Hillsboro Women’s Club member Pat Hope introduced Cathy Jones, Ellen Zink, Tracy Coss and Brandy Luke, who spoke on various aspects of hospital policies and offerings at the club’s November meeting.
Jones started as a nursing assistant and is now a registered nurse as well as the director of the Highland District Hospital foundation. The present hospital opened in 1962 and is now undergoing a major expansion which is expected to be completed in the spring of 2017, and will double the size of the present structure. Jones said the finished expansion will have “adequate space, much-needed privacy for consultation areas, as well as a state-of-the-srt trauma room.
Webster’s Dictionary describes trauma as the development of a state of mental or physical shock from a blow, injury or stress, which produces disordered feelings or behavior. It can even be life-threatening.
Zink, who heads the Home Health division, explained that her department provides short-term, intermittent care and has been ranked among the top 10 such facilities in the United States. They provide a variety of skills and education in patient’s homes. Four Woman’s Club members spoke of help they had received after accidents or surgery and one, in particular, reported that she had even been assisted at her home late in the evening.
Coss, manager of the emergency room, gave some impressive statistics: It treat an average of 20,000 persons every year, nine different life squads use Highland District Hospital, including Paint Creek, Lynchburg and Leesburg, among others. With that unit’s 11 hospital beds (six of which are constantly monitored), they treat a wide variety of emergencies from choking to heart attacks, to strokes and more. A proposed decontamination section to protect other patients and family members was also described, as well as the assistance of pain management specialists.
In addition to the above-mentioned speakers, Luke was introduced as the coordinator of the foundation’s campaign to raise necessary funding for this $4.5 million expansion.
On a lighter note, vice president Pauline Cameron presided over a brief business session in the absence of president Helen Ford. She closed the meeting with the announcement of the club’s annual Christmas meeting, to be held at the Hillsboro Masonic Temple with a musical program provided by Christopher and Daniel Jacky.
Submitted by Gretchen Huffman, secretary.
