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Wooster Community Hospital has been named to the list of 100 top Hospitals by Fortune/IBM Watson Health. This is the 6th time Wooster Community Hospital has been recognized with this honor as one of the top performing hospitals in the U.S. The annual list was unveiled on Fortune.com.

IBM Watson Health has identified the top hospitals from a rigorous evaluation of 3,134 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals in the U.S. The annual list recognizes excellence in clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient experience and financial health. IBM Watson Health established the list to help identify best practices that may help other healthcare organizations achieve consistent, balanced, and sustainable high performance.

“When I heard this news, my first comment was ‘Wow, we did it again’. We believe this is THE most objective, balanced and prestigious quality award any hospital can win.  It considers not only how strong your performance is in comparison to other U.S. hospitals, but it also demands that you continue to perform better over time.  Not only did our scores improve over our high levels from previous years, but our aggregate score was at the 99.9^th percentile.  You simply can’t do any better – our results are second to none.  The fact that we have now won this award a total of six times – including the last three years in a row – is a clear and resounding testament to the work done by our outstanding staff and our continuing commitment to improving patient care.  Many hospitals would be honored to win this award once. I hope the public appreciates just how difficult and special this is,” said Bill Sheron, Wooster Community Hospital CEO/President.

This recognition demonstrates Wooster Community Hospital’s ongoing commitment to prioritize patient-centered care, particularly during this very disruptive and challenging time. According to IBM Watson Health, as compared to similar hospitals, the hospitals included on the Fortune/IBM Watson Health100 Top Hospitals list had better results on key clinical and operational performance indicators. These include survival rates, patient complications, healthcare associated infections, 30-day mortality and 30-day hospital-wide readmission rates, length of stay, throughput in emergency rooms, inpatient expenses, profitability, and ratings from patients.

“Hospitals, health systems and the dedicated clinicians and staff who work at these organizations have emerged as true heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic and we are grateful to be able to recognize these extraordinary leaders at this time,” said Kyu Rhee, M.D., M.P.P., Vice President and Chief Health Officer, IBM Watson Health. “From small community hospitals to major teaching hospitals, organizations on this list demonstrate a relentless commitment to high value, patient-centered care and innovation. It is clear that the COVID-19 crisis will be a catalyst for reinvention, and we believe these top performing hospitals are positioned to emerge stronger and smarter out of this crisis.”

For more information, visit http://www.100tophospitals.com/.

About the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals® List

The Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list is determined using independent and objective research to analyze hospital performance. Organizations do not apply or pay for this honor or pay to promote their award.  Award-winning hospitals and health systems serve as a model of excellence for the industry.

About IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals® Program

The IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals Program’s annual studies include the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list, IBM Watson Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals and IBM Watson Health 15 Top Health Systems. Organizations do not apply or pay for this honor or pay to promote their award. Award-winning hospitals and health systems serve as a model of excellence for the industry. Visit 100tophospitals.com for more information.

About IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals® Program

The IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals Program’s annual studies include the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list, IBM Watson Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals and IBM Watson Health 15 Top Health Systems. Organizations do not apply or pay for this honor or pay to promote their award. Award-winning hospitals and health systems serve as a model of excellence for the industry. Visit 100tophospitals.com for more information.

About Wooster Community Hospital

Wooster Community Hospital (WCH) is a 172-bed, full-service and acute-care facility. Located in Wooster, the hub of Wayne County, Ohio. WCH is an award-winning hospital that offers a complete range of inpatient and outpatient services. WCH is the second-largest employer in Wayne County and was recently named a 5-Star Hospital for patient quality by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, received an ‘A’ from the 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a national distinction; and, was recognized as part of Newsweek’s annual list of World’s Best Hospitals for 2020. This prestigious award is presented by Newsweek.  To learn more visit www.woosterhospital.org.

Wooster Community Hospital Nationally Recognized with an ‘A’ for the Spring 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade

WOOSTER,OH, April 30, 2020 – Wooster Community Hospital was awarded an ‘A’ in the spring 2020 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade a national distinction recognizing Wooster Community Hospital’s achievements providing safer health care. The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization committed to health care quality and safety. The Safety Grade is a letter grade assigned to all general hospitals across the country and updated every six months, assessing how well the hospital prevents medical errors and other harms to patients.

