Rotary Club of Warren, PA

CEO Rick Allen of the Warren General Hospital. Rick grew up in Warren, attended Warren Area High School and came back from Pittsburgh to be CEO of the WGH almost 3 years ago.
When Rick came on board, the hospital had no cash, was in a negative cash flow condition and was financially in disarray. Since taking on the job, last year’s loss was minimal and the hospital is on line to show a positive cash flow for the first time in many years.

The hospital needs to pay down its debt and to purchase new equipment.
Quality is the most important issue for Rick and his staff. They have been successful in showing an increase in quality, patient satisfaction and ER through put. Every morning they look at the ER time to see a physician and time from entry to release. They are trying to maintain less than 60 minutes from in to out.
The hospital was recently cited as one of the top 100 rural hospitals out of 2,000 rural hospitals. Their metrics are showing that several departments are in or close to the top 90 percentile of all hospitals in the country for patient satisfaction.
The hospital has just hired 15 newly graduated nurses from around the area nursing schools. Also just announced was the hiring of three new physicians.

District Governor Judy Hughes visited our club to talk about her projects for the year and to help our club set our goals.

Judy then awarded Rotarian Dr Bill Clark the 4-Way Test Award. Dr Clark exemplifies the 4 way test in so many ways. He is a man of integrity and is always community-minded. He is the Executive Director at BEI, a non-profit whose mission is to enrich the lives of people with disabilities by being the most innovative provider of vocational, life, and social opportunities through a caring and dedicated staff.

Picnic at Bruce and Christa’s lovely home was great and very well attended.  The gavel was passed from President Bill Wagner to incoming President Deborah “Ruby” Stone.

Our speakers last Wednesday were Duane Vicinni and Dr. Deborah Teachman talking about the Rural Regional College of Northern PA(RRC).
The Rural Community College Association did a study and determined that a Rural Regional College was needed in northern PA.  A non-profit (ECUA) was named to establish the college.  The Legislature named 9 counties and Erie to be participants, leaving out Jefferson, Clarion and Clearfield which had been in the original group.
The RRC has a Board of Trustees of between 11 and 15 members.  Two members are from Warren County and the RRC is to be headquartered in Warren County.  The plan was submitted to Harrisburg on April 9, 2017 and it was approved on May 25, 2017.
South Street School has been selected as the headquarters with RRC, Warren Higher Ed Council and the Warren Practical Nursing Programs at that location.
The program is currently offering college credit courses through Gannon University at a reduced cost of $180 per credit hour for regular students and $60 per credit hour for dual enrollment high school students.
RRC is built on a community college model but is not a community college.  It has open enrollment with the only requirements being a high school or GED diploma.
RRC currently has 81 students in 14 locations enrolled.  It will eventually go through the Middle States Accreditation program and expect to have full accreditation in 2020 or earlier.
RRC is not a Community College of the Commonwealth, therefore they can charge a lower credit hour rate than community colleges, they are not receiving any local tax share, does not compete with 4 year schools and general invites three types of students;
1. Those who did not do well in high school
2. Those who have not been able to complete a 4 year college.
3. Older individuals that wish to find better or higher paying jobs.

62% of students who enroll in 4 year colleges do not make it through 3 semesters.

Kelli Knapp has been the Director and District Administrator of the Warren Library Association since January.  The Warren Library Association was established by Thomas Struthers in 1873.  He built the theater to house the library and provide financial support for the library.  The current library building was initially constructed in 1916.  The library currently has 28 full and part time employees and about 70 volunteers.  That is down from more than 65 employees in the 60’s.

There are 29 library districts in Pennsylvania.  Warren is the District Library for the 17 libraries in the district.  It is also designated as the County Library and library cards issued at any of the Warren County libraries are good in any of the other libraries in Warren County.

They have many programs throughout the year including their very popular children’s programs as well as Monday Night Movies, Trivia Competition,  Book Discussion Group, Warren Writers Group, Adult Coloring Group, Adult Teen Make-It-Take-It Craft Activity, Teen Movie and Summer Reading Activities for Children, Tweens and Teens.  They also run a Children’s Summer Reading Program.

The Warren Library is a Federal Depository Library, as well as having extensive genealogy resources and databases.

Funding, about $1.1million comes from 52% State & County, 32% Trusts and Endowments, 14% Donations and Grants and 2% fines and rentals.

They also have over 6,000 Audio and Ebooks available on line.