Published: June 22, 2018

The Ohio State University President Visits Avita Ontario Hospital

ONTARIO – The Ohio State University President Michael V. Drake, MD, visited Avita Health System’s Ontario Hospital as part of his annual summer tour across Ohio.

Each summer, Dr. Drake goes on two state tours and the Roads to Scholars Tour, which provides him the opportunity to meet with alumni, prospective students, community leaders, and elected officials. Dr. Drake’s 2018 state tour kicked off on June 20 and he visited Avita Ontario Hospital on June 21.

Said Jerome Morasko, CEO/President for Avita Health System, “Our partnership with Ohio State is a great benefit to our patients, especially the collaboration on our telestroke program and also with our Epic electronic medical record, which is a state-of-the-art IT system through OSU’s Community Connect program. We are always looking for ways to improve the quality of health care in our communities, while still keeping services local, and these programs allow us to do just that.”

At Ontario Hospital, Dr. Drake toured the inpatient units and was provided a telestroke demonstration in the emergency department by Dr. Thomas Zuesi and his team. Avita partners with Ohio State to provide patients immediate access to stroke care. Through this collaboration, patients receive medical attention via video technology to Ohio State’s stroke experts in the comfort of an Avita hospital. Ontario, Bucyrus, and Galion Hospitals each offer telestroke services through Ohio State.

While on the tour, Dr. Drake explained the importance of stroke care management, “If you intervene quickly enough, much of the damage that’s occurring is reversible. If you wait too long then it’s irreversible. Getting diagnosed and treated quickly, and particularly with the miracle drugs that we have, you can prevent irreversible damage in many cases that years ago had no hope, and that’s really a terrific thing.”

Dr. Drake went on to describe the benefits of partnering with Avita, “Being able to be connected to a hospital like Ontario, which is remote from our main hospital, but to do it through telestroke management is really a great benefit for patients here and allows our very experienced doctors in Columbus to be able to provide that level of care conveniently and quickly, and that changes lives.”