The Leapfrog Group is a nationally respected non-profit organization – founded more than 20 years ago by large employers and purchasers – whose goal is to improve the safety and quality of American healthcare. They analyze 28 hospital performance measures, across six domains, to develop their rankings.  These include inpatient care, inpatient surgeries, infection rates, medication safety and pediatric and maternity care.  Their overriding concern has always been patient safety.

“To receive an “A” ranking from this group is a significant accomplishment, especially in this time of concern over hospital safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Bill Sheron, Wooster Community Hospital President/CEO. “This ranking, along with our numerous other national quality awards, further underscores the excellent care and safe patient environment provided by the physicians and staff at Wooster Community Hospital. We are proud to receive this designation.”

“As the Nation copes with a challenging pandemic, our gratitude extends to hospital leadership and health care workers everywhere for their tremendous dedication,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We hope this ‘A’ helps to thank the people who work and volunteer for Wooster Community Hospital. They are role models in putting patients first, and their service has been extraordinary in our country’s time of need.”

Developed under the guidance of a national Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

Wooster Community Hospital was awarded an ‘A’ grade today, when Leapfrog updated grades for spring 2020. To see Wooster Community Hospital’s full grade details and access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit hospitalsafetygrade.org and follow The Leapfrog Group on Twitter and Facebook.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents and infections.

Read our Winter 2020 Community Focus Magazine Here

Due to the high incidence of Influenza in our community, we have recognized the need to limit visitations within our hospital in an effort to protect our patients’ well-being.

As of 2/6/2020, the follow restrictions are in place:

• Only healthy visitors over the age of 12 will be permitted to visit with patients. (Children are capable of transmitting the flu virus for some time before onset of illness.)

• People experiencing fever, chills, headache, cough, sore throat, and/or muscle aches are contagious; therefore, we ask these people to refrain from visiting our patients in person.

Thank you for understanding.

CMS has updated their Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings for 2020, giving 407 hospitals a rating of 5 stars. There are more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide that were ranked based on the performance of their reviews.

For Ohio, there were 23 hospitals that reached a 5-star rating and Wooster Community Hosptial was one of them! To read the article from Becker’s Hospital Review, click here.

Read our Community Benefit Report for 2018

Wooster, OH – March 4, 2019 – Wooster Community Hospital (WCH) was this week named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals by IBM Watson Health^TM. The study spotlights the top-performing hospitals in the U.S. list based on a balanced scorecard of publicly available clinical, operational and patient satisfaction metrics and data.

The Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals® study uses independent and objective research to analyze hospital and health system performance in 10 clinical and operational areas addressing: risk-adjusted inpatient mortality index, risk-adjusted complications index, mean healthcare-associated infection index, mean 30-day risk-adjusted mortality rate, mean 30-day risk-adjusted readmission rate, severity-adjusted length of stay, mean emergency department throughput, case mix- and wage-adjusted inpatient expense per discharge, adjusted operating profit margin, and HCAHPS score (patient rating of overall hospital performance). The study has been conducted annually since 1993. This is the fifth time WCH has been recognized with this honor.

“This coveted award sets a national benchmark for performance excellence for all hospitals to aspire to.  It measures not only the quality of care delivered, but also operational efficiency and patient satisfaction.  Perhaps more importantly, a hospital must not only have best in class results – which we clearly do – but they also must evidence ongoing improvement over time to achieve this recognition.  This is truly a team award, and a cause for celebration.  Having received this award five times in the last eleven years certainly demonstrates a culture of excellence that exists within our hospital and health system. It is a special day for our dedicated employees, medical staff, and community,” said Bill Sheron, WCH President/CEO.

Based on the results of this year’s study, we extrapolate that if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities:

• More than 103,000 additional lives could be saved;
• More than 38,000 additional patients could be complication-free;
• More than $8.2 billion in inpatient costs could be saved; and
• Approximately 155,000 fewer discharged patients would be readmitted within 30 days.

“At a time when research shows that the U.S. spends nearly twice as much on healthcare as other high-income countries, yet still has poorer population health outcomes , the 100 Top Hospitals are bucking the trend by delivering consistently better care at a lower cost,” said Ekta Punwani, 100 Top Hospitals® program leader at IBM Watson Health. “The hospitals on this list represent the current vanguard in value-based care and we applaud their commitment to quality.”

The winning hospitals were announced in the March 4^th edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

For more information, visit www.100tophospitals.com.

