WCHC adding two new services, adding personnel to existing service

The Washington County Hospital and Clinics will be adding electroencephalography and a wound care program as well as bringing in staff from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) urology service to complement the one provider the hospital currently has.

WCHC Chief Nursing Officer Andrea Leyden explained the hospital will begin offering electroencephalography once a week. Electroencephalography is the practice of recording brain activity through brain waves. Previously, the hospital sent patients to UIHC but will now offer the service themselves.

The other service the hospital will be adding is wound care. Previously, the hospital had a nurse who administered wound care but after that nurse accepted a new job, there was no one to fill the position and the program was closed.

Matthew Hines, ARNP, is a hospitalist with WCHC and has previous experience working in the burn care unit at another hospital. Hines has expressed interest in re-opening the program and will begin seeing patients once a week beginning mid-April.

The hospital also will be expanding their existing urology program. Beginning May 14, UIHC will begin providing outreach services. Hill explained this will complement the current urology service that is provided once a month.

The next meeting of the Washington County Hospital and Clinics board of trustees will be Thursday, April 25, at 4 p.m., in the boardroom.