Grant agreement signed Signing the $274,000 grant agreement to train Lakewood Health Systems employees were, from left, Tim Rice, CEO of Lakewood Health Systems; Dr. Larry Lundblad, President of Central Lakes College; and Paul Moe, executive director of the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership. Among those witnessing (back row) were District 11 State Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen of Alexandria and District 11B State Rep. Mary Ellen Otremba of Long Prairie. Central Lakes College has received a $274,000 grant from the state Department of Employment and Economic Development's Minnesota Job Skills Partnership to support lean and technical training for employees of Lakewood Health System in Staples.

The three-year training collaboration includes MJSP, Lakewood Health System, and Central Lakes College.

"Lakewood Health System's staff will be more effective in treating patients and containing costs, as a result of lean training," said DEED Commissioner and MJSP Board Chair Dan McElroy. "Central Lakes College's capacity to create and deliver health care training will be expanded to include other heath care organizations."

Lean training in the health care environment focuses on eliminating waste and identifies steps that add value to the entire health care delivery process.

Central Lakes College will collaborate with Alexandria Technical College to deliver customized classroom and online lean courses for many of the 850 Lakewood employees.

Central Lakes College's nursing faculty will also work with St. Cloud Technical College to deliver 11 new, for-credit courses including Training for Level III Trauma Designation; Acute Cardiac Life Support; Pandemic/Emergency Preparedness; Infection Control; Information Technology Net System; and Universal Health Care Training. Some may be developed as on-line courses.

Re gistered nurses, licensed practical nurses, physicians, EMTs and administrators will receive lean training or upgrade existing technical skills. The training will take place at Lakewood Health System and at Central Lakes College.

For information on the grant, contact Rebecca Best, Dean of Educational Services, Business and Industry Center, Central Lakes College, 218-855-8143 or e-mail rbest@clcmn.edu.

The MJSP offers technical, financial and job training assistance to businesses, communities, educational institutions and workers. The board brings businesses with specific education needs together with educational institutions to design customized training programs.

CLC has a customized training department at its Brainerd and Staples campuses.