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By JUSTIN PEEPER
It’s full-speed ahead for a major $3.2 million makeover that will make moms and their newborn babies much more comfortable while staying at Bluffton Regional Medical Center!
Announced just this month were plans to remodel the OB unit — a job that, when finished, will complete the hospital’s final phase of renovations.
“When this project is complete, basically the building will be totally remodeled from top to bottom,” said Tom Clark, CEO of Bluffton Regional Medical Center.
Since 2001, approximately $20 million has been invested to update the hospital’s equipment and facilities, including a recently renovated medical/surgical unit, pediatrics unit, new intensive care unit and a skilled nursing unit. The renovation also included a remodel of the day surgery area.
Upcoming improvements to the OB unit, however, mark just one of several signs of progress at one of the biggest employers in Wells County.
The 79-bed hospital that has a medical staff of more than 50 physicians representing more than 20 primary and speciality services has undergone an ownership change, added new services and equipment and much more this year.
The biggest announcement, however, came in June when hospital officials made public their plans to remodel the OB unit.
Once complete, the unit will have four labor delivery recovery postpartum rooms.
“In other words, mom can deliver and stay in that room throughout her entire stay,” Clark said. “She won’t have to move from room to room.”
The unit, located on the east end of the third floor, will also house seven additional beds for a swing unit — beds that can be used for many different purposes, such as overflow from the medical-surgical unit. The additional beds will provide more flexibility in space the hospital didn’t have before, Clark said.
The OB unit will physically be larger than it is now, said Tamra Boucher, director of business development and physician services.
“We are spreading out into some other space on the third floor that is not being utilized right now,” Boucher said.
Hospital officials met with architects June 10, and the next step is to complete the construction drawings, which Clark expects will take three months. Afterward, work is expected to begin.
“We would like to start making some dust in maybe September or early October,” he said.
The project will be completed in two four-month phases, and Clark expects it to be finished in the spring.
The space that will eventually be the new OB unit is now empty, so crews will be able to work in the unoccupied area. The construction will not interfere with deliveries, Clark said.
In the meantime, Clark said the hospital is trying to recruit a fourth OB-GYN to join Bluffton Regional.
Once the $3.2 million project is finished, Bluffton’s OB unit will be state of the art.
“We have very nice units that we compete with,” Clark said. “When our unit is done, it will be as nice as any unit in northeast Indiana. That is a plus for mothers who want to birth here.”
New Technology
By July Fourth weekend, a new $1 million CT scanner will be in use at Bluffton Regional.
The new scanner will replace the single-slice machine with a 32-slice scanner, which means it will be 32 times faster.
“What that means for our patients is a much shorter scan time,” Clark said. “For the physicians, the images are absolutely phenomenal. The detail is just stunning. It is just a much better diagnostic tool.”
Officials will install the new CT scanner on the second floor in a remodeled room. It should arrive June 23. Hospital officials have placed a temporary mobile CT scanner on Scott Street on Bluffton Regional’s east side that is being used until the new machine is installed.
“The 32-slice will achieve superior results and faster exams for our patients than the old scanner,” said Brett Hagedorn, MD, Medical Director of Radiology at Bluffton Regional.
In addition to a better CT scanner, patients who have to undergo a hip-replacement operation will also experience better care.
This spring, the hospital bought a Hanna surgical table that is used for minimally invasive hip-replacement operations.
The table allows orthopedic surgeons a different approach when replacing a hip joint. The incision doesn’t have to be as large as in the past, not as much muscle tissue is disturbed, and patients are ambulatory much quicker, Clark said.
Doctors are able to move the table once patients are secured and change the angle at which the patient is lying.
“The table allows the physician to have a different approach,” Clark said. “The outcomes are quicker, less painful, and less traumatic for the patient.”
The relatively new procedure has been used for one operation so far. One doctor has been trained on the new technology and a second physician is expected to receive training this fall.
Changes have also occurred outside the hospital.
In March, a new $365,000 transformer was installed to replace one that was dysfunctional. For 21⁄2 months the hospital had to use generators (at a cost of about $200,000) until the new one was built and installed.
