Five Years in a Row

MACOMB, Ill. – McDonough District Hospital says Thank You to everyone who voted online in the recent Best of the Best in McDonough County awards. For the fifth consecutive year, MDH Home Health Care and MDH Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation was named Best of the Best in its respective category.

The McDonough County Voice announced the award winners on Thursday (Dec. 30).

Kaity Kipling, DPT received the Best Physical Therapist award for the second straight year. That now makes it five straight years a MDH Physical Therapist received recognition as Best of the Best.

MDH also was voted having the Best Employee Recognition Program for the fourth consecutive year. The hospital was also a finalist in the Overall Company to Work For category.

Family Physician Dr. Richard Minter along with Physical Therapists Angelica Hoenig, DPT (Best of the Best winner in 2019) and Jordan Fink, MPT (Best of the Best winner in 2017 and 2018) were finalists in their respective category.

How can someone describe receiving this accolade five straight years?

“Grateful,” said Phyllis McLouth, PT, DPT, Director of MDH Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Services.

“Unwavering,” said Deb Lawver, RN, Director of MDH Home Health Care and Hospice.

MDH Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation provides both inpatient and outpatient skilled services for patients of all ages at three convenient locations. MDH Therapists strive to reduce a patient’s pain and dizziness, increase flexibility, build strength, correct posture, and improve their overall function.

“Winning this award for five consecutive years makes you driven and inspired to continue meeting the needs and exceeding the expectations of the community. We have a very diverse set of services. They fit nicely together as they’re all very much related. Our primary focus is function. We have diabetes education now and diabetes is very prevalent in our community. That ties in with wound care because if you properly manage diabetes then the severity and occurrences of wounds can be decreased,” said McLouth. “Physical therapy is our strong functional base, and has been at MDH the longest. Very closely tied to PT is occupational therapy, working to improve activities of daily living, lymphedema, and hand conditions. Our Cardiac/Pulmonary Rehab ties into the diabetes education as diabetes is a significant risk factor for cardiac disease. Dry needling is a new tool in our PT tool box. It’s not completely new, but relatively new to the physical therapy profession. It provides an alternative method by which we can help reduce pain in patients so they can move better and feel better.”

Home Health Care covers McDonough County and a surrounding four-county area. The MDH staff provides specialized medical care in the comfort of patients’ homes while recovering from an illness or injury.

“(Winning this award for five consecutive years) I thought unwavering, especially being able to maintain superior work despite the last couple of years and dealing with COVID-19,” said Lawver. “The staff we have at MDH Home Health is a very dedicated staff. They are highly skilled. The group we have working in our department is one of the strongest groups that I have ever had the privilege to work with. They represent various nursing skills, they are advocates for their patients. They work hard and represent MDH while always going to bat for their patients.

“We also have some long-term employees in our department and we have many patients who have used our services once, they recovered and graduated and left us for a while, and have come back and requested us again.”

For more information on MDH, log onto www.MDH.org.