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May 29 , 2008

Community Responds Rapidly to HRMC’s New Beginning

Inpatient Services

As Haywood Regional Medical Center moves forward in its new beginning, officials are proceeding carefully to assure quality patient care and patient safety.  “ We appreciate our community’s confidence in returning to HRMC for their medical care.  We ask our community for their patience as HRMC returns to full staffing as quickly as possible, without sacrificing the quality of care,” said Al Byers, HRMC CEO.  

HRMC is accepting patient admissions relative to the available staff.  According to Krys Candelareia interim Chief Nursing Officer, there are 20 beds available on the fifth floor, 10 on the seventh floor for surgical care,  and 2-4 intensive care and 8 definitive observation care beds available. During its first week open after recertification HRMC has experienced a rapid increase in inpatients.  The census has fluctuated between 35 and 40 patients. In some instances, if a patient needs to be admitted and staffed beds are not available for the acuity of care required, they may have to be transferred to a nearby facility,” Candelaria said.

“While we are disappointed that our patients must experience this inconvenience we will not allow the quality of patient care to be compromised.  We are anxious to restore full capacity and plans are in place to accomplish that as quickly as possible,” said Al Byers, CEO.

The hospital’s immediate measures to bring back staff and recruit new staff to meet the growing needs include: calling back nurses who were part of the temporary layoff; actively recruiting nurses who left earlier; and advertising for new graduates.  The necessary time is being taken to ensure staff are properly trained and oriented to HRMC’s facilities.  For new staff members this process takes approximately one month.

While HRMC is licensed for potentially 170 acute care beds, over the past few years HRMC has been staffed for up to 90-95 inpatient beds, said HRMC President and CEO Al Byers. Considering those averages, the hospital is now back to about  50 percent of its inpatient volume, he explained. The Women’s Care Center of the hospital has consistently been staffed for 12 beds.

Emergency Services

HRMC experienced a tremendous volume of patients in its emergency department this past holiday weekend. There was a 50 percent increase over the usual number of patients. “We averaged 90 visits a day,” Byers said.

HRMC has since provided additional coverage for peak evening and weekend hours in the emergency department.

Immediate Future

The hospital is planning to bring back staff to open the definitive observation care unit with 10 beds (moving 8 from ICU) and increase the number of beds on the seventh floor by another five within a week or two, said Krys Candelaria, interim director of nursing.

Insurance

In addition to regaining Medicare and Medicaid funding (plus Medcost and Medicare Advantage plans), the following insurance providers are currently accepted at HRMC: Aetna, Cigna Healthcare, Crescent PPO, Humana, Kanawha and Tribe.  The hospital has submitted required documentation to Blue Cross/Blue Shield and is awaiting confirmation from that company that coverage will be accepted at Haywood Regional Medical Center.