Name of Community: Henderson Population: 986
Name of Project: Hospital Expansion Project at Henderson Health Care Services, Inc.
Name of Contact Person: Kelsey Bergen
Day Phone: (402) 723-4228 Eve Phone: (402) 723-5478 Email: hchamber@mainstaycomm.net
Category: Community Development
Subcategory: Technology, Infrastructure, and Planning
Date Project Started (mo./yr.) 03/2009 Dated Completed: 02/2010
Is the Project Annual/Ongoing: Ongoing
Volunteer Hours: 100 Number of Volunteers: 12
1)Brief Description of the Project
Henderson Health Care Services, Inc. offers nationally accredited health care through state-of-the-art equipment and ongoing professional training. This acute-care and long term care facility employs approximately 95 highly trained people, with three employed active staff for the clinics and hospital and 40 consulting physicians in their respective specialties; including the fields of family practice, OB-GYN, general surgery, radiology, internal medicine, orthopaedics, and urology. Three areas of care, which are administered through six facilities, makeup Henderson Health Care Services. These areas include the hospital, Henderson Community Hospital; medical clinics, Henderson Family Care and Sutton Family Practice; and resident care facilities, Prairie Garden Estates, Rosewood Court Assisted Living and the Henderson Care Center.
Henderson Community Hospital has served the areas for 35 years in this facility, and renovations were necessary to stay progressive in the health care industry. The hospital expansion project enhanced many areas of medical care by adding 3 new patient rooms, a labor and delivery suite, emergency room, additional waiting room, second nurses’ station, office for the Director of Nurses and additional storage. In addition it allows the hospital to accommodate a larger number of patients and provide a safer, more pleasant environment for patients and staff. Included in the hospital addition were three private patient rooms with their own shower. Previously all patient rooms were semi-private and the only shower was located in the hallway. With the addition of these rooms, patients will have a better experience when admitted to the hospital for a short or long-term stay. The new Labor and Delivery Suite created extra space which allowed families to comfortably stay in the same room with the mother and newborn. An in-room bathroom with shower and whirlpool tub was also an improvement from the old labor room, which had neither. The emergency room layout was completely changed to include an entrance that allows a direct route from the back of the ambulance into the emergency room. The emergency room also has two beds to provide care to multiple patients at the same time, compared to the old emergency room, which only had one bed. The total project encompasses a total of 1,472 square feet of construction.
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| Proposed layout for the hospital addition. |
2) Identify the planning and implementation of the project
a) Describe the methods used to plan and implement the project
Planning for this project was organized through the Henderson Health Care Service Administration and Board of Directors. After some research, it was apparent that patients of the facility were interested in a health care facility that had private rooms and a better labor and delivery room. While it would not be possible to complete this project with volunteers due to the regulations that need to be met for a health care facility, it was obvious that volunteers would need to be found to raise the financial support for this large project. As a result the Henderson Health Care Foundation was contacted to find donors to cover $500,000 of the cost of the project. The Henderson Health Care Foundation is a group of volunteers who meet bi-monthly to work on fundraising options for the Henderson Health Care Services. For added financial support, Henderson Health Care Services worked with Mainstay Communications and the Henderson Chamber of Commerce to apply for a grant through the USDA Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Programs (REDLG). For this grant, Mainstay Communications was able to receive $300,000, which was loaned to Henderson Health Care Services at a 1 % interest rate. As the loan was paid back, the Henderson Chamber of Commerce received the 1% interest to use for economic development in return for writing the grant application and administrating the requirements of the grant. Once construction began on the hospital expansion project, the Henderson Health Care Services Administration and Board of Directors oversaw the construction end of the project, while the Henderson Health Care Foundation organized further donations.
b) Describe how the project relates to the community’s overall goals
Some of the goals for the hospital expansion project directly related to the community’s overall goals in the areas of quality of life and bringing new young families to Henderson. Henderson is located in York County, which has an aging population with increasing needs for healthcare locally. The county’s population is older than the population in the state of Nebraska with the elderly (aged 65+) representing 17.4% of York County compared to 13.6% of the state of Nebraska based on the 2000 census. The Henderson Community Hospital addition increases utilization of the hospital, ensuring that the community health care system remains viable. This contributes to creating jobs and generating income in the county by capturing existing income through encouraging residents to purchase more goods and services locally. As a whole, these items improve the local economy and enhance the well-being of the residents of Henderson. In this way, the new expansion at the hospital is increasing quality of life in Henderson by making more health care services available on a local level. This project also encouraged growth in local hospital visits for labor and delivery and regular patient care at Henderson Community Hospital. When a new family is looking for a new home, they want to be able to raise their family within the community. Having an up-to-date health care facility in town is part of that process. By offering prenatal care, labor and delivery care, immunizations, physicals, clinic services, specialty services, surgeries, general medical care and resident care the community of Henderson can appeal to potential residents at any stage of life. By offering all of the services available through Henderson Health Care Services and the newly expanded hospital, Henderson is able to offer a service to potential residents that isn’t available in many communities with a population under 1,000 people. This is a huge asset for the community to promote in resident recruitment efforts.
