One of the first things visitors to the new Allen County Regional Hospital will see upon entering is a big digital display that will recognize those who have made gifts to the hospital. A TOUR of the new hospital preceded the meeting. First stop was the nurses’ education/break room in order to recognize the Georgia and Craig Abbott family, who will have the large room named after them in return for a gift. With the Abbotts was their daughter, Kristin Ballard, and her nine-month-old son, Ron. Kristin is a nurse. “GOING LIVE” with a new computer system was postponed until mid-December, said Larry Peterson, ACH chief financial officer. CONSTRUCTION of the new hospital remains on track, said Tim Moore, project engineer for Murray Company. “We’re moving to the punch list stage for some areas, which is really exciting.” TRUSTEES agreed to pay bills of $655,100 to Murray Company and $5,974.06 to Health Facilities Group.
The donor wall will contain an array of several screens showing the personal stories of donors as well as highlight hospital events and services.
Mary Ann Arnott, a volunteer working with the project, explained the digital display to hospital trustees at their meeting Tuesday night.
“This will be an effective and visually beautiful way to recognize donors,” she said.
Donors of $200 and more will be recognized on the display in differing degrees. Top-level donors will have their photos and brief biographies up for all to see.
“It will be a great historical record as well,” Arnott said.
As of mid-June, 46 donors have contributed $5,000 and greater; 14 have contributed between $1,200 and $4,999; 20 between $600 and $1,199; and 23 from $200 to $599.
Those who have contributed in the past to the current hospital and have designated plaques can now have them as a memento, Arnott said.
Most of the plaques commemorate donations from 1952 to 1983, between when the hospital was first built and its most recent renovation.
When the new hospital opens late this fall its gift shop will have the plaques stored there.
Hospital administrators and staff had been trying to get on board with an electronic medical records system by Monday.
“We’ve experienced significant delays in getting all the parties to ‘talk’ to each other,” said Peterson.
The hospital has contracted with Cerner of Kansas City, Mo. to administer its electronic records system that will maintain patient medical records, doctors’ orders, prescription orders, lab results and billing services, among others.
Those services require Cerner to “interface” with third-party systems to adequately input data. Currently, physicians and pharmacists dictate their reports that are then transcribed into paper form.
“Generally all the interfaces struggle at some degree or another at this point,” Peterson said.
“Considering the short time frame we were trying to work under and the equipment we had to buy, we found we would have to do too many ‘work-arounds’ to make the system work. It’s not practical to go live without everything fully tested and working properly,” Peterson said.
The delay means the hospital’s current paper filing system will all be moved to the new hospital and the reimbursement from Medicare for going with electronic medical records will be set back several months.
The former practice of Drs. Earl Walter and Wes Stone was successfully transferred to the hospital, reported Ron Baker, hospital chief executive officer. That brings nine additional employees onto the hospital’s payroll.
The transition went smoothly, Baker said, “except the first day we took ownership, a car ran into the building,” he said.
The damage was mainly superficial, he said. Plus, the hospital only leases the building.
Also the physical and occupational therapy departments are now under the management of RehabVisions, based out of Omaha. A new director will come on board in August, Baker said. The company has requested the hospital upgrade some of its equipment “somewhere on the other side of $50,000,” Baker said. Trustees agreed to delay the bulk of any such purchases until the move to the new hospital was complete.
Moving the hospital’s equipment into the new facility should cost about $65,000-$70,000, Baker said. Two services, Fry Waggoner of Lenexa and Allied Hospital Services of Denver, are being considered.
On the hospital grounds, the grading of dirt is nearing completion and the trenches for irrigation are being dug.
Training for the hospital’s mechanical systems will begin in August.
Their next meeting begins at 6 p.m. Aug. 13 and will be specifically for strategic planning. It is expected to last up to four hours and is open to the public.
Donors front and center
