The Washington County Hospital met Tuesday night, and the financial report showed the hospital was in the black for the month of September with a profit of just over $3,500. Hospital CEO Nancy Newby said that patient volume was low, but the hospital received some retroactive assessment money that kept the hospital out of the red. Dave Davenport reported that the golf tournament was a success, turning a profit of more than $10,000. That money will be used to replace the flooring on the long-term care wing. The bulk of the meeting was taken up with a discussion of the Community Health Assessment. Newby said that the health assessments are done every three years, and this year the hospital did something new.

“Historically we’ve hired a consultant, but this year we worked with the health department and the IPLAN team and we sent out a survey and did it ourselves,” Newby said. “I think its much more meaningful than having someone come from the outside and tell us what our health needs are. It was interesting that what they reported was the same thing the statistics show, that our weight is going up and we’re exercising less and less.”
As a result of the findings, Newby reported that the hospital used grant money to publish a resource guide.

“We have obesity and too much eating out and not exercise, and those are the biggest things that contribute to hypertension and obesity, which came out in the survey,” she said. “And yet we have all of these fitness centers, gyms and activities, so we published a resource guide and printed out 5,000 copies and we’ll be giving them out throughout the community.”
These resource guides provide a list of the fitness and activity opportunities in the area, from chiropractic care to golf and yoga. The guides will be available starting this week. The next meeting is scheduled for November 22.