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EHRMC: Yes, we’re open
  
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By DAVID TAYLOR
Standing in ankle deep water with the sun shining outside in September, employees at the East Houston Regional Medical Center couldn’t believe that they were about to be flooded--again.
An unprecedented storm surge from Hurricane Ike almost dealt the hospital a fatal blow, but on Tuesday, the staff demonstrated their indomitable spirit and reopened to the North Channel community.
The resurrected hospital didn’t come without a high price tag with insurers dealing out some $40 million for reparations and improvements.
“About 25,000 patient encounters including ER visits, surgeries, x-rays, physical therapy and all the rest when you add it up caused a major disruption to service for this community,” said EHRMC CEO Jeff Holland.
“That’s the number of people we haven’t been able to take care of and we’re anxious to reconnect with our community,” he said at the ribbon cutting ceremony, Dec. 30.
Community leaders, hospital employees and dozens of community members looked on as Houston City Councilman Michael Sullivan read a proclamation from the city of Houston welcoming the hospital back into service. Following the proclamation and brief remarks from Holland, the ceremonial ribbon was cut and the tours began.
Like the parents of a new child, hospital officials showed off the new, updated facilities which also included some critical upgrades to major equipment and extensive technology for the hospital.
While the hospital was on display during the Tuesday ceremonies, it doesn’t open officially until 7 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 2.
The news of the reopening couldn’t come sooner for many in the medical field.
“It made it tough on our citizens to start with,” said Southlake Houston EMS Director of Operations Joe Fress, “because 70 percent of our patients prefer East Houston Regional Medical Center.”
Fress said a lot of the patients didn’t realize the hospital was still closed and it meant transporting them to facilities away from their homes.
“It also took us out of service from our areas leaving them without protection for longer periods of time,” he said. Area services would provide backup, but sometimes that would mean longer response times and could have meant serious results.
“The expense was a little higher for us and the response times longer, but we are happy that the hospital is functioning again,” he said.
Fress took one of the tours of the hospital to see the updated equipment, including a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, upgraded surgery bays and impressive technology for x-rays and imaging processes.
Furr High School graduate Javier Ramirez has been working at the hospital since 1985. He started working in trash and linens and housekeeping, but the ‘helping’ bug bit the young student and now he’s moved up in his responsibilities.
“I worked in the mornings and did my studies from 3 to 11,” he said. “I wouldn’t eat lunch and would study in the break room and take college work at San Jacinto College.”
Ramirez has a career at the hospital, having served in several departments, and a family to take care of at home. But during the closure, he was transferred to the Bayshore Hospital campus.
“I loved working there, but this is so much closer to home and I have more time with my family.”
Holland said while the hospital was down, they did their best to transfer as many employees as possible to area HCA hospitals and for those they couldn’t find a job, they helped with some pay towards their salary. “It wasn’t 100 percent,” he said, “but it was significant.”
Holland said they didn’t want their employees drifting off to other jobs because they felt like a family.
“I am so excited,” said Dolores Beavers. “This is my ministry and I have really missed it,” she said.
Beavers and her partner, Garlan Templer, have been serving as lay chaplains with the Community of Hope. They visit patients at least once a week and are also on call in the event there is an emergency and a family requests their assistance.
“I had been grieving because I couldn’t go down here to the hospital. I missed it terribly,” she said.
Sullivan reiterated the necessity of the hospital.
“This hospital is near a lot of industry, freeways, residences as well as schools, so we need local regional care and that’s what we get here with EHRMC,” said the councilman.
“For municipalities around (this area), many of them generally use volunteer fire and EMS services and they don’t have the resources to send more trucks or ambulances with more people. They need the ability to take the patient to the nearest care facility, turn around and get back into service as soon as they can.”
The hospital will reopen in phases until fully operational by late January, 2009. Most clinical or patient services will be open Jan. 2. Offices, conference rooms and other non-clinical facilities are still under reconstruction.
“As with many homes and businesses in our area, flood waters seeped into our facility when local pump stations failed to operate due to power losses,” said Holland “City officials have provided considerable cooperation for the prevention of a reccurrence, and we have allocated close to $500,000 for this project.”
Holland said that the importance of having a hospital in the North Channel area cannot be overstated.
“As the only Level IV trauma emergency center in east Harris County designated by the state of Texas, and the only primary healthcare provider in the area, we are proud of our $40 million investment in fully renovating the facility and continue providing high-quality medical care close to home,” he said.
Renovations included an improved patient common area; and has invested in enhanced services and technology including upgrades to the picture archiving and communications system (PACS), to provide for the portability of electronic patient information, and the installation of a 1.5 T MRI unit to provide better quality images.
The PACS system allows doctors to view images throughout the facility on computer monitors for efficient patient care, which decreases interpretation times for the physicians and eliminates film. Images can also be placed on CDs for follow-up visits.
Other additions include a dual head nuclear medicine camera, a state-of-the-art technological tool that can mean shorter exam times and an increase in quality images for cardiac visualization and function. Also added is the Radiographic/Fluoroscopic Digital Room. The room allows physicians to perform exams faster with less procedure time as well as view the images on computers.
The MRI 1.5 Tesla is expected to be operational by early February. The higher strength magnet will decrease scan times and has a much shorter patient area that enables even claustrophobic patients to be scanned.
The hospital will also have a 16-slice CT scanner.
“The Houston Fire Department has relied greatly on East Houston Regional Medical Center to help protect the residents of this area,” said David E. Persse, MD, EMT-P, FACEP, director of city of Houston Emergency Medical Services. “The catchment area for this hospital is as big as they come, and EHRMC has routinely handled the load. They have been greatly missed during their absence and we are excited to see them open to care for emergency patients once again.”
