Vital to our community
3/28/2024
I want to thank the skilled physicians, along with the talented and energetic employees of Merit Health Wesley. I am grateful for their steady focus on delivering safe, quality care and a compassionate experience for patients. Last year, our team played a vital role at more than 296,400 encounters where we helped people get well and live healthier. Around the clock, every day of the year, regardless of holidays, weather or other disruptions – our team is here for our community.
We care deeply about all the patients we serve. Life-saving medically necessary care is provided for all patients in our emergency room, regardless of their ability to pay. Members of our community who cannot fully afford their medical care are provided deep discounts or even charity care and we have resources to help them secure medications and medical support devices. Last year, we provided more than $87 million in charity and uncompensated care for the community’s most vulnerable.
The needs in our community are many. Through financial donations and acts of service, we support the good work of local charitable and community organizations. Last year, we began our Jars of Love peanut butter drive to support Extra Table and our local food banks.
Merit Health Wesley continues to grow and evolve, and we are applying our resources toward the services, facilities and technologies that are important to our patients. Last year, we recruited 11 new providers to strengthen the care we provide inside the hospital, as well as our cardiac and surgical service lines. We are also growing future physicians through our graduate medical education residency program. We graduated 28 resident physicians in 2023 and welcomed a new class of 29 first-year residents. The program now includes 64 emergency medicine, internal medicine and transitional year resident physicians. In addition, we invested $2.4 million in capital improvements in 2023.
Our impact extends beyond our campus, including the more than $9 million in taxes we pay that support critical infrastructure such as first responders, schools and roads. And the payroll of more than $79.6 million ripples through the local economy as employees buy goods and services.
Merit Health Wesley is essential to our community and we are able to perform our vital role through the commitment and compassion of every member of our team. We are honored to serve and extremely proud of our hospital’s $189 million community impact in 2023.
Travis Sisson is the chief executive officer of Merit Health Wesley.
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