Glades General Hospital: Breaking New Ground
Hospitals
Written by Amanda Gaines   
Thursday, 01 November 2007
Glades General Hospital: Breaking New Ground - Health Executive - RedCoat Publishing
This acute care hospital is showing its commitment to quality by building a new facility.
For 63 years, Glades General Hospital has provided acute care services in sugarcane-rich Western Palm Beach County. In 1989, Glades General became part of the voter-approved taxing district, the Health Care District of Palm Beach County. Ten years later, a for-profit health system purchased Glades General, but the payor mix proved to be a financial challenge.

Glades General Hospital: Breaking New Ground - Health Executive - RedCoat Publishing
David Zechman, CEO
The Health Care District, a health system that encompasses an HMO, a trauma system, children’s health clinics, pharmacies, a nursing home, and local health initiatives to cover uninsured Palm Beach County residents, reacquired the rural hospital in 2004. Over the past three years, the Health Care District invested $3.5 million in Glades General on technology, such as a 16-slice CT, a PACS, flat-screen monitors and televisions, and an electronic patient documentation system. However, the damage caused by the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 accelerated the Health Care District’s plans to retire the facility.

“Glades General Hospital opened in 1944 and is the county’s only public hospital, serving a predominantly uninsured, low-income population,” explained David Zechman, Glades General CEO since April 2007. “Since Glades General is the only acute care facility in a 35-mile radius, this community depends on us. The thought process for building a new hospital was already underway, but the hurricanes and damage solidified the decision. The new hospital broke ground in late October and will be completed in the fall of 2009.”

Privacy and confidentiality
In addition to solving the problems related to an aging facility, Glades General’s new home will provide room for growth and accommodate the changing healthcare needs of the region. When the hospital was originally built, the climate of privacy and confidentiality was not at the level that it is today. Consequently, Glades General’s 73 licensed beds are located in predominantly dual-occupancy rooms.

The new facility will have 70 private patient rooms, which will be larger than the rooms currently housing two patients, and will include family-friendly consultation areas. The ED will grow from eight private treatment rooms to 16 and will include three fast-track exam areas. Utilizing folding partitions, three classrooms adjacent to the dining room can open to create a large space for community functions and health education programs.

“We will have separate patient and public elevators for maximum privacy and security, which is something we don’t have right now,” said Zechman. “Again, it wasn’t considered an option 30 years ago. People would simply get on an elevator with patients on gurneys and family members. Today, it’s another story.”

Glades General’s current ICU is a small, four-bed open unit that doesn’t allow the level of confidentiality desired by patients today. The new facility will have a modern six-room ICU suite. “Overall, we want to provide patients with the level of comfort and discretion to make their stay at our facility as pleasant as possible.”

Continuous improvement
Zechman said when he first arrived at the hospital as CEO, he told his staff that patient care, quality, and technological improvements should continue while the new facility was being built. Consequently, this fall Glades General will roll out a medication reconciliation reporting system to be part of the pre-existing nursing EMR. The system will allow doctors and nurses to know their patient’s medical history at the time of admission. Part of the system will also include electronic transcription so doctors can access, edit, and print their dictations at any time using the Internet.

Another new system enables nurses to use handheld scanners to match barcoded patient bracelets with medications, which ensures medication is properly dispensed. “We will have technologically advanced nursing stations that can incorporate into our computer-wide network,” said Zechman. “Thanks to the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, we already had the foundation upon which to build it.” Because the hospital delivers close to 600 babies per year, its active OB program was a point of focus. In August, Glades General became the first in Palm Beach County to provide onsite birth registration, which allows new parents to register and pick up their newborn’s birth certificate in a matter of days rather than weeks. As a side benefit, the program has ensured the hospital’s compliance with screening new moms for Florida’s Healthy Start wellness program.

“The electronic system eliminates the need for a Healthy Start coordinator to personally visit the hospital to interview the applicant,” explained Zechman. “We are the only hospital in Palm Beach County to achieve 100% compliance with the Healthy Start screening for the past three years.” In addition to housing larger ORs, the new hospital will have a dedicated C-section room and two delivery/post partum rooms.

Climb to completion
Zechman’s ultimate goal for Glades General is to become the preferred provider of healthcare services for the entire Lake Okeechobee region. Although the new facility will be located only three miles from the current hospital, the site is centrally located within the market area and is more readily accessible.

The new hospital also allows for growth. “We can expand from 70 beds to 115 if we need to in the future,” said Zechman. “Future plans include space to build three new medical office buildings on that campus to help attract physicians and expand our service lines.”

For now, Glades General, the Health Care District, and the regional healthcare foundation, Glades Healthcare Foundation, are focused on three things: developing the new facility, raising the remaining $23 million of the $73 million needed to complete the new hospital, and continuing to provide patients high quality healthcare.

“Technology is wonderful, and we’ve very appreciative of the Health Care District’s support in what we’re doing, but it comes down to serving people and the community,” Zechman concluded. “Our dedicated staff looks forward to delivering that care at the new regional hospital.”
 
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