Decatur Memorial Hospital

Professional services: as the employer of 63 physicians plus a complement of other providers (physician assistants and nurse practitioners), dmh offers a wide range of professional patient care at approximately 30 offices located throughout the service area. These sites include two "express care" locations offering care for cases that are time-sensitive but not life-threatening or emergent.

Inpatient services: with 280 beds currently in service, dmh provided 42,352 days of inpatient care during the fiscal year. Dmh's inpatients included the young (newborn infants in the level i or level ii nursery), the old (for example, persons receiving care through dmh's senior health and wellness center of excellence), and the in-between. Areas of inpatient service included general medical, surgery, orthopedics, cardiology, geriatrics, pediatrics, intensive care, dialysis, obstetrics and gynecology, nursery, long-term care, and telemetry monitoring. Inpatient care was provided by dmh's team of highly-qualified, talented staff (today numbering over 2,300 in all), including hospitalists, nurses, aides, dieticians, case management staff, social workers, and chaplains.

Education and outreach: dmh has concluded that, to fulfill its mission of improving health, it must become involved in the education, awareness and prevention of disease and illness that negatively impact health status. In an effort to give community residents the tools necessary to make healthy lifestyle decisions, dmh seeks out opportunities and actively involves itself in the local community, through measures ranging from programs for local schools to dmh's popular "prime time" program for seniors. In recent years, dmh has participated in various community health needs assessment initiatives, as a result of which dmh has identified significant concerns such as access to primary care physicians and specialists; heart, lung, & stroke screenings; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; obesity; diabetes; indigent outpatient longitudinal care; oncology screenings; health fairs; and women and children's health. With the leadership of a multidisciplinary community benefits committee, including participation by a diverse group of community representatives, dmh has taken a primary role in confronting these issues.