About Wooster Community Hospital

Wooster Community Hospital (WCH) is a 172-bed, full-service and acute-care facility. Located in Wooster, the hub of Wayne County, Ohio. WCH is an award winning hospital that offers a complete range of inpatient and outpatient services. We have continued to expand our facilities and added services to meet the needs of patients in our community. We’re the second largest employer in Wayne County and, most recently, was named a Community Value Top 100 Hospital for 2018 by Cleverley + Associates.  For more information, learn more by visiting www.woosterhospital.org. 

About IBM Watson Health

Watson Health is a business unit of IBM that is dedicated to the development and implementation of cognitive and data-driven technologies to advance health. Watson Health technologies are tackling a wide range of the world’s biggest health care challenges, including cancer, diabetes, drug discovery and more. Learn more.

The following article was published in The Daily Record

WOOSTER — Time is of the essence when someone is having a stroke, making Wooster Community Hospital’s recent distinction as a Primary Stroke Center by DNV-GL Healthcare of utmost importance.

“Every 40 seconds somebody has a stroke in the United States,” said Karrie Boss, a critical care clinical nurse specialist and the hospital’s stroke program coordinator.

“It’s the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the leading cause of disability,” Boss said.

“Two million brain cells die every minute during a stroke,” she said. “That’s a lot to lose in a short amount of time.”

But the message she has to share is upbeat — helping people understand the warning signs and the importance of getting to the hospital as quickly as possible.

“The key thing to remember,” she said, is that a stroke victim experiences a “sudden onset,” for example, a sudden inability to speak; a sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body; a sudden vision disturbance or a sudden acute headache; as well as confusion, trouble walking and loss of balance or coordination.

The acronym F.A.S.T. — Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty and Time to call 911 — may be helpful in identifying a stroke.

Risk factors include hypertension, high cholesterol and obesity.

“When the patient comes in (to the hospital), the clock starts ticking,” she said, triggering the urgency to administer the special drug for treatment for those patients who meet the criteria within a short window of opportunity.

“We’re always trying to improve patient care,” said Shelly Huff, chief nursing officer, and Wooster Community Hospital is the only Primary Stroke Center in the county.

Stroke care will be further enhanced at Wooster Hospital by partnering with Ohio State’s TeleStroke services, allowing consultation by camera in the emergency department with an OSU neurologist evaluating patients alongside the hospital’s own physicians and nurses, Huff said, “usually (within) five minutes, guaranteed in 10.”

The collaboration will begin in July, Boss said.

“We (will) have these (additional) resources,” Huff said.

Wooster Community Hospital was first designated as a primary center in 2009, but DNV-GL’s certification carries extra weight because, according to a press release, of “a disciplined management system, combined with the relevant clinical best practices.”

“They are all about the continuous improvement process,” Huff said, “in line with our mission.”

“They focus on quality metrics,” Boss said.

Community education is another important component of the hospital’s stroke care initiative.

The push in the community, said Boss, is “to treat a stroke as an emergency.”

The method is helping to educate emergency services personnel “all the way to community members.”

Huff also pointed out an entire stroke team is assembled when alerted that a stroke victim is on the way to the hospital, rather than waiting until he or she arrives.

— Reporter Linda Hall can be reached at lhall@the-daily-record.com or 330-264-1125, Ext. 2230. She is @lindahallTDR on Twitter.

One of Wooster Community Hospital Health System's newest orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Joseph Borruso, brings a procedure to Wooster that decreases the pain following total knee replacement. "It's for anyone who is thinking about having a total knee replacement who does not want to take narcotics afterwards," said Dr. Borruso. He and Orthopedic Physician Assistant Matt Wayt will be doing the relatively new procedure at Healthpoint.

Iovera is a cryotherapy treatment that is done preoperatively. Dr. Borruso explained, "Basically this procedure stuns the skin nerves around the knee incision, which decreases the pain following the total knee replacement and in turn lowers the amount of narcotic use post operatively."

The procedure is done about two weeks prior to surgery and lasts for approximately 12 weeks of relief. "Most people tolerate it very well and they tend to walk out of the room with less pain than when they walked in," said Dr. Borruso.

During the Iovera treatment, nothing is actually injected into the body. The skin is penetrated with a four-pronged hand-held device. The tips of the device create an ice ball that freezes the cutaneous nerves. The procedure is repeated along the treatment line.

