AllianceHealth Ponca City Has Broad Impact on the Community
5/26/2022
PONCA CITY, Okla. – Over the course of a year, the impact of AllianceHealth Ponca City adds up as the skilled and compassionate hands of physicians, nurses and other team members deliver safe, quality care around the clock every day. Beyond clinical care, AllianceHealth Ponca City is a major employer and regularly invests resources to expand and enhance the services available locally. The overall community benefit each year is significant and totaled more than $52 million in 2021.
Last year, the hospital and clinics delivered care at more than 100,000 patient visits as the pandemic heightened the need for medical care. The hospital has supported more than 445 COVID inpatients since March 2020 while sustaining all of its other medical services. To help protect the community from the COVID-19 virus, 300 vaccine doses were provided and more than 775 outpatients were treated with monoclonal antibodies, helping them avoid serious symptoms and hospitalization.
“We provided quality care for patients with COVID and also for other members of our community who had a broad range of medical needs,” said Chris Mendoza, chief executive officer for AllianceHealth Ponca City. “Our community is truly fortunate to have this resilient and committed team of clinicians and caregivers here in Ponca City who make a difference for so many patients each day. We helped people get well and live healthier, and that was evident in so many ways - patients left with less pain following a joint replacement, a heart beating in rhythm after receiving a pacemaker or a smile of relief when their screening mammogram or colonoscopy was clear.”
Employees and medical staff brought their skills and compassion to support more than 16,900 emergency department visits, more than 1,900 inpatient stays and more than 3,100 surgeries. More than 87,000 patients received care across the AllianceHealth Medical Group physician clinics as well as other outpatient services, such as Diagnostic Imaging and Rehabilitation Therapy. We also delivered joy to local families as more than 300 babies were born.
AllianceHealth Ponca City continues to grow and evolve as resources are directed toward increased medical services, facilities and technologies that are important to patients. These include an upgrade to the outpatient surgery area, which opened in October 2021 and the expansion of subspecialist programs, including neurosurgery and neurology. Access has been enhanced in primary care with the addition of Christen Ground, D.O., family medicine, and Guillermo Robles, D.O., obstetrics & gynecology.
As AllianceHealth Ponca City works to continuously meet patients’ needs, it also gives back to the broader Ponca City region. AllianceHealth provided more than14.7 million in charity and uncompensated care for the community’s most vulnerable. And the $1.5 million paid in property, sales and GRT taxes helps support civic resources and services. The hospital’s payroll of more than $29 million ripples across the local economy as employees buy goods and services. CEO Mendoza continued, “We are part of this community, and we are committed to doing all we can to provide excellent healthcare services and to making Ponca City a healthier, better community for all.”
AllianceHealth Ponca City offers an externship program for selected nursing students in partnership with Northern Oklahoma College (NOC). In addition, an internal program is available that offers employment experience to students enrolled at NOC, Pioneer Tech and Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Through these programs, we support students’ professional development by providing structured learning opportunities supported by nursing professionals and recruiting professionals to our facilities, thus increasing the nursing workforce in our community.
For more information, please review the 2021 Community Benefit Report.
To help the community live healthier, AllianceHealth Ponca City launched a free e-newsletter with a monthly dose of health and wellness inspiration sent directly to your inbox. Sign up at https://www.alliancehealthponcacity.com/enewsletter-sign-up.
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