On September 26, 2018, Highlands Hospital announced that its Board of Trustees has appointed John Andursky as President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are fortunate to have someone of John Andursky’s caliber and experience step up to lead Highlands Hospital” said Michael Jordan, Board Chairman.”

Jordan added that “Andursky has been the hospital’s Chief Financial Officer for the last seventeen (17) years and in addition for the last seven months assumed the responsibilities of acting CEO. He did an outstanding job managing the responsibilities of these two demanding positions, insuring steady progress with the hospitals plans to expand its services in the Laurel Highlands region.  John is a proven leader with excellent communication skills and the ability to bring people together to improve the image of the organization. His business vision and leadership skills will allow Highlands Hospital to successfully implement its current plans to open the Center for Health and Community Impact to improve the health status of the community it serves and develop long range plans to upgrade services offered by the hospital.”

Message from the Board Chairman:
Michael Jordan

The program was presented to Connellsville Middle School students with a message of anti-drug, anti-bullying, and life-affirming messages. The hospital also made a donation to the school’s Caring Closet and Impact Kindness Club. Keep up the great work Mary Dreliszak and Connellsville School District. Highlands Hospital Hospital supports your efforts!

by MaryMotivates

Evan’s Destination Day Camp is a fun way for students enrolled in the Highlands Hospital Regional Center for Autism school to get outside of the classroom and enjoy some fun activities out in the community.

Jordan Morran, director of autism services with the hospital, said community-style field trips so far have included a visit from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, a bowling trip and a visit to Living Treasures Animal Park in Donegal.

“We started with a visit in-house from the Carnegie Museum so they could get the learning skills needed to actually go out on a field trip,” she said. “They did really well with the visit and also did a great job on the two outings.”

This year they’re hoping to have Carnegie Museums come back for a visit. They’re looking into an indoor recreation facility in Uniontown, and next summer they’re hoping for a trip to Yogi Bear Campground in Mill Run.

“Yogi Bear is very ambitious for us, but we think it’s doable,” Morran said.

Without the fundraising efforts through Evan’s Destination Day Camp, Morran said they would not be able to provide these opportunities for the students.

John and Diane Carom, business owners in the Uniontown area, set up Evan’s Destination Day Camp in memory of their son who had a heart for the autistic community.

Evan (Carom) was introduced to Camp S.P.E.A.K. by older cousins who were special education teachers and worked at this Pittsburgh camp for autistic kids,” said John Carom.

He volunteered for the first year and submitted his volunteer work as his senior project, but camp managers liked his work so much that they hired him back for the next 10 years until his death in August 2015.

Evan was employed as a full-time employee at the family business, Abby’s Gold and Gems, because he was being prepared, along with his older sister, Danette, to eventually succeed us and own and operate the business,” John Carom said.

But Evan actually chose to make less money working at the summer camp each year than what he would have made working those months at the family business.

Evan loved his work with autistic kids as a teacher’s aide, since he did not have a teaching degree, and the kids in his groups and their parents often requested to be in his group,” John Carom said. “The staff also always remarked how well Evan worked with the kids, many of whom were non-verbal, sometimes acted out in public and generally needed help navigating the world outside of a very structured environment like school.”

After Evan passed away, the program, Evan’s Destination Day Camp, was started by his parents to respond to a need they know exists for the students at the Regional Center for Autism that lines up perfectly with what Evan did as a volunteer and then employee at the summer camp in Pittsburgh.

We know if asked, ‘Evan, should we put together a program and fund it that would provide recreation, socialization and education to autistic kids close to home,’ he’d have said yes in a heartbeat,” said John Carom.

While in some years prior, Highlands Hospital had sponsored a race for autism in Connellsville, this is the first year for a walk/run sponsored by Evan’s Destination Day Camp. This is not a timed race.

The walk/run is scheduled for Sept. 29 at the Sheepskin Trail at Hutchinson Park in Hopwood. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. and the walk/run will start at 10 a.m.

Pre-registration is $20 for 14 years and older or $10 for ages 8 to 13. Those who preregister are guaranteed a shirt. Race day registration is $25 for 14 years and older or $15 for ages 8 to 13. Race day registrants are not guaranteed a shirt.

Registration forms can be printed from the website www.evansdestinationdaycamp.com. Checks should be made out to Highlands Hospital Regional Center for Autism and completed registration forms and checks should be mailed to: John Carom c/o Abby’s 197 Morgantown Street, Uniontown, 15401.

