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History

History and Overview

East Liverpool City Hospital owes its existence to a group of women of the community "who saw the great need of a hospital." The turn of the century was a boom time for East Liverpool, the center of the U.S. pottery industry. The city's many potteries turned out dinnerware by the millions of dozens, boasting "we set the tables of America." Yet surgeries were performed in doctor's offices and nursing care was provided in private homes.

The City Hospital Association was organized Jan. 30, 1896, by a group of the city's leading women, meeting in the old YMCA building on W. 5th St. The association was chartered by the state that same year. Property on Wall Street was purchased March 18, 1897, but no building funds became available and that land eventually was sold. The present site was acquired in September 1903.

Through funds raised by these concerned women, the first hospital building was erected on Sixth Street at a cost of $25,000. Opened Jan. 1, 1905, it had 52 beds in wards and 12 private rooms. Care was provided by student nurses in the hospital's Training School of Nursing under supervision of head nurses and a superintendent. The average length of stay during this era was 28 days; the number of patients admitted each year was less than 300.

The First Addition to the hospital was erected in 1911 on Fifth Street, followed by the Fireproof Addition (West Wing) in 1931. A major building program after W.W.II included the three-story North Wing (1954). The four-story Metsch-Harker Building behind the hospital was erected in 1964 for the nurse training program. A one-story addition to pediatrics and the employee cafeteria were added in 1966. The main hospital building, the six-story East Wing, was completed in 1977 at a cost of $11 million. A comprehensive $9 million renovation and construction project (1990-94) improved access, utilization and facilities.

The hospital's early administrators were a succession of nurse superintendents, the most notable of whom was Nell Robinson, who administrated City Hospital from 1929 to 1971. She was succeeded by Carl Ballerstein (1971-79), Bruce Nielsen (1979-89) and Melvin R. Creeley (1989-).

 

About East Liverpool City Hospital
East Liverpool City Hospital is a modern 177-bed community hospital serving a population base of 75,000 in three states (Columbiana County, Ohio, Hancock County, W.Va., and Beaver County, Pa.). The hospital is the largest employer in the city with 700 employees. It has a large and active Auxiliary which operates a gift shop and snack bar, and provides volunteers for surgical hostess, front desk hostess and book cart services. There are 122 physicians on the Medical Staff. The annual budget is $57 million.

The City Hospital Association is a non-profit 501 c(3) corporation whose operations are overseen by a volunteer board of trustees. The association and several subsidiary corporations are organized under an umbrella corporation called Tri-County Care Systems, Inc. The president and chief executive officer is Melvin R. Creeley. The hospital's address is 425 W. 5th St., East Liverpool, OH 43920. The central telephone number is (330) 385-7200.

East Liverpool City Hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. ELCH is surveyed by the JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) every three years. The JCAHO provides hospitals with survey guidelines and standards that must be achieved in order to become and remain a successfully accredited organization. The process forcuses on systems critical to the safety and quality of care, treatment, and services provided by the hospitals. ELCH received accreditation in April 2004 and will be surveyed again in 2007. The survey for 2006 will be unannounced but any member of the public wishing to communicate a quality of care or safety concern about ELCH is welcome to contact the JCAHO.

 

Departments and Services
Inpatient nursing departments include medical-surgical, intensive/cardiac care, telemetry (step-down), obstetrics, pediatrics, and a 20-bed skilled nursing facility. The hospital's emergency department treats 32,500 patients a year.

City Hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
Surgery has six surgical suites, one of which is dedicated to urology and another to endoscopy. An outpatient surgical preparation and recovery area was completed in early 1994. Diagnostic imaging technology includes low-dose mammography, CT scan, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging.

Among the hospital's diagnostic and therapeutic services are physical and occupational therapy, cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, EEG/EKG testing, chemotherapy, dietary counseling, respiratory therapy and speech pathology. The hospital's laboratory is affiliated with the American Red Cross, Johnstown (Pa.) Region, for blood services.

A nonprofit corporate affiliate of the hospital, Ohio Valley Home Health Services, Inc., is the area's largest provider of home health care. An affiliated service provides weekday adult day care for Alzheimer's patients.

Adjacent, independently operated facilities include: Dialysis Clinic, Inc., providing hemodialysis; and a Veterans Administration outpatient medical clinic. Both are within one city block's distance.

A state-approved diabetic outpatient education class, a free smoking cessation program, prepared childbirth classes and CPR classes are among health education programs offered to the public. The hospital sponsors and/or assists local support groups for respiratory illness, heart disease, breast cancer and mental illness.

 

Location
The hospital is located in downtown East Liverpool, adjacent to U.S. Route 30 and Ohio Routes 7, 39 and 11, and near two bridges across the Ohio River to Newell and Chester, W.Va. It is half an hour from the new Pittsburgh International Airport, and within one hour of downtown Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Youngstown and Canton.

 

Recent Facility Improvements
A comprehensive project of new construction and renovations was the Master Facility Plan, a $9 million project which began in January 1992 and was completed in early 1994. The result was virtually a new hospital within the existing structure.

The project created new obstetrics and pediatrics units, and a new main entrance and main lobby, added parking and improved traffic flow, built a new laboratory and administrative offices, and consolidated scattered outpatient services into a convenient, centralized location on the first floor. The obstetrics unit on the previously vacant sixth floor has six birthing rooms (LDRPs) and a dedicated surgical suite. The project doubled the size of the emergency department, created an outpatient surgery preparation and recovery area, added a new patient transport elevator, expanded radiology facilities and improved nearly every area of the hospital.

The "Growing for Tomorrow and Today" capital campaign (1990-93) raised $2.3 million from the community on a goal of $1.5 million to help finance the project.

Capital improvements have continued to be designed and implemented since the completion of the Master Facility Plan. They include:

• A three-year, $2.4 million project to create a hospital information system (HIS) incorporating patient charting, utilization review, admitting, patient registration, billing and employee e-mail.
• Construction of new nursing stations and associated computer additions on medical-surgical (5 East), intensive care/telemetry (4 East) nursing units.
• A new GE mammography machine and creation of a mammography suite.
• Replacement of a general radiography unit with a new Toshiba "filmless" digital radiography/fluoroscopy unit, a $610,000 project.
• Renovation of the Auxiliary snack bar/gift shop.
• Acquisition of a new milti-slice Toshiba Aquillion CT Scanner.
• Equipping a new endoscopic suite in surgery.
  
• Purchase of two nuclear medicine gamma cameras, one in radiology for general studies, the other in cardiology, dedicated to cardiac diagnostics.
  
• New telemetry and monitors in ICCU/Telemetry.
  
• New fetal monitoring system for obstetrics.
  
• A renovation and new nurse station on skilled nursing, with major funding from a $130,000 donation from the Auxiliary (current).
  
• New in-house GE Signa MRI System 1.5 tesla magnet with excite technology (current).