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IU Health Rededicates Frankfort Hospital, But Challenges Lurk

Stan Jastrzebski
/
WBAA News

IU Health faces a number of challenges as it takes over operation of Frankfort Hospital, and new facility president Kelly Braverman says she’s not sure what she’ll address first – facilities or services.

“Kind of chicken-and-egg, maybe, a little bit," Braverman says. "What I would say is that we are going to do an assessment of the community needs, understand what the volumes are, and what services the community needs. That is the baseline information that you need to figure out what you need the building to be able to provide.”

Braverman must also engage with an ongoing community conversation about drug overdoses in Clinton County.

Only two of Indiana’s 92 counties have a higher per capita rate of hospital emergency room admissions because of people abusing opioids.

Braverman says she knew only of the state’s problems generally with opioid addiction and treatment, not necessarily those affecting her new job.

“I had not gotten the data yet for Clinton County and we’ll need to dig into that,” she says.

The group Healthy Communities of Clinton County has begun meetings with elected officials about the issue and hopes to hold public forums later this summer.

She says she’ll begin her tenure by getting to know her staff and doing what she calls a “community needs assessment.”

She says it’s unlikely Frankfort Hospital will offer all the same services as Lafayette’s IU Health Arnett Hospital or any of the company’s Indianapolis properties.

Braverman says the company’s policy is that a distributed network of IU Health campuses, each with its own specialties and equipment, serves the state best.