2006 Annual Report

In January of 2008, the Southeast/South Central Indiana Area Health Education Center through Hoosier Uplands asked for nominations within a twenty-four county area for a Healthcare Hero Award to be given away in the spring of 2008. Two awards were to be given away, one for Service/Quality and one for Education/Training. After reviewing the nominations, two health professionals were chosen and both happened to be health professionals that serve Orange County residents. The Education/Training Award was given to Deana Davis, Health Educator, RN at Bloomington Hospital of Orange County, as well as the staff at BHOC. Deana was able to initiate and form a Safe Kids chapter in Orange County, which helps bring the community together to focus on educating parents and children on many safety practices. Deana's passion as an educator is to reach everyone on a level that they can understand and has done this by writing many helpful teaching tools that take into account age, cultural differences, and literacy limitations.

Vicki Childers, RN was presented the award for Service/Quality. Vicki is the School Nurse for the Orleans Community Schools and might be the only healthcare provider that some of the students ever see. Vicki is the only resource that the schools have for any medical emergency and she takes that responsibility very seriously. She responds quickly, appropriately, and goes above and beyond what is required to help the students. She has been instrumental in helping schedule check-up appointments as well as necessary doctor appointments for students who otherwise would not see a doctor.

Dean Davis-Education/Training Award Recipient and

Michael Edwards-SE/SCI AHEC Director

Vicki Childers-Service/Quality Award Recipient and

Michael Edwards-SE/SCI AHEC Director

Staff Members from: Orleans Community Schools,

BHOC, and SE/SCI AHEC

2009 Presentation of the Healthcare Hero Award

David Brandon, FRHS President and CEO Receives Healthcare Hero Award

David Brandon, Fayette Regional Health System President and CEO, was named a Healthcare Hero on Tuesday, March 17th by the Southeast/South Central Indiana Area Health Education Center through Hoosier Uplands.

Mr. Brandon received an award in the Service/Quality category, which recognizes "an outstanding health professional who goes beyond ordinary efforts to serve and improve quality healthcare efforts in his/her rural/underserved community. [The recipient] is very influential in bettering the health of their community and contributes a lot of time and energy to make changes happen."

His qualifications for the award are summed up by the following narrative:

While Mr. Brandon has made significant contributions to the advancement of healthcare in Fayette County over his 14-year tenure at Fayette Regional, it is for his recent initiative and leadership in a project that brought a state-of-the-art healthcare facility to underserved Franklin County that deserves special recognition.

Franklin County, with a population of 24,000, is significantly medically underserved. No hospital is located in the county, and only six in-county primary care physicians serve the entire population. The actual travel time distance to a hospital can be as long as 45 minutes based on rural roads and road conditions. Historically, the County's governing bodies have attempted to build hospital facilities but have failed due to economic realities.

Fayette Regional has operated a provider-based urgent care facility in Brookville since 1988; in late 2007 through Mr. Brandon's vision, the Fayette Regional Board of Trustees approved an $8 million building expansion project in recognition of the county's need for expanded medical facilities, ancillary equipment technology and hospital/physician services. Over the past year, a new 15,000 square foot addition, coupled with a complete reconstruction of the 5,000 square foot urgent care, was completed and opened in January 2009.

This comprehensive facility, called HealthPlex, offers a full-service lab, and a complete diagnostic imaging center including: high-field open MRI; 64-slice CT - two to four times the detection capability previously found at area facilities; ultrasound; echocardiography; bone densitometry; and general x-ray. Digital mammography will be added this spring. All images are digitally sent to the main hospital for immediate reading. The urgent care area has full triage, trauma room with medical gases, and pharmacy (Pyxis).

While the facility is impressively beautiful to patients, Mr. Brandon ensured staffing of highly-skilled physicians and staff to provide Franklin County residents the best possible care. A total of 17 physicians currently see patients at HealthPlex. Emergency-trained or board certified physicians are employed to provide urgent/emergent medical care; additionally an internist practices in the facility five days per week. Specialty physicians in orthopedics, general surgery, ENT, Ob-byn, cardiology, neurology, and other specialties see patients at the facility on a weekly basis. Staffing consists of experienced emergency services registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified radiology and lab technicians, and physical therapists.

Franklin County residents have shared in the enthusiasm through the construction process and now in the opening of the facility. They have nearly every outpatient service they would typically receive from a hospital in their community.

Upon receiving the award, Mr. Brandon expressed gratitude and said, "I am honored and humbled to have been named the recipient of the Healthcare Hero Award in Service/Quality. What I am most proud of, though, is bringing a much needed, state-of-the-art medical facility to Franklin County residents."

Pictured left to right: Randy White-COO Fayette Regional

Health Systems, David Brandon-CEO Fayette Regional Health

Systems and Megan Baldwin-SE/SCI AHEC Outreach Coordinator.

Tereshko Earns Regional Healthcare Honor

Hanover College faculty member Bill Tereshko has earned the Healthcare Hero Award from the Southeast/South Central Indiana Area Health Education Center.

Tereshko, an Assistant Professor of Exercise Science, received the organization's education and training honor for his efforts to promote health and wellness with the College's students, faculty and staff.

In the past year, Tereshko launched a wellness initiative for the campus community. He developed a course of study based on the guidelines of American College of Sports Medicine where he trained students to be personal trainers. The students then offered one-on-one personal training for faculty and staff members who participated in the wellness program.

While providing continuing hands-on skill development for Hanover's exercise science students, the program also generated positive results for participants in such areas as improved fitness, decrease in body fat and smoking limitations and cessations.

More than 60 faculty and staff members participated in the program's first year. The wellness initiative continues into its second year with an increased number of student-trainers and a waiting list of participants.

Tereshko has been a member of Hanover's faculty since 1985. He received his bachelor's degree from Muskingum College (Ohio) in 1981 and earned his master's degree from the Ohio State University in 1985.

The Southeast/South Central Indiana Area Health Education Center is a community-based non-profit organization which supports a 24-county region. The organization provides access to continuing education for health care professionals, presents health career awareness and outreach programs to secondary students and develops mentoring programs with academic institutions for college students.