Susan Lewis, manager of the surgery department at Allen County Regional Hospital, gave trustees a brief lesson on how new technology makes it easier to hook patients up to oxygen before they undergo a surgery, at their meeting Tuesday night.
Lewis, a 10-year veteran with the department, demonstrated how two devices, a Glidescope and CMAC, facilitate intubation with the help of miniature cameras that show the pathway down a patient’s throat.
“A video shows you exactly how to go down into a patient’s larynx and find the voice box,” Lewis said. “Then you simply slip the tube in.”
Such technology is a significant improvement over the former method and what Lewis referred to as a “blind intubation.”
Typically, anesthetists or anesthesiologists administer the devices, Lewis said.
A PODIATRIST and dermatologist are in the process of joining hospital ranks visiting patients two days a week, said Tony Thompson, the hospital’s chief executive officer.
Dr. David Dowell is a podiatrist and Dr. Jacqueline Youtsos practices both medical and cosmetic dermatology.
“We continue to try to attract an endocrinologist and someone in obstetrics and gynecology,” Thompson said.
Dr. Brian Neely, a local physician who works out of the hospital’s clinic, Allen County Regional Clinic, will begin seeing patients in Humboldt in the near future, Thompson said. The hospital has had a clinic on the east side of the Humboldt square for years, but it has been inactive for the last several.
The hospital also is sponsoring a health fair for employees of the City of Iola on Oct. 19.
TRUSTEES approved going with Cromwell Architects of Little Rock, Ark., to draw up a schematic design of a new medical office building that will be situated on grounds of the new hospital north of town.
The building will provide offices and exam rooms for the many specialists that see patients in the area as well as the physicians associated with the hospital’s clinic on South Washington Street. Currently the visiting specialists, such as Dr. Layne Reusser, a cardiologist from Wichita, see patients at either the clinic at the site of the old hospital in downtown Iola or use empty patient or surgery rooms in the new hospital.
Neither is ideal, trustees said. The downtown site is a hassle because it then requires the specialists to see their patients in two sites – the clinic and the hospital. And seeing patients in makeshift rooms at the new hospital lacks a sense of permanency.
The new clinic is estimated to be anywhere from 15,000 to 19,000 square feet and blend in with the neighboring hospital.
“It will look as if it was built at the same time,” said Sean McReynolds, a trustee who serves on the committee investigating a new medical arts building.
The architects are the same who designed the new hospital in Garnett. Others considered at Aug. 17 presentations were Hoefer Wysocki of Overland Park and Health Facilities Group of Kansas City.
