Latest News
Here you will find the latest news at Providence – if the news item is over one month old,
please visit the "News Archive" page.
The 2013 McLennan County Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) was conducted through a partnership between the Family Health Center, Heart of Texas Regional Advisory Council (HOTRAC), Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center – Scott & White Healthcare, Providence Healthcare Network and the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District. This project was also funded in part by generous grants from the Waco Foundation and the Cooper Foundation.
The goal of the CHNA is to provide a comprehensive and unbiased profile of McLennan County, assess community health and risk factors, identify access to care issues, and stimulate discussion and planning for future health promotions and grant funding opportunities.
Click below to view the Community Health Needs Assessment.
West t-shirts are available in the Providence Marketing Department and at Blessings Gift Shop in West, TX. Shirts are free with $10 donation. ALL money donated will go toward the West relief effort.
Call Brenna Middleton at 254-751-4070 with questions or for more information.
Providence Healthcare Network has been named among the top 10% of hospitals in the nation identified as providing outstanding performance in the delivery of a positive experience for patients during their hospital stay, as measured by Healthgrades, the leading online resource that helps consumers search, evaluate, compare and connect with physicians and hospitals. Download the PDF below for more information.
Providence joined a growing number of Texas businesses by becoming designated as a Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite. Mother-Friendly employers proactively support employees who choose to breastfeed their infants by providing time, space and other supports to maintain breastfeeding after returning to work. For more information on this, download the PDF below.
Each year, outstanding associates are nominated to win "Associate of the Year" by their co-workers.
The winners are selected by identifying those that exemplify Providence's mission and core values while inspiring others with their dedicated commitment to excellence. Congratulations to this year's Providence Associates of the Year!
Providence Health Center: Rebecca Huneke
Providence Park: Sandra Padilla
De Paul: Jeri Rainer
Providence Home Care: Debi Crelin
Providence Clinics: Marsha Nemec
Providence Health Center was named as a 2013
PRC 5-Star Hospital in Mammography for Overall Quality of Care.
This designation is given annually to hospitals that score in the top ten percent of PRC's national database for the prior year. These awards are based on the percentage of patients who rate the facility, healthcare provider, outpatient service line or inpatient unit "Excellent" for the Overall Quality of Care question.
Congratulations to the Providence Breast Health Center and its talented staff for all your hard work and dedication to providing exceptional patient care.
Professional Research Consultants in in its 33rd year of providing marketing research for hospitals across the United States. Company information can be found on their corporate website.
Kent Keahey's retirement after 29 years of faithful service is significant not only for Providence, but for the Waco community as well. Because of this, there has been media coverage of his retirement and the community reception held in his honor. Click the links below to view this coverage.
City of Waco Retirement Reception Video
Providence helped celebrate 10 years of going red by wearing red in support of the American Heart Association and the Go Red for Women movement. Along with associates wearing red on February 1, Providence's halls were lined with red dresses, an informational booth was available and the fountain outside the hospital was lit with red, all in support of National Wear Red Day and American Heart Month. Click here for more pictures and information about Providence's Heart Hospital.
The Providence Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the selection of Brett A. Esrock, FACHE, as President/Chief Executive Officer for the Providence Healthcare Network effective April 3, 2013. Mr. Esrock replaces Kent Keahey, who has served as President/Chief Executive Officer for the past 29 years. A reception to honor Mr. Keahey will be held for the community on March 26, 2013.
Providence Healthcare Network was named January Partner of the Month for the Waco ISD Adopt a School program. In December, several Providence Volunteers and Associates delivered goodie bags for Brook Avenue students and were in attendance for the student awards assembly. Brook Avenue students also had the opportunity to sing Christmas carols at Providence Hospital. Providence has been a Partner in Education for over 25 years and has been supporting Brook Avenue over 10 years.
The National Research Corporation recognized Providence Healthcare Network as a Consumer Choice Award Winner. This award was chosen by the people in the Waco community for providing the highest qualtiy service.
Each year, National Research honors thos hospitals whose consumers rate as having the best quality and image, based on a nationally syndicated Market Insights/Ticker study of over 250,000 households. This is the seventeenth year of the award.
The Consumer Choice Award reflects the growing role consumer choice is playing the the healthcare field. Additionally, recognizing that a host of factors enter into choices made by consumers, the criteria by which winners are named reflects a composite score for multiple consumer image and preference ratings.
Robotic surgery soon will be available in Waco, giving residents access to a treatment option increasingly demanded by patients nationwide.
Providence Healthcare Network announced today that it will be among the first in the United States to offer a new procedure for severe asthma patients, known as bronchial thermoplasty. The Alair® Bronchial Thermoplasty System was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Providence Healthcare Network is pleased to introduce the Providence Robotic Surgery Institute. This new program has been developed around the da Vinci® Si™ Surgical System, a leading edge robotic surgery technology that is revolutionizing the way surgicalprocedures are being done.
Providence Healthcare Network, with Central Texas Cardiovascular, has been named #1 in Texas for Cardiac Surgery and one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery by Healthgrades®, the leading provider of information to help consumers make an informed decision about a physician or hospital.
Providence Healthcare Network has been recognized by Healthgrades®, the leading provider of information to help consumers make an informed decision about a physician or hospital, for service excellence in Cardiac, Neurosciences, Individual, Gastrointestinal, Appendectomy and Critical Care.
WACO, TEXAS: Officials at Providence Healthcare Network have affirmed that the steroid medication now associated with an outbreak of meningitis in nine states has not been in use at Providence. The Pharmacy Department at Providence confirms that the Hospital has not utilized pharmaceuticals originating from New England Compounding Center (NECC) of Framingham, Massachusetts since prior to 2009.
