(CARLINVILLE, Ill.) — December 31, 2024 — The Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics Executive Team and Board of Trustees met Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, to review the hospital’s many accomplishments over the past year, including growth and advancement in medical services at the hospital and its clinics while sustaining an excellent work culture. These accomplishments illustrate our providers’ commitment to Carlinville, Macoupin County, and surrounding communities and shift the organization's perception from a small-town community hospital to a nationally recognized leader in rural healthcare.
“Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics is more than just a critical access hospital. We’re a comprehensive rural health system,” said Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics CEO Brian Burnside. “We are working hard to make sure if you’re a resident of a rural community, we have the services you need right here, close to home.”
Among the greatest achievements in the past year is the renewed, increased focus on the hospital’s Rural Health Clinics serving Carlinville, Gillespie, Girard, and Virden. Since the beginning of the decade, Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics has worked to place primary care services at the forefront of its efforts, establishing it as an area of expertise. That commitment carries into the future as the hospital secures employment agreements with family practice specialists like Dr. Ashley Schneider and Dr. Michael Gleason, ensuring the continuity of compassionate, expert healthcare in Macoupin County.
“The Gleason family is local, and the Schneider family is not too far away. It’s great to recruit people from the area,” said Harald Lausen, DO, Chief of Medical Staff at Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics. “This is going to be a nice, long-term relationship and 25-plus years of healthcare for the community.”
Led by Dr. Lausen and Clinic System Executive Jamie Arnett, the Rural Health Clinics expanded to Virden with the opening of the Mobile Medical Clinic in October 2023, treating 1,930 patients — including 680 new patients from 36 communities across Central Illinois from October 2023 to June 2024. Because of this success, in June 2024, the hospital broke ground on a brand-new, permanent clinic in Virden, which is slated to open in spring 2025.
“We are well on pace for a spring opening of our expansion into the Virden community. We’re excited to have 10 exam rooms, a lab draw station, an X-ray machine, and a space for physical therapy in a community that has not had primary health care for quite some time,” Burnside said. “We’re making that happen as part of Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics.”
“Everybody’s excited. We’re anticipating a lot of patients coming south to Virden for care. We have our three nurse practitioners who are going to be headquartered out of Virden — they’re here and working already,” Dr. Lausen added. “We’re looking forward to providing care in Virden and we’re glad everything is progressing on schedule.”
“We very much appreciate the commitment to building in Virden, but we know it’s not just about that — it’s the employees who make a difference,” said Virden Mayor George Murphy. “Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics has built a culture here with their employees, and that shows in their identity. We’re just very grateful and very thankful that we’re associated with the hospital.”
That success in the Rural Health Clinics has also led to the expansion of the hospital’s Outpatient Specialty Clinic, yielding monumental opportunities for patients and physicians alike. By shifting the perception of the hospital’s capabilities at a clinical level, the Outpatient Specialty Clinic has attracted exceptional medical talent to Carlinville, allowing them to offer care in 20 different specialties such as allergy, cardiology, gastroenterology, general surgery, gynecology, nephrology, neurology, oncology, orthopedics, otolaryngology (ENT), integrated pain management, podiatry, pulmonology, rheumatology, urology, and wound care.
“We wanted to make sure primary care was the center of our strategy,” Burnside said. “With great primary care providers, we’re able to attract more specialty care to our community — that’s exactly what we’ve done. Our goal has been to achieve our clinical potential without overshooting our mark. And we found our community hospital has a lot of talents and numerous areas where we can indeed achieve that.”
Additionally, Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics launched its brand-new Advanced Care Unit (ACU) in January 2024, allowing providers to treat more acutely ill patients who, just a year ago, would have required admission to a large, tertiary health center further away from their homes. Employing a tele-nocturnist, a telecardiologist, and hospitalists to oversee the hospital’s nursing staff, the ACU offers a way to keep patients close to home.
“If you stay in the ACU and you need to see a cardiologist, we have Springfield Clinic cardiologists who can be on a computer screen to see you in our inpatient unit. If a patient needs to see a physician, our hospitalist team can come in throughout the day, and a tele-nocturnist can see the patient throughout the night. So, we have physician coverage 24/7,” said Chief Nursing Officer/Chief Quality Officer Jessica Barkley, who added the hospital plans to add medical services to the ACU in addition to currently offering treatments for high acuity illnesses such as diabetic ketoacidosis, atrial fibrillation with rapid heart rates, and postoperative patients. “The other nice thing is that the hospitalist team will see admitted patients in the ER. So, they advance our level of care with an inpatient-minded physician seeing a patient and doing the admission orders.”
As part of its commitment to ensuring accessibility and safety for all patients, Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics announced a project to replace the hospital’s wheelchairs as many of the hospital’s chairs suffer from issues like missing parts, difficulty in maneuvering, and storage. The Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics Auxiliary has donated 10 Stryker Prime TC wheelchairs at a value of more than $30,000 to improve ease of use and create a safer environment for both patients and staff.
The continued success and expansion of the hospital were highlighted by a presentation from Chief Financial Officer Jay Hodges, who pointed to a continuing pattern of financial growth since FY2020. This dramatic economic upturn is unprecedented in the history of Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics. “The hospital’s balance sheet is strong and stable,” Burnside said. “Our financial strength allows us to carry out large-scale projects that will connect even more patients with excellent healthcare services and ensure further growth into the future.”
The hospital also added its Nursing Clinical Ladder, which was developed by Barkley to allow hospital administration to recognize the work of nurses and provide them with the resources needed to elevate their care skills and grow professionally. This includes individual goal setting, optimizing the scope of professional practice, and encouraging nurses to enroll in continuing education courses. Barkley reported that in its first year, the Nursing Clinical Ladder had 100% of eligible nurses participating; that success led to adding other clinical ladders throughout the hospital, including those for radiology and laboratory technicians. A refresh of the hospital’s Human Resources Department — led by Chief Operating Officer Tracy Koster — has encouraged innovation to increase employee and patient satisfaction, which in turn has resulted in a sustained patient satisfaction rating in the 90th percentile and has placed Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics in the top 5.1% of hospitals nationwide for employee engagement, according to a survey from Press Ganey. This overhaul has also allowed Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics to implement a comprehensive benefits package to establish the hospital as an employer of choice, ensuring top talent stays in Carlinville amid a highly competitive job market.
“Many organizations have clinical nursing ladders, but they tend to promote nurses into managers or away from bedside nursing. There’s a place for that — we need nursing leaders — but we also want to recognize advancement and growth of nurses at the bedside,” Barkley said. “We’ve built our Nursing Clinical Ladder to strengthen our bedside nurses. We reward and recognize the continuing education and their investment in the organization while caring for the patients.”
The advancement of medical services for residents of Macoupin County and surrounding communities, strong financial standing, and a celebrated work culture all underscore the mission of Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics: to provide a professional medical community and hospital in order to promote expert healthcare, close to home. The accomplishments of providers, staff, board members, and volunteers ensure the hospital will continue connecting patients to expert care for generations to come and provide a model for rural healthcare facilities across the country.
For more information, contact: Tracy Koster, Chief Operating Officer, Carlinville Area Hospital & Clinics, (217) 854-3832.
Posted in News on Dec 31, 2024
