McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK

Local News

March 6, 2008

Beggs says new emergency room needed to meet growing demand

By Susan Brittingham

A bigger emergency department — soon — was the main topic of discussion at the McAlester Regional Health Center’s board meeting Wednesday.

“We need to build a new emergency department. We’re treating 27,000 patients a year in a department designed to handle 18,000,” Chief Executive Office Shaun Beggs said. “It doesn’t matter how many physicians you have if you’ve only got 11 exam rooms.

“The board will be taking on that project as we start our master facilities program. It will require community support approved by the citizens, but it may not require a sales tax.

“We’ll go to the citizens for approval of the debt. We’ll start the planning process for the new emergency department in April and hopefully have it finalized by June, then we’ll go to the people.”

The hospital’s trauma level was also discussed during Wednesday’s meeting. “All organizations that have an emergency room in the state of Oklahoma are designated from one to four. The only level one in Oklahoma is OU Medical Center,” Beggs said. “We’re a level three. We had to demonstrate that we can cover primary care needs, plus surgical and orthopedic needs.

“We selected to be a level three, but with Dr. Chad Crawley (an orthopedic surgeon) here now, we are working on a strategic plan to grow our services in the community and do what we want to do to meet the needs of the population.”

Beggs said the board will meet Friday to begin “crafting the plan itself” to upgrade the hospital’s trauma level.

Board members also discussed ways to improve the services patients receive when they go to the emergency room. “One is retraining all staff members in what we need to do to make sure we deliver good customer service,” he said. “We’re going to change our triage system, which is the initial visit with the nurse, to prioritize who is sickest so they get seen first.

“We’ll also be implementing a new information system chart to document the care delivered. And we’ll provide specific discharge instructions so patients will have a clear understanding of what they need to do to continue their care.”

In other news, the following people were approved for one year to the consulting staff with Diagnostic Radiology privileges: Dr. Ramesh Avva; Dr. James Maurer; Dr. James Newman; and Dr. Mark Vaccaro.

Kristen Walters, P.A., was appointed for one year to the Allied Health staff with privileges as a physician under the supervision of Dr. Robert Wiebe.

In advancements, Dr. Nayyar Syed was appointed for two years to the active medical staff with privileges in Internal Medicine and as a hospitalist.

Linda Dodson, N.P., was also advanced. She was appointed for two years to the Allied Health staff with privileges as a nurse practitioner under the supervision of Dr. Gregory Rogers.

Four people were were reappointed: Dr. James Golla, active medical staff with privileges in Gastroenterology; Dr. Karim Khorasanchian, two years to the active medical staff with privileges in Internal Medicine/Cardiology; Dr. Richard T. Boone, two years to the associate staff with privileges in oral and maxillofacial surgery; and Kent Schmidt, CRNA, two years to the Allied Health Staff with privileges as a nurse anesthetist under the supervision of Dr. Michael Boyer.

Dr. Ray Dixon was appointment as chairman of the board Q.I. Committee. Weldon Smith is chairman of the Physician Recruitment Committee. Cara Bland is secretary to the MRHC Board of Trustees.

Anthony Washington and Charlotte Donathan were approved as McAlester Regional Health Center Authority trustees.

Emily Mouser, vice president of Human Resources, was recognized for being named the McAlester Chamber of Commerce’s 2007 Business Woman of the Year.

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