Happy Chanukah to one and all!  We hope that you received our Chanukah greeting card earlier in the week.  It's a holiday wish from all of us to all of you!  We are having a great Chanukah at Cedar Village.  We began with our wonderful party on Sunday afternoon, highlighted by a performance by the Cincinnati Klezmer Project and the world premiere of our Chanukah video!  Each night of Chanukah we have lit candles in three different locations, the second and third floors in the Health Care Center and in the Garden Dining Room.  We have community rabbis participating throughout the holiday and each brings a different touch to the candle lighting.  We've had stories and songs and shared memories-it is a wonderful way for us to celebrate as a community and as a family.

We have, of course, also been eating latkes all week!  We've had traditional potato latkes but also had some experiments with spinach and carrot latkes.  They were all delicious.  On  Thursday morning we made latkes with residents in Health Care and our Bubbie's Kitchen was filled with the pungent fragrance of onions and oil!  It is wonderful to take part in a cooking activity that is not only engaging but also elicits so much conversation and so many memories.  We debated the eternal "sour cream/applesauce" question and it appeared that the votes were equally split!

On Monday we had a very special event here and you may have seen some of the extensive news coverage we have had this week.  We announced the establishment of the Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention, which will begin accepting referrals in January.  The Shalom Center is a virtual shelter for those, 65 and over, who are victims of abuse and need a safe place to stay for a short term.  We will be providing that safe haven within the walls of Cedar Village, working with community agencies and social service providers to help these individuals rebuild their lives and, after their 90 to 120 days with us, move to the least restrictive environment possible.  Establishing the Shalom Center also gives us the opportunity to educate our community about the problem of elder abuse, which is estimated to effect as many as one in 10 seniors every year.  We look forward to working with many community partners in an effort to make Cincinnati a safer place for older adults.  If you'd like to see our news coverage-here is a link to use:  

WCPO Channel 9 Coverage (December 19, 2011)  

 Fox 19 Coverage (December 19, 2011) 

Another giant step for Cedar Village in the last week or so has been the implementation of Phase I of our electronic medical record system (commonly referred to as EMR).  If you walk down any of the hallways in the Health Care Center, you may notice small flat screen monitors on the walls.  These monitors are touch screens that are used for charting purposes by our nursing assistants.  The system allows us to better track the care we give and to be sure that we are effectively capturing all the important information.  We have two more phases to complete in 2012, allowing us to move to a full electronic medical record.  That will be a boon to both our staff, physicians and to the care of our residents.  Implementing Phase I has been a huge team effort.  We have a core team of "EMR Specialists" who have been working hard to make this happen smoothly.  Some of them are management staff, others are Nursing or MDS, and others are some of our nursing assistants who have taken on leadership roles to help with implementation.  It has been very exciting for us and a great job by all.

All the best,