FORT THOMAS, KY (FOX19) - St. Elizabeth Healthcare has entered into a partnership with Select Medical to offer long-term acute care at St. Elizabeth Ft. Thomas. Called Select Specialty Hospital - Northern Kentucky, the 33-bed facility will provide highly specialized care to promote the recovery from the most critical and complex medical and surgical conditions. Select Specialty Hospital – Northern Kentucky will begin operations next Monday.

Long-term acute care offers patients a longer length of stay and a more resource-intensive level of physician and nursing care, respiratory services and individualized therapies. The partnership expands the depth of critical care services and the continuum of care offered at St. Elizabeth Ft. Thomas.

“This partnership with Select Medical is a great example of our collective efforts to integrate and provide compassionate and high quality healthcare to the communities we serve,” said St. Elizabeth Ft.

EDGEWOOD, KY (FOX19) - The hurdles faced by the Health Department staff and Board during its 2011 fiscal year were considerable: increased need for services due to difficult economic times, budget cuts at the state and federal levels, rising costs for employee benefits, and lower reimbursement for services, among others.

The fiscal year 2010-2011 annual report addresses these issues, along with the major health challenges in the region, and how the Health Department is dealing with them.

Highlights include the hiring of Lynne M. Saddler, MD, MPH, as District Director of Health in July 2010, and continued demand for clinical services, with 5,000 more clients seeking care at the Health Department’s four county health centers compared to the previous year, education about and enforcement of the Kenton County smoking ordinance and response to simultaneous outbreaks of Shigella and Cryptosporidiosis.

EDGEWOOD, KY (FOX19) - St. Elizabeth Healthcare is going tobacco-free on December 31, 2011. The announcement comes in conjunction with November being Lung Cancer Awareness Month and November 17 being the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout.

It's a move most other hospitals in the region have made.

St. Elizabeth says as a healthcare organization, they are committed to the health and safety of their employees and patients, and believe that they have a responsibility to take a leadership role on this major health issue, and establishing their entire campus as tobacco-free firmly supports that belief.

The U.S. Surgeon General has confirmed that exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke is a serious health hazard and that there is no risk-free level of exposure.