Leadership Hardin County (LHC): Health and Human Services Day
The topics of health and human services, like politics and religion, are always “hot” when it comes to the allocation of community resources; the development of associated policies, regulations, and laws; and planning for a community’s future growth. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of Leadership Hardin County (LHC) Program Chairs Barbara Edwards, Diane Logsdon, and Sharon Wright, members of the 2016-2017 LHC Class were recently afforded the opportunity to “get up close and personal” with several key community leaders who are responsible for a variety of health and human services operations that are critical to the quality of life for the residents of Hardin County.
Following a healthy continental breakfast hosted by Lincoln Trail Behavioral Health in Radcliff, members of the LHC class were warmly welcomed by Chuck Webb, CEO of the Lincoln Trail Behavioral Health System (part of Universal Health Services based in Pennsylvania), who provided a very enlightening overview regarding the escalating substance/chemical dependency crisis in Kentucky. Personifying Lincoln Trail Behavioral System’s vision of “Help for today. Hope for tomorrow,” Webb also provided class members with insight into his organization’s daily operations as well as the impact of new medical regulations resulting from the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The severe shortages in nurses, physicians, licensed clinical social workers, clinicians and other social, medical, and health care professionals were also cited by Webb as being barriers to the timely provision of services to adolescents, adults, and seniors who are seeking psychiatric and substance abuse treatment in Hardin County as well as throughout the rest of the state of Kentucky. After describing in further detail processes and procedures that must be followed in order to deliver services to patients, Webb concluded his presentation by answering a number of questions asked by members of the class. He also invited class members to feel free to contact him at any time to obtain additional information about the Lincoln Trail Behavioral Health System. A guided walking tour of several common areas at Lincoln Trail Behavioral Health System provided LHC class participants with a conceptual framework.
The second part of our day was held at Hardin County EMS and Coroner’s office.
John Malcomson, director of Hardin County EMS, talked with our group and explained the day-to-day operations. Their busiest time of day is between 4 and 10 p.m., because of accidents within the City of Elizabethtown and Hardin County. EMS responds to 45 to 60 runs per day.
Malcomson informed us about an app called PulsePoint, which you can download to your smart phone to be notified of a cardiac arrest near you. Your phone would alert you of the emergency and allow for a quicker response time. The goal was to have 1,000 downloads for this app, but they have exceed this and have 2,897 downloads.
We were given a tour of the EMS shop, where there was a new ambulance, with a new logo design. Malcomson told us about a device called the Lucas device, which administers CPR automatically to a patient.
Dr. William Lee spoke to us about the Hardin County Coroner’s office. His assistant, Shana, was there as well. Dr. Lee explained that the coroner’s position is an elected position, with a four-year term. He has currently been serving over 30 years and has five deputy coroners.
In the third part of the day, we travelled to Hardin Memorial Health, where we had the pleasure of listening to a few great speakers and taking a tour of what will be the new, expanded Emergency Department.
The first speaker of the day was Col. Robert S. Cornes, the 13th commander of Ireland Army Community Hospital. He discussed the transition of Ireland Army Community Hospital from a community hospital to a clinic and what changes we will be seeing in the future. He also went over a lot of the services that will still be utilized, such as general surgery, orthopedics, emergency service, oral surgery, etc. Col. Cornes had great overall information about the future of Fort Knox and Ireland Army Community Hospital.
The second speaker we had the pleasure of hearing was Dennis Johnson, President/CEO of Hardin Memorial Health. He gave us great insight into the new Emergency Department that is being built and what that will do for Hardin Memorial Health as a whole.
The third speaker was Cheri Tivitt, Director-Crisis for Communicare. She explained the mission of Communicare, which is to provide quality behavioral health care and development and intellectual disabilities services in our community. She also went through the counties they serve, which are Hardin, Larue, Meade, Breckenridge, Grayson, Nelson, Marion and Washington and the different types of care they provide on a daily basis.
During the last part of our day, we had the opportunity to tour the new Emergency Department and get an idea of what the new area will look.
Overall, we had such wonderful day learning about Health and Human Services. We appreciated The Chamber and all the speakers who took time out of their day to help us learn more about what they do.
Nikki Betts
Secondary Market Loan Officer
The Cecilian Bank
270-351-3388
Evelyn A. Ellis
Regional Chancellor
Western Kentucky University Elizabethtown-Fort Knox
610 College Street Road
Elizabethtown, KY 42701
(270) 706-8870
evelyn.ellis@wku.edu
Kevin Thomas
Assistant Road Department Supervisor
Hardin County Road Development
501 Bacon Creek Road
Elizabethtown, KY 42701
270-737-6046
kthomas.hcrd@hcky.org