The unofficial goal the Carom’s had hoped to raise with this walk/run was $5,000, and while they don’t have a final count yet because walkers, runners and sponsorships are still coming in, John Carom feels certain they’ve exceeded $12,000 so far.

For the future we may want to consider passing the walk on to another party or organization,” John Carom said. “It’s possible we will consider other fund raising efforts that have a different method of raising funds.

A lot may depend on how the center expands,” he added. “Now that their capacity is 75 students in the future, perhaps our fundraising that supports Evan’s Destination Day Camp’s program may require even more effort than we expended this year.”

By Rachel Basinger
rbasinger@heraldstandard.com

Highlands Hospital in Connellsville has almost completed updates to convert the former Zachariah Connell Elementary School into a health care center.
They have moved their Highlands Hospital Regional Center for Autism school from its former location on Breakneck Road, where it only had enough room to serve less than 20 students, to the new site on Park Street in Connellsville, where space will allow for as many as 75 students.
The autism school is the only one in the state of Pennsylvania that is affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic.

The hospital’s autism facility has been open since 2011 with just four students its first year. It grew to 17 students as of last year, which was the maximum number the building could accommodate. “The last two years at the former location on Breakneck Road, they were operating at maximum capacity, so when this building came available, we knew it would be perfect for expansion,” said John Andursky, Chief Executive Officer at Highlands Hospital.

Jordan Morran, director of autism services, said they now have 24 students enrolled in the school, which caters to ages 5 years to age 21, and they are hoping to continue to grow in the future. “There are three licensed teachers who oversee the school and with our licensed classroom behavioral therapists, we have a ratio of one adult to one child, or at the least, one adult to two students,” Morran said. “All of our positions are degree positions, so we have a higher staff-to-student ratio and a more qualified staff than most autism programs.”

Students come to the school year-round and their enrollment is contracted through the school districts. Currently, the center partners with seven area school districts. “If [a parent] feels their child’s needs are not being met, they will reach out to the special education department at the school who would then get in contact with us,” Morran said. The Highlands staff would then work out a contract with the family for placement of the child in their school.

Along with the expanded school, renovations for a blended-care model wing that will include behavioral health, women’s health and primary care should be complete some time in October. The blended-care wing will mainly be a physician space that will include primary care services, behavioral health, integrative medicine techniques and possibly even a diabetes center. “We have a midwife partnering with us, a psychiatrist piece in place and now we’re working out a primary care component,” Andursky said. “We’re hoping to open this space by mid-October. One of the things they’re excited about with this is the new Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation machine that uses MRI techniques to stimulate that part of the brain that’s causing major depression.

“This is a way that we can begin to treat depression without having to use medicine,” Andursky said. “As a small independent hospital, we’re putting together unique services and really just reinventing ourselves. This stimulation technique is so unique that even the Cleveland Clinic has begun to look into it.”
He added that there are no side effects with the transcranial machine and now, insurance companies will cover the treatment if there is no improvement with an individual after treating them with at least one medicine first.

“The closest one to us right now is in Morgantown, and the therapy calls for four to six weeks of daily treatments, so unless you live close to one, you’re probably not going to be able to take advantage of something like this.”

The third project Highlands Hospital officials have planned for the building is a Women’s Center for Health Impact that will address risk factors for women’s health in a multifaceted way including physically, behaviorally and spiritually through hormone therapy, postpartum care, drug responsiveness and more.

Andursky said they are in the process of finalizing documentation for a Redevelopment Assistance Capitalization Project grant to help fund the women’s center.
“This will be a whole-person approach to provide diagnostic services for women from mammograms, bone density screenings and gynecological visits to hormone therapy and postpartum depression,” he said. Highlands officials expect the women’s center to be open by mid to late spring next year.

“From there, we will have one wing left on the top floor that will most likely be medical services or additional autism services,” Andursky said. “There’s also a possibility down the road that we would bring diabetes care into our blended care unit. We want to make all medical services as convenient as possible for the community.”

By Rachel Basinger
rbasinger@heraldstandard.com

Students from the Highlands Hospital Austism Center cut the ribbon for their new school. The move to the former Zachariah Connell Elementary School will provide opportunities for the school to accept more students and provide them with more resources.

The ribbon cutting for the Highlands Hospital Center for Health and Community Impact was no ordinary ribbon cutting. It was not the dignitaries, not the donors, not the politicians who were called forward to hold and cut the ceremonial ribbon. “We’re going to have the students come up and do the cutting for us,” said Michael Jordan, chairman of the board of trustees of the hospital.

