Richland Hospital

Programs: The richland hospital, inc. (the hospital) operates a 25-bed critical access hospital in richland center, wi. Patients served by the richland hospital in 2016 included 3,015 adults and pediatrics inpatient days, 629 swing bed patient days, 283 newborn patient days, 39,931 total outpatient visits, and 5,810 emergency room visits. As a part of the hospital's mission as a not-for-profit healthcare organization in the communities served, the hospital provides care to patients who meet certain criteria under its community care policy without charge or at amounts less than its established rates. The hospital maintains records to identify and monitor the level of charity care it provides. In the current year, the total healthcare services provided to patients under the community care policy has been measured in both total charges and the estimated cost of providing care to patients under the community care policy. Both figures are reported and available by referring to schedule h. In addition, hospital is a provider under the wisconsin medicaid program. Under this program, the hospital is legally bound to accept the amount determined by the state of wisconsin as payment in full for each patient's charges even though reimbursement is less than the cost to provide the care; therefore, service to patients under this program should also be considered part of the organization's benefit provided to the community. (for additional information on the hospital's charity care program and practices and cost of participation in the wisconsin medicaid program, please refer to schedule h of the form 990. ) the hospital also engages in a variety of community building activities that would not otherwise, without the efforts and specialized knowledge of the local community hospital, be provided for the benefit of the residents of richland center, wisconsin and the surrounding communities. In 2016, the richland hospital hosted health fairs, participated in local wellness events, conducted educational seminars and provided informational packets for members of our community. Our target audience was the entire family: men, women, children, and infants. The hospital supported southwest partners, a group committed to creating opportunities to enjoy the beautiful outdoors, supporting great schools, supporting strong businesses, and bringing individuals together. Projects that they are working on that support improved mental health and wellbeing, a defined unmet need from the community health needs assessment, fall under two subgroups:1. Career education cooperative - to create a regional school-to-career pathway that prepares students for living wage career opportunities, educational growth and good citizenship. 2. Pine river trails projects - canoe and kayaking the pine, biking richland county, snowshoe and cross country ski, safe ways to school. The richland hospital hosted one ladies health fair event, a heart health event and a toddler wellness event in richland center. In addition,, the hospital hosted one ladies night out in muscoda. New in 2016, the hospital served as the location for smart recovery. This is a free support group helping people learn self-empowering tools and providing support for each other in recovery. The goal of smart recovery is for you to achieve a healthy, positive and balanced lifestyle so you can conquer new challenges when you feel confident your addictive behavior is behind you. Each of the events was free to attend, open to the public and drew an average of 50 people each. Items donated included: staff time, materials, space, giveaways and/or equipment. Additionally, the richland hospital, inc. Participated in other free events open to the public and conducted screenings and provided free health and wellness information. Those events include: richland county fair, senior fest, greater richland cancer elimination walk, and weston health fair. The richland hospital saw an average of 250 people at each of these events. In response to requests to local employers, richland hospital provided staff time, educational materials, and giveaways at no charge for employee health fairs for wisconsin maximum security prison in boscobel, wi; riverdale school district in muscoda, wi; and uw richland student welcome. An average of 80 people were helped by hospital representatives at each event. The richland hospital provided free breastfeeding support groups for new moms and hosted eleven diabetes support group meetings. Educational materials were provided free of charge. Healthcare professionals spoke to the public at community events that were free and open to the public and they provided individual counseling as well to help people understand the services available locally. Registered dietitians presented information at richland middle school and richland center high school once in 2016. Additionally, they supported the richland fit point of purchase program. The richland fit point of purchase represents one of several fit strategies ongoing in the county since 2012 when a uw partnership program grant was awarded. The idea was to partner with food sellers and servers to create an environment where making the healthy choice is easier. Working together as a coalition, we aim to get those healthy choices on the table in an attractive way. Dietitians also worked to train peer educators and introduce diabetes education and support programs to surrounding communities through the deep program. Deep is a medicare-approved, evidence based diabetes self-management program developed by the university of illinois, chicago that has been shown to be successful in helping participants take control of their disease & reduce the risk of complication. Deep workshops meet once a week. Deep provides opportunities for participants to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a healthy weight and to reduce complications resulting from diabetes, such as kidney failure, amputation, vision loss, heart failure and stroke. Educational materials were provided free of charge in a variety of venues. They covered a wide range of healthcare topics including: cancer, diabetes, heart disease, infant and child development, nutrition, exercise, smoking cessation, breast health, advanced directives, colonoscopies, joint and muscle degeneration, women's health and more. The blood center of wisconsin held multiple drives in the hospital's lower level at no cost. In addition, employees could donate blood while on work time and did not have to punch out. Home health united held multiple grief support group meetings in the hospital's lower level at no cost. These meetings were open to everyone and free of charge. The richland hospital provided promotions, snacks and beverages as well. Programs included: drop-in grief support group, when mourning dawns, spouse/partner loss, helping children grieve, and resolve through sharing (rts). The hospital also participates in health education awareness and career building activities such as clinical training experience, speakers at local schools, and participation in career fairs for area middle and high schools and for adults. In addition, richland hospital provides club scrub, an experience designed for 7th and 8th graders that are interested in learning about healthcare careers. The 4 week program takes the students into various departments where they learn about careers in the setting they are provided in. Surgeons, nurses, technicians, and other staff members participate to provide a wonderful experience for the kids. Participation is free and open to all students in our market, but there is a limit of 25 kids for the club. The hospital recognizes that it is important to educate local community members on these careers as a career building initiative so that local primary care and access to care will be continued in the future with well-trained and educated community members in health care related fields. Finally, while there is growing agreement in the united states about what constitutes a non-profit hospital's "community benefit", this remains a work in progress. The richland hospital provides significant charity care and other community benefits as defined by the irs. But in addition, the hospital believes that it provides a critically important community benefit which is not easily able to be quantified. Through its hospital services, like most rural hospitals, the richland hospital inc. Has created and is maintained in order to provide care locally. Without this hospital, this care would not be available locally and the economic well-being of the surrounding communities would be negatively affected by the loss of professional, technical, and service jobs. We are dedicated to caring, educating and healing - we want to be the community's first choice for better health.

the richland hospital, inc. Also operates two rural health clinics located in spring green and muscoda, wi. During 2016 these two clinics provided a total of 8,291 visits to patients in both communities. The clinics are designated rural health clinics by the medicare and medicaid programs and as such by definition are located in designated rural or underserved areas of the country by health care practitioners. These clinics provide care to a large portion of medicare and medicaid beneficiaries who without access to care locally would be required to travel farther distances for quality healthcare.