Hospital News - 2nd Quarter 2008

HMHD to open minor care clinic
by Richard Carter

June 10, 2008 - A long-standing objective of the Hunt Memorial Hospital District has been the decentralization of our facilities to improve access to healthcare.

Much of what we do as an organization requires great investment in expensive technology at both of our Greenville and Commerce hospital campuses, but sometimes the most needed type of medical care is a professional evaluation and diagnosis of a minor illness or injury.

In that light, HMHD is pleased to announce the development of a minor care clinic located in southern Greenville. The district researched multiple sights on the Highway 34 and US 69 corridors before settling on a location at the intersection of Traders Road and Highway 34 (Wesley Street) in the Traders Road Retail Center, which was just recently constructed. This location is a high-exposure area and will best serve the community with easy access and quick attention to patients.

The PHG Emergency room has long been an excellent provider of emergency services, but has increasingly become congested and busy from patients with minor illnesses of all varieties.

Several strategies to improve patient access and reducing wait times have been implemented at HMHD, and the development of the minor care clinic is part of this.
The minor care clinic will be open seven days a week, year round with the exception of Christmas and New Years. Hours of operation will be 10 am to 10 pm Monday through Saturday and noon-8 pm on Sundays.

Architectural design and construction documents have been completed, and interior construction of the northern most office in the Center is to begin soon. The grand opening of the clinic is expected by the end of September. The plan approved last week by the HMHD board of directors calls for the space to include four exam rooms, a waiting and reception area, laboratory, nurses’ station, galley and office and storage space in its 2,400 square feet.

The clinic will be available to treat the minor illnesses we struggle with from time to time. Infections, minor injuries, flu, and aches and pains that need professional medical evaluation will be our specialty. Major injuries and more serious illnesses will continue to be treated at the PHG and PHC emergency rooms. Of course, if you prefer to use the hospital ER, you will always be welcome. There will be no x-ray service available at the new clinic, so persons suffering any illness or injury suspected of needing radiology work should go directly to the emergency room for immediate attention.

Your HMHD is dedicated to meeting the healthcare needs of our community as is evidenced by the construction of the West Wing, bringing new technologies for providing cancer care, and an expanded Intensive Care Unit which should help take some of the load off the ER by allowing for faster flow of patients into hospital beds.
If you have the need for medical services, I encourage your continuous use of our local physicians and facilities. Our goal is to provide medical care for you with state-of-the-art equipment and a hometown touch.

Oh yes, and save you the expensive gas it requires to travel to Dallas!

Carter is chief executive officer of the Hunt Memorial Hospital District.

Linda Armstrong Kelly speaks at West Wing dedication

May 23, 2008-Linda Armstrong Kelly, mother of Lance Armstrong, told guests at Thursday’s dedication luncheon of Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville’s Lou and Jack Finney Cancer Center that one of the most difficult parts of having a son diagnosed with cancer was not being able to be with him as he underwent treatment.

She told the crowd of some 350 people she could appreciate the opening of the center because it would allow cancer patients to remain close to their families during treatments, and would eliminate the need for long-distance driving.

Her son, having already won four Tour-de-France cycling championships, was diagnosed with level four testicular cancer which would require three months of intensive treatment.

Kelly, who now spends her time on the speaking circuit promoting Armstrong’s Foundation, said her athlete son chose to have his treatment in Indianapolis. She accompanied him there and spent three weeks with him before she had to return to work in North Texas.

She tearfully recounted the first time she talked to him after returning home. “He was so, so sick. It just broke my heart that I couldn’t be there,” she said.

She said her son’s foundation work has become a very important part of both of their lives and that much of their attention has turned to making sure research is carried on.

Armstrong spoke before the Texas Legislature last fall and is credited with helping get a $300 million research bill for the state or Texas passed. He also appeared before the United States Senate two weeks ago asking them to reinvest in the war on cancer.

Kelly arrived in Greenville in a LIVESTRONG coach named in honor of her son’s foundation. Among her “entourage” was “Brewski,” a cancer therapy terrier, who spends time with children suffering from cancer.

Kelly followed a number of speakers on hand for the dedication, including Jack Finney, who explained his $1 million-plus gift to the Hunt Memorial Hospital District was a way to give back to the community he loves.

Greenville and area chambers of commerce then helped cut the ribbon opening the new “West Wing” that includes the cancer center, a 16-bed Intensive Care Unit and two medical patient bed floors. Patients are expected to begin occupying the rooms early next month while radiation treatments will begin in July.

Thanks to our employees!
by Richard Carter

May 18, 2008 - As many of you know, we will be celebrating the dedication and grand opening of our new West Wing this week. It all begins on Monday and continues through Thursday with the dedication of the Lou and Jack Finney Cancer Center. We hope everyone can come. The public events begin at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday with a ribbon cutting, tours, entertainment and refreshments. As you can guess we are very excited.

