The State of Healthcare in our community was the topic at yesterday’s Daviess County Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Luncheon held at The Gasthof. Guest speakers included Cara Veale with Indiana Rural Health, Justin Harris at DCH, and Keith Miller from Deaconess Memorial in Jasper. All three spoke of the struggles they are fighting through today. Among those are insurance and Medicare, rising costs, and attracting and keeping quality physicians to fill the void needed in the community. They find we are training and preparing a lot of great doctors who are forced to go out of state for residency and then never return home. Now that DCH has merged with Deaconess, the two hospitals are collaborating closely to address gaps and share patients. They are working to get on the EPIC Medical records system that allows patient information to be shared electronically from one provider to another, making access easier to important medical records. And they spoke of the increasing use of A.I. to help fill positions and do some of the clerical work. The A.I. driven tools will help advance medical treatment in the future. New Doctors have been added at each hospital in the past year to continue to provide quality care for residents close to home.
