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The Privacy Notice requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
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August 2005 Newsletter
1) The hospital’s Dedication and Open House on Tuesday 8/9/05 was certainly well attended and seemed to generate positive response from all those attending. A nice article and pictures of the event appeared in this week’s edition of the Mountain Echo newspaper, and that article is enclosed in the board packets. Some pictures taken by WCMH employee Delinda Blanford have been sent to the Independent-Journal and should appear at a later date.
2) The move from the hospital’s old Emergency Department into the front of the new Emergency Department, including the relocation of the Emergency Department Registration function, took place as planned at 4:00 am, Monday morning, August 15th. It took many, many people to address all the details of the plan and the actual move, and the many systems switchovers that had to occur. We were fortunate to have had a short window of opportunity without patients, but the old Emergency Department had been very busy just prior to the move, and within an hour after the move all the new rooms except one were occupied by patients. Mr. Duncan thanked everyone who helped with the transition.
3) United States Congresswoman JoAnn Emerson and some of her staff visited the hospital shortly after 10:00 am Monday, August 15th, and toured and visited for approximately one hour. There was a lot of activity still going on related to the transitions into the hospital’s new areas. She was very enthusiastic and complimentary, and asked a lot of questions. Some staff from the Independent-Journal were here to take pictures during her visit. This was her first visit to Washington County Memorial Hospital.
4) The PACS system for our digital, filmless Radiology capability is now operational. There are still some operational issues to be worked out as we progress with this new technology. It definitely improves our clinical services.
5) Nadia Hanna, M.D., and her husband and son visited WCMH and the Potosi community on Friday, July 22nd. Dr. Hanna is a Family Practice Physician completing a residency in Indiana. We have been in follow-up contact several times and are encouraged about the possibilities of their coming to Potosi full-time next summer.
6) Respiratory Department renovations are well underway, the temporary corridor providing access through the gift shop to the cafeteria is closed off to complete the Business Office renovation and expansion, the restocking of the gift shop has begun and it should be open again in a few days, the old Emergency Department is nearly completely demolished and a temporary barrier wall has been constructed to close off that area, and finally it is projected that the afternoon of 8/17 the temporary rear corridor to the new Emergency Department will be completed.
7) H. Clark Duncan, Jr., Administrator of Washington County Memorial Hospital, attended a national conference held in Washington, D.C. August 22nd through August 26th, 2005. The conference was sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration's Office of Rural Health Policy and was entitled "The Crossroads of Rural Health, an All Programs Meeting". There were 850 attendees and all 50 states were represented. Each state's hospital association was granted one official representative, and Mr. Duncan was selected by the Missouri Hospital Association to represent Missouri's hospitals at the conference.
According to Duncan, a central theme for the conference was a recent report by the Institute of Medicine entitled "Quality Through Collaboration: The Future of Rural Health Care", which will be a key guide to national rural health policy over the next decade.