c) Describe how the project was identified as a priority for the community
Moving forward with the hospital expansion project was identified as a priority for the community because it enhanced the services that the Henderson Health Care Services staff was able to offer and it served a growing need in the community. With the addition of Dr. James Ohrt to the Henderson Health Care Services staff in 2006, the facility was able to offer caesarian sections in the labor and delivery department. This was a major step forward because for a number of years earlier the facility was not able to provide any labor and delivery services. As the labor and delivery program grew with Dr. Vanderneck, who delivered babies, and Dr. Ohrt, who performed caesarian sections, it was clear that the number of patients using the labor and delivery department was also growing. In order to continue to grow this patient base to better serve the community, Henderson Health Care Services decided to move forward with the hospital expansion project, which included a labor and delivery suite. Previously, the labor and delivery room did not have easy access for patients. There was not a bathroom in the labor and delivery room, so expecting mothers had to go to a different part of the hospital to use the restroom. The room was also not setup for extended stay of the mother and baby, meaning they would have to move to a different room within a few hours after delivery. By creating a new labor and delivery suite within the hospital expansion project, Henderson Health Care Services was able to serve a need that was identified as a priority for the community.
In addition to encouraging growth in local hospital visits for labor and delivery, this project was also a community identified priority due to the economic impact it would have on the community, which was twofold. With the increase in number of deliveries that would be happening at Henderson Health Care, the number of clinic patients and follow up visits would also increase, which would create more work for the current employees. It was estimated that two new full-time jobs would be added in the future to Henderson Health Care Services as a result of this project. The increase in patients using the hospital will ultimately increase the number of patients admitted to Henderson Community Hospital. The new jobs created by the hospital expansion project could potentially increase the hospital payroll by a total of $65,00. The additional wages circulating in the community will in effect provide economic benefits to the local business, stimulating the local economy.
3) Describe volunteer involvement in planning and implementing the project.
a) Describe how responsibilities were delegated among volunteers
The main responsibility for this project that was delegated among volunteers was the raising of funds to financially support the project. Since the Henderson Health Care Foundation is a group of volunteers working to raise money for improvements and equipment for Henderson Health Care Services, it was natural that the responsibility of raising funds for the project was delegated to them by the Henderson Health Care Services Board of Directors. Over a year before construction of the project was scheduled to start, the Henderson Health Care Foundation began raising funds and finding people who would volunteer to provide monetary support. Since the hospital expansion project had to meet specific health care building requirements by the state, it was not possible to have volunteers perform physical labor for the project, which is why no volunteers were delegated in this area.
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| Henderson Health Care Services Board of Directors, doctors and local first graders participating in the groundbreaking ceremony for the hospital expansion project. |
b) Describe how volunteers were recruited for the project
The Henderson Health Care Foundation found many ways to recruit donors for the project. They held a Spring Fling Banquet fundraiser, where community members purchased meal tickets. During the banquet, there were raffle drawings and 50+ items were auctioned off to the highest bidder. All of the money raised by this event went toward the hospital expansion project. The foundation also contacted people who had previously donated to Henderson Health Care Services and invited them to a fundraising dinner. During the dinner they were offered several facility incentives based on their donation to the project. During the annual community days event, the Henderson Health Care Administration and Foundation worked together to organize a freewill donation hamburger fry to raise more money for the project as well.
4) Identify Project Outcomes.
a) What did the community intend to change as a result of the project?
Through this project the community wanted to see a change in the number of residents who used Henderson Health Care Services for all of their health care needs. In the time that Henderson Health Care Services was not able to offer all the health care services that a person or family would need, several community members chose to go to health care facilities in different towns. Once you go to a different community, it is difficult to transition back to another facility unless they change into a facility that can serve all of a patient’s needs. By offering all of these services, Henderson Health Care Services is now a facility that patients can use for their full spectrum of care. The community also wanted to stimulate the economy of Henderson by bringing people from the surrounding towns to our facility for their healthcare needs. Since several of the neighboring healthcare facilities are larger complexes, patients often experience long wait times and a lack of service. When this happens, they begin looking for a new healthcare facility. By adding the new and improved services available with the new hospital expansion, many residents from surrounding communities will consider Henderson Health Care as a place to go for their medical needs if they need to change facilities. Through this project, the community of Henderson also wanted to change the quality of life offered to the community members. While there was already a good quality of life offered, this project enhanced it by creating a facility where the aesthetic qualities matched the quality of service offered by Henderson Health Care employees and physicians.
b) Describe community wide support of the project.