NECC recalled the drug after it was linked to the outbreak in nine Western states. As many as 13,000 people have received the steroid shots that are thought to be the cause of the outbreak. However, none of the suspected cases are in Texas. The nearest cases to Texas are in Tennessee with 39 and Florida with 4. As of Tuesday afternoon, there are a total of 11 deaths resulting from 119 outbreaks.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Fungal meningitis is typically treated with high-dose anti-fungal medications. This form of meningitis is not contagious.
Providence is continuing to monitor the situation and remains in close contact with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is the federal agency that monitors health related issues.
HealthGrades, the leading provider of information to help consumers make an informed decision about a physician or hospital, named Providence Healthcare Network among the top 5% in the nation for emergency medicine.
The Providence Healthcare Network app makes it easy for you to find the medical services you need. Find services and doctors within the Providence Network
Providence Healthcare Network has been named a recipient for the second year in a row of the Community Value Index Award presented annually by Cleverley & Associates, a national healthcare financial consulting firm.
Cleverly & Associates published a ranking of the best hospitals in the nation in terms of value they provide for their community. The current rankings were recently published in "The State of the Hospital Industry - 2012 Edition". Cleverley and Associates conducts a logical and meaningful evaluation of all U.S. hospitals using team measures that assess a hospital's performance in four areas:
- Financial viability and plant reinvestment
- Hospital cost structure
- Hospital charge structure
- Hospital quality performance
The analysis suggest that a hospital provided value to the community when it is financially viable, is appropriately reinvesting back into the facility, maintains a low cost structure has reasonable charges and provides high quality care to patients.
Dr. Jackson Walker and Dr. Roger Cowart announce their move to Waco Internal Medicine Associates.
You know a doctor is special when he is recognized by his peers. Dr. Gary Barbin of Waco Internal Medicine Associates is such a doctor, as the latest recipient of the Gold-Headed Cane Award.
Reprinted with permission Waco Tribune-Herald (TX) - Monday, May 7, 2012
By Cindy V. Culp
cculp@wacotrib.com
Local residents who have a medical emergency that isn’t life-threatening now have an option that can help them skip the ER waiting room.
Providence Health Center has launched a program that allows people to get on the emergency room’s waiting list via the hospital’s website.
The soonest people can get a projected treatment time is an hour in the future, and it may be as long as four hours if the emergency department is extremely busy.
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Providence Health Center staff attend to a patient in the emergency room last week. Jerry Larson / Waco Tribune-Herald |
Still, Providence officials are betting people will embrace the service since they likely would wait just as long if they show up in person.
Having the ability to wait at home or even at their work should be an attractive option, they said.
“Our goal was to introduce this as a convenience for the community,” said Brent Esrock, Providence’s senior vice president for administration. “We hope the community finds it useful.”
The program, called InQuicker, is not meant to be used by people with serious emergencies. Providence’s website makes that clear.
Software safeguards
Plus, there are safeguards built into the software designed to catch people who need immediate medical attention, Esrock said.
For example, if someone enters a phrase like “chest pain” as the reason for their visit, the program will interrupt the scheduling process and instruct the person to call 9-1-1 or immediately proceed to an emergency room, he said.
The program then blocks that Internet address for 24 hours to ensure people don’t attempt to schedule again by downplaying their symptoms.
In addition, since the registration page requires people to enter a phone number and email address, Providence staff can contact people kicked out of the scheduling system to urge them to quickly seek medical help, Esrock said.
The same is true in cases where the visit is not red-flagged by the software but hospital staff have doubts about whether the person should wait to be seen.
“They’re going to err on the side of saying, ‘You need to come in,’ ” said Annette Ayers, Providence’s senior vice president of nursing.
Treatment times are not guaranteed, said Eileen Bohannon, director of Providence’s emergency department. Patients who use InQuicker are subject to the same triage procedures as others. If the ER gets an influx of people with serious medical conditions, InQuicker patients will have their care delayed along with those in the waiting room, she said.
But staff will contact InQuicker users to let them know of the delay, Bohannon said. Similarly, if the emergency department hits a lull, people with future treatment times can be contacted to see if they want to come in sooner, she said.
That has been done a few times since the program’s launch two weeks ago, Bohannon said. But in at least one instance, the patient wanted to keep the later time. That might occur because someone is driving in from a nearby city or has a scheduling commitment that prevents the person from coming earlier, she said.
Providence’s ER sees about 85,000 visits each year, making it Waco’s busiest emergency department.
Providence officials became interested in InQuicker after seeing it demonstrated at an industry trade show, Esrock said.
While researching the product, they learned the Seton health care system in Austin has used it for about a year. Because Seton is owned by the same parent company as Providence, local officials were able to get in-depth information about how the program worked there, he said.
Seton originally wondered how doctors and nurses would feel about the program, but it was enthusiastically received, Providence officials learned. A key reason was that patients who used InQuicker tend to be happier during their visits than those who spend time in the waiting room, Esrock said.
“It’s a different mental paradigm,” for patients, Esrock said.
Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco does not have a similar service. Several of its sister hospitals in the Scott & White Healthcare chain post projected ER wait times online. That allows patients who are close to different locations to see which can get them in soonest. But people can’t save a spot in line.
Wait time information is not posted for Hillcrest. But officials hope to make it available in the near future, chief medical officer Dr. Jim Morrison said.
Hillcrest does not have any plans to move to an online scheduling system like Providence, Morrison said.
More than 100 hospitals nationwide use the InQuicker system, according to the company.
