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Aultman Hospital provides optimal care with a close-to-home touch. The Ohio-based organization is home to over seven thousand employees and holds approximately one thousand beds, making it Stark County’s largest provider of healthcare services. But patient testimonials emphasize that Aultman still offers a personalized healthcare experience—due in part to the fact that the hospital has spent decades going out and serving the community, ingraining itself within the Canton, Ohio, community and becoming a trusted source of healthcare amongst locals.
“We are your neighbors, friends, and family,” reads Aultman’s website. “We’ve got you.”
Aultman Hospital has always striven to keep its staff united and its patients connected with their loved ones. But as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the country into a new, remote reality, the path toward that mission became unclear. It’s due to the dedication and hard work of Aultman staff members like Chief Technology Officer Rafael Gonzalez that the hospital was able to fulfill its mission and ensure that the Canton community was able to overcome COVID-induced roadblocks.
Under Gonzalez’s supervision, the Aultman staff connected over one thousand remote, nonclinical workers by assembling three hundred virtual desktops, and Aultman Hospital also renovated mobile workstations to allow for virtual visitation and video conferencing between patients and their loved ones.
“Getting the back-end processes ready to support that many users, in a matter of weeks, was quite stressful, but our team worked around the clock to make it happen,” Gonzalez said in a May 2020 interview with AP News. “Several of our key technology partners also have stepped up to the plate, and for that we are eternally grateful.”
These efforts prepared Gonzalez and the rest of the Aultman team to tackle the construction and renovation of the $28 million Timken Family Cancer Center. The new cancer center, which broke ground in the spring of 2021, consolidated all of Aultman’s cancer services in one location, including 13,270 square feet of restored, existing space and a 45,000 square-foot addition.
This new space means that Aultman will be even better positioned to serve the Canton community. In a 2021 article published by Canton Repository, four-time cancer survivor Barbara Bennett said that the “capable, caring teams . . . made the cancer journey less frightening and more tolerable. My heart is full of the will to survive, of pride, gratitude, and hope. But today, my heart is mostly full of joy. Joy for our community, for what the Timken Family Cancer means as a combination of ideas, technology, and compassion.”
Designed with patients and staff in mind, the Timken Family Cancer Center features a central entrance and patient drop-off area, navigational support to guide patients and caregivers through the hospital, redesigned care areas built around privacy and patient experiences, family respite areas, and a healing garden aimed to provide wellness and support for patients and their loved ones.
Janice Cooper, an Aultman employee who has been diagnosed with breast cancer herself, feels grateful and optimistic about her healthcare journey, noting that “[her] care at Aultman and soon the Timken Family Cancer Center will help me continue to live my life for my family,” according to the Aultman website. “God has graced me to be able to continue my journey on this earth. The gift that this community is being given is unbelievable. The generosity of everyone who has donated to help this vision become a reality does not go unnoticed.”
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