The Texas County Memorial Hospital board of trustees gave unanimous approval last week to proceed with obtaining bids for the planned tornado safe room and surgery department at the monthly meeting.
Separate bids for each portion of the new construction will be sought to allow the hospital greater flexibility with the project.
The TCMH Healthcare Foundation has been raising $3.2 million toward the tornado safe room and the surgery department since 2011 as part of the “Care for Your Future” capital campaign.
“We are short of our goal in pledges and donations for the project,” said Wes Murray, chief executive officer at TCMH “But we can continue to raise funds for the project while we collect bids.”
Jay Gentry, TCMH Healthcare Foundation director, and members of the capital campaign project have been targeting donations from businesses and organizations. More than $2.7 million has been raised toward the project. The construction portion of the project and the demolition of the current south wing to make room for the new construction are projected to cost $3 million.
“These figures do not include the furniture and fixtures for the safe room and for the asbestos abatement in the south wing,” Murray said.
TCMH is bidding the project in separate portions to allow some of the work to be completed in house to save funds on the construction portion of the facility.
“We are short of the funds needed to achieve our goal, but by scaling back a little bit, we come much closer to the amount that has been raised and pledged,” Murray said.
The construction plan for the tornado safe room has been submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Association to allow up to four months for review for the plan. Construction of the tornado safe room is expected to take 14 months to complete with a deadline of November 2014 for completion.
“We need to proceed with construction bids at this time if we are going to meet FEMA’s deadlines for the project,” Murray said.
FEMA has approved a $562,000 grant toward building the tornado safe room. TCMH was the first hospital in state to receive funds for a tornado safe room structure.
The tornado safe room will have 4,000 square feet of climate-controlled space that can be utilized as waiting space during non-threatening weather times. During threatening weather, the room will be capable of sustaining 250 mile per hour winds for two hours as well as providing shelter for up to 462 patients, staff members and community residents. The tornado safe room at the hospital will enhance the hospital’s capabilities for triage during times of mass casualty as well as supplying an additional generator with backup power.
In addition to the FEMA funds, TCMH received a $298,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development to assist with the construction and finishing details of two community meeting room spaces when there is no threatening weather.
The new surgery department will double the size of two operating rooms and add an outpatient surgery room for 6,091 feet of climate-controlled space. The latest technology will be incorporated in the building and design of the new department to increase operating room efficiency. Seven private pre- and post-surgery bays will be part of the new department, increasing privacy for patients and their family members and allowing for infant/parent bonding following C-sections.
“Utilizing some in-house construction will help us accomplish our overall goal and save us some money,” Murray said.
In other matters:
—Paint, tile, flooring and ceiling tiles are part of the current TCMH expansion progress. “Cabinetry is being delivered for installation, and doors are going in,” Murray said.
According to Murray, the weekly “owners, agent, contractor” meetings are beginning to focus on the remodeling portion of construction that will take place inside the current hospital as certain departments are moved to the new construction.
“JE Dunn is asking the subcontractors to be proactive about looking for potential obstacles they might encounter in the current hospital which has portions that have been built from the 1960s to 1990s,” Murray explained.
In March TCMH is planning to hold a “thank you” barbecue lunch for the subcontractors.
“It will be an opportunity to provide lunch and to thank the subcontractors for the work they have done,” Murray said.
TCMH will also provide tours of the current construction to hospital employees during the lunch.
“It’s hard to keep our employees out of new construction right now,” Murray said. “There is a growing feeling of excitement among the staff.”
TCMH staff has also been looking at area urgent care and fast track emergency room models with plans of offering a faster care model for non-emergency patients in the new emergency department during peak times.
Current peak times in the TCMH ER are typically on weekends when there are no other healthcare options available in Texas County other than the emergency room. Forty-six percent of ER visits at TCMH are primary care-related health concerns rather than emergency healthcare needs.
“We anticipate that our volumes will go up in the new emergency department when it opens,” Murray said. “And we have identified mid-level providers that are interested and willing to work with our ER physicians to provide urgent care coverage.”
TCMH plans to roll out an urgent care option at peak times each weekend when the new ER opens.
Linda Pamperien, TCMH chief financial officer, presented the financial report for January. One hundred seventy-five patients were admitted to TCMH in January, including 19 patients to the swing-bed program. Admissions are up by seven inpatients over January 2012 admissions.
According to Pamperien, inpatient and outpatient revenues were down for the month, but contractual adjustments were also down for the month.
“The length of stay numbers have come down,” Pamperien said. “I would like to commend our medical staff for their attention to length of stay concerns.”
TCMH ended January with a positive bottom line of $29,457 and a year-to-date balance of the same.
Present at the meeting were Murray; Pamperien; Duff; Doretta Todd-Willis, chief nursing officer; Joleen Senter Durham, public relations director; Dr. Shaun Flaim, vice chief of staff; and board members Fockler, Janet Wiseman, Mark Hampton and Jim Perry, OD.
Board member Mark Forbes was absent.
The next meeting of the TCMH board of trustees is noon Tuesday, March 26, in hospital’s basement meeting room.