The Sisters of Charity Health System (SCHS) is an official partner of the U.S. Census Bureau this year; the healthcare system’s primary objective is to promote participation in the census to low income Northeast Ohioans to ensure the group is accurately represented in the upcoming 2010 census.

The Sisters of Charity Health System is spreading the word about the importance of the census and availability of questionnaires amongst its employees, patients and the communities it serves.

Census data is not only used to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives amongst states, it directly affects how the more than $400 billion per year in federal funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education, transportation and more.

Read more...

The Sisters of Charity Health System today announces that it is to receive $1,575,000 in federal appropriations funding for many of its ministries’ programmatic and equipment needs. The measures were included in the FY10 appropriations conference report (H.R. 3288) legislation.

Among the ministries to receive federal appropriations are St. Vincent Charity Hospital and St. John West Shore Hospital in Ohio, Healthy Learners and South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families in South Carolina.

Read more...

Congratulations to Mercy Medical Center and St. John West Shore Hospital on being named Thomson Reuters Top 100 Hospitals in the country for cardiovascular services. The 100 Top Hospitals study evaluated short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients. The top performing hospitals perform over 50 percent more cardiac surgeries than peer hospitals.

St. John West Shore Hospital is pleased to announce the creation of a new Intermediate Care Unit (IMCU) to officially open on Monday, December 7, 2009. The new eight-bed unit will be located on 4-North, where the former medical/surgical unit was housed.  With a patient-nurse ratio of four to one, the new inpatient unit will specialize in nursing care for patients who are too ill for the general inpatient unit, yet do not need the extremely intensive level of care of the ICU or CCU. 

The unit’s function is not to replace care already provided in the ICU or CCU, but rather to assist the patient flow process, especially during high volume time and/or when beds are at a premium.   The Intermediate Care Unit will be staffed by nurses and other staff members competent to care for patients needing this type of care.

“We look forward to the opening of this new inpatient unit,” says Michael Dobrovich, DO, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Clinical Affairs. “The new Intermediate Care Unit will improve patient flow and address the shortage of beds and work flow issues.  With our new unit, diversion for emergency patients will be reduced, as well as the time patients are being held in the surgical and emergency areas.  It will also enhance our patient and physician satisfaction.” 

For more information about the IMCU, please contact James V. Guliano, RN, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services, at 440-827-5005.

In an effort to go to a 100 percent digital, filmless environment, the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) was launched by the radiology departments at St. John West Shore and St. Vincent Charity Hospital on Sept. 28. This integrates all radiology imaging services and enables hospitals to streamline workflow, increase revenue, and improve the quality of overall patient care. It provides access to images and reports via Meditech PCI; access to images for referring physicians from home and in the office via secured web access; and full functional workstations in key Hospital areas such as critical care areas.