News

More than 23 million children and teenagers in the United States between the ages of two and 19 are obese or overweight. To help combat this problem, SwedishAmerican’s Ryan Jury Child Development Learning Center is hosting a FREE health fair on Saturday, September 15, in conjunction with National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. The event will take place from 11 AM to 2 PM at the UW Health Sports Factory, 305 S. Madison Street, Rockford. 

After three years of preparation in collaboration with University of Wisconsin Health, SwedishAmerican launched Epic, the most widely-used and comprehensive health records system, on July 1. Epic replaced SwedishAmerican’s previous medical records software from GE.

With the launch of Epic, each patient seen at a UW or SwedishAmerican site has one, integrated record across the system. The switch will streamline services, such as scheduling, clinical applications, billing, and population health initiatives.

SwedishAmerican Medical Group/Belvidere (SAMC/B) is excited to announce that it has opened a Little Free Library on its campus at 1625 South State Street in Belvidere. Little Free Libraries are an international movement where people place small, weather proof boxes in their communities. These libraries are stocked with books which are free to the public to take and return. The hope is that when someone takes a book, they will return it or replace it with another book. There currently are over 36,000 Little Free Library book exchanges around the world.

As summer wind downs, the SwedishAmerican Regional Cancer Center invites you to attend The Healing Power of Nature event on Thursday, September 6 from 2:30 – 7:15 PM at, 3535 North Bell School Road, Rockford. The event offers a relaxing time of healing along with nature based activities. All programs and times are listed below:

• 2:30 – 3:30 PM - SwedishAmerican Integrative Medicine and Family Physician Dr. Srivani Sridhar will present a workshop on Healing Environments. FREE to all participants.

The 34th annual SwedishAmerican State Street Mile, held Saturday, August 4 in downtown Rockford, is pleased to announce winners of the school challenge. Winnebago High School was awarded with $1,000; Freeport Middle School was awarded with $750 and Maria Montessori School was awarded with $500. Each school had the most registered and most participating students, staff and faculty in this year’s State Street Mile.

SwedishAmerican is pleased to announce it has awarded 10 one-year $1,000 scholarships to children of SwedishAmerican associates. The Associates’ Children Scholarship Program is designed to assist children of SwedishAmerican associates pursue higher education. 

To be considered for the scholarship, each applicant submitted an application, written essay, ACT scores, class rank, official school transcript, completed applicant appraisal, a personal letter of recommendation and a copy of his or her letter of acceptance. 

SwedishAmerican, a division of UW Health, is expanding its excellence in health care by investing $60 Million to construct a new state-of-the art Women and Children’s Tower on its main hospital campus in downtown Rockford. Today, hundreds of SwedishAmerican associates, physicians, leadership, patients and children joined in on the celebration and officially broke ground on the new facility.

As SwedishAmerican continues to celebrate its modernization and campus expansion projects, area residents, hospital visitors and employees, today, took a peek at the past growth and evolution of SwedishAmerican’s services and facilities over the last century from inside The Dr. Henry C. and Dorothy Anderson Heritage Center Museum.

A ribbon-cutting and unveiling launched the new exhibit, “Growing with Rockford: The Evolution of SwedishAmerican Hospital,” which is a mix of large-format graphics, artifacts and interactive technology.

SwedishAmerican is pleased to announce it broke ground on its new state-of-the-art Special Procedures Catheterization Laboratory (Cath Lab) expansion, a facility used to perform interventional cardiology, interventional radiology, and peripheral vascular procedures. Interventional cardiology procedures include stenting and balloon angioplasty, diagnosis and treatment of heart arrhythmias, and more. Interventional radiology and peripheral vascular procedures focus on diagnosing and intervening on vasculature other than the heart.

SwedishAmerican is calling all Special Care Nursery (SCN) superheroes and encouraging them to grab their cape and come in a flash for one big reunion bash!

SwedishAmerican is pleased to welcome its new Advanced Practice Nurse Drew Pearson. Drew has joined UW Health Surgery at SwedishAmerican.  As an adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner, Drew will partner with Dr. James Cole, Dr. Paul Batty, Dr. Jason Klovning, Dr. Krystle Lange, Dr. Dacia Pickering, Mary Johnson, APN, and Sarah Bowen, APN to provide enhanced care to surgical patients in both the clinic and hospital setting.

SwedishAmerican Hospital is proud to announce that it has earned URAC accreditation in Specialty Pharmacy. URAC is the independent leader in promoting healthcare quality through accreditation, certification and measurement. This award is effective from July 1, 2018 to July 1, 2021. By achieving this status, SwedishAmerican has demonstrated a comprehensive commitment to quality care, improved processes and better patient outcomes.

