Board approves MCH renovations

Operating rooms to undergo major overhaul

Operating rooms at Medical Center Hospital will be looking a bit different over the next two years.
The Ector County Hospital District Board of Directors voted Monday to fund $2.5 million toward the first phase of operating room renovations.
The renovation will turn two of the hospital’s 12 current operating rooms into one state-of-the-art endovascular suite, officials said.
“It’s just time,” Medical Center Chief Executive Officer William Webster said. “Our current O.R. is 30 years old.”
By the time the entire operating room area is renovated in 2009, Webster said it would bring Medical Center’s inpatient facilities up to the standards of its Wheatley Stewart Medical Pavilion, which opened in 2004.
The board also approved the purchase of 26 McKesson CarePoint-RN carts for $249,356. Lisa Corley of Medical Center’s clinical informations system said the robots pick out medication and put it in envelopes for patients.
The machine eliminates errors by reading bar codes, she said.
“That makes it almost impossible to give the wrong medication to patients,” Corley said. “That’s really the purpose, to improve patient safety.”
The board also approved a $150,000 contribution to Texas Tech Health Sciences Center’s new Women’s Health Research Institute at the Permian Basin. The amount equals a contribution made by Midland Memorial Hospital last month.
Board Member Fred Martin expressed concerns about the institute’s ability to attract women’s health care business that has gone to other hospitals.
“I cannot tell you (that) you will have a huge shift in obstetrics care,” Texas Tech Regional Dean Dr. John Jennings said. “But it’s an opportunity to do something that will put the name of both our institution and Medical Center out there in women’s health.”
In other action the board:
>> Differed discussion on emergency room/trauma call agreements until its April meeting.
>> Approved a maintenance agreement with Trane.
>> Approved an off-site nighttime pharmacist agreement with Alpine-based telepharmacy Envision-Rx for 18 months at $240,000 annually.
>> Received an update on being accredited for two years as a provider of continuing medical education.
>> Received an update on the 5 Million Lives campaign, which aims to cut 5 million incidents of medical harm at 4,000 hospitals over the next two years.

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