Needs Assessment Survey Underway For Bath Community Hospital

In the first part of this pair of stories Bath Community Hospital’s new Chief Executive Officer, Kathy Landreth, talked about her arrival here, and some of what has happened since then.  She continues describing her commitment, and that of the hospital board and staff, to provide high quality, ongoing medical care for this area of the Allegheny Highlands.

“I feel fortunate every day to be in Bath County.  I come from a small town.  I retired from Carillion Clinic, and I think there’s a lot of speculation out there that perhaps this independent hospital will be bought by a larger system, and I can tell you that all of my conversations with board members, and the community, this is not what we’re planning.  We’re planning to stay independent, and in order to do that though we have to run a very efficient operation.  And we have to make sure that we’re meeting the health care needs of this community.  I have every intention of making sure that continues to be the case.  I want to hear from the citizens. “

Licensing requirements actually require the hospital to ask the community how well they are meeting needs every three years.  Three years ago close to one hundred residents responded to a survey.  Landreth is hopeful many more will participate in the current one.

“We’re performing a community needs assessment, and I think that will finish up in the September-October time frame.  Then we’ll take that information, and we’re going to publish a document that will go out to all the households that says what you all as a public identified as your main concerns for health care needs.  And then our job will be to put an action plan in place to meet those needs.”

Thus far, about three hundred local people have returned their surveys.  This ongoing project may end up revealing even more clearly than letters to the editor, or community gatherings, how hospital clients view their differing experiences.   If you have a copy of the survey, and have not returned it yet, please do.

There will be a couple of other opportunities in the months ahead to show support, or express concerns, about changes at the hospital.  It appears now there is some listening going on. If that listening is from both a wide range of area residents, and hospital insiders, then a stronger and more constructive outcome is surely ahead.