Henry County Hospital Foundation
Leadership, vision, commitment. Strong words that aptly describe the Henry County Hospital Foundation which has helped to Make A Difference with projects ranging from health career scholarships to physician recruitment and building Forest Ridge Medical Pavilion.
When the Foundation first began in 1954, support was primarily focused on improving the facilities and equipment of Henry County Hospital. But just as the Hospital has expanded its scope of medical care beyond the original campus, Henry County Hospital Foundation has had the vision to provide the leadership and financial resources to assist in those expansion efforts.
Forest Ridge Medical Pavilion
Opened in 1999, Forest Ridge Medical Pavilion houses outpatient services, a pharmacy and physician offices. It also represents a unique collaborative arrangement between Henry County Hospital and Ball Memorial Hospital that brought Ball Cancer Center and Ball Dialysis Center here to serve the needs of Henry County residents with services previously unavailable in the community. Ball Dialysis Center now partners with National Renal Alliance and plans to move the dialysis center to a new, larger location in Northfield Park off Highway 3. Even though it will no longer be located at Forest Ridge, it will still remain in New Castle providing a needed service for our community.
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Two-Year RN Program In New Castle
The Foundation led the way in bringing together a group of community resources and Ivy Tech State College to offer a two-year RN program in New Castle where students can earn an Associate of Science in Nursing and be eligible to take the examination to become a Registered Nurse. Students take academic classes at the Danielson Center, science classes at New Castle Chrysler High School and most clinical rotations at Henry County Hospital.
The program was designed to train future nurses for our Hospital and to ensure we did not experience the nursing shortage found in many communities. Each year the Foundation contributes over $100,000 to support the program by funding a faculty position, providing scholarships, equipment and office and clinical training space.
Educational Programs
The Foundation provides support for a wide range of education programs including women, children and teenagers, community health education, continuing medical education and leadership seminars.
Equipment and Technology
Foundation funds have helped to provide new technology for the Hospital including state-of-the-art Imaging equipment. As hospitals across the country face declining revenues due to increased third party payor reimbursement, the Foundation will continue to play a critical role in assisting the Hospital in providing new equipment and services.
Phillips Hall and McDonald Retreat Center
Thanks to the support of the Foundation both of these facilities have been remodeled to provide additional meeting space and accommodations for prospective physicians, medical students, and guest speakers and other hospital-related guests and business associates.
Built in 1936, Phillips Hall was originally a Nurses' Residence and later converted to office space before being remodeled in 1997-98. McDonald Retreat Center is the former home of Dr. and Mrs. Frank McDonald and is located on the Forest Ridge campus off Trojan Lane
in south New Castle.
Physician Recruitment
Maintaining a strong medical staff that provides needed services in our community is one of the Foundation's main goals in helping Henry County Hospital. With the assistance of the Foundation we have been able to recruit a medical staff that is over 97% board certified/board eligible and practices in 28 different medical specialties. This range of specialties and high degree of board certification is not usually found in a community our size.
