Ellenville Regional Hospital

In-patient departments (med/surg and swing rehab): in 2023, the Hospital and the foundation supported our staff with tuition assistance and reimbursement for education related to health care services. This generous assistance made it possible for nine of our staff members to pursue higher degrees in health care related fields. Erh takes pride in serving as a teaching Hospital and hosting nursing, pharmacy and pa students from many schools. In 2023, erh hosted students from suny sullivan, suny ulster, orange, boces new visions program, lemoyne college, clarkson university, pace university, long island university, and marist college. Erh collaborated with these schools to provide essential and much needed clinical experience rotations. The students benefited from working side by side with our skilled and compassionate clinical team. They observed firsthand the delivery of exceptional care in our inpatient, emergency department, operating room, and specialty services as part of their clinical rotation. As in past years, erh provided these services without requiring any monetary compensation. Patient satisfaction and positive outcomes remain significant quality indicators with patient satisfaction scores 90th percentile for the inpatient services and for emergency department. Erh's long term care placement rate was near 8% while the patients discharge to home rate was at a stellar 80.%. These stellar results are the product of a multidisciplinary collaborative effort among nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, respiratory therapy, pharmacy, case management and registered dietitian services. Erh continued to hold steadfast collaborating with community based agencies and providing quality, compassionate care and generating positive outcomes. By combining evidence-based research, excellent nursing skills, and expanding our clinical education programs, the inpatient unit at Ellenville Regional Hospital made it their goal to improve patient outcomes across the care spectrum. Some of the mitigation strategies implemented during the onset of the pandemic combined with the covid-19 waiver allowed our facility to offer a much-needed service. Erh was a great resource for tertiary facilities desperately seeking to balance their patient loads. We served patients who were ready to leave the acute care setting; however, their positive covid-19 status did not allow them to return to long term care facilities (ltc) for rehabilitation. Erh provided the care they needed, helped them regain the stamina they had lost and ultimately, after testing negative for covid-19, these patients made it back to ltc facilities. Patient safety continued to be paramount in our facility. We tracked and reported compliance with medication scanning, a practice that enhances safe medication administration by helping verify patient identification and correct medication and subsequently ensuring correct medication administration and mitigating potential errors. Our scanning average of 80.6% remained well above national average. Erh's safe patient handling committee reviewed and maintained successful practices that maximized a safe environment for our patients and staff. The focus of this initiative is to ensure that our staff are injury free. The committee has made a tremendous effort to deliver guidance and training staff on transfers, body mechanics, and use of assistive devices. They have done this very effectively by incorporating evidence-based practices in our everyday tasks and routines like the bmat model (bed side mobility assessment tool). The safe patient handling committee continues to meet regularly to discuss educational needs and provide hands-on training to all clinical staff. Additionally, our beds are now equipped with alarms and specialty mattresses to assure safety and maintain skin integrity. We also continue to use the video monitoring system to help increase safety measures for our patients on isolation. Staff education is also an essential element in maintaining and promoting clinical competency. One hundred percent of our registered nurses maintains certification in basic and advanced life support through the american heart association and telemetry. Our nurse educator provides education opportunities via in-services, webinars, lectures, and scholarly articles. The hands on training and academic offerings ensure our clinical staff is knowledgeable on current trends and standards of care. We link all new hires with an experienced preceptor and adjust the orientation process to meet the needs of each individual. In our facility, education delivery involves everyone. The nurse educator collaborates with the nursing team, pharmacy, rehabilitation services, clinical it applications specialist, and respiratory services to offer comprehensive annual education for all nursing staff. Emergency department:limited access to public transport and scant emergency medical service coverage are monumental challenges in all rural settings. In 2023, the newly renovated and expanded emergency department provided high-quality emergency care to our rural residents and seasonal visitors. By combining quality care, evidence-based research, excellent nursing skills, and expanding our clinical education programs, the emergency department at erh focused on improving patient outcomes across the care spectrum. While managing the lasting effects of the covid pandemic, erh continued to focus on the relentless opioid crisis. Our emergency department's rescue initiative remains in effect and continues to generate positive outcomes. The ed providers are certified to provide mat (medication assisted treatment). This has greatly facilitated treatment of patients presenting to the ed after an overdose. We have continued our collaboration efforts with the ulster county sheriff's department's in the oracle program and utilize the services of our in-house substance use disorder (sud) program. Our collaborative efforts have helped with induction of mat and securing inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services for those who are in need. Our ed and population health teams continue collaborating providing safe kits upon discharge to patients who experienced an overdose event and educating patients and family members on naloxone administration. The focus remained on harm-reduction, education, and prevention. We also continued to work closely with our local ems agencies. Radiology:in 2023, the radiology & cardiology departments at erh started the year with outpatient modalities hovering or exceeding volume for all modalities from the past several years. Even with the spikes in covid and extreme fluctuation, the volume remained consistent. With many staff contracting covid personally made it challenging to operate, however erh staff are resilient and held strong keeping up with our patient demand and continued to provide services without interruption or delay.mammography had its annual mqsa inspection completed with no citations. We continued our reduced x-ray repeat/reject rate, which averaged about 3% over the year. This continued reduction in repeated exams allowed us to provide the highest level of care to our patients. Erh continued to expand on the services provided by the quality improvement grant, which was awarded 3 years prior. With this grant, erh performed numerous exams in 2023. Offering the exams at no out of pocket cost to the patients proved to be successful with many patients receiving crucial screening and preventative care based on the test results. Many of the calcium score patients had been first time patients at erh and returned for other outpatient services as a result of the high level of care and remarkable experience.overall, radiology and cardiology positioned themselves to have a strong 2024 and did so while keeping patients and staff healthy and safe. Erh strives to offer the highest level of care and obtain the newest equipment available to provide the best service to our community.the Hospital also provides ambulatory surgery, lab services, iv therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology services, cardiac rehabilitation, and specialty care to our patients.