Business briefs

SURGICAL HOSPITAL HONORED: The Surgical Hospital at Southwoods has been named a “Best Hospital for Patient Experience” as reported by Becker’s Hospital Review.

Southwoods is one of 10 hospitals in Ohio named to this list, and the only hospital in the tri-county area with a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The ratings are based on figures using Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores from 10 topic-specific measures. The CMS summary star rating combines this information about different aspects of patient experience of care to make it easier to compare hospitals. The ratings come from the CMS Care Compare website and represents its most recent scores.

MVMC MEETING: The Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition at its recent quarterly meeting updated members and stakeholders about its latest earn-and-learn, youth outreach and Ohio To Work initiatives.

More than 15 new members were recognized, and Wasilwa Mwonyonyi from the National Center for Urban Solutions addressed the nearly 100 in attendance online and in-person about grassroots outreach efforts his organization has been taking on MVMC’s behalf to recruit job seekers from underrepresented populations in the community.

The meeting was at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center in Canfield.

BUSINESS MEETING SCHEDULED: The Ohio Growth Association and the Trumbull County Republican Party will host the Northern Ohio Business Roundtable noon to 2 p.m. April 28 at the Grand Pavilion at Avalon Inn.

Guest speaker will be former U.S. Navy Capt. Edward L. Bartlett Jr., founder of Bartlett Maritime Corp., who is proposing a $1 billion naval supply, equipment and service depot in Lordstown to support a new shipyard the company wants to locate in Lorain.

Reservations are required by calling 330-719-9066 or 330-240-1826, or by email at bcarr@bmsoinc.com or mcampbell87@mail.com. The cost is $40 and payable at the door.

YBI RECEIVES DONATION: The Greenwood Family has donated $50,000 to the Youngstown Business Incubator to support the diversity of ideas, technologies and leaders that will help build future business opportunities for the Mahoning Valley.

The donation will be used to enhance programming for startups and entrepreneurs at YBI.

YBI’s CEO Barb Ewing, Senior Director of Organizational Development Colleen Kelly, Director of Development Luke Politsky, Director of Marketing Megan Payich and a number of local entrepreneurs accepted the donation and toured the YBI campus earlier this month.

FIRM HELPS SMALL BUSINESS SAVE MONEY: White Glove Payroll in Liberty helped its clients receive $12 million in Employee Retention Tax Credits during 2020 and 2021, according to the company.

The ERTC was a program created during the COVID-19 pandemic to minimize unemployment by providing money to companies that kept staff on payroll. Businesses were able to receive up to $26,000 in refundable tax credit through this program.

In addition, White Glove Payroll was also able to secure $107 million in Paycheck Protection Program round one funding and $11 million in round two, as well as $5 million in Economic Injury Disaster Loans through the programs created by the government in response to the pandemic.

People on the move

ADMINISTRATOR AT HILLSIDE NAMED: Jeffrey Koontz, DPT, has been named administrator of Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital.

He began his career at Hillside in 2005 as a student physical therapy rehabilitation aide. He earned his master’s degree in physical therapy in 2007 and his doctorate in physical therapy in 2010 from Youngstown State University.

He started as a staff physical therapist at Hillside in 2010 and has been at the hospital since. During his tenure at Hillside, Koontz has served in numerous leadership roles, including director of rehabilitation services for Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside, director of business development and director of rehabilitation services, Ohio / Pennsylvania region. He was named interim administrator in January.

PALO EXPANDS TEAM: PALO Creative recently hired three new team members to expand its digital marketing and advertising capabilities.

Nick Mrozek, a native of New Castle, Pa., and a Youngstown State University graduate, joined PALO’s digital strategy team as a digital marketing specialist. In the role, he is responsible for developing and executing search engine optimization strategies to improve the ranking of client websites. He also supports the digital strategy team’s social media marketing, email marketing and digital advertising campaigns.

Hannah Keeling is a Mahoning Valley native and YSU graduate.As an account executive at PALO Creative, she is responsible for client account communication while managing projects, deadlines and budgets.

Jackie Kane, a student at YSU majoring in business administration, is working part-time as part of the account management team. She will join the team full-time in May as an account coordinator.

MARKETING FIRM ADDS COORDINATOR: Lexi Marco has been hired as a social media coordinator at 898 Marketing.

Marco comes from On Demand and New Day Recovery, where she served as the internal communications recruiting manager and public relations specialist. In her new capacity, she will work with clients to create and manage targeted content across their respective social media platforms. She is a Boardman native and graduate of Kent State University in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in public relations.

PROMOTIONS AT MIDDLEFIELD BANK: The Middlefield Banking Company has promoted Alfred F. Thompson Jr. to executive vice president / chief credit officer and Courtney Erminio to executive vice president / chief risk officer.

Thompson will be responsible for leading the company’s credit administration and loan administration programs. He joined Middlefield in 1996 as assistant vice president / lender.

Erminio will be responsible for leading the company’s risk, audit and compliance programs.

She joined Middlefield in 2010 as senior vice president / risk officer.

PREMIER BANK WELCOMES BRANCH MANAGER: Premier Bank recently added Racheal Solida as branch manager of the Eastwood office. Solida, who has more than 25 years of industry experience, most recently worked as a financial relationship banker for a national bank headquartered in Columbus.

In her new role, she will lead her team to ensure an exceptional customer and colleague experience, drive growth and represent the bank in the Niles community while developing key business and community relationships.

Submit items for Business Briefs, New Businesses and People on the Move to business@tribtoday.com, fax to 330-841-1717 or online at www.tribtoday.com. The deadline is 4 p.m. Thursday.