For more information about services or community programs, visit www.easthoustonrmc.com.
An unprecedented storm surge from Hurricane Ike almost dealt the hospital a fatal blow, but on Tuesday, the staff demonstrated their indomitable spirit and reopened to the North Channel community.
The resurrected hospital didn’t come without a high price tag with insurers dealing out some $40 million for reparations and improvements.
“About 25,000 patient encounters including ER visits, surgeries, x-rays, physical therapy and all the rest when you add it up caused a major disruption to service for this community,” said EHRMC CEO Jeff Holland.
“That’s the number of people we haven’t been able to take care of and we’re anxious to reconnect with our community,” he said at the ribbon cutting ceremony, Dec. 30.
Community leaders, hospital employees and dozens of community members looked on as Houston City Councilman Michael Sullivan read a proclamation from the city of Houston welcoming the hospital back into service. Following the proclamation and brief remarks from Holland, the ceremonial ribbon was cut and the tours began.
Like the parents of a new child, hospital officials showed off the new, updated facilities which also included some critical upgrades to major equipment and extensive technology for the hospital.
While the hospital was on display during the Tuesday ceremonies, it doesn’t open officially until 7 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 2.
The news of the reopening couldn’t come sooner for many in the medical field.
“It made it tough on our citizens to start with,” said Southlake Houston EMS Director of Operations Joe Fress, “because 70 percent of our patients prefer East Houston Regional Medical Center.”
Fress said a lot of the patients didn’t realize the hospital was still closed and it meant transporting them to facilities away from their homes.
“It also took us out of service from our areas leaving them without protection for longer periods of time,” he said. Area services would provide backup, but sometimes that would mean longer response times and could have meant serious results.
“The expense was a little higher for us and the response times longer, but we are happy that the hospital is functioning again,” he said.
Fress took one of the tours of the hospital to see the updated equipment, including a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, upgraded surgery bays and impressive technology for x-rays and imaging processes.
Furr High School graduate Javier Ramirez has been working at the hospital since 1985. He started working in trash and linens and housekeeping, but the ‘helping’ bug bit the young student and now he’s moved up in his responsibilities.
“I worked in the mornings and did my studies from 3 to 11,” he said. “I wouldn’t eat lunch and would study in the break room and take college work at San Jacinto College.”
Ramirez has a career at the hospital, having served in several departments, and a family to take care of at home. But during the closure, he was transferred to the Bayshore Hospital campus.
“I loved working there, but this is so much closer to home and I have more time with my family.”
Holland said while the hospital was down, they did their best to transfer as many employees as possible to area HCA hospitals and for those they couldn’t find a job, they helped with some pay towards their salary. “It wasn’t 100 percent,” he said, “but it was significant.”
Holland said they didn’t want their employees drifting off to other jobs because they felt like a family.
“I am so excited,” said Dolores Beavers. “This is my ministry and I have really missed it,” she said.
Beavers and her partner, Garlan Templer, have been serving as lay chaplains with the Community of Hope. They visit patients at least once a week and are also on call in the event there is an emergency and a family requests their assistance.
“I had been grieving because I couldn’t go down here to the hospital. I missed it terribly,” she said.
Sullivan reiterated the necessity of the hospital.
“This hospital is near a lot of industry, freeways, residences as well as schools, so we need local regional care and that’s what we get here with EHRMC,” said the councilman.
“For municipalities around (this area), many of them generally use volunteer fire and EMS services and they don’t have the resources to send more trucks or ambulances with more people. They need the ability to take the patient to the nearest care facility, turn around and get back into service as soon as they can.”
The hospital will reopen in phases until fully operational by late January, 2009. Most clinical or patient services will be open Jan. 2. Offices, conference rooms and other non-clinical facilities are still under reconstruction.
“As with many homes and businesses in our area, flood waters seeped into our facility when local pump stations failed to operate due to power losses,” said Holland “City officials have provided considerable cooperation for the prevention of a reccurrence, and we have allocated close to $500,000 for this project.”
Holland said that the importance of having a hospital in the North Channel area cannot be overstated.
“As the only Level IV trauma emergency center in east Harris County designated by the state of Texas, and the only primary healthcare provider in the area, we are proud of our $40 million investment in fully renovating the facility and continue providing high-quality medical care close to home,” he said.
Renovations included an improved patient common area; and has invested in enhanced services and technology including upgrades to the picture archiving and communications system (PACS), to provide for the portability of electronic patient information, and the installation of a 1.5 T MRI unit to provide better quality images.
The PACS system allows doctors to view images throughout the facility on computer monitors for efficient patient care, which decreases interpretation times for the physicians and eliminates film. Images can also be placed on CDs for follow-up visits.
Other additions include a dual head nuclear medicine camera, a state-of-the-art technological tool that can mean shorter exam times and an increase in quality images for cardiac visualization and function. Also added is the Radiographic/Fluoroscopic Digital Room. The room allows physicians to perform exams faster with less procedure time as well as view the images on computers.
The MRI 1.5 Tesla is expected to be operational by early February. The higher strength magnet will decrease scan times and has a much shorter patient area that enables even claustrophobic patients to be scanned.
The hospital will also have a 16-slice CT scanner.
“The Houston Fire Department has relied greatly on East Houston Regional Medical Center to help protect the residents of this area,” said David E. Persse, MD, EMT-P, FACEP, director of city of Houston Emergency Medical Services. “The catchment area for this hospital is as big as they come, and EHRMC has routinely handled the load. They have been greatly missed during their absence and we are excited to see them open to care for emergency patients once again.”
For more information about services or community programs, visit www.easthoustonrmc.com.
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