Newsworthy

Dear Community Partners,

Here are today’s updates:

• A Look Back at 2023
• “To Your Health” on WIBW-TV Tonight

A Look Back at 2023

There is a premise that if we continually look in the rearview mirror, it will keep us from moving forward.

That may be true, but it is our past that can shape our future. It is also often past experiences, both successes and failures, that mold us into who we are and can provide us with skills and knowledge for a new day.

At this time of year, when we close out the calendar and look to new beginnings, it is important to reflect on what we have done individually, as a team and as an organization.

What a year 2023 has been.

• Our Stormont Vail Health family grew substantially last New Year’s Day when we assumed ownership and operations of the Stormont Vail Flint Hills Campus (hospital and rural health clinic) in Junction City. What an amazing feat and effort to ensure access to high quality, integrated healthcare in the region.
• We opened the beautiful new Stormont Vail Manhattan Campus, at the top of the hill overlooking the Kansas State University campus, offering primary and specialty care, lab, imaging services and nuclear medicine. We continue to connect with K-State, most recently through the expansion of a research partnership.
• We achieved our fourth consecutive Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for nursing excellence. To quote one surveyor: “This organization is committed to the community.”
• We joined forces with the team at Lincoln Center OB/GYN, welcoming them to the Stormont Vail family. We now provide patients with OB/GYN services through our clinics in Topeka, Junction City and Emporia.
• We are strengthening care of infants and families through our TeamBirth program in the Birthplace and through an initiative of the board’s Community Committee addressing the issue of health equity and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality.
• Health equity and ensuring each patient receives optimal care is also a focus of a project to collect better ethnic and race data from patients. The information is confidential and protected, but will give us insights into how to better support our patients.
• Our team members at the Emporia clinic are doing a stellar job in community awareness of the great services we provide through their daily interactions, volunteering and community service. We appreciate their dedication.
• We completed a large renovation and expansion project at the Cancer Center that provides space for the newly relocated Infusion Center and updated Pharmacy area.
• We opened a beautiful new location for Maternal Fetal Medicine and the Stormont Vail Pharmacy, just east of the Topeka hospital.
• We put continued focus on affordable, high quality, educational childcare with our expansion of Building Blocks to care for the young children of our team members.
• We began construction on the expansion of the Cardiovascular Procedure Center in the Topeka hospital.
• We experienced success through numerous academic affiliations to support future healthcare workers. In particular, the program at Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers (TCALC) for a Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) and Phlebotomy program has been rewarding by developing a pathway for high school students.
• In addition, our team members and organization received many awards and recognitions the past year – including the American Hospital Association 100-year milestone award and our Level II Trauma re-certification. Each is a testament to the excellent and patient-centered care Stormont Vail Health provides.

Our Magnet motto over the past year preparing for the surveyors’ visit was “Braver, Stronger, Smarter.” That is what our team at Stormont Vail has been the past year. We took on some very large projects, some in uncharted areas for our team and organization. We showed we were brave, strong and smart. Most important, we learned and grew as a team and experienced the benefits of teamwork.

Thank you for serving our patients, our communities and your fellow team members. We do together what cannot be done alone.

“To Your Health” on WIBW-TV Tonight

How to stick to New Year’s resolutions, or your nutritional or personal goals will be discussed by Jill Nitzsche, Advanced Practice Provider in the Stormont Vail Weight Management Clinic, on tonight’s WIBW “To Your Health.” The segment will air at 10 p.m. on WIBW-TV, Channel 13. The segment will typically repeat at 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Fridays on 13 News This Morning and be posted on wibw.com.

Enjoy the New Year’s holiday and be safe. Thank you to all of our team members for everything you do to care for our patients, and a special thanks to team members working over the holiday.

We together,
Dr. Kenagy