Jordan Moran, director of the Highlands Hospital Autism Center/School, said she has been at the center since 2013 and became director in 2015, overseeing the old school on Breakneck Road, which had a maximum capacity of 17 students. She said the ribbon cutting at the new site in the former Zachariah Connell Elementary School is a fulfillment of her dream for the program. Moran said everything done at the school is about the children. “I commit to you that we will put their needs first every day,” Moran said.

Moran said the school will open with 24 students and has the capacity to increase to 72 eventually, still just a drop in the bucket of what may be needed in Fayette County.
“In 2010 there were 500 children in Fayette County with autism. I’m sure it is higher now,” Moran said.

The school features an indoor recess area and Moran said it will also include a fundamentals of living area as well as art and music areas, none of which was possible in the cramped facilities on Breakneck Road. Moran said the school and hospital received several major grants, including one from the Highmark Foundation, which made the renovations possible.

The Rev. Bob Lubic, who gave the blessing of the center, actually attended kindergarten in the renovated building which he said he was grateful to see repurposed for the community.
“We are grateful that the good work Highlands Hospital is able to do in autism is going to be able to expand and grow in other areas of wellness for the community,” Lubic said.

The lower level of the building will feature a blended model of care medical wing with primary, gynecological and behavioral health care services in an integrative care environment.

John Andursky, chief executive officer of Highlands Hospital, said the blended care model best meets the needs of the community.“This is going to enhance the services that we provide,” Andursky said. While integrative medicine services such as acupuncture and other alternative therapies not generally covered by the insurance industry will not be offered at this time, Andursky said other elements will be part of the experience for patients.

“Everything is to help in the healing process. The aesthetics are part of it,” said Vicki Meier, the spokeswoman for the hospital. Meier said everything from aromatherapy to the art chosen for the walls is part of the integrative medicine process for the suite of offices which include primary care and gynecological services, including a nurse-midwife and behavioral health services.

BY CHRISTINE HAINES

Christine Haines is a Daily Courier staff writer.
She can be reached at 724- 628-2000, ext. 116,
or chaines@dailycourier.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Connellsville , Pa. (August 18th, 2017) – John and Diane Carom, owners of Abby’s Gold and Gems LLC in Uniontown are providing funding to Highlands Hospital Regional Center for Autism for a new program called “Evan’s Destination Day Camp,” in memory of their son, Evan Carom.

Students attending Highlands Hospital Regional Center for Autism receive services in all areas of their academics, functional living skills, communication, socialization and behavior. Michelle Cunningham, hospital chief executive officer, says “this generous donation from John and Diane Carom enables us to incorporate off-site recreational day camp experiences during the summer months for our students.”

According to John Carom, “the family pledged $20,000 in Evan’s name because he had a special love working as a teacher’s aid and counselor with children that had autism for over eleven years at a summer camp in Pittsburgh. He was always looking for meaning in his life. When you hear of Evan’s Destination Day Camp, think of Evan and do something to help others.”

Director of Development for the hospital, Vicki Meier encourages other interested donors like the Carom Family to please consider investing time or resources to help Highlands Hospital complete its community oriented expansion of the former historic Zachariah Connell Elementary School Building; the new location for Highlands Hospital Regional Center for Autism. If you would like to learn more, please visit the hospital’s website at www.highlandshospital.org or call the development office at 724-626-2440 .

Highlands Hospital is an independent, non-profit hospital located in the picturesque Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania offering emergent, inpatient, behavioral and ambulatory care to the region and beyond. Residents are given tools for life-long health at the John P. Murtha Wellness Center. Highlands Hospital in affiliation with Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center for Autism helps to provide families with state-of-the art educational and behavioral treatment for autism. Highlands Hospital has proudly served the Behavioral Health needs of the community for over 30 years and has adopted a holistic approach to healing for the mind, body and soul of all patients. The hospital’s newest partnership is with WVU Heart & Vascular Institute. WVU’s presence at Highlands Hospital reinforces the hospital’s commitment of ensuring coordinated comprehensive care close to home. For more information, visit www.highlandshospital.org.

Donate to Evan’s Destination Day Camp

Highlands Hospital is proud to announce a new partnership with WVU Medicine.  Affiliated with the WVU Heart & Vascular Institute, the center is now open at Highlands Hospital and is accepting patients.  

Through this center, board-certified faculty from WVU Heart &Vascular Institute will provide state-of-the-art care and access to the to the most advanced heart and vascular care in the region. The WVU 

Heart & Vascular Institute is a part of WVU Medicine, West Virginia’s largest, and most advanced academic health system.

