Duncan Regional Hospital: Outside of the Box
Hospital Systems
Written by Amanda Gaines   
Friday, 29 February 2008
Duncan Regional Hospital: Outside of the Box - Health Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Scott Street explains how forward thinking is bringing high-quality healthcare to a previously underserved community.
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In November 2007, Sanford Health announced Duncan Regional Hospital (DRH) would be the first site to house a fully staffed, technologically advanced children’s clinic. For a community with a large percentage of pediatric patients out-migrating, this news is music to the ears of many in the Duncan, Okla. area.

Duncan Regional Hospital: Outside of the Box - Health Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Scott Street, President and CEO
“Potentially, the clinic will be roughly 11,000 square feet, a referral clinic for our area, and will sit directly on our campus,” said DRH’s president and CEO, Scott Street. “We have many primary care physicians serving our pediatric population, but a large number of patients continue to travel to other communities for specific pediatric care. This center will help us keep that patient base.”

Wait, don’t leave
Although community need is the biggest proponent behind Sanford choosing DRH, Street also believes the choice came from DRH’s reputation for thinking outside of the box. As a not-for-profit, private, tax-exempt organization, DRH is at an advantage. With a passionate board, strong management team, supportive medical staff, and active foundation, the hospital ably tackles initiatives a more conservative healthcare institution would not.

For example, since 2003, DRH has been involved in the development of three comprehensive cancer treatment centers in partnership with Lawton, Oklahoma-based Comanche County Memorial Hospital and Jackson County Memorial Hospital in Altus, Oklahoma. Once completed, Southwest Oklahoma Cancer Centers will provide close-to-home cancer and radiation treatments for citizens across 13 counties.

“For three hospitals to agree on anything is unique,” said Street. “But to come together and financially develop cancer centers is a true marvel.” The hub of the cancer center joint venture will be in Lawton, with another center on the DRH campus and a third on the campus in Altus. This July, those years of preparation will finally pay off when DRH opens its 10,000-square-foot center. “Right now our patients travel a minimum of an hour and a half for their cancer treatment,” he continued. “This will be an added tool in stopping out-migration.”

In mid-2007, the hospital also announced plans to open a nursing program in partnership with two regional colleges, University of Oklahoma’s College of Nursing and Western Oklahoma State College. University of Oklahoma will offer bachelors and masters programs at the DRH facility while Western Oklahoma State College will offer a two-year associate degree in nursing. In addition to growing its own nursing staff with the development of the nursing program, DRH’s new 20,000-square-foot nursing school is open to anyone wanting to continue their education.
The school opened this past fall, and Street said the classes for the January 2008 session were almost immediately maxed out at 118 students. The program does not guarantee its graduates will continue their careers at DRH, but Street said the more important after-effect is that those students will stay in Oklahoma. “We’re not the only hospital in the country that needs more clinical staff,” he said. “Our desire, however, is to keep those that will be employed in the healthcare field in the region.”

Send in the kids
Within the nursing school, DRH is again showing its true colors by adding a hands-on-health, interactive learning center. The 2,100-square-foot center will allow children from the age of kindergarten through the eight grade to learn more about careers in healthcare through age-appropriate messages and exhibits.

One of the roughly 10 exhibits will be a surgery suite. Children will begin by listening to a message about how germs are spread. They will then, under a black light, see the germs on their hands, go through a hand washing process, and look again to see how the germs have been washed off. Afterwards, the children will don a mask and enter the surgery suite.

“In the surgery suite, the children will hear messages about becoming a surgeon, but all exhibits will be laid out in a similar fashion,” said Stephanie Forehand, DRH’s director of marketing and public relations. “In addition to getting children excited about careers in the healthcare industry, we want to match the Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS) standards on the educational side.”

The center will provide a forum for healthcare professionals to also discuss health and wellness, instructing children on taking responsibility. At the end of the tour, the children will be fed a healthy lunch, and a dietician will speak about eating well and how what they put into their bodies effects them. “We’ll also have pharmacy exhibit, which means we’ll discuss the importance of math and writing skills, as well as prescription and illegal drug abuse, with the children,” Forehand said.

“We’re trying to create a pipeline for future healthcare workers to be in our facility and the region as a whole,” said Street. “The healthcare industry needs to be creative in how it inspires children and young adults to get into the field of healthcare. We’ve proven that our learning center and nursing schools are a big help. This is a longer-term goal, but we’ve got to get out and create excitement about healthcare.” 
 
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