Hi Team  –

 

This week, Cincinnati will be transformed by BLINK, the nation's largest light, art, and projection mapping experience, and our very own award-winning “TriHealth Band” – Highway to Health – will be a featured attraction!

 

 

 

BLINK returns to Cincinnati for the first time since 2019, transforming more than 30 city blocks across Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky into an immersive art experience! And Highway to Health will take the stage at Washington Park to perform on Sunday, October 16 at 7pm. I hope you can join us there to rock out and cheer on our fellow TriHealth team members and to experience this one-of-a-kind attraction – one of the many unique and special ways for us to enjoy our wonderful city!

 

Latest Cincinnati Business Courier Podcast: The Neighborhood Healthcare Model 

Research shows that when patients need to access healthcare, what they seek out and benefit from the most are providers who offer personalized services, coordinated care, and localized support and resources. In response to these evolving consumer expectations, TriHealth has developed, and is now beginning to pilot, an innovative care delivery concept that we call, “Health Neighborhoods.” 

 

Essentially, the “health neighborhood” is a hub that provides clinical and operational resources (pharmacy, nursing, social work, care management, etc.) to a group (or “Pod”) of primary care practices to support the delivery of timely, appropriate, and well-coordinated “total” patient care and service (see graphic to right for how the “neighborhood” is structured). The Primary Care Neighborhood strengthens the patient/provider relationship by providing greater care management and ongoing follow-up support from a single, trusted source. This is intended to foster more seamless care and optimal health outcomes for patients with complex and chronic medical conditions or those needing follow-care when transitioning from the hospital or another care provider.  This “neighborhood” model also offers significant operational and team benefits, which include:

We are currently piloting health neighborhoods with two PCP offices, with the goal of expanding the neighborhood concept to each of our seven PCP regional pods. 

 

In our latest Getting Health Care Right podcast, Terri Hanlon-Bremer, TriHealth Chief Operating Officer, and Dr. Diane Dolensky, TPP Medical Director for Adult Primary Care, discuss how health neighborhoods benefit patients, physicians, and care teams alike – and what TriHealth is doing to lead the way in making this innovative patient-focused care delivery concept a model and best practice throughout our region. 

 

Last week, we broke ground on the next phase of our five-year Master Facility and Modernization Plan (“MFP”) to transform the Good Samaritan Hospital Campus into one of the region’s most technologically advanced, comprehensive healthcare hubs, with state-of-the-art inpatient and outpatient facilities and a brand-new Emergency Department. And, this transformational investment represents yet another next giant step forward in our Journey to Get Healthcare Right, as it will support and advance our work to provide the community convenient access to the right care in the right place within the care continuum for the right cost to achieve the right and best outcomes for our patients. 

 

As part of last week’s groundbreaking, TriHealth and the Good Samaritan Foundation publicly launched Forever Forward – the largest fundraising campaign AND the largest single investment (nearly a quarter of a billion dollars) in Good Sam Hospital’s history. Through the Forever Forward Campaign, the Foundation is committing  $30 million to help fund this transformative project. So, a BIG thank you to our Good Sam Foundation staff and Board!   

 

To learn more about the Forever Forward Campaign and the benefits it will bring to the care we provide at Good Samaritan, watch this impactful video or visit Bridge, where you can also learn about how you can personally invest in Forever Forward through the One Campaign now underway.

 

It was my pleasure to join our TriHealth Midwifery Team last Friday for a reception at Good Samaritan Hospital in celebration of two decades of exceptional service to our system and our community. As part of our comprehensive Women’s Service line, our Midwifery Program fills a special and important “need and want” – offering OB/GYN patients high-quality delivery and care options in response to their personal needs and preferences. A BIG shout out and thanks to this special group of outstanding caregivers for twenty years of amazing service and for all you do, every day, to provide the very best care experience to our expectant moms, their newborns, and extended families! Learn more about our TriHealth Nurse Midwives here.

 

Open Enrollment is right around the corner, providing the once-a-year opportunity to review and adjust benefit elections, as necessary, to best meet your family’s health and wellbeing needs in 2023. This year’s Open Enrollment period takes place between October 31 – November 11, 2022.  And, this Open Enrollment will be  “passive,” which means your current benefit elections will continue through 2023, unless you actively choose to enroll in new benefits or make changes to your current benefits. So if you do not take action during Open Enrollment, you will maintain the same insurance and benefits coverage you have in place for 2022. 

 

As a reminder, you cannot make changes to your benefits outside of the Open Enrollment period, unless you have a qualifying life event during the year. So, whether you plan to make changes or not, please take advantage of this opportunity to carefully review your current benefits and coverages to be sure you have what you need for the coming year. Visit HR Central later this month for more information and helpful enrollment resources.

 

The encouraging trend of lower and more stable new COVID case rates in the region and at TriHealth continues. Over the past week, we’ve averaged just 20 COVID inpatients with two on ventilators at TriHealth hospitals, and a 13.6% positivity rate. And the weekly case rate continues to drop – now at 81/100,000 population –another encouraging sign that community transmission continues to decline. With the case rates now well below the 100/100,000 CDC threshold for required mask-wearing in clinical settings, we have begun to evaluate and plan for a possible shift to “mask optional” in low-risk clinical areas. We will discuss this in more detail at today’s Town Hall, so please plan to join us.

 

To continue to support this declining trend in COVID case rates, please consider getting your Bivalent COVID booster, now available for team members at our Good Sam and Bethesda North (BNOI) Employee Health Clinics. Click here to learn more and schedule your appointment.

 

I hope to “see” you today at our October Team Member Town Hall, livestreamed on Bridge at 12pm. Please join us to celebrate system wins, review current COVID updates (including our evolving mask-wearing policy), discuss the latest progress on our journey to Get Healthcare Right, and get your questions answered. As always, we’ll be giving away some great TriHealth prizes for those who join the conversation, so be sure to do so!

 

Thanks to YOU, our incredible TriHealth Team, we continue to lead the way as a model in our region and industry for Getting Healthcare Right! What a testament to our collective commitment and capacity to CARE – for each other and all those we serve!