Read more about about the programs and services offered by Highlands Hospital (PDF)

HVI News Release

Mary Dreliszak’s Stand Up and Choose! tour mirrors the goals and objectives of Highlands Hospital. Read the full article on the TribLive.com website here:  Dreliszak launches motivational assembly business Stand Up and Choose!

Today, Governor Tom Wolf visited Highlands Hospital in Connellsville. At Highlands Hospital, which has been selected as a center of excellence, Governor Wolf hosted a roundtable to discuss his administration’s efforts to battle the opioid epidemic and how the state can continue this fight. The 2016-2017 budget included $20.4 million for Centers of Excellence which serve as central, efficient hubs around which treatment revolves. These centers will have navigators to assist people with opioid-related substance use disorders through the medical system, and ensure they receive behavioral and physical health care, as well as any evidence-based medication-assisted treatment needed.

“Ensuring that Pennsylvanians have access to the mental health and substance use care that they need is a priority for my administration. Every day, we lose ten Pennsylvanians to the disease of opioid addiction and 3,500 Pennsylvanians lost their lives in 2015 alone,” said Governor Wolf. “As we all know, the opioid epidemic does not discriminate – it affects Pennsylvanians from all walks of life. While we have achieved much, we can and should do more to address this matter that is plaguing all of our communities.”

“We are honored to host this tour of Highlands Hospital for Governor Wolf and his staff,” said Highlands Hospital CEO Michelle Cunningham. “Governor Wolf was instrumental in awarding Highlands Hospital the designation as an Opioid Use Disorder-Center of Excellence. Through this vital program, lives will be saved and families will receive help to overcome the tremendous hardships and suffering addiction causes. We believe as does Governor Wolf, that it takes an entire community to overcome the epidemic of addiction.”

“We are also grateful to Governor Wolf for our recent award of $1 million dollars in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) funding. This funding will enable the hospital to renovate a former elementary school into a Center of Health Impact which will house a Women’s Center among other services. The Women’s Center will provide whole person care and will also focus on helping women achieve their highest level of health: emotional, nutritional, environmental and physical stability. Because of Governor Wolf’s assistance, many people’s lives in Fayette County will be touched in a positive and impactful manner.”

In late September, Governor Wolf addressed a joint session of the General Assembly to outline a set of shared, specific legislative goals that would help tackle the opioid and heroin crisis. Together with Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate, Governor Wolf made a commitment to prioritize helping the victims of substance use disorder and the communities that have been devastated by this terrible disease.

During the fall session, we made real progress in helping the victims of substance use disorder and the communities that have been devastated by this terrible disease. The governor and legislators made significant achievements toward fighting this epidemic by passing five major bills that will strengthen the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, restrict the number of pills that can be prescribed to minors or in emergency rooms, establish education curriculum on safe prescribing, and create more locations for the drop-off of drugs among other important initiatives.

If you or someone you know is suffering from substance use disorder, help is available. Please visit pa.gov/opioids or call 1-800-662-HELP.

Highlands Hospital in Connellsville will have the opportunity to be a part of a nationwide program to combat cancer at the Department of Defense’s Clinical Breast Care Project based at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda.

Read the complete article here:

Herald Standard News – Connellsville Hospital to be involved in national cancer study

Highlands Hospital has been selected as one of a handful of organizations nationally that will be participating in the Clinical Breast Care Project of the Department of Defense based at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda. The goal of this work is to identify markers that may enable early breast cancer detection, monitoring, and prediction through less invasive procedures.

As a member of this select group of organizations which includes Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland, Walter Reed, and the Chan Soon Shiong Institute for Molecular Medicine at Windber, Highlands Hospital will be participating in breast cancer risk studies looking at diagnostics, management and molecular mechanisms associated with the onset, progression, and severity of breast cancer.

Participants in this effort will be providing anonymous blood samples that will correlate with patient risk factors. Since this program is based on prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and management of breast disease, it provides the necessary framework for an integrated approach to treatment which will positively impact future management of breast cancer. Participants in this program are literally “Paying it forward” as their contribution of small samples of blood may lead to cures and early detection of breast cancer for future generations. Participation in this program will also help to keep Highlands Hospital on the leading edge of breast care treatments.

Highlands Hospital was recently identified as a multiple Silver Award winner by the nationally recognized Aster Awards Program.

Join us to celebrate the 30th Anniversary and the final time to get active and to support Highlands Hospital Autism Services! The race/walk is a wonderful way to support our mission of providing health care in a competent, nurturing, and healing environment.

Our autism services are performed in collaboration with the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center for Autism, providing local families with state-of-the-art educational and behavioral treatment. We are proud to offer hope for those affected by this disorder.

