Plans for remodeling at health center grow larger

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

The surgery renovation project being planned at Henry County Health Center is expanding to include infrastructure for the whole facility as well as the surgical area.

?The project has grown in size. It?s about double from what it was three months ago,? Robb Gardner, HCHC CEO told the board of trustees Tuesday.

An estimated cost of the project is $17 million. HCHC does have the ability to bond up to that amount if needed, but CFO Dave Muhs said the hospital is looking into financing options and also looking at more creative options.

In planning the project, Gardner said that they are looking at the needs of the facility and trying to plan for the next 20 to 50 years. He wants to come up with the best possible plan before investing into the design phase of the project.

He said that a lot of the project is looking at the heating and cooling systems as well as expanding.

Muhs said that the chiller has been down and that the hospital went a week without the hot water heater before it was able to be fixed.

Overall, the maintenance costs on the building have been increasing. Muhs reported that HCHC has spent $200,000 more than last year at this time due to maintenance alone. Fixing some of these problem areas in a remodel project could help decrease the maintenance costs.

Gardner also announced that HCHC has received some recognition. It was one of seven critical access hospitals to receive the Malcolm Baldridge Performance Excellence grant. Malcolm Baldridge uses various criteria which an organization can use to improve its performance.

?I?m a big believer in that. I do believe it?s the right work,? said Gardner.

HCHC was also one of nine critical access hospitals in the U.S. to meet stage one meaningful use for electronic medical records.

Meaningful use is a provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which allocates funds from the federal government to encourage hospitals to increase the use of electronic medical records. Hospitals are required to meet these standards by 2015. Stage one is based on a set of core objectives that must be met and a set of 10 other objectives, of which five must be met.

Gardener said that meeting stage one is a great recognition for HCHC.

?It hopefully says that we?re a progressive organization that is working to meet the needs of our patients and the community,? said Gardner.

Tuesday?s meeting was also the first for new board of trustees member Megan Wenstrand of Mt. Pleasant, who was appointed to the board in March.

Wenstrand has experience in the health care field, having worked as a technologist in a biochemical genetics laboratory at the Mayo Clinic, as a project manager at WuXi AppTec ? a contract research organization specializing in pharmaceuticals and biologics pre-clinical trials ? and in the prosthetics and sensory aids department at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis. She has a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry and a master?s degree in health administration. She is currently employed as the business development/assistant to the vice president of sales at Hawkeye Steel Products, Inc., in Houghton.