Hospital Town Hall
The late Helen Murphy would have been proud, as the many achievements and future plans for Montgomery County Memorial Hospital were presented at a “Town Hall Report to the Community” Thursday evening at the Wilson Arts Center.
The evening began with time for the public to stroll around the building viewing technology exhibits such as the Heartland Mobile Health Unit, high-tech suits and modern tools and prosthetics for orthopedic surgery, the Panda Infant Warmer for newborn infant care, advanced technology for cardiac care, Digital Radiology, Telehealth and more.
At 7 p.m., Public Relations Director Dave Jennings took the podium, first to dedicate the evening’s event to the memory of Murphy, a former hospital board trustee and founder of the hospital auxliary, before introducing David Abercrombie, Chief Executive Officer.
“We want to start out 2016 by communicating better with the public,” said Abercrombie.
“This is, after all, your hospital.
“MCMH is an important asset not only to the physical health but also to the economic health of our community,” he said.
“The hospital employs 350 people, and in 2015 contributed $15 million to the local economy in direct payroll.”
Recently MCMH was proud to announce it had received the Five Star Award for Patient Satisfaction presented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service. Of 6,000 hospitals across the country, approximately 4,000 are rated annually by Medicare, and in 2015, only 206 of these achieved a five-star rating, nine of them in Iowa.
“We feel that it’s because of the quality and caring of our employees that we have earned this award,” said Abercrombie. “Outside of their jobs, many of our employees are involved all over the community in churches, schools, the arts, fund raising - all sorts of ways. They are your friends and neighbors, and that’s why they are so caring.”
He spoke of three goals for the year ahead: improving accessibility to care, quality of care, an reducing the cost of care.
“The mobile health unit has been a great asset in increasing accessibility , serving patients in Red Oak, Essex, Emerson, Elliott and Stanton, and also in reducing cost. A visit to the unit costs about the same as to a doctor’s office, in comparison to an Emergency Room visit, which costs considerably more,” he said.
“The many advancements in technology, such as Digital Imaging and Tele-Medicine are improving quality of care, and there have been and will continue to be upgrades in the equipment and environment of our Hematology and Oncology department.
“We are very glad that Dr. Commerce stayed with us in Cancer Care, and we have also added two new doctors to our medical staff, Dr. Darwin “Pete” Peterson has joined Dr. Grass in surgery, and Dr. Matt Humpal has joined our Obstetrics and Gynecology team.”
Abercrombie spoke of one area of community health that urgently needs to be addressed.
“Unfortunately, our county ranked 95th out of 99 counties in Iowa when it came to positive medical outcomes in the areas of diabetes, obesity and tobacco use. That is unacceptable and we need to work hard to improve that standing,” he said.
“It’s an ambitious program we have set ourselves for the year ahead and beyond, but I’m confident that working together we can achieve it.”