The Heartlands Conservancy’s Jingle Hike Challenge is back for a second year. From Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. Go to https://www.facebook.com/HeartLandsConservancy/ for more information. (Photo courtesy of Heartlands Conservancy)

Belleville Memorial tops area hospitals in Healthgrades

Memorial Hospital Belleville ranks among America’s top hospitals in patient safety and 10 areas of care, according to Healthgrades’ new American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2018: Report to the Nation.

In all, Belleville Memorial garnered 10 top-level, five-star ratings and two awards for quality of care in the report, including the hospital’s third straight Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award.

Services earning top level ratings included treatment of heart failure, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, gastro-intestinal bleeding, and sepsis, as well as esophageal/stomach and colorectal surgery.

In many of those categories, the hospital received top marks for the second year in a row. It has earned a five-star rating for treatment of respiratory failure for 11 consecutive years.

Belleville Memorial has been ranked among the top 10 percent of hospitals in patient safety for the past three years, and the top five percent of hospitals for the past two, according to Healthgrades.

Also receiving star ratings or awards in the report:

• Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City, 1 five-star rating
• Anderson Hospital in Maryville, 4 five-star ratings
• OSF Saint Anthony’s Health Center in Alton, 2 five-star ratings
• Alton Memorial Hospital, 1 five-star rating
• HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Belleville (now relocated to O’Fallon), 6 five-star ratings and 1 quality award.

No ratings or awards are listed in the report for Touchette Regional Hospital in East Saint Louis, the Fresenius Medical Care — Southwestern Illinois facility in East Alton, or the new Memorial Hospital East in O’Fallon.

Denver-based Healthgrades is an online healthcare provider rating and comparison database.

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records from nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide, assessing hospital performance relative to each of 32 common conditions and procedures.

Healthgrades recognizes hospital quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are rated with either a five-star designation (indicating statistically significantly data demonstrating better than expected outcomes), a three-star designation (indicating outcomes data as expected) a one-star designation (indicating outcomes that are statistically worse than expected).

The complete Healthgrades report can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality

New Edwardsville Township supervisor named

Former Madison County Community Development Administrator and longtime Edwardsville Township Supervisor Frank Miles has accepted a new position as planning manager of the southwestern Florida city of North Port.

Longtime Township Clerk Fred Schulte has been appointed to replace him as supervisor.

Miles was replaced by Kristen Poushard as Madison County community development administrator last year, as the county government transitioned from the administration of Democratic County Board Chairperson Alan Dunstan to that of newly elected Republican Kurt Prenzler.

Schulte has served as township clerk since 2001. He was recently elected vice president of Hamel Mutual Insurance Company and for 36 years was co-owner of Edwardsville Frozen Food.

The Edwardsville Township Board of Trustees appointed Schulte supervisor during a special Oct. 30 meeting, called by Miles as his final administrative action with the township.

Administrator’s harassment claims found ‘insufficient’

The Madison County Board, Nov. 8, formally terminated the employment of Community Development Administrator Kristen Poshard, after investigations found an employee grievance and allegations of sexual harassment, levied by Poshard, were unfounded.  

Poshard alleged, in a June 7 conversation with County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler and other county officials, that she was being sexually harassed by a county board member. On June 10, Poshard filed a grievance objecting to the management practices of County Administrator Doug Hulme. She has been on leave since Aug. 10.

The formal reason for the termination was not specified in a county press release on the action.

Poshard came to Madison County government last year as part of then-incoming Board Chairman Prenzler’s the new administration; promising innovative new approaches to economic development and job creation.

She has received a 30-day notice of termination and will receive three month’s severance pay, according to the county press release.

Jingle Hike Challenge set for Nov. 23 through Jan. 1

HeartLands Conservancy, the Alpine Shop and Davey Resource Group are sponsoring their Second Annual Jingle Hike Challenge; beginning Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 23 and running through Monday, January 1.   

Jingle bells will be tied to a tree in each of 12  Metro East parks: The Gardens at SIUE, New Baden Park, Storck Woods in Washington County, Red Bud City Hall Park, Gordon Moore Park, Willoughby Farms, the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, the Stemler Cave Woods Nature Preserve, Waterloo Lakeview Park, Belleville Bicentennial Park, Mascoutah’s Scheve Park, and the Kingsbury Park District Nature Preserve.

Challenge participants will then have six weeks to find them.

Participants finding even one tree qualify to win prizes, including outdoor gear from the Alpine Shop in O’Fallon.  

However, participants must provide documentation by taking a selfie with the tree, and posting it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using #jinglehike. Selfies can also be emailed to treks@heartlandsconservancy.org.

Those finding six or more of the trees will be entered to win the contest’s grand prize – a Felt Café 24 adult bicycle.

Bonus entries will be awarded for correctly identifying the type of tree.

Winners will be drawn Jan. 3 and announced on social media and the HeartLands Conservancy website. Follow HeartLands Conservancy on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for hints on the bell locations and more information.  

There is no cost to take part in the challenge, but participants must be at least 14 years old to win prizes. A map of all twelve parks and instructions will be available at the HeartLands Conservancy, the Alpine Shop in O’Fallon, and several other locations in the region.

More information and a printable map can be found online at www.heartlandsconservancy.org.

–Metro East Area News Briefs–