Since buying the hospital in 2006, Baptist has poured more than $78 million into improvements and new construction at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle. A new behavioral health facility in the works will bring the total up to more than $88 million.
With plans also in place to go paperless and continued efforts to recruit doctors, the hospital”s administrator, Paul Cade, says the focus of all the improvements is the patients.
The new behavioral health facility, for instance, will be a 30-bed, 26,000-square-foot facility, with private rooms and three wings — one for those with chronic mental illness; the other two will house the “higher-functioning population,” explained Cade; the front portion will offer outpatient counseling, marital therapy and intensive therapy evaluations.
Baptist Behavioral Health Care-Willowbrook holds 19 patients, with private and semi-private rooms.
The new facility will open in fall 2011 and will add a third psychiatrist, Dr. Steven Smith.
The hospital”s behavioral health services include outpatient chemical dependency services for adults with chemical dependency problems. Individual, couples and family counseling, group therapy and medication management.
Among the options considered for the Willowbrook facility are imploding part of the building and using it for storage. The hospital”s ambulance services and outpatient rehabilitation services will be relocated to other areas on campus.
Going paperless
Baptist is a step ahead in going paperless, already having converted its prescriptions to electronic format.
“As part of health care reform, all hospitals are going to be pushed to go paperless,” explained Mary Ellen Sumrall, chief nursing officer for Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
On Sept. 19, BMH-GT was the first Baptist-affiliated hospital to implement Admin RX, a barcode-scanning medication system.
“We have the potential to improve patient safety and prevent medication mishaps from happening,” said Sumrall, adding, with Admin RX, hospital staff can track vital signs, medications lists and allergies. Those records also are available remotely.
“I was told, there are 64 steps from the time the provider puts the pen to the prescription pad to when the medication gets to the patient”s hands,” Sumrall said. “That”s lots of room for error. This prevents that error from reaching the patients. There are lots of drugs that look alike, sound alike. This system will alert you if the patient is allergic to a medication.”
For Baptist”s 14 hospitals, of which Baptist Golden Triangle is the largest regional hospital with 328 beds, the Admin RX program was a $100 million investment. The program is backed up at Baptist”s base in Memphis, Tenn. And in the event the computer system goes down, it automatically prints activity from the last 24 hours, Sumrall said.
Eventually, all patient records will be paperless, with doctors able to access the information remotely. Further in the future, the systems will be interoperable, which can eliminate redundancy in testing and save time waiting for records.
BMH-GT already uses Expert Documentation, an electronic means of clinical documentation, including admission history, vital signs and flow sheet charting.
Physician recruitment
BMH-GT is adding a neurosurgeon to its staff in November. Dr. Richard Mendel is one of the hospital”s most-recent signees.
“We have a real shortage of neurosurgeons in the state of Mississippi,” said Cade, who noted neurosurgery is one of the hardest areas to recruit.
“When you have trauma to the brain and they have to transfer you all the way to Jackson, that is a really long time,” noted Sumrall, highlighting the importance of having a neurosurgeon on staff.
Baptist Golden Triangle is the only Level II trauma center in North Mississippi. University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson is the state”s only Level I trauma center. Acute care facilities are ranked from Level IV (capable of resuscitation and appropriate transfer) to Level I (capable of providing every aspect of injury, from prevention to rehabilitation).
Level II trauma centers must have the following departments: general surgery; neurological surgery; orthopedic surgery; emergency medicine; anesthesia; post anesthesia care unit; and an intensive care unit, according to the Mississippi Department of Health. A Level I trauma center adds a surgical residency program.
Other recent signees are Dr. John King, an interventional cardiologist, and Dr. Donny Stokes, a cardiologist.
“That is really good news for our community, to have that many cardiologists,” said Cade. “We feel like we”ve really built our cardiology program up with the addition of these (doctors) and our existing (doctors),” Dr. Joong Chang and Dr. Edward Crocker.
The hospital”s current recruitment focus is on primary-care physicians. More doctors are beginning to specialize, Cade said, but the hospital is in need of pediatricians, internal medicinists and family-practice doctors and also has room for one hospitalist.
The hospital signed 14 physicians in 2009, employing 100 doctors and 1,100 people total.
“They,” said Cade, “make the difference in the patients” lives.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