SwedishAmerican, a division of UW Health is pleased to announce, with the help of its employees and the community, the organization collected more than 3,200 diapers during its second annual Diaper Drive which kicked off during Founder’s Week and lasted throughout the month of June. All donations will directly benefit The Pregnancy Care Center in Rockford, a non-profit organization that offers compassionate help and hope to those facing an unplanned pregnancy. 

The 34th annual State Street Mile, presented by SwedishAmerican, a division of UW Health, will be held Saturday, August 4 in downtown Rockford. Similar to years past, the committee will give away $1,000 to the high school that has the most registered and most participating students, staff and faculty. The committee is also awarding middle and elementary schools. The winning middle school will receive $750 and the winning elementary school will receive $500. Attendees are encouraged to wear their school apparel on race day. 

SwedishAmerican is pleased to announce it now offers implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) to its patients who suffer from heart disease. Developed by Boston Scientific and validated by clinical trials, HeartLogic Diagnostic is the first and only heart failure implantable device that provides an approximate 34 days advanced notice of an impending heart failure event.  SwedishAmerican is the only hospital in Rockford to offer this new diagnostic tool to heart patients.

The 33rd annual Ryan Jury Memorial Golf Outing, held Wednesday, June 20 at Aldeen Golf Club, raised more than $70,000, pushing total donations well over 1.3 million dollars. The outing is held each year by the Jury family in memory of their son, Ryan, who died of cancer at the age of 23 months in 1986.

Breast cancer is one of the most common and the second deadliest type of cancer among women. Early detection can help save lives. But that’s only if women adhere to the recommended screening guidelines. Thanks to SwedishAmerican, a division of UW Health, the hospital now offers a more comfortable and soothing mammography experience, making it less intimidating for women to get their yearly breast health exams.

SwedishAmerican Neuro & Headache Center has been helping patients find relief from headaches and migraines for more than ten years and is pleased to announce it now offers the first non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator for the acute treatment of pain associated with episodic cluster headache in adult patients. gammaCore, a small hand-held medical device, is applied at the neck and sends gentle, patented electrical stimulation through the skin to activate the vagus nerve, which results in the reduction of pain.

SwedishAmerican, a division of UW Health is excited to announce it has awarded $75,000 in five grants to local not-for-profit organizations through its Foundation. The Foundation hosted a special news conference today at SwedishAmerican Hospital to announce the winners of its 2nd annual Caring for our Community Grant. SwedishAmerican is the only hospital in Rockford that awards community grants. Money to support this program is a portion of the income made on investments.

SwedishAmerican Hospital and SwedishAmerican Medical Center/Belvidere is pleased to announce it received the Excellence in Tissue Donation award for its ongoing commitment to saving lives through organ donation. 16 hospitals were honored by University of Wisconsin Organ and Tissue Donation (UW OTD) for their efforts in organ donation. SwedishAmerican was the only hospital in Rockford to receive an award.

The 33rd annual Ryan Jury Memorial Golf Outing is scheduled for Wednesday, June 20. Golfing will be at Aldeen Golf Club, and the dinner will be held at Giovanni’s Restaurant and Convention Center.

SwedishAmerican EMS Department is now accepting applications for its 2018/2019 Fall Paramedic Program. The program is open to all high school graduates, 18 years of age or older, who hold a current EMT-Basic license from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Applications are due by Friday, July 20. Individuals will receive notice of acceptance (or denial) into the program by July 30.

If individuals are interested in the Paramedic Program, they must attend a mandatory orientation class at the SwedishAmerican EMS building, 4120 Charles Street, on one of the following dates:

SwedishAmerican Hospital was founded on June 6, 1911. To celebrate and honor its 107th anniversary, SwedishAmerican, a division of UW Health, is hosting a week-long celebration, June 4 – 9.

On Monday, June 4, SwedishAmerican kicks-off the week with Music Monday. Associates, patients and their families are invited to bring their lunch outside to the Heart Hospital Healing Garden and listen to live music from 11 AM – 1 PM. The SwedishAmerican Commons will also offer specials each day to celebrate the week.

On May 1, SwedishAmerican President and CEO Dr. Michael Born joined a group of top executives at Vizient's Mid-Atlantic Conference to talk about today’s critical healthcare challenges. Vizient, the largest member-driven, health care performance improvement company in the country, invited Dr. Born to attend and speak on post M&A integration, particularly regarding SwedishAmerican’s integration with UW Health.

SwedishAmerican is pleased to announce that it has once again been named an “Anticoagulation Center of Excellence” by the Anticoagulation Forum, a multidisciplinary non-profit organization that works to improve the quality of care for patients taking antithrombotic medications, otherwise known as blood thinners. SwedishAmerican’s Anticoagulation Clinic is only one of two clinics in Illinois to be noted as a Center of Excellence.