National Nurses Week is ending and National Hospital Week is beginning.
Hi! This week marks the overlap of two very important occasions. We are ending National Nurses Week and beginning National Hospital Week.
Each and every day of the year, we so appreciate your commitment and dedication to delivering outstanding personalized health care through clinical service, education and research, but this is a time when we want to stop to publicly recognize you and your accomplishments.
I’d like to congratulate this year’s Excellence Winners. These 39 individuals from across the Medical Center were nominated by colleagues and selected as those that we want to recognize for their outstanding contributions. You may have seen the ad in the Columbus Dispatch honoring these individuals and you can learn more about them on OneSource. Each of these individual members of our team embody the great spirit that is so characteristic of the OSU Medical Center.
The role that each of you plays in improving people’s lives cannot be underestimated. Each year, our Medical Center touches more than a million people in our patient care areas alone. And, in fiscal year 2008, we contributed more than $144 million in charity care and benefits to our community. These benefits include the cost of providing non-reimbursed care, trauma services, education and support groups. Also included is funding to train future generations of physicians, physician-scientists and allied health professionals, and to conduct innovative research.
And our caring extends well beyond our doors. Through outreach programs such as the Columbus Free Clinic and Clinica Latina to medical mission trips overseas, many of you are going above and beyond to provide care to those in need in our community. Remember the 50 children’s bicycles we built and distributed through Neighborhood House.
During Hospital Week, we asked you to share with us the many ways you care for our community, and I have been so impressed by your responses. From involvement with The James Stitching Sisters, to Big Brothers Big Sisters and Community Watch programs to community enrichment programs such as the Kelton House, our faculty and staff are making a big difference every day in central Ohio. I’d love to hear more about how you are giving back in our community. You can share your story by going to the Hospital Week link on the home page of OneSource, and you can read about some of your colleagues who are involved in the community there as well.
Together, we are doing great things and no matter what your role, thank you for what you do to improve the lives of those we serve and our community.
Well, have a great week!