But, before we get to Monday, I would like to mention to the people of Hunt County and the surrounding area that we just concluded celebrating Hospital Week last week at Presbyterian Hospitals of Greenville and Commerce.

This is a time we pay tribute to all 800-plus employees that keep us in business on a daily basis – and these are the people who will help us transition to the new wing.
The week’s observation included picnics in Greenville and Commerce as well as health fairs on both campuses for our employees.

The highlight for administrators came on Thursday when we honored individuals with service awards. More than 900 years were represented among the employees who had been there in multiples of five years all the way to 40 years. There was a 30 year pin awarded along with one 35-year pin. I find that very impressive and very rewarding to see these people recognized.

Our 40-year employee is Willene Williams who is a instrument technician in the OR.
She came to work in December of 1967 before we were even out here on Joe Ramsey. Willene has seen all the transitions made since we move here from the old Greenville Surgical Hospital.

Wayne Waggoner, our unltrasound coordinator in Diagnostic Imaging, has been with us for 35 years, and Patty Visage, the shift manager at the Commerce hospital, has been an imployee for the past 30 years. There were 46 employees of five years, 27 employees with 10 years, 10 employees with 15 years, six imployees with 20 years and three employees with three year.

Their efforts are worthy of celebration every day – the nurses and emergency medical service professionals, doctors, information management specialists and home health personnel, lab techs, therapists, facilities management, food service workers, volunteers, patient and hospital financial personnel and many others – because they make your hospitals the best that they can be.

The week is a valuable showcase for the approximately 6,000 hospitals and 5 million staff members across the country, providing an opportunity to display pride and unity in the work done.

America celebrated its first National Hospital Day in 1921 as a result of the “Spanish flu” outbreak in 1918 that killed 600,000 Americans. The observance spread across the country and was expanded to National Hospital Week in 1953.

Today, National Hospital Week is acknowledged as the country’s largest healthcare recognition program. Even more, it instills pride among hospital employees and builds a sense of confidence within our communities.

While we spend a week to “spotlight” our hospitals, we are there the entire 52 weeks, 24-7. We never close our doors and we never turn people away. Every day our staff meets the challenges of saving lives, curing the sick and consoling loved ones.

We strive to do the best job humanly possible and to continually improve our care and service to the people of Hunt County and surrounding areas – this week and every week.

Carter is Chief Executive Officer for the Hunt Memorial Hospital District.

"West Wing" opening slated

May 1, 2008 - The Hunt Memorial Hospital District will celebrate the opening of the “West Wing” later this month with a four-day open house culminating in a public ribbon cutting that will include the appearance of Linda Armstrong Kelly, mother of Lance Armstrong, champion cyclist and a cancer survivor.

The new wing and expanded areas will be open for tours after the ribbon cutting at 1 p.m. on May 22 in front of the new west entry.

Construction began on the West Wing in December of 2006 after voters had approved a $24 million bond package in May. The Wing consists of the cancer center, a 16-bed intensive care unit, 24-bed telemetry unit, and 24-bed medical floor.

Food preparation now comes from a new and enlarged kitchen while visitors and employees will dine in a larger and more comfortable café. A new gift shop is located across from the café.

Employees of the Greenville and Commerce hospitals will get the first “official” look at the building on Monday, May 19 with tours throughout the day.

On Tuesday and Wednesday hospital officials will be hosting, by invitation, various groups who serve the hospital district, city officials from throughout the county, supporters of the HMHD Charitable Gift Foundation, physicians and other medical personnel, Hunt County first responders and the media.

Armstrong Kelly will speak following the Thursday ribbon cutting ceremonies conducted by the various chambers of commerce in Hunt County.

Pish named "Great 100" nurse

April 30, 2008 - Hunt Memorial Hospital District’s Bambi Pish, Assistant Administrator/Chief Nursing Officer, has been named one of the “Great 100” nurses of 2007 by the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.

In her position, which she has held since May of 2007, Pish serves both Presbyterian Hospitals of Greenville and Commerce and Citizens Home Health.

“Great 100” nurses are selected annually on the basis of qualities that when taken together, exemplify the profession’s finest in the art and science of nursing.

A selection committee ranked the nominees according to the key attributes of being a role model, a leader, a community servant, a compassionate caregiver and a significant contributor to the profession.

Pish joined HMHD in August of 2001 as a part-time registered nurse in the intensive care unit and has since served in various capacities. These include Medical/Surgical/ Transitional Care Unit Director and Director of Nurses at Presbyterian Hospital of Commerce. In August of 2005, she accepted the additional responsibility of interim Chief Nursing Officer.

In 1998, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University-College Station, where she also earned a Masters of Nursing Administration degree from there in 2000. The same year, Pish received a post-master’s certificate in healthcare administration.