The new treatment is one more tool now available in the team's multi modal approach to pain control immediately after surgery and during the duration of knee replacement recovery. "When pain levels are decreased, range of motion and recovery seems to accelerate," said Dr. Borruso. "With less narcotics on board there is less risk of the associated side effects."

"I enjoy doing this work," said Dr. Borruso. "It's satisfying to me that I can provide a service that helps people in need." To learn more, schedule a consultation with Dr. Borruso at Bloomington Orthopedic Specialists.

Read our most recent Community Focus Magazines containing patient stories and services provided at WCH here:

Winter 2020

Fall 2019

Winter 2019

Fall 2018

Winter 2018

Fall 2017

On Thursday, February 7^th, 100 guests came together in the Outpatient Pavilion of WCH for “Power of the Purse,” a celebration of women’s philanthropy and heart health awareness.

The dinner, live auction and raffle included 10 designer purses and bags packed with goodies and gift certificates, generously donated by friends of the hospital and local merchants. The auction raised over $21,000 to benefit women’s heart health through The Cardiovascular Institute at Wooster Community Hospital.

Prior to the auction, Drs. Dana Bonezzi, Sharon Marcanthony and Anne Shriner spoke about the incidence of heart disease in women, the importance of a woman taking an active role in their care and of putting themselves on their to-do list. Early identification of risk factors can play a role in hearth health too. Monies raised at this Power of the Purse event will help underwrite the expense of Coronary Calcium Scoring for the first 100 women who register.

What is a calcium score test?

A calcium score test is increasingly recognized as a useful way to assess the risk of future cardiac events in people without symptoms. A simple CAT scan of the chest, it indicates the amount of hardening, or atherosclerosis, in the coronary artery walls by measuring calcium plaque.

If you choose to have this screening test, a follow-up appointment will be scheduled with a WCH cardiovascular specialist, your primary care physician or a physician with a special interest in interpreting the results.  They will help determine what, if any, prevention or treatment strategies are needed to modify or reduce your heart disease risk factors.

Who Should Get Tested?

Women age 55 or older and men age 45 or older, with NO history of coronary artery disease, and who have one or more risk factors for heart disease including:

• High blood cholesterol
• Low HDL cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Cigarette smoking
• Type 2 diabetes
• Family history of heart disease at age 65 or younger in women and 55 or younger in men

Again, it is a simple screening test.

Wooster Community Hospital is pleased to offer this test at no cost to the first 100 women, age 55 or older, who qualify.

To arrange for this test, you or your doctor simply need to call (330)263-8282 . A physician’s order is required for scheduling.

Drs. Paul Moodispaw, Dan Newton and Cyril Ofori of the Cardiovascular Institute at Wooster Community Hospital are leading the way in addressing the specific needs of our local population in understanding, preventing and combating heart disease. That includes a clear focus on women’s cardiovascular health. Also known as Heart Scan or Cardiac Scoring, it is a non-invasive CT scan of the heart which helps calculate the risk of developing Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

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WOOSTER, OH, June 6, 2019 – The Wound Care Center® at Wooster Community Hospital (WCH), a member of the Healogics network, is helping raise awareness of chronic wounds during the sixth annual Wound Care Awareness Week, being held from June 3 to June 7. Wound Care Awareness was established by Healogics in 2014 to bring attention to the chronic wound epidemic and the 6.7 million Americans who are currently living with non-healing wounds. Program Directors across the nation will dedicate the entire week to educating physicians, patients and the general public about the chronic wound epidemic and the advanced wound care solutions available. The WCH Hyperbaric Medicine & Wound Healing Center offers advanced therapies to patients suffering from chronic .

While there are already millions of people living with chronic wounds, the incidence is rising, fueled by an aging population and increasing rates of diseases and conditions such as diabetes, obesity and the late effects of radiation therapy. If left untreated, chronic wounds can lead to diminished quality of life and possibly amputation of the affected limb. Even more alarmingly, 50 percent of people die within five years of amputation.

“We are a compassionate and dedicated team of wound experts using advanced technologies and treatments to heal our patients.  In 2018, we provided wound care treatment to nearly 700 people that was life changing,” said the Director of the Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Healing Center at WCH, Connie Rebane.