Community support for this project was overwhelming from the monetary standpoint. Monetary Support for the project was shown from a wide range of people in the community, outside of the community as well as businesses owned within the community. To date there have been over 100 donors for this project with new donors still coming forward to help with additional costs covered by Henderson Health Care Services as they begin to remodel the old section of the hospital to match the new addition. Financial support for this project had an even greater significance considering the state of the economy during this project. In many places projects such as this would have been cut especially since there were so many other projects happening at the time in the community, but instead the community of Henderson came together to make sure the project was completed.
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| The 2009 Spring Fling Fundraising meal. |
c) Describe how the final project impacted the community, including measurable data (Measurable data includes both qualitative and quantitative information).
As a result of this project, the city of Henderson and Henderson Health Care Services has seen an increase in the number of babies born in the facility with parents outside of the community. From January 2010 to August 2010 the number of babies born at Henderson Health Care Services with parents living in different towns was 62% compared to 46% during the same time last year. There have also been fewer residents of Henderson traveling out-of-town to deliver their babies, which has increased local support of the facility through this project. The community of Henderson as a whole has also seen an increase in the number of young families moving back to the community in the past six months. While there is no way to prove that their decision to move back was influenced by the completion of this project, it is obvious that the hospital expansion project enhances the community and what we have to offer, making the community more appealing to potential residents.
5) Describe how resources were identified and used to successfully implement the project.
a) Monetary (grants, fund-raising, bonds, etc.)
Monetary support for this project was generated in three ways through Henderson Health Care Services, a low interest loan through Mainstay Communication as part of REDLG, and donations made through the Henderson Health Care Foundation.
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| A fundraising thermometer was place near the construction site to show how many donations were still needed. |
b) Material and supplies (purchases and donated)
All materials and supplies for this project were purchased by Henderson Health Care Services, Inc.
c) Labor (volunteer, in-kind, and paid services)
All labor was paid services.
6)Future Plans
a) How will the community build upon or follow-up with this project in the future?
The community will build upon and follow-up with this project through Henderson Health Care Services. Henderson Health Care Services has already started building on this project by renovating the older part of the hospital to coordinate with the new addition. This renovation includes moving services around to better serve the local community. For example the old emergency room was renovated into a relaxing mammography room and the old nurses’ lounge was reformatted into an ultrasound room. Previously the ultrasound room was the same as the delivery room, which would create a problem when deliveries were taking place on ultrasound days. Henderson Health Care Services has also built upon the new hospital addition by expanded the number of specialty clinics visiting the facility each month. In January, Henderson Health Care Services began teaming up with Lincoln Orthopaedic to offer an orthopaedic clinic twice a month in Henderson. This service has already been greatly used and appreciated in this short time. Henderson Health Care Services and the general community also plan to work together to follow-up this project in the future. In order to build upon the growing need for health care and physical fitness, Henderson Health Care Services will be teaming up with the City of Henderson to begin work on plans for a Community Center in the future. Since the community does not have a community center currently, this would be a huge asset for many areas of the community. While this project is in the early planning stage, no time line has been set, but it will be a great community centered follow-up project to further the health care available in our community.
b) What has the community learned from this project that can be applied to future development efforts?
Even though a large group of volunteers were not needed to do manual labor for this project, the community learned that residents were very willing to support the project financially despite the difficult economy. This is a testament to the importance of health care in our community and how much Henderson Health Care Services is valued by the residents. Seeing this support for the health care system made it obvious that future project that enhance health care in Henderson, such as a community center, will be supported.
7) Please describe what aspects (if any) of the project were especially unique or creative?
It is very unique for a town with less than 1,000 people to have such a large health care facility and support it enough to create a need for a new addition. There are very few communities in Nebraska that have less than 1,000 people and have a hospital or clinic. Many communities similar in size have a care center or retirement living facility, but not the full health care system. Henderson Health Care Services is such an asset to the community because it covers the full continuum of medical care, which many small communities cannot offer.
This project was also unique in the way it supports economic development within the community. Through the REDLG Grant that Mainstay Communications received to loan to Henderson Health Care Services for this project, 1% of the interest paid on the loan goes directly into the community through the Henderson Chamber of Commerce. By supporting the local Chamber of Commerce in this way, this project enhances and supports the community in multiple ways through the work of the Chamber. In addition, Mainstay Communications can make additional loans to other non-profit organizations once payments on the initial loan have been collected. This supports economic development in two ways. First it is putting more money back into the chamber through the 1% interest on the addition loans. Secondly, the low interest loan is a good recourse for many community projects that need a loan, but aren’t able to pay interest rates at local banks. By using the REDLG program to build financial support for this project, the community benefitted on multiple levels.
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| New labor and delivery suite. |
York News-Times Article
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