Thursday, January 31, 2008

Wishes and Hopes....3/5

Where lies the future of Paris’ hospital?

Staff reports
The Paris News

Published January 27, 2008

It’s been a long time coming — and it may very well be quite some time before we actually see it happen — but Paris Regional Medical Center recently announced that it was another step closer to what it calls “campus consolidation.”

Chris Dux, the hospital’s CEO, told employees a couple of weeks ago that the hospital had purchased two new heart catheterization labs and a 64-slice CT scanner. One of the labs and the CT scanner were destined to be installed within two months at the hospital’s North Campus, the former McCuistion Regional Medical Center. The new equipment is to be part of the hospital’s planned Cardiac Center of Excellence, a facility dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease, providing a level of care previously only available in larger metropolitan hospitals.

As exciting as news of the advancement of the cardiac center is, the announcement that the hospital was another step further along in its long-range plans for the North Campus was just as exciting to the community at large.

As far back as the merger of Christus St. Joseph’s and McCuistion, Paris’ two long-time independent hospitals, into a single provider, hospital officials began to formulate long-range plans to make greater use of the facilities on the North Loop, expanding services offered there and building new structures on the open ground surrounding the main structure.

“Our long-term goal remains for Christus St. Joseph’s to relocate all services to the North Campus," said Monty McLaurin, chief executive officer of CSJ, as reported in an Aug. 8, 2002, story in The Paris News. The remark was part of a report on short-term relocation of services to the South Campus, a move designed to improve cash flow for the hospital.

When Essent Healthcare bought the hospital soon after, Essent officials went on record that they, too, saw the wisdom in eventually making greater use of the North Campus, with its open acreage and fewer busy city streets cutting through the grounds.

Dux told hospital staff at the meeting recently that the new equipment was “the first step in our campus consolidation.” He also announced that Essent had hired the nation’s largest designer and builder of healthcare facilities to assist the hospital with “a clear long-term plan for future expansion and growth of the North Campus.”

Such an announcement can’t help but make the people of Paris optimistic that Essent is prepared to do what it takes to make PRMC a first-rate medical facility. The hospital’s willingness to go forward with plans that will make best use of all available facilities should be encouraging to those of us who have watched the hospitals with a wary eye these past few years. We hope we are witnessing the first steps in returning Paris to its standing as a strong, stable center of regional medicine for Northeast Texas and Southeast Oklahoma.


Personally, I'll believe it when I see it- but if it happens, it can't be soon enough. The south campus is landlocked, and I don't believe Brookshire's is going to close its doors any time soon, so expansion there is out of the question. --anonymous



My take is: status quo. There are some minimum upgrades needed for the cath lab...minimum to staying open. Putting in a 64-slice CT at the North campus might be just to appease Dr Hashmi...it becomes as unwieldy as the MRI when needed for a South Campus patient. By the time it would start to be utilized fully, it will be as outdated as the one it replaces....frank

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would suggest calling your favorite sales rep at G.E., Siemens, Toshiba, Shamadzu or Philips to see if they have received a recent order from E$$ent for a top of the line CT or cath lab.

And the premier builder of hospitals?

Why didn't the Snooze name names? Probably because there aren't any.

What a fluff piece.

Annonyomus said...

I'm glad to see that a conslidation is being looked at. I only hope they will consider also the parking situation, for both staff and customers. It is not the best at either campus at this point. We will see what happens when the changes take place, or even if they do. I do not want promises, I want action on the part of Essent. We have had too many promises that never came to fruition. STOP spending the money on lawsuits and spend it on the improvement of hospital services, staff, and equipment that are so badly needed, and then the people will get the confidence to return to Paris. "Build it and they will come."

Anonymous said...

Looks like they could build on the grassy area in front of the north campus and put a skywalk connecting the new to old. Also there is enough room over there to build a parking garage. I agree on consolidation. Either do it and show some progress, or sell the company to someone who will bring back TRUST in the community. I agree-"Build it and they will come".

Anonymous said...

.........again, promises.

Actions speak louder than words and empty promises do no make a reinvestment in the community real.

Anonymous said...

It could buy a year easily to begin a "study" of what to build. Great way to get everyone off your ass while hoping for a better market for a sale, etc. You wouldn't have to spend any real money for 2-3 years and the PR issues calm enough to not deter a new suitor (ie. the old Triad guys that are forming an investment group).

Anonymous said...

It appears that a few months ago the Rehab dept. was audited and about ten patients were denied Medicare payments. The funny thing is, none of them were Dr. Xavier's patients this time. All the patients were admitted by the new group hired by the hospital from Dallas.
If you recall Dr.Xavier lost the Directorship on this issue about a year ago.
Who are they going to blame this time?

Anonymous said...

New Scanner is to be a Toshiba which I heard was not user friendly in the past. Perhaps they've made improvements?

The demographics on Toshiba's website look nice.

Anonymous said...

all I can say is TASHITA!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

......yawn

Anonymous said...

What is up with all the fire hydrants around the hospital painted black. I called the fire dept and they said that means no water, the hydrant is dead. That's nice to know when the hospital catches fire. The fire dept said it was the city problem and the city says they new nothing about the black hydrants. Hmmmm.....Seems like the fire dept is up to their old tricks. I hope they get fixed. :(

Fire hydrants are directly attached to the city mains, therefore falling under the water department's umbrella. When a hydrant goes bad, it is generally from the integrated valve at the base of the hydrant, meaning a replacement. The most common cause is not flushing them often enough....frank

Anonymous said...

Ten years ago, THR told McCuistion that a new office building was not feasible and quoted construction costs of $300/sf.

I wonder what has changed to make a new building cheaper?

fac_p said...

It doesn't really matter what's said at this point, even with a favorable report from their study, all that has to be said later is that circumstances have changed. This is commitment meaning no commitment.

Anonymous said...

Until dirt starts flying and steel starts going up, believe nothing said by either Essent of their local mouthpiece, the Snooze. At least one other Essent facility has crawfished on their pledge to build a new facility- what's to keep Ducky from announcing the same thing?