To support this underserved and growing population of people living with chronic wounds, WCH Hyperbaric Medicine & Wound Healing Center, in partnership with Healogics, offers an evidence-based, systematic approach to advanced wound care. A patient’s individualized treatment plan may include specialized wound dressings, debridement, compression therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, advanced cellular products and topical growth factors, edema management and/or non-invasive vascular assessment. These treatments are the result of a team approach between the Center’s physicians, nurses and the referring physician. A treatment plan is developed and scheduled based on the patient’s needs. Once treatment is complete, the patient will return to their primary physician to continue routine care.

People with wounds that have not improved with traditional methods of treatment may benefit from a visit to WCH Hyperbaric Medicine & Wound Healing Center Visit www.woundcareawarenessweek.com to learn more about Wound Care Awareness Week and to hear from patients about how wound healing changed their life. To schedule an appointment, please call 330-263-8750 or visit www.woosterhospital.org.

About Wooster Community Hospital
Wooster Community Hospital (WCH) is a 172-bed, full-service and acute-care health facility located in Wooster, Ohio. WCH is an award-winning hospital that offers a complete range of inpatient and outpatient services. WCH continues to expand facilities and services to meet the needs of the community. WCH is the second-largest employer in Wayne County and was recently named a 100 Top Hospital by IBM Watson for the fifth time. Learn more at www.woosterhospital.org. 

About Healogics
Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., Healogics is the nation’s wound healing expert. Last year over 330,000 patients received advanced wound care through a nationwide network of nearly 700 Wound Care Centers®.  The Healogics team is made up of almost 3,000 employees, 4,000 affiliated physicians and a Healogics Specialty Physician practice group of nearly 300. In addition to the company’s network of outpatient Centers, Healogics partners with over 300 skilled nursing facilities to care for patients with chronic wounds, and provides inpatient consults at more than 80 partner hospitals. As the industry leader, Healogics has the largest repository of chronic wound-specific patient data in the country. The Healogics Wound Science Initiative, an effort launched in 2017 to provide peer-reviewed research, recognizes the value and relevance of big data and advanced analytics to drive continuous, collaborative learning towards a better understanding of how to efficiently utilize healthcare resources for patients with wounds. For additional information, please visit Healogics.com.

This spring, EMS personnel in Wayne County will change the way they respond to patients who are in cardiac arrest.

New research suggests that cardiac arrest patients have a better chance of survival when emergency personnel use the “stay and treat” method. With this method, EMS personnel arrive and stay on the scene to administer CPR until the patient has a pulse again.

This new method is different from the more traditional “scoop and run” method. That is, emergency responders arrive on the scene and immediately place the patient in an ambulance, performing CPR on the way to the hospital.

“Most fire departments/ EMS agencies that have put emphasis on early, high-quality CPR have seen their survival rates double and the vast majority have good neurological function,” says Jennifer Kline, Wooster Community Hospital ED Physician and EMS Medical Director.

Kline and Ryan Sullivan, Firefighter/ paramedic and Wooster Community Hospital EMS Coordinator, have reviewed the existing literature on the stay and treat method, and have visited those area agencies that already use it.

“Cardiac arrest is one of the few conditions that are treated the exact same way in the emergency room as on scene with EMS,” says Kline. “Our goal is to get a pulse back as soon as possible, then transport for further care.”

Individuals are much more likely to survive cardiac arrest if they receive CPR as soon as possible, preferably before emergency responders arrive. While cardiac arrest survival is about 10 percent nationally, the chance of a good outcome increases by 50 percent when a bystander performs chest compressions on the patient.

The new method also will include a protocol for when EMS personnel are unable to get a pulse even after appropriate CPR attempts. If resuscitation protocol is terminated, emergency responders may discuss the option of declaring a patient deceased after adequate cardiac arrest care has taken place on scene. “Having this option can help prevent further risk to EMS teams, families, and patients,” Kline explains.

These following Wayne County Fire departments and other emergency agencies will implement the new approach: Wooster City Fire, Wooster Twp. Fire, Central Fire, South Central Fire, Samaritan Care, Paint Twp. Fire, New Pittsburg Fire, Apple Creek Fire and Clinton Twp. Fire Departments.

If you are a bystander when someone stops breathing, it is important to call 9-1-1 as soon as possible. The 9-1-1 dispatcher will instruct you to perform CPR on the patient and will stay on the phone until EMS arrives.

Don’t know how to perform CPR? You can get started by contacting your local fire department and Wooster Community Hospital Health System for classes