At a May 21 meeting of the Lakeland Healthcare Center Board of Trustees, Director of Nursing Tracy Bernardo summarized 2024 accomplishments for the nursing department and laid out goals for the coming year.

Bernardo told trustees Lakeland’s quality-measure rating rose to four stars by April 1 and that nursing leadership is working to push the facility to a five-star overall rating. "By April 1, we did go up to a 4 star in quality measures," she said.

The nursing report said the facility hosted Gateway Technical College clinical groups and five Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) classes in 2024, with 44 students completing training. Staff reported the number of open CNA full-time-equivalent positions decreased to 7.7 at the end of 2024 (down from 8.6 at the end of 2023). Bernardo said Lakeland hired two CNAs from the Gateway classes.

On clinical measures, Bernardo reported improvements in fall-related major injuries (from 3.3 percent to 1.4 percent) and reductions in emergency-department visits for short-stay residents (from 19 percent to 11 percent). Rehospitalizations declined to 26 percent from 31 percent, short of a 23 percent target but an improvement over the prior year.

Bernardo said leadership formed an interdisciplinary quality-measures subcommittee that meets monthly and that the facility is partnering with an Oak Medical wound-certified nurse practitioner to improve wound care protocols. She described work to refine Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessment timing to better reflect resident status and improve quality scores.

Bernardo also outlined staff-development plans: monthly leadership education using the book 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees, recertification work for the MDS nurse, and Bernardo’s own nurse-leadership certification funded by a scholarship. Assistant Director of Nursing Corey Kowalski was introduced as a recent addition to the leadership team and is completing infection-prevention certification and planning wound-care certification for 2026.

Discussion: Board members asked about hiring outcomes from the Gateway classes; Bernardo said two CNAs joined Lakeland but that classroom outreach remains important to build future staffing pipelines.

Direction and next steps: Trustees were told leadership will continue monthly quality-subcommittee reviews, pursue wound-care process improvements with Oak Medical, and keep the goal of a five-star overall rating.