Thursday, February 23, 2012
Pride &Progress
4C
The radiology department at Clarinda Regional Health Center received a significant step up in terms of technology when the hospital moved into its new facility in January. Plans are in place to put nuclear medicine and MRI imaging facilities in-house in the 71,000-square-foot facility. Many of the upgrades were intended to improve patient comfort, as well as better and more efficient medical care.
Hospital moves into 21st Century state-of-the-art facility
The role of a hospital is to make its patients stronger and healthier, but a state of the art facility like the new Clarinda Regional Health Center can also have the same impact on the community it serves. The new 71,071 square foot hospital in Clarinda officially opened its doors Monday, Jan. 16, and the $28.5 million construction project has already proven to be an overwhelming success for the city and region. “Healthcare is one piece of a puzzle in a strong community,” CRHC Chief Executive Officer Chris Stipe said. “Having access to a state of the art facility,
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hospital eventually reached a point where it no longer supported the delivery of healthcare in the modern age. “Healthcare has changed so much from an in-patient focus to an out-patient focus. So, when we designed the (new) building, obviously it’s designed with more of an out-patient focus,” Stipe said. “The flow of the building really lends itself to the outpatient arena as opposed to in-patient.” While the new hospital does have a 25-bed inpatient floor to care for patients that are required to stay in the hospital, the look and feel of those rooms are dramatically different than at the previous facility. Rather than having the semi-private rooms that were offered at the original hospital, the new hospital features 21 private rooms that are approximately 60 percent larger than they
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were previously and four semi-private rooms if needed. “People are focused on privacy and comfort. There is space and comfort items in those rooms like couches, furniture and flat screen TVs in each room,” Stipe said. “The bathrooms are also friendlier to patients. They are easier to get around in and safer.” Meanwhile, every inpatient and out-patient room in the hospital has a computer and there are 30 miles of computer networking cable strung throughout the hospital. This was done as part of the hospital’s effort to move to electronic medical records that will engage the patients in their healthcare decisions while at the same time increasing the speed of care. Stipe said electronic medical records also increases the privacy of the patient and the safety of
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their identity because paper records containing personal information about the patients are no longer stored on the in-patient side of the hospital. The clinics at the hospital are also moving toward the use of this paperless system. Patient privacy, along with the safety of patients and staff members, was also important concern in the design of the emergency room at the new hospital. In the former building, Stipe said the emergency rooms faced a public hallway and created significant privacy issues for the patients. “Now, the patient care area is separate from the ER lobby area. When people come in they are greeted by staff and they go into a triage room. Then we move them back into the patient care area if we need to,” Stipe said. The emergency depart-
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as well as (staff members) that are first-rate … is something we think every community, but this community in particular, expects and deserves as a part of their community.” To meet those lofty expectations, special care was included in the design of the hospital to ensure patient privacy and the availability of the latest advances in technology both in terms of the equipment used to provide patient care and the method in which that care is provided. Clarinda Municipal Hospital, as it was initially known, was constructed in 1939 and various additions and improvements were made to the facility over the years. “The community deserves credit for taking good care of that building and nurturing it along the way to get as much as we could out of it,” Stipe said. However, Stipe said the
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30 miles of computer cable run through new 71,000-squarefoot CRHC facility
“Healthcare is one piece of a puzzle in a strong community. Having access to a state of the art facility, as well as (staff members) that are first-rate … is something we think every community, but this community in particular, expects and deserves as a part of their community.” Chris Stipe CRHC CEO
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