Local sports with A.J. Brammer.
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WQXE News
Local sports with A.J. Brammer.
Send your team’s schedule and stats to sports@wqxe.com!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:40 — 6.1MB)
Local sports with A.J. Brammer.
Send your team’s schedule and stats to sports@wqxe.com!
Podcast: Download (Duration: 2:17 — 801.3KB)
Baptist Health Hardin President Rob Ramey was the featured speaker during the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce’s February luncheon Wednesday.
Ramey said as the hospital celebrates its 70th anniversary and Baptist Health celebrates its centennial, the hospital knows it has to look outside the hospital’s campus to continue impacting area healthcare.
“We’re constantly looking at how we evaluate the disparities in healthcare, where those underserved areas of our community are, how we’re going to more effectively collaborate with other healthcare organizations and other community partners to be able to reach those people, that population, and make sure that they’re getting access to healthcare as well,” Ramey said.
Later this year, the hospital will open its new Baptist Health Hardin Medical Pavilion. Ramey said the 282,000 square-foot expansion represents a $225 million investment, and with the expansion comes improvements to technology that Ramey said will make Baptist Health Hardin a leader regionally and beyond.
“We’re actually looking at trying to be not just nationally but internationally on the forefront of looking at 4-D types of technologies,” Ramey said. “Think about that. We want Hardin County to have access to those things before all those others around the country, so we’re continually looking at how we can provide the best care that we can and the best resources that we can for you all.”
Ramey says with a completion date in sight, the hospital now has its sights set on its next project.
“We’re building the pavilion, we open that later this year, but what that means is next year we get to start renovating the hospital and improving the things in the aging facility in the hospital,” Ramey said. “One of those things we’re going to be announcing is how we can enhance the services to our expectant and newly-delivered moms as well as to our youngest and most fragile patients as well, so we’re excited.”
Ramey said the expansion and renovations will help to reduce the strain on the hospital’s emergency department, which ranks as the third-largest in the state, and improve a neonatal intensive care unit that serves one of the top ten birthing hospitals in Kentucky.
During Tuesday’s Hardin County Fiscal Court meeting, Hardin County Attorney Jenny Oldham introduced Katie Bennett, who began working as the treatment coordinator in the county attorney’s office on January 9.
Oldham said support from the fiscal court allowed the county attorney’s office to achieve a milestone.
“Thanks to the fiscal court, who appropriated phase one of our opioid settlement funds (at least Hardin County’s portion) to the county attorney’s office, we’ve been able to hire what I believe is the first ever treatment coordinator in a county attorney’s office for drug treatment,” Oldham said.
Oldham said Bennett, an Elizabethtown native, has been integrating herself into the criminal court system, and one of the main focuses of the job will be ensuring court-ordered treatment is handled effectively.
“She’s assessing local treatment, and when I say local, regional treatment providers, again to ensure the integrity of that treatment,” Oldham said. “We want to make sure that anytime we’re referring, and when I say referring it’s through a court order, we’re not just suggesting, but when we’re court ordering drug treatment, we want to make sure that that program is sound.”
Bennett is also tasked with facilitating non-violent and not-trafficking offenders to determine if the appropriate course of action is to get that person into a treatment program rather than jail.
Oldham said her office appreciates the potential impact the treatment coordinator position can bring.
“I know as a community we put a lot of resources toward treatment, and it would be nice to be able to measure that we’ve moved the needle, that we see lives that are improving for the person who’s dealing with the addiction, and we know that also includes their family, their community, so we’re excited that this could do great things,” Oldham said.
Hardin County has several programs and initiatives aimed at drug treatment and prevention, as evidenced recently by the county receiving Recovery Ready Community certification from the state.