September 2007 Newsletter

1. David Worley began his new duties as Laboratory Supervisor on Monday, July 16 th. Mr. Worley is an experienced technologist, with supervisory experience, and a degree in Management. This is a very key position to the hospital’s management team and for the future service excellence of our clinical operations. During his first few days on the job he will be familiarizing himself with our services and staff, and that will include visiting doctors’ offices to make sure we meet the needs of patients and other customers. Please welcome him to Washington County Memorial Hospital.
   
   
2. Shared Medical Services will begin providing mobile MRI services to Washington County Memorial Hospital beginning Friday, August 24 th. Friday will now become the weekly day of service for MRIs, which hopefully will be a better day of the week for this coverage than Wednesday, which has been the day of coverage through Alliance Imaging. The new unit will be a 1.5 Tesla magnet, short-bore unit. The goal is to improve overall service, and of course quality, for our patients and physicians.
   
   
3. Dietary Department Manager Melinda Courtois has now successfully completed her course requirements for Dietary Manager training through the University of Florida program. Congratulations to her for her accomplishment and for her extra effort to tremendously expedite the completion of this coursework.
   
   
4. May 16, 2008 at Forche Valley Golf Course will be the first annual Washington County Memorial Hospital Foundation charity golf tournament.
   
   
5. Physical Therapist Chuck Hubbard has just officially submitted his resignation from his contract with WCMH. He and his wife Kathy will begin working in California for Sunbelt Staffing as “travelling” therapists. Chuck’s last day at WCMH will be Friday, August 17 th. Efforts have been underway to recruit another therapist to join therapist Nicole Schweigert at WCMH.
   
   
6. The hospital’s patient safety Armband Initiative started August 1 st has gone well so far. The articles in the newspaper have gained some public awareness, and we have had no issues arise regarding outside agencies or other facilities to whom we transfer patients. In addition to the armband initiative which standardizes the colors for the major alert categories of Do Not Resuscitate, Allergies, and Fall Risk, other safety initiatives regarding relabeling the above-bed signs have also been started in August. Thanks to Kris Wallace and Karen Walls in Nursing for their roles in leading these initiatives.
   
   
7. The 13 th annual Washington County Health Fair will be held at the Potosi Elementary School on Saturday, September 15 th. As always this has involved tremendous planning time and resource commitment by the hospital, in conjunction with several other local organizations and the Washington County Health Department. This year the Moses Austin Festival will be held on the weekend of the Health Fair for the first time.
   
   
8. The hospital’s Home Health as well as inpatient and swing-bed services have been enhanced by the recent addition of Occupational Therapy. We have contracted with several individuals to provide these services on as as-needed basis