Community Howard Regional Health

Community Benefit - Howard Region

With its long history of local involvement and commitment, it made perfect sense for Howard County’s community-created hospital to join Community Health Network five years ago. Community Howard Regional Health has redoubled that dedication to its neighbors, while tapping into Community’s resources to expand services and find new ways to enhance health and well-being in and around Kokomo.

2021 Community Health Needs Assessment - Howard Region

View all Community Benefit reports.

Supporting Healthcare Professions Students

Community Howard is a proud supporter of the transformative building project at Ivy Tech Kokomo's campus, which include a new state-of-the-art Health Professions Center. Thanks to the hospital's contribution the student commons in the new Health Profession's Center, which is slated to open next year, will be named the Community Howard Regional Health Student Commons. The student commons, located off the Health Professions Center glass-walled atrium just outside a new community room, will offer comfortable seating, convenient charging stations for laptops and tablets, vending machines, and study areas.

Community Howard Regional Health Student Commons at Ivy Tech Kokomo

A groundbreaking ceremony commemorating the campus-wide transformation was held in August 2018. Community Howard president Joe Hooper said of the project, "I hope the Community Howard Regional Health Student Commons can be a place where students find inspiration, rest and comradery as they pursue the challenging calling of being a caregiver."

Leaders Serving Kokomo

Through a commitment to providing exceptional care locally and Community Howard Regional Health’s strong partnerships with many local service agencies, Community Health Network has a strong focus on the needs of the Kokomo community. That commitment extends well beyond the walls of the hospital and physician offices in Kokomo. Hundreds of leaders from across Community Health Network who attended a recent Community leadership event in Kokomo used the opportunity to give back in a special way. Fanning out at 11 locations across Kokomo, Community employees lent a hand to 10 different local agencies, knocking out projects ranging from cleaning a veteran’s housing complex to painting at an early learning center.

Community leaders service project in Kokomo, Indiana

Local agencies that benefited included:

  • The Crossing, a school that serves at risk students who have dropped out of school
  • YMCA
  • Camp Tycony and The Early Center
  • Bona Vista, an organization that offers early learning programs as well as programming and jobs for adults with disabilities
  • Kokomo Housing Authority’s Garden Square apartment complex 
  • City of Kokomo and the Kokomo Historical Society/Seiberling Mansion
  • Kokomo-Howard County Public Library
  • Family Services Association
  • Project Access, an organization that helps the underinsured with access to healthcare
  • United Way of Howard County

Photos

Click the links to view photos of leaders in action!

Healthcare on the Road

A gift from the Community Howard Regional Health Foundation, the Community Care Mobile outreach service brings care and assistance to the places they’re needed most year round—everything from screenings to a cool and comfortable place for breastfeeding moms to care for their infants during a hot summer fair.

Various departments from the hospital traditionally provide free screenings and health information to tens of thousands of attendees at the Howard County 4-H Fair. Meanwhile, emergency department staff provide bicycle and swimming safety tips to students through visits to local schools. And the hospital is helping to improve emergency care for infants with its high-tech simulation baby manikin, named Wilma Gene after a generous donor.

Community Care Mobile truck

Combating Drug Overdose

Community Howard Regional Health, together with officials from Howard County and city of Kokomo, worked together to equip additional first responders with the drugs, devices and training needed to offer potentially lifesaving treatment to opioid overdose victims. Through Operation Overcome, Community Howard donated the drug naloxone, nasal atomizers and bag valve masks to approximately 75 personnel within the Kokomo Police Department. Community Howard donated the same assets to 65 personnel affiliated with Howard County, including the Sheriff’s Department, Howard County Criminal Justice Center and Adult Probation. Naloxone, also known as Narcan and by other names, is a medication used to reverse the effects of opioids, especially in overdose. EMS crews from Community Howard already carry and administer the drug.