Prior to joining the HMHD team, she served as nursing clinical care director at Yoakum Community Hospital for eight years. She also served on the faculty of Paris Junior College and was a member of the Associate Degree Nursing faculty at Victoria College, while working as a Staff RN at Victoria’s DeTar Hospital.

In her role as nursing director, Pish is responsible for leadership administration for the Greenville and Commerce hospitals, Citizens Home Health, as well as any future nursing departments that might be developed in the District.

Pish and her husband Michael live in Greenville and have three children, Adam, Audrey, and Andrew.

In addition to her roles as nurse, administrator, wife and mother, Pish is a lieutenant in the United States Navy Reserve.

Hospital recognized for organ donations

April 30, 2008 - The importance of tissue donations was made clear recently when two women whose lives have been touched by donors were guests at an award ceremony at Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville.

Barbara Daniels of Greenville, who received cornea transplants, and Rhonda McCallops of Quinlan, whose late husband both received a heart transplant and later donated organs and tissue upon his death, were on hand as PHG was honored as one of the top 20 hospitals in North Texas for tissue donations.

Both thanked the hospital and health care officials who make the transplants possible. Mrs. McCallops said that her husband lived five years with his new heart and was insistent on paying back when he died.

The occasion was the presentation to PHG by Transplant Services Center of Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas a plaque recognizing the Greenville hospital as one of the top 20 hospitals out of 178 eligible in the service area for donations in 2007.

Greenville was one of the hospitals containing 126 to 250 beds with a total of nine tissue donors that resulted in 7 cornea donations, 7 skin, 8 bone, 2 heart valves and 3 veins.

“Greenville always comes through in this most critical aspect of health care,” said Helen Marshall, an RN and transplant outreach representative from the Services Center.

Some of those donations were used for patients at PHG needing skeletal and skin grafts, other hospitals in the Services Center area and for injured servicemen from Iraq who are hospitalized at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio in need of skin grafting. There were also seven cornea recipients in Hunt County.

Also benefiting from the donations is the Lions Club, with gifts that are part of the club’s Sight Preservation Program that includes the recycling of eyeglasses and the transplants.

“People just don’t realize how far a tissue donation can go,” said.

Marshall was joined by Victoria McNeel, transplant outreach nurse supervisor who works with the staff at PHG in praising the staff and leadership of the hospital for its donor plan.

Persons interested in being a tissue or organ donor can register on the internet by going to www.texasdear.org.

Relay for Life

April 30, 2008 - The “PHC Pacemakers” and auxiliary at Presbyterian Hospital of Commerce members who are cancer survivors participated in the Texas A&M-Commerce Relay for Life on April 4 -5.

The event raised $70,000 for the American Cancer Society.

Front row (left to right): Elsie McKee, Teresa McNeil

Second row: survivors Kay Sanders, Carolyn Trezevant, Gerri Titus, Peggy Pressley Back row: Shayna Bryant, Tommy Hughes, Shelley Jackson, Ericka Witover, Tammy Bader

Team members not pictured: Jenine Best, Carrie Barnes

Scholarship winners

April 30, 2008 - Two Greenville High School seniors have been named the annual Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville Volunteers Scholarship winners for 2008.

Brittney Kohn, left, is planning to enter he field of speech pathology and audiology at the University of North Texas in the honors program. She is the daughter of Dawn Patterson and Rick Kohn.

Amanda Poyner plans to enter the field of reconstruction plastic surgery at the University of Texas this fall. She is the daughter of Mary Poyner.

The winners were announced at the annual volunteer appreciation luncheon held at Wesley Methodist Church.

Health check

 

April 30, 2008 - Desi Buchanon, a student nurse at Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville, gives David Willhite, “The Cowboy Cook” from Sulphur Springs, results of his glucose and cholesterol checks during a health screening by PHG at the annual Home and Garden Show sponsored by Keep Greenville Beautiful. Willhite was serving up hamburgers at the show.

 

BEEP program comes to Presbyterian Hospital

April 8, 2008 - Bonnie Stewart, head of the Microbiology Lab at Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville, gave Greenville Independent School District Superintendent. Don Jefferies some guidelines in using the “microscope” for “microbiology” as the two participatde in BEEP, Business/Education Exchange Program through the Greenville Chamber of Commerce.

The program is a unique experience, which pairs, one-to-one, a business person with an educator. The essence of the program is to provide a true learning experience for both parties as they spend time in one another’s world — with an eye to influencing curriculum.

Stewart graduated from Greenville High School and attended Texas A&M University-Commerce. She has been an active volunteer in the school system, PTA and the Destination Imagination Program as a coach. Jefferies took the post of superintendent this month after having served as GHS principal.

