Hospital
Board Reviews Emergency Room Operations
Claiborne Progress
May 30, 2007
By W. Lee Brame
Correspondent
County Mayor Joe
Tyler Duncan opened this month's hospital board meeting at 6 p.m. on
Tuesday, May 22 in the hospital conference room. After review and approval
of the minutes, the board heard from Nursing Supervisor Idella Johnson and
Dr. Pat Grayson from the Emergency Room staff.
Grayson and
Johnson are members of the Emergency Coverage Corporation, a medical
specialist contractor that provides emergency room services at Claiborne
County Hospital. While many people recognize medical specialties like
cardiology (heart), pediatrics (children), and orthopedics (bone), some are
unaware that emergency service is another critical medical specialty. The
nature of the job requires a broad range of medical expertise to recognize,
stabilize and treat a wide range of medical emergencies ranging from a
twisted ankle or gunshot wound to stroke and heart attack.
The Emergency
Care Corporation of Team Health is a nationwide provider of emergency room
services and administration that was founded in Knoxville. Although our
emergency room physicians and staff may belong to ECC, they truly are our
local emergency medical providers since one of the company's operating
principles is to use local people and to continually improve their training
in emergency services.
Grayson and
Johnson briefed the board on changes being made in the emergency room to
provide better services and to keep emergency room patients aware of the
status of their treatment. Grayson admitted that it is a constant challenge
to keep patients waiting in the emergency room aware that something critical
to another patient may be happening behind closed doors. Working with other
members of the hospital, the Emergency Room staff have formed a process
improvement team that will be evaluating procedural changes and updating
medical staff and the board on the results.
The emergency
room is frequently considered to be the public face to of the hospital with
15,000 to 16,000 patients seen each year. Each year, over 3,000 emergency
room patients are children and about 80 percent of the patients admitted to
the hospital are first seen in the emergency room. Grayson informed the
board that, on the average, patients needing treatment in emergency rooms
across the United States waited between four and five hours for treatment.
Wait times at Claiborne County Hospital have been falling since starting
their process improvement program and average less than three hours.
The board also reviewed the financial report
for the month. Revenues for the hospital and home health were below budget
while the nursing home and emergency services operated in the black. The
number of ambulance runs was up for the month and the nursing home is
operating at close to capacity.
The board also heard a proposal to open a child
care center at the hospital (using the previously acquired Overton House)
for employees and staff. The property has been inspected and approved for
that use pending renovation that includes adding another bathroom,
installation of fire alarms and installing child size commodes. The child
care center is not designed to be a profit making operation but is merely
intended to break even. Estimated costs are expected to average around $100
per week. The hospital will accrue significant advantages in staff retention
and employee morale by providing this benefit for their employees.
After hearing the cost analysis for the proposed
project, the board approved the planned project and expenditure of $81,000
for the necessary renovations.
As part of the hospital administrators report,
board members learned that the Powell Valley Electric Cooperative had been
funded to provide half a million dollars as a low interest loan to help fund
the construction of the new medical office building adjacent to the
hospital. This taxpayer money is being provided through the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Rural Economic Development loan program and is used to create
and retain jobs and improve rural economic climate.