Please preregister by May 25th to be guaranteed a free race t-shirt.

Click here for more information and to register for the Race/Walk.

Click here to hear the Autism 5K Race/Walk Radio Ad

Highlands Hospital was recently identified as a multiple Silver Award winner by the nationally recognized Aster Awards Program.

In close collaboration with creative agency of record, Third Planet Global Creative, Highlands Hospital was recognized with gold awards for both their ongoing advertising campaign, and a marketing pocket folder. The advertising campaign was also selected for an extensive feature in the upcoming Nov/Dec issue of Marketing Healthcare Today.

The Aster Awards Program is an elite competition recognizing the nation’s most talented healthcare marketing professionals for outstanding excellence in advertising and design. Winning entries, judged by a diverse panel of experts, are published in the Marketing Healthcare Today magazine.

HIGHLANDS HOSPITAL AUXILIARY

Annual fashion show & luncheon

Date: SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2016
Time: 12:00 noon (Doors open at 11:00 am)
Place: PLEASANT VALLEY MASONIC CENTER
Location: 530 Pleasant Valley Road, Connellsville, Pennsylvania

 COST OF TICKETS: $25.00 Per Person

Tickets can be purchased at the Gift Shop located at Highlands Hospital and/or from any Hospital Auxiliary Member.

By Tara Rack-Amber – Herald Standard

Highlands Hospital in Connellsville recently held its public board meeting to discuss the status of the hospital’s programs and fiscal health. “One of the things I say to the whole group, even whenever we have workers and employees there, one of the reasons why I joined this board was it is a community effort. These people that all sit on the board are from the community. They have a stake in it. It is not a big corporate business, and I think that is what keeps us grounded and gives us our drive, and our employees also and our management team, and their innovative ideas and creativity especially in this area,” said Bruce Jaynes, chairman of the board.

Click HERE to read the full article

Highlands Hospital Regional Center for Autism announced on Thursday that it is the first licensed site of Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center for Autism in the United States.

Copyright © 2014, The CCF Foundation. All right reserved.

Highlands Hospital Regional Center for Autism announced on February 20th, 2014 that it is the first licensed site of Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center for Autism in the United States.

The designation allows the facility to expand its outreach to the community and to benefit from the research and expertise offered by the Cleveland Clinic. “They helped to make our vision of opening an autism center a reality,” said Michelle Cunningham, chief executive officer of Highlands Hospital.

“As our first licensed site, Highlands Hospital Center for Autism will benefit from the best practices and research-driven benchmarks we have successfully employed at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center for Autism,” said Travis Haycook, assistant director for Cleveland Clinic Autism Development Solutions. “This site is working at a level that we truly feel is at the top of their game. It is great to see what is happening here and to see the changes in the children. We are dedicated to supporting this program for years to come.”

Highlands will follow the exact same model of diagnostic evaluation and treatment offered at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center for Autism.

Cunningham said the designation is a testament of the Fayette County clinic’s success.

“This shows that our clinic has reached a level of excellence that is equal to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center. We are proud to reach such an outstanding milestone for our facility,” she said. “Our children and families will now have the highest access to autism services in the Laurel Highlands region.”

The Highlands clinic opened in 2010 with four students; the number has more than doubled.

The Highlands Hospital Center for Autism has been successful in educating children with spectrum disorders once they have been diagnosed. It is considering to provide vocational training so that young adults can develop skills necessary to enter the workforce with confidence. The center serves people ages 5 to 21.

The staff from the Highlands clinic was recognized on Thursday for their drive and dedication to the program and for their efforts and work with the children.

Amanda Freger, director of autism services at Highlands Hospital, said she appreciates Cleveland Clinic for its support and backing. “The support from Cleveland has been amazing,” Freger said. “If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here today.”

Chuck Gallagher of Star Junction provided a testament to the Highlands clinic during the recognition program on Thursday. His 8-year-old autistic twin sons, Charles and Hunter, attend the Highlands center.

“We are honored to have our children at Highlands Clinic for Autism,” Gallagher said. “We feel the center has worked wonders. Our boys can now dress themselves, know their colors and are starting to write. We thank you for what you have brought to Fayette County. We can’t tell you how much we are grateful.”

Cunningham said Fayette County has one of the highest rates of autism in Pennsylvania. Highlands Hospital is only one of five hospitals to mirror Cleveland Clinic’s autism program.

Story By: Marilyn Forbes, Contributing Writer, Daily Courier.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR REGIONAL CENTER FOR AUTISM

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