Southern Ohio Medical Center (SOMC)

Southern Ohio Medical Center is an active member of the communities it serves and is involved in various programs and activities throughout the area. Community is what drives somc to achieve excellence in healthcare and to make a difference in the lives of those around us. The economic, educational, recreational and cultural activities of the local area show the wide sweep of somc's community involvement and their efforts to build and maintain strong relationships. It's through these relationships that somc has been recognized for many outstanding accomplishments, receiving such notable honors as ancc's magnet recognition, osha's vpp star status, press ganey's distinctive workplace award, as well as being named one of fortune's 100 best companies to work for. Key decisions made at somc are guided by five strategic values: safety, quality, service, teamwork and finance. Relationships shape many facets of customer service and the care that is provided within the hospital. It is the hospital's goal to listen and partner with customers to make a difference to those we serve. Additional feedback is also gathered through focus groups conducted by the somc community relations department, as well as the somc executive team's "open door policy," which both provide the opportunity to gather information and suggestions to improve hospital services and understand technological needs. Somc partners with the national research corporation (nrc) to provide transitional care support following acute and ambulatory encounters. Nrc's connect care transitions platform performs post-discharge call-backs, leveraging automated outreach to contact patients in the critical timeframe of 24-72 hours after leaving our facility. The natural voice recognition follow-up call seeks out opportunities to improve the patient experience through addressing any remaining service concerns or clinical questions after discharge. Any concerns identified trigger an alert from the care transitions solution to an rn member of our clinical case manger team who personally returns a call for resolution or triaging. Call prompts address key issues after discharge such as prescriptions, follow-up appointments, discharge instructions, worsening health status, service concerns, post-procedural pain, etc. The connect program impacts somc's strategic values by reducing readmissions, improving patient experience and perceptions of care, and improving quality and safety outcomes. As a function of the clinical case management department, connect serves to improve clinical integration by bridging the gaps between acute, emergent, and procedural settings and the patient's home environment.somc establishes working relationships with organizations throughout the tri-state area to focus on the health and wellness of the community. Somc and its employees participate in a variety of community-based organizations including the scioto county health coalition, the portsmouth area chamber of commerce, rotary club, Southern Ohio performing arts association, the portsmouth area arts council, literacy programs, school boards, committees and churches. Other participatory programs include local little league groups, leadership portsmouth, task force on domestic violence, portsmouth kiwanis service club, scioto residential services board, paramedic advisory board, salvation army, habitat for humanity and choice housing for the developmentally disabled. Somc also maintains close relationships with Southern Ohio correctional facility ministries, arthritis foundation, Medical reserve corp, parish nurse network, Southern Ohio diabetes coalition, portsmouth bicentennial board, the shawnee state university board and the Southern Ohio correctional facility community advisory board. Many benefits are created through these partnerships including sponsorships for cultural affairs, community health and wellness programs, health screenings, education, children's programs and youth activities. One such collaborative effort allows somc to provide adult immunizations for influenza, pneumonia and hepatitis b to hundreds of community members each year. The hospital often donates used equipment to local schools. Nurses and physicians volunteer their time and effort to travel around the somc region and to third-world countries to provide services free of charge or at a reduced rate to populations who greatly benefit from their annual visits. As the leading Medical provider in the region, somc made it a priority to share reliable and timely information about covid-19 as soon as the pandemic began. We moved quickly to replace our regularly scheduled television advertisements with spots related to covid-19. Using a combination of previously recorded footage and animation, we created new commercials to promote social distancing, properly wearing masks, and to assure the public that we are here when they need us. Our community relations team developed communication strategies to ensure that the community and somc staff were well informed about the virus and communicated how the hospital was working to reduce the spread in the area. Our community relations department posted several articles on facebook and other social media informing the public of ways to stay safe and prevent the spread of the covid virus ranging from tips on wearing a mask properly, social distancing guidelines, avoidance of large crowds, and information on covid testing. Several covid testing stations were created at somc so employees and patients can receive a covid test on site. Somc also created a drive-through testing station so patients would not have to leave the safety of their vehicles. Various somc nurse practitioners and physicians donated their time and volunteered to serve in advisory capacitates on both the city and county local department of health boards. Somc's social media platform was also used to promote a community resource called the care line. The care line was an existing service that patients could use to Schedule appointments, but it was adapted to provide the community with one easy number (356-care) they could call if they had questions about covid-19. Somc's providers and advanced practitioners shared the importance of staying safe during the pandemic with the community. Some providers filmed videos on their mobile devices on why masking is essential and the importance of handwashing and social distancing. Many of our providers shared personal stories why they wear a mask to emphasize that they weren't asking the community to do something they weren't willing to do themselves. Other providers recorded videos explaining how patients could utilize virtual visits if they were worried to venture out to the hospital during this time. Virtual visits were promoted as part of a larger campaign to let the patients of somc know that even if they couldn't be here with us, we were still going to be there for them. Many of the local nursing homes, assisted living centers, home care agencies, health clinics, and substance abuse clinics in the local area suffered outbreaks of the covid virus within their facilities. This created staffing shortages and multiple resident deaths. Somc responded to this situation in many ways. When the pandemic first began, our social work department held a meeting with facility leaders to discuss the pandemic and educate various facility leaders about the virus. Social workers arranged for education on infection control procedures, ppe, and details of the covid virus itself from our local health department, our infectious disease physician, dr. david byers, pulmonologists, and the local emergency management association (ema). These educational sessions included not only nursing homes but also local ministers, family providers in our community, funeral directors, and various community leaders. Social workers arranged zoom follow-up meetings with multiple question and answer sessions featuring dr. byers. Social work services visited nursing homes and assisted staff with instruction on proper wearing of ppe and discussed respirator fit testing. Somc assisted the local ema with distributing ppe to these facilities and helped them to locate ppe from various suppliers. Somc also donated face shields (made by somc staff) to area facilities. Somc placed nurse practitioners in these facilities to round on patients and help the staff treat these patients, at no cost to the nursing homes. One of the local nursing home administrators who had 48 residents positive for covid reported to us saying, "we could not have made it without somc. I promise you more of our residents would have died if you had not been here.