Thursday, September 29th, 2016
Hospital to launch expansion
By Jared Mauch
Submitted Photo
Mercer Health Senior Director of Development, Marketing and Community Relations Mindy Kremer speaks to a crowd of people during Sunday's ceremonial groundbreaking of the west wing expansion project at the Coldwater hospital.
COLDWATER - The first stages of the planned $24 million expansion project on Mercer County Community Hospital's west wing is set to begin soon.
Mercer Health board members learned Wednesday night that construction of a temporary parking lot located closer to the west campus building on West Main Street will begin in the coming weeks.
After the lot is completed, utility work can begin for the three-story extension, which will be constructed in a portion of the existing parking lot near the main entrance, treasurer George Boyles said.
The hospital hosted a formal groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday to kick off the work. communications director Mindy Kremer said a good crowd attended, and she received positive comments for roping off the area where the expansion will stand as a visual guide.
Boyles explained to board members the second floor will house private patient rooms and the third floor will be used for surgeries. The first floor will contain an outpatient center.
Construction is slated for early 2017 once the utility work is complete, he said.
The 54,000-square-foot addition is expected to open in 2018. The expansion's size is equal to more than 40 percent of the existing hospital's 119,000 square feet.
Boyles also gave an update on the patient suite expansion project for the west campus building. The $230,000 project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, he said.
Board members also were updated on hospital employee training on the new EPIC online patient records systems in conjunction with The Ohio State University medical staff.
The records system is set to go live for the hospital at noon Nov. 1, CEO Lisa Klenke said.
Officials anticipated about 1,500 hours of training for staff but have already exceeded 2,000 hours, Boyles said.
The training is being taught by OSU representatives or by an online course that employees can do individually. Officials hope to have training wrapped up in a few weeks, he said.
"This is a huge change for a lot of people, particularly folks who have been in the nursing environment for a number of years and are now looking at a system that is much more comprehensive than what they have now," Boyles said.
Board members also,
• learned officials plan to have an active-shooter training session sometime in early 2017.
• learned about the nondiscretionary influenza vaccine policy. The policy will be applicable to hospital employees and volunteers.
The influenza strain changes yearly, and the anticipation of picking the correct strain to use can be difficult. Once the vaccine strain is in a person it will stay forever. Receiving the vaccine yearly will broaden the range of strains to which a person is immune, Klenke said.
• met in a 33-minute executive session to discuss planning and personnel matters. No action was taken.
