Knox Community Hospital

Our assistance to our Community goes beyond offering primary services and impacts our Community's health and quality of life. Knox Community Hospital is an acute care Hospital serving Knox county in Ohio and surrounding areas. The Hospital offers a wide spectrum of healthcare services including: inpatient and outpatient heatlh care. For 2022, the Hospital had 3,292 inpatient admissions, 23,485 er visits, 153,042 outpatient visits, 76,867 radiology procedures, and 5,850 inpatient & outpatient surgeries (including endoscopies). During 2022, the Hospital had 51 employed physicians with 174,663 office clinic visits.in 2022, Knox Community Hospital provided a range of health awareness and prevention programs, as well as services free of charge to support the health and wellbeing of the Knox area Community. In-person events have begun ramping back up post covid, kch was able to provide programs and services for the Community benefit by a number of methods.

Kch has strong partnerships with the nursing schools in the area colleges/universities, and toward that end, provided clinical supervision and precepting for students. The total number of students' clinical hours in 2022 was over 7,459, with additional 1,154 hours of job shadowing, as well. Since kch is the only Hospital in the county, this is critical to help support these students' goals and to help meet the shortage of nursing staff that is evident both locally and across the country.

Volunteers remained active in specific areas of the Hospital, providing needed services such as toys for patients waiting with young children, assisting the marketing department with various projects, and staffing two gift shops which helps to provide funds for scholarships benefitting area students entering the health care field. A total of 43 volunteers served 4,567 hours during the year.

According to the Community health assessment conducted in 2021, the prevalence of diabetes among our service population continues to increase and has reached 10%. Knox Community Hospital recognized the need to expand our diabetes education program. Kch conducted diabetes support group classes for over 20 participants from the Community. The groups discuss diabetes condition, treatments and preventive measures, with an advanced practitioner. Diabetes prevention information was also distributed during the city of mount vernon's "first friday" events (held during june through september, monthly). During november, diabetes awareness month, the following methods were used to increase awareness and educate our Community: social media posts, press release sent to media and published on website, street lamp banners in downtown mount vernon, newsletter article.that same Community health assessment is conducted every 3 years through a partnership between kch and Knox public health department. We also partner with Knox public health department and other service organizations to develop a Community health improvement plan (chip) which will address the needs identified within the cha. For example, one of the work groups developed is the access to (health) care work group, which is reviewing the barriers faced by many local residents such as lack of insurance, inadequate transportation, or simply lack of knowledge about how to establish a primary care provider. Both the cha and the chip documents are linked from the Hospital's website. Transportation is often a barrior to access, for example. Kch has a strong partnership with Knox area transit, a public transportation organization that offers free or reduced-fee transportation to/from medical appointments for area residents. In 2023, we will begin offering opportunities for a kat representative to provide on-site information at Community presentations or "doc talks" held at kch. In terms of participation in cha and chip activiites during 2022, staff time totalled approximately 32 hours, between marketing and quality department staff. Mental health continues to be a top priority concern identified through the Community health assessment. While kch does see patients with a mental health or behavorial health condition and/or diagnosis, we collaborate with appropriate agencies to serve this population. For example, through our emergency department, once a patient has completed the necessary medical screenings, crisis assessment may be handled by a partnering organization, behavioral health partners, to determine the next steps for that patient. In addition, substance abuse is sometimes found along with mental health concerns, and in those cases, kch may refer to new vision or the freedom center for additional treatment, if appropriate. In short, kch works closely with other local services to support the needs of behavioral health patients. In 2023, a collaborative event will be held in downtown mount vernon to increase awareness of addictions/recovery from substance abuse, and kch will be a sponsor.classes / support groups were held to support the need for patients and their families to be involved in their care and understand the nuances of certain conditions. Some of those classes included bariatrics (weight management), childbirth education classes, and diabetes education, to name a few. In the latter part of 2022, attendance at these classes increased as covid numbers waned. For the childbirth education classses, these are important due to our rural population and the lack of education for many. These free classes offer expectant parents information about labor and childbirth, as well as basics of caring for a newborn. Approximately 15-20 people participated in the childbirth classes each month, for a total of 180 served. Staff hours to prepare and deliver this material totalled about 60 hours for the year. Expenses for these classes averaged $280 per class. The american red cross relies upon Knox Community Hospital to host blood drives regularly to support its efforts to maintain adequate blood supplies. During 2022 through 7 blood drives hosted in the education resource room at kch, a total of 174 units of blood was collected from 242 people. This space is rent-free to the red cross, amounting to 56 hours of free space usage during the year.the Knox county fair was held and open to the public july 24 through 30, 2022, and kch had a booth in the merchant's building with health education information provided along with free blood pressure checks. Sixty-eight (68) kch staff were on hand at the event for a total of 136 volunteer hours. The average gate attendance each day of the fair is nearly 10,000 members of the Community. Educational materials handed out included weight management, women's health, diabetes prevention/awareness, how to find a primary care doctor, substance abuse awareness, and more. Supplies for the fair totalled approximately $3,000. Obesity is an ongoing problem for 37 percent of our county's adult residents, according to the health needs assessment. In an effort to reduce this number and support the local schools' athletic programs, kch provided athletic training during the school year in 2022 for a nominal fee per month at danville, utica, fredericktown, east Knox and centerburg while also donating $118k worth of our trainers' time. In the fall of 2022, kch also donated $7,500 toward the purchase of exercise balls for the "crunch out obesity" program benfiting 500+ elementary school students, in partnership with united way of Knox county. These exercise balls were distributed in hands-on activites to grade school students, by the physical education teachers.during 2022, in partnership with wclt-t-100 fm radio station, we sponsored a "health minute" program featuring various medical experts from kch, providing health-related information to the Community through a two-minute recorded radio interview. The station has a wide listening area among adults over age 35, and topics included: women's health, concussion awareness, robotic surgery, substance abuse prevention & treatment, inpatient acute rehabilitation therapy, physical therapy, and home health. We then post the recorded message on the kch website.annually, kch recognizes "donate life" month in april by using resources to bring awareness to the need for organ, eye and tissue donations, and to encourage people to become registered donors. In 2022, the following methods were used to educate the Community on this topic: press release published in area newspapers and on kch website; posts on social media outlets; newsletter article; kch email; radio public service announcements.