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Published on: 5/1/2009
Last Visited: 5/18/2009
"We do not accept the traditional model of the hospital as the destination for patients with illness," said Alan Kent, president and CEO.
"We instead focus on using technology to make ourselves a healthcare destination so people will come to us for outpatient surgery, wellness and rehabilitation, and proactive healthcare services."
Meadows Regional Medical Center: More Than A Hospital
Alan Kent, president and CEO
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Kent said the growth reflects the changing spatial needs of the healthcare industry as a whole.
For patient safety and comfort, and for infection control purposes, hospitals now have all-private rooms.
Other areas also need to be renovated and expanded to house newer technologies, such as integrated surgical suites and computer controls in ORs.
Because developing a new facility in a constantly changing industry is such a daunting task, rather than jumping in head first, Kent and the team at MRMC started the process with an internal debt capacity study to determine what they could afford.
The team then brought in engineers to analyze MRMC's current facility to determine whether or not to proceed with a renovation, a staged replacement, or a full replacement.
Once the MRMC team and the engineers determined a renovation was not an efficient option, they brought in another group of engineers to help with site selection.
After selecting the site, the team then hired project managers to keep the project on track.
"We started with a project management firm once we got into the nuts and bolts as opposed to hiring an architect first," Kent said.
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Kent said the hospital's service volumes have changed in the past few years, and two-thirds of its revenues are now generated by outpatient services.
After conducting a statistical analysis of demand, it was determined 66 beds would more than satisfy the hospital's needs, but that doesn't mean there won't be need-or space-for growth in the future.
"All of our intensive areas are experiencing growth; those areas are designed for simple expansion," said Kent.
"We also believe that once we're in the new facility, we will attract enough business back from competitors that we will be adding onto the new hospital within 36 months of its opening."
The 72-acre site of the new MRMC facility, which is scheduled to open this June, is 50 acres larger than the hospital's current campus.
The additional acreage will not only accommodate the hospital's departmental growth but also its affiliated growth.
Kent said the vision is to design the campus to house a long term care facility and carefully controlled healthcare-complementary retail, such as a community park, that will support general health and wellness initiatives.
"We already have a certificate of need application in with the state of Georgia," said Kent.
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As such, when identifying the hospital's future needs, Kent and MRMC's board of directors looked at investments in technology with a three- to five-year timeframe in mind, choosing systems that would be complementary with newer equipment.
"We're looking to upgrade our PACS, and we'll be acquiring a 320-slice CT in the near future," Kent said.
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"Our goal is to enable healthcare practitioners to be fully involved in the work they are trained to do rather than being related to operating components that are supposed to help them do their jobs," said Kent.
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