Services offered
Over the years, Bluffton Regional has been nationally recognized for its treatment of heart failure, pulmonary disease, stroke, gastrointestinal services and orthopedic procedures.
The hospital’s scores on Medicare’s quality reporting initiative consistently place Bluffton Regional in the top 95th or better percentile of all hospitals nationwide in all areas mentioned.
Additionally, Bluffton Regional is a certified stroke center. In May, the hospital was reaccredited for another two years.
In March 2007, the hospital was recognized by CMS (Medicare) for its overall score on CMS’ national patient safety goals and core measures as being 11th in the United States and third in Indiana.
“We continue to score as one of the top 1 percent of hospitals in the country,” Clark said.
There are more than 5,000 hospitals nationwide, making Bluffton Regional one of the best across the country.
Of the 130 hospitals Community Health Systems owns, Bluffton Regional is ranked number two on quality core measures (Community Health Systems is the hospital’s parent company.).
The hospital is now working on two additional certifications: to become a certified chest pain center and to have the emergency room designed as a Level III trauma center.
Officials hope to have everything in place so they can apply this fall.
“What that means for a patient is if you go to a hospital that is a certified stroke center or a certified chest pain center, you know that the care you receive is recognized nationally for meeting all of the appropriate standards and levels of care,” Clark said. “The same is true for a Level III trauma center.”
New ownership,
Hospital history
In July 2007, Community Health Systems (CHS) acquired Triad Hospitals, who had been Bluffton Regional’s parent company since 2001.
Based in Tennessee, CHS acquired Triad Hospitals for $5.1 billion, the Associated Press reported last year.
“Internally, we have spent a lot of time over the last several months transitioning under the new ownership,” Clark said. “For our patients and customers, it has been a seamless, invisible transition.”
Bluffton Regional may have a new parent company, but the hospital’s roots in the community stretch back almost one century.
In 1917, Dr. Charles Caylor moved his medical practice from Pennville to Bluffton to join other Wells County physicians. Around the same time, the county created the Wells County Hospital, which was later renamed Wells Community Hospital.
Then, in the 1940s, the Caylors decided to build their own hospital, making Bluffton the home to two hospitals.
“With the high utilization of hospitals at that time, the community easily supported both institutions,” Clark said. “However, over the years, due to medical advancements, changes in provider payments and so forth, hospital utilization slowly declined.”
In the late 1990s, the changes made it difficult for both hospitals to survive. Both were struggling and losing money.
“I don’t think that people realized at the time that hospital care was really at risk in this community,” Clark said. “There was a chance that this community could have lost both hospitals and found itself without a hospital.”
Finally, in late 1999 and early 2000, with the assistance of Quorum Hospitals, the two Bluffton hospitals were purchased and the consolidation was started.
The entity was renamed Bluffton Regional Medical Center.
On March 1, 2001, the clinical services were officially consolidated. In April, Quorum was purchased by Triad Hospitals.
CHS acquired Triad in July 2007.
“Throughout the consolidation and so forth, we have created a hospital entity in this community that has surpassed anything that was possible before,” Clark said.
Clark gives a lot of credit to the hospital’s corporate ownership because it provided access to capital that wasn’t available before.
“We never would have been able to do the renovations we’ve done here or buy the equipment without that ownership structure,” he said.
Bluffton Regional Today
Today, Clark said the hospital plays a vital role in the community.
“As we have always said, health care is local and is locally driven,” he said. “The physicians are local, the caregivers are local, and the management is local. We continue to have the facilities and the equipment that the community deserves and should expect from their local provider.”
Clark still gets the feeling, however, that some folks in the community don’t understand just how much a healthy hospital means to Wells County.
“We are a national leader when it comes to quality care,” he said. “I just don’t get a sense that the general community understands what that means. I still think there is this mentality that bigger is better and that if you want real doctors or if you are really sick you have to go to a bigger city. Our performance on core measures just shows that is categorically not true.”
Clark also says that 85 percent of what ails people can be treated at Bluffton Regional.
“And we can do it better than 99 percent of the hospitals in the country,” he added. “I just don’t think people appreciate that. I think for a community this size and a hospital this size that is just really incredible.”
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