Faith Community Hospital through its Wellness by Faith program is partnering with Twin Lakes Activity Center to conduct support groups directed towards healthy living and weight loss that are open to the community.  The groups will meet at the activity center in classroom #1 every Monday evening at 6 pm and Tuesday at noon.  The meetings will start on October 15.  The meetings are free to the public if you have a membership or pay the daily rate for the activity center.  Please contact the Activity Center at 940-567-5468 for current rates.

Please contact Kristy Holman at 940-567-6633, ext. 282 or kholman@fchtexas.com for registration or questions.

Faith Community Hospital though it’s Survivors of Faith program will be starting a Cancer Survivor and Caregiver support group.  The support group will meet bimonthly, the 1^st and 3^rd Thursday of each month.  Meetings will be held from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm at Faith Community Hospital Conference Room and will begin on Thursday, October 4, 2012. The support group will be an open discussion group designed to support cancer survivors and their caregivers.  All topics will be discussed in a confidential and supportive atmosphere.  The meetings are free to the public and anyone is welcome to attend

Please contact Mariko Clark at 940-567-6633, ext. 216 or mclark@fchtexas.com for registration or questions.

The history of Faith Community Hospital goes back more than 50 years in Jack County. In that time it has grown, changed, and evolved to best suit the needs of the people of the community.

Construction began on Jack County Hospital in 1958 and was licensed as a healthcare facility in 1960. Since that time, the hospital has undergone many changes and improvements.

The name was changed to Faith Community Hospital in 1990 by way of a contest. There were actually two winners chosen, one who had suggested the name “Faith Hospital” and another that had suggested “Community Hospital”. The two winning entries were combined to form the name the Hospital bares today. Some of the more recent changes have been a cosmetic remodeling of the public areas, installation of multiple networking and communication tools, and a rebranding of the Hospital to better reflect what Faith Community Hospital has to offer the community.

Faith Community Hospital strives to maintain the small town feel and level service while still offering many of the benefits found in larger hospitals.

Faith Community currently has a 24/7 Level IV trauma center, several different specialty physicians clinics, a COLA accredited laboratory, and a cardiac rehab and physical therapy program.

One of the most advanced pieces of medical equipment available at the hospital is the 64 slice CT scan which allows doctors access to diagnostic tools that are among the best in the country, this scanner allows Faith Community Hospital to provide speed in medical treatment that can be crucial in many situations.

In 1994 Faith community Hospital bought the Rural health clinic and has offered services through the clinic for Jack county residents since then. The clinic is open 6 days a week with both walk-in and appointments welcomed. Clinic services at the hospital allow for care that some residents might otherwise have to travel out of the county to receive.

Faith Community Hospital continually looks to the future to provide more services to the community. The hospital hopes to expand services and facilities to better serve the people in the area and stay on the forefront of both medical technology and service.

Whether it is a new electronic record keeping initiative to better maintain records for doctors and patients or a community wide fitness initiative to improve the lives of the entire county, Faith Community Hospital pictures itself as a tool for the community to achieve its health goals.

Frank Beaman, CEO of Faith Community Hospital, Jacksboro, Texas, believes strongly in setting a good example. That’s why he gave all of Faith’s board members Apple iPads — and told them that the devices would replace the reams of printed paper that typically flow into the rural facility’s monthly board meetings.

“We want to create a paperless environment here. By giving our leaders iPads, we are developing a culture that sets the right tone for the entire organization,” Beaman says.

Indeed, the board initiative has brought much needed credibility to the hospital’s overall move toward the adoption of an electronic health records system — a challenge that can be especially daunting for rural hospitals. Consider the following: Among hospitals with fewer than loo beds, only 4.9 percent have implemented an EHR compared with nearly 16 percent of hospitals with at least 400 beds, according to a frequently cited 2009 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The fact that the board members — a few of whom are in their 70s — started to conduct business electronically, however, illustrated that it’s entirely possible for anyone to change. What’s more, Beaman says that setting this example is what enabled him to move forward with a “no excuses” EHR adoption policy.

“With the board involved and setting a paperless example, it’s much easier to adopt a hardline, all-out approach. It’s really what made it possible for us to pursue an electronic health records system without looking back. We did not consider failure as an option — and we moved forward accordingly,” Beaman said.

To begin, Faith leaders put together a purchasing committee, comprised of representatives from multiple departments across the hospital. Armed with a detailed wish list, the committee didn’t want to settle for any system but instead wanted a technologically advanced solution that would provide all ofthe functionality needed — but one that wouldn’t take the typical two or three years to implement.

