Preliminary drawings for a sleep study laboratory at Texas County Memorial Hospital were presented to members of the board last week at their monthly meeting.
Sleep studies, an outpatient service that is not available in Texas County, have been identified as part of the strategic plan of the hospital. Currently, area residents must travel outside of the county to obtain a sleep study, and there is usually a waiting list for it.
The sleep study laboratory will be in the brick building behind the hospital where the business office staff was previously located. The laboratory will consist of two sleeping rooms, two bathrooms and an office for the sleep study technician.
Sleep studies will be a part of the TCMH cardiopulmonary department. Dr. Brian Kim, a pulmonologist with the Chest and Sleep Institute of Springfield, will oversee the sleep study program and see the sleep study patients for follow-up care.
Wes Murray, chief executive officer at the hospital, explained that the building housing the sleep laboratory would be called the TCMH Office Annex. In addition to housing the sleep study laboratory, the building would be refurbished to also house Hospice of Care and Deborah Belt-Kell, the TCMH marriage and family therapist.
“None of these services require an extraordinary amount of parking,” Murray explained regarding the logistics of moving Hospice of Care and putting a new service in at the hospital. “Dr. Kim is eager to join us, and the cardiopulmonary department is interested in offering the service to our patients as well.”
Murray noted that the addition of sleep studies and the refurbishing of the unused building would not change any of the emergency room or other expansion plans.
“We will be able to refurbish this building in-house,” he said.
Members of the TCMH emergency department – Dr. Jeff Kerr, emergency department medical director; Mary Barnes, emergency department director, and Bill Bridges, emergency medical services director – have had several meetings with TCMH administration and HMN Architects, Inc., the firm working on the long-term hospital expansion plan.
“In our meetings we have been discussing what we would like to have available in our ER to help us increase the efficiency of the department and the quality of care provided to our patients,” Murray said.
One example Murray cited was putting the outpatient physician clinic in an area where the emergency department could easily access and utilize the clinic rooms as needed. Currently, the outpatient physicians’ clinic is a reception area and three rooms located near the hospital’s front entrance, an inefficient place for the emergency department to utilize.
Within two weeks HMN will have the first draft of the interior of the future department.
“Beginning with our next board meeting, we will have something to present to you at every meeting to show how we are progressing with the expansion plans,” Murray said.
In addition to the architectural planning, Linda Pamperien, TCMH chief financial officer, is meeting with financial advisers regarding the debt load TCMH is able to incur with an expansion project.
Murray reported that the transition from two medical clinics in Cabool to one medical clinic continues to go well.
“The TCMH Cabool Medical Clinic will be open for a half a day on Tuesdays, so there will be a healthcare provider every weekday in Cabool,” Murray said. “Our three healthcare providers in Cabool should be able to handle the volume.”
Pamperien reported a positive bottom line of $72,673 for June and a year-to-date balance of $254,471. Inpatient numbers remain below budgeted projections, but outpatient numbers are exceeding budgeted expectations.
The average daily census in June was 12.
Present at the meeting were Murray, Pamperien, Doretta Todd-Willis, director of nursing; Dr. Charles Mueller, chief of staff; Joleen Senter Durham, director of public relations; and board members Janet Wiseman, Jane Kirkwood and Mark Forbes. Board members Omanez Fockler and Larry Southern were absent. The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is noon Aug. 28 in the downstairs meeting room of the hospital.