West Wing shaping up

April 2, 2008 - K.K. Holloway, left, a licensed vocational nurse at Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville, and Sharon K. Dawson, a registered nurse, take a tour of the new Intensive Care Unit on the second floor of the West Wing during a photography session recently. (Photo by Laurie King)

There are 16 large patient care rooms in the new unit. With them is Zach Wilson, HMHD project director for the construction program. The wing, under construction since January of 2007, is expected to be completed in mid-May.

 

At right, Bambi Pish, director of Nursing Administration, gives fellow PHG employees a look at what some of the furniture and other appointments will look like in the new West Wing. The West Wing is scheduled to be completed in May with a public grand opening planned for May 22.

At left, Zach Wilson, project director for the Hunt Memorial Hospital District West Wing expansion, explains the new $2.4 million linear accelerator to members of Leadership Commerce tour of the new cancer treatment center on Tuesday. Hosting the group was Teresa McNeil (at Wilson’s right), associate director of Presbyterian Hospital of Commerce.

Besides the Lou and Jack Finney Cancer Treatment Center, the wing houses a 16-bed intensive care unit and two patient floors. Included in the project is expansion of the café, kitchen and gift shop.

Rehab Unit to open
by Richard Carter

April 2, 2008 - In an effort to assure Hunt County has high quality rehabilitative services right here at home, the Hunt Memorial Hospital District board of directors has approved a plan to partner with MileStone Healthcare to open such a unit.

The Acute Rehabilitation Unit will open in late summer or early fall 2008.

It will occupy part of the seventh floor which had previously housed Greenville Health and Rehabilitation Hospital (a separate facility from Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville) which closed its doors in December 2007.

Recognizing the loss of such a critical component of health care in this area, the board and administration of HMHD felt a commitment was needed to replace the services offered by the rehab hospital that had leased the seventh floor space from the district.

This Program will be owned and operated by the Hospital District to insure that we continue to follow our mission statement to “continually improve the health of the people in the communities we serve by providing quality, cost effective and customer service orientated care.” We have partnered with MileStone Healthcare, a Dallas based provider of Rehabilitation care since 1991. They will be responsible for providing the medical leadership and management expertise for this very specialized service.

According to MileStone’s estimates, the specialized program is expected to provide inpatient treatment for approximately 100 to 250 rehabilitation patients a year. The program will also employ more than 15 healthcare professionals including R.N.s, therapists, aides and two on-site MileStone employees, they have told us.

I would like to share with you more information about what “acute rehabilitation” is and how our new unit will meet the needs of those who are recovering from injury, illness or disease. On the Acute Rehabilitation Unit at PHG there will be a combination of interventions, including physical, occupational, speech therapy, counselling, rehabilitation nursing and social work, directed at helping the patient to recover physical capacities to as normal a condition as possible.

The most commonly treated conditions on the Acute Physical Rehabilitation Unit at Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville will be:

• Stroke/CVA
• Amputation
• Fractured Femur (Hip)
• Neurological Disorder (multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s Disease)
• Brain Injury
• Congenital Deformity Spinal Cord Injury

Regaining functional independence is the most important goal on the unit. Everyday the team helps patients build strength, increase flexibility, and improve mobility. The therapists also retrain patients to carry out the activities of daily living such as grooming, dressing, and food preparation.

Carter is chief executive officer of the Hunt Memorial Hospital District.

Dr. Usman named 2007 Physician of the Year

April 2, 2008 - Dr. Asim R. Usman says he was interested in becoming a physician since his childhood, when he was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan. As he realized that ambition, he found his way from Aga Khan University Medical College in his native land to Greenville, Texas, by way of Illinois and Oklahoma.

Dr. Usman, a doctor of internal medicine serving as a hospitalist at Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville, has now added another accomplishment to his list after being named 2007 Physician of the Year at PHG. He became eligible for the honor after being selected Physician of the Quarter for the first quarter of 2007.

Among the attributes listed in the nominations were his bedside manner, his appreciation of the staff with which he is working, his communication skills, his efficiency friendliness and his willingness to help in situations not necessarily related to his case.

As a hospitalist, Dr. Usman is one of six hospital-based acute care specialists who focuses on a patient’s care from the time of admission to the time of discharge. He works with the patient’s primary care physician regarding treatment protocol. The hospitalists work in shifts around the clock at the hospital. They do not have their own practices, nor do they see patients outside the hospital.

“I have enjoyed being here in Greenville and I am quite proud of our hospitalist group,” said Dr. Usman.

He was appointed to the active Medical Staff of the Hunt Memorial Hospital District in 2001, coming to Greenville from Oklahoma. He completed his internship and residency at Mother Francis Medical Center in Peoria, where he was also the chief resident.

Dr. Usman and his wife, Huma, make their home in Rockwall with their four daughters, Rahel, 12, Fareeha, 9, Ayesha, 5, and Leena, 3.

In his spare time he enjoys sports, especially soccer and basketball.

 

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