing and American Short Story.

To pique your interest, we’re offering these new courses:

Jewish Short Story taught by Rabbi Elana Kanter

Beginning Spanish (often-requested)

Court Compendium, an outgrowth of Our Courts

Death and Dying, discussions to be facilitated by Success Matters interns

Supreme Court Decisions by our resident judge, Bill Schafer

Storytelling—If you attended the Christmas service where Rev. Doug Bland told about nativity figures and children, you met our Storytelling teacher.

In addition, Dosia has organized a three-parter called The Wonder of Birds, and Bill Chase will energize the subject of Construction, by explaining what’s going on all around us. Last, our faithful computer ladies have come up with a new topic—The Useful Internet.

And in between old and new are an expanded Enneagram, an updated Presidential Fiscal Policy, Recorder for both new and continuing students, Income Tax, PowerPoint, Word, and the popular Saturday phone/tablet courses.

We hope you’ll find something intriguing among the offerings – no grades, no credits, no tests! See you in class.*

Shout Out – Kimberly Cuellar

Mon, August 1, 2016 Published by

Kimberly Cuellar (Dining) has made a life changing and very patriotic decision. At the end of July she reported for duty in the United States Army! She was a great addition to our team and always helped the residents with a smile and we will miss her greatly. We know she will succeed while in the service and we wish her the best of luck going forward. Thank you for your service to our country Kimberly!

CUELLAR,, KIMBERLY - PhotoShare

First Impressions

Fri, June 24, 2016 Published by

We have heard the term “First Impressions” in senior living for a number of years, however, as  often happens at Beatitudes Campus, we are redefining the term in the context of our Radial Hospitality program. We are adding “Operation Welcome” to our way of greeting prospective residents, their families and friends to the campus.  The entire team has made tremendous progress in many areas of hospitality in the last few years and now we are taking steps to elevate our staff, facilities and methods to the highest levels.

As a result, you will begin to see quite a number of improvements in the look of common areas in the residential buildings as well as Town Plaza.  “We judge books by their covers, and we can’t help but do it,” said Nicholas Rule, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto. “Furthermore, the less time we have to make our judgments, the more likely we are to go with our gut, even over fact,” he added.  In today’s increasingly competitive senior living environment, we are keenly aware that to meet our mission of service, we must pay close attention to all aspects of the experience.

It is rather thought provoking to learn after repeated studies that irrespective of the quality of care and services in a senior living community, the “look” and “feel” of the environment has a much greater influence on the decision to move forward in considering residency.  Quality is generally perceived as a given and is not, at least initially, weighted as highly as friendliness, cleanliness, state of repair and updated furnishings and colors.

However, “First Impressions” is not only about the look of facilities.  That is but one leg of the stool……the others are the human environment as well as the perception of quality of life.  Beatitudes Campus is well known for its world class “life-long long learning” programs as well as nationally recognized “Comfort Matters” dementia care which speak strongly to a superior quality of life.  On the human environment standard, we have determined that while we are certainly above normal standards, we are going to provide training to achieve that same “best in class” signature. As a result, the entire campus staff will be provided specific training over the course of the next few months in All-Staff meetings as well as a separate session which will be conducted at a number of times.  The sign-ups will begin soon, so watch for announcements here in the Team Talk newsletter as well as information from your supervisor.

These are indeed exciting times as we move toward higher occupancies, even more elevated standards and progress to superior service levels! Beatitudes Campus rocks!

Rod Bailey, SVP of Sales & Marketing

Rod Bailey,
SVP of Sales & Marketing

Rod joined the Beatitudes team in April of 2016. He comes from an extensive background in the healthcare field. He has a great passion for the work he does and is a great addition to the Beatitudes Team.