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professionals. The health system added 17 new telehealth services, as well as new service lines including plastic surgery and a headache center of excellence. Looking forward, GPHealth will work toward filling physician needs prioritized in the medical staff needs assessment and expand services to include gastroenterology, robotic surgery and medical weight loss programs. 6 Collaboration with local organizations to improve community health GPHealth worked with West Central District Health Department and other area agencies toward improving community health. Aligning priorities helped organizations gain traction on major issues that impact health as we work to remove barriers and identify solutions. GPHealth will continue to work on established priorities, with an additional focus on dental health. To increase access, WCDHD offers on-site preventive dental services to all schools within the WCDHD region. For 2018–2019, this included North Platte, Maxwell and Wallace public schools and 2,681 total patients. WCDHD and GPHealth are working together, and seek other partnerships, to fill gaps when it comes to dental and medical care. “While there has been progress, there are still areas where improvement and community support are needed,” says Vanderheiden. Short-term goals include a GPHealth camp for children with type 1 diabetes, continuing Friends & Family CPR classes and continued employee and community blood drives for the American Red Cross. +
reduction programs, including GPHealth’s Couch to 5K program, which helped 460 participants get moving. Melanoma Monday screenings drew 280 participants from 2016 through 2019, leading to the detection of 17 cancers. GPHealth also added a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease navigator and a lactation consultant. In three years, GPHealth employees raised $53,000 through our employee United Way Campaign, and the Great Plains Gives committee gave approximately $100,000 per year to nonprofit organizations. Looking forward, GPHealth will continue to offer community education, partner with local organizations, and adopt policies and programs to improve health and wellness among patients and the community. 3 Increased access to safe and affordable housing GPHealth helped lead the Shot in the Arm program, through which developers committed to build 118 homes through 2020; worked with communitymembers to advocate for stronger city code enforcement; participated in a media push to raise awareness about the health effects of unsafe housing; and participated in state-level testimony to increase housing funding in rural Nebraska. Looking forward, GPHealth will continue to provide leadership on local housing task forces and in programs designed to promote employee home ownership. 4 Utilize technology to improve access to medical care GPHealth expanded our emergency department, heart program and hyperbaric service; doubled outreach clinics across the region; tripled
“While there has been progress, there are still areas where improvement and community support are needed. Great Plains Health has been a good partner.”
Shannon Vanderheiden Executive director at WCDHD
telemedicine services; added approximately 30 allied health professionals to our medical care model; and installed Epic electronic health record software for streamlined medical records management. Looking forward, GPHealth will continue to explore ways to integrate and optimize Epic and expand both inbound and outbound telehealth programs. 5 Continued recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals From 2016 through 2019, GPHealth hired 38 physicians and 30 allied health
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