Hospital boasts new doctors, stable budget to tackle future projects
With more than 40 new doctors on board, a stable balance sheet and a just-finished $50 million expansion, Uniontown Hospital is looking to future projects to achieve its mission of providing quality health care for the community, hospital officials said. One of those projects is a $1.2 million chronic wound care center, complete with two hyperbaric chambers, the hospital plans to complete by Oct. 1.
“We have many people in our area who suffer from wounds that don’t heal, chronic wounds,” Paul Bacharach, hospital CEO and president, said.
Speaking at the hospital’s annual open board meeting Thursday, Bacharach said renovations are under way in the physical rehabilitation department on the first floor to house the center. It will provide a multi-disciplinary service including medical, surgical and podiatric care, physical therapy and nursing.
Two hyperbaric oxygen chambers will be installed, the first at the hospital, he added.
“People have had to go outside the community for treatment. Now, they will be able to receive it here,” Bacharach said.
Other reports presented at the open board meeting, held for the public annually as a requirement of the The Joint Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, included financial, quality and patient safety and future goals and challenges.
Officials said the hospital recently completed a $50 million expansion that included a new patient tower, emergency department and other features aimed at improving its quality of care.
A new geriatric behavioral health facility, costing about $2.4 million, was part of that expansion and opened in June. It created about 25 new jobs and has 18 in-patient beds, intensive outpatient services and affiliation with Chestnut Ridge Counseling for psychiatric services.
The new unit, built on the first floor in a wing dating to the 1960s, will serve “a community that has a very large senior population,” Bacharach said.
He added the hospital will replace its second cardiac cath lab, expanding its treatment of peripheral vascular disease and providing electrophysiology and advanced cardiac devices. The lab should be operational in August.
Dr. David Murello, in his report on quality and patient safety, reviewed work to improve care for patients with acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia, congestive heart failure, prevention of surgical site infection and phlebitis (venous thrombosis embolism). “We are focusing on National Quality Measures established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for caring for patients,” he said.
Steven Handy, senior vice president and chief financial officer, explained the hospital is part of the Fayette Regional Health System. “We have been impacted by the economy but we are very stable financially,” he said. “Our goal is to be here indefinitely. We are among the top 20 in community value among all 1,416 small non-teaching hospitals,” he said. “We must look to the future, especially with health care reform. It is a complicated issue and we must be constantly planning. It is from that planning that we see we have to continue to grow and be more efficient and we must maintain our financial strength.”