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By RODNEY D. BOAM
Preston Citizen editor
Mike Andrus, Franklin County Medical Center (FCMC) CEO and
Administrator, has prepared a slide show with historical,
statistical
and economical information to boost support for the $31 million
bond
required to build a new hospital.
Andrus begins his presentation talking about the changes in the
hospital through the years.
The hospital built in 1929 was remodeled during the
'60s. The
current operating and delivery rooms were part of the original
hospital.
In 1972 the nursing home was built as an addition and in 1986 new
patient rooms were added. The last addition was done in 2000 to
house
the CT. The entire hospital campus sits on three acres.
In just over 20 years emergency room visits and baby
deliveries have
essentially doubled while surgeries have gone from 144 surgeries in
'87
to 426 in '08.
"Our operating room situation is not as effective as
it could be.
Right now we have patients waiting between surgeries until the
operating room
has been cleared and cleaned before starting the next operation. If
we
had two operating rooms, we could do more surgeries in a timely
manner,"
Andrus said.
One of the concerns with the present ER facilities
is if there is an
automobile accident and there are four or more victims with two
rooms
set up for trauma and one operating room, the staff cannot give the
best
care.
In 40 years the population has gone from 7,373
people to 12,454
according the US Census and ambulance runs have increased almost 40
percent during the same time period.
Some of the hospital does not have fire sprinklers
due to being
remodeled before it was mandated. The fire protection deficiencies
were
grandfathered in. By 2013 the Federal Government will require a full
sprinkler system in the entire building.
The care facility remains clean and the public may
not be aware of
storage closets packed from the floor to ceiling and patient rooms
turned into storage closets. Andrus said the hospital has rented
2,500
square feet of building space to use as storage because there have
run
out of room.
Offices that once comfortably handled two desks have
double the
desks crowded into the same cramped space.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
or HIPAA laws
have forced the admitting office in the entrance of the hospital to
a more
private area, where people cannot hear who and why someone comes to
the
hospital.
Nexus, the firm hired to evaluate the remodeling
also listed the
electrical and mechanical systems need to be overhauled at a cost of
$2
million.
The new hospital, if approved, will be built on 20
acres and will
have more usable space, better patient care and flow and space
to grow. The
hospital and adjoining nursing home will use the same physical
plant.
Andrus expects the hospital to bring more revenue
because of the
additional surgical and patient care capability.
If built now, in the current national economic
situation, there will
be lower interest rates on the loan, lower construction cost and low
inflation rates.
"All of the board is in favor of the building a new
hospital," said
current board chair, Thedora Petterborg. She said the board is
trying to
provide affordable health care for the whole community.
"There is a big area we draw from, from Lewiston to
Thatcher. The
health care here is good," Petterborg said.
"I have been on the hospital board for two terms. We
have been
working on this for at least five years. When we first started doing
this, it
cost a lot less money; prices have gone up. We had two land deals
that
didn't work, but when someone gives us land, it's hard to turn it
down,"
she said.
FCMC is the second biggest employer in the county
behind the Preston
School District. And although it is expected to raise taxes, the
taxes
in Franklin County are some of the lowest in the state.
"We are setting up some town hall meetings, two in
Preston and some
in the other communities in the county, to get the word out," she
said.
The board will be willing to take questions and
present the information
they have prepared for the public at the town hall meetings.