Based on the committee’s research, the hospital purchased and implemented Prognosis Healthcare Information System’s ChartAccess Comprehensive EHR, an innovative web-native solution. With this system, which is hosted on-site at Faith, software applications are made available as a service over an encrypted health information network. The inpatient EHR also connects to an outpatient EHR through a single-point, web-connection, making it possible for the hospital to seamlessly share data with physicians, completely eliminating the expense of developing and managing the interfaces needed to pass information from one system to the other.

To get clinicians and other staff members fully engaged, leaders illustrated how EHRs could help change processes, improve workflow and ultimately provide the increased access to information that would improve care. In addition, leaders explained the in-and-outs of the government’s meaningful use program in an effort to get staff members to fully understand the financial importance of adopting the technology in a timely manner. The fact that the board members were modeling “electronic behavior” made it much easier to gain the much-needed buy-in from front-line staff members.

The top-down culture change has been met with considerable success. In fact, the 41-bed hospital has:

• Implemented the EHR in just four months, January 2011 to April 2011
• Demonstrated 90 consecutive days of meaningful use of certified EHR technology through the submission of data for fourteen mandatory core set objectives and five out of ten menu set objectives as well as fourteen clinical quality measures via the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Attestation System. Staff members relied on the EHR’s meaningful use dashboard to monitor and document the hospital’s progress.
• Successfully attested to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s “meaningful use” requirements on June 5, 2011 — and subsequently received a stimulus payment.
• Joined an exclusive group: the first wave of providers to receive an ARRA incentive check from the federal government.
• Enhanced patient care and service through the seamless sharing of inpatient and outpatient data.
• Realized much of the promise associated with EHRs: “The easy access to patient information is helping caregivers make better decisions at the patient bedside,” Beaman says.

Study designed to aid hospital officials plan for future healthcare programs and services.

JACKSBORO, Texas (June 13, 2012) – Faith Community Hospital has recently started several rounds of discussion groups with community members, according to Frank Beaman, CEO of Faith Community Hospital. The study is designed to determine the strengths and weaknesses of healthcare services available in Jack County.

“There is a wealth of valuable healthcare services available locally, yet many residents don’t realize all that is within reach,” said Beaman. “We have a highly skilled medical staff, and we wanted to learn more about what our community knows and how they feel about local healthcare services and facilities so we can better prepare and plan for future programs and services.”

The discussion groups are the beginning of a larger community needs assessment intended to help identify underserved populations within the community, services that lack availability within the marketplace, barriers of communication and to service, as well as many other important areas.

“The entire hospital leadership team and board of directors are excited to learn more about how we can better serve the residents of Jack County,” Beaman added. “We are dedicated to continuing to meet the needs of the residents of Jack County and look forward to advancing healthcare to the next level.”

The discussion groups are being held at the hospital and moderated by a third-party agency. Results of the study will be made available to hospital officials in the coming weeks.

About Faith Community Hospital

Founded in 1960, Faith Community Hospital is a 41-bed facility that provides healthcare services for residents of Jack County. The hospital offers a wealth of medical services including: Level IV 24-hour trauma center, advanced radiology services including CT scanning, outpatient lab, physical therapy, social services, patient education, and more. For additional information, please visit www.fchtexas.com.

Press Release
November 18,2011

Torch presented its 2011 Rural HIT Awards at its Hospital’s Information Technology Conference in San Antonio at Omni Hotel on November 2nd.  These awards are a yearly opportunity to recognize rural hospitals and individuals that have made significant achievements in the area of health information technology.

David Pearson, President/CEO of Torch said “It is a pleasure to present this year’s Hospital I.T. Award of Excellence to such a deserving institution.  FCH has made great strides in the area of HIT and the benefits of their efforts will spread throughout their hospital and their community.”

FCH signed a contact for their EHR system in October of 2010.  They began their implementation in January of 2011.  The system went live in March and they attested for ‘Meaningful Use’ on June 5 (this is the standard by which the government evaluates the implementation of HIT systems).  In addition, the hospital has already received their EHR incentive funding for the first year.

More importantly the access to information afforded by the EHR system is helping FCH improve continuity of care and patient outcomes.  The easy access to patient information is helping caregivers make better decisions at the patient bedside.  Quang Ngo, president/CEO of the Torch Foundation, said ” the commitment that FCH has made to its patients and community, by investing in the HIT, is one that with pay dividends for years to come and we want to congratulate them for all of their accomplishments thus far.”

FCH CEO Frank L. Beaman accepted the ward along with board president Shelley Owen and member Bill Cypert.  Beaman credits the diligence of the staff for capturing the importance of meeting meaningful use this past summer.

As part of HITCON in San Antonio Beaman gave a presentation on his experience with the EHR/EMR implementation and participated in a CEO panel discussion during a general session.