Hospital Update 2011

Written by Bakersfield Magazine

Healthcare is always changing and the medical community here is not exempt.

Bakersfield area hospitals have made tremendous strides over the last year by developing new programs and remodeling to fit the needs of a growing community. So while 2011 was a big year, 2012 looks to be just as exciting.

Mercy Hospitals of Bakersfield

The past year has brought a number of changes to the campuses of Mercy Hospital and Mercy Southwest. As Scott Thygerson, Vice President of Business Development, explains, there are more changes ahead.

“We are adding on to the Mercy Southwest Emergency Department,” Thygerson said. “It’s a very busy facility and the community in that area of town is growing, so we’re growing that department.” Scheduled to be completed in early 2012, the construction will add eight patient rooms, among other facility enhancements.

The Mercy campus on Truxtun will be seeing some changes, as well. The layout of the front entrance will shift so that admitting is done where more people enter the hospital and the chapel will be redesigned and relocated to where the admitting desk is now.

“We’ve also joined the Spirit of Women Network,” added Thygerson. This move was to complement the work Mercy Hospitals already do for the women in Bakersfield.

In October, the hospital hosted an event called “Girls Night Out,” which offered health education to 500 women in the Bakersfield area.

Sandy Doucette, Marketing Manager for Mercy Hospitals, said there will be another Spirit of Women event in February.

In addition to new construction and partnerships, Mercy also saw growth in existing programs.

“We added to our Orthopedic Clinic, so that services now include spine surgery,” Thygerson said. “Dr. George Wahba joined us in September. These types of services continue to grow to meet the needs of our community.”

This summer saw the installation of The Healing Garden at Mercy. “It’s a family respite,” Thygerson explained. “We were able to design this landscaped area thanks to a substantial gift from the Diane S. Lake Foundation and the help of Dan Monji. It’s the only one of its kind in Kern County.”

Bakersfield Memorial Hospital

One might think that after the long-awaited Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) opened in spring 2011, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital’s team would be satisfied with its growth for the year.

Not so, explained Gary Frazier, Memorial’s Vice President of Business Development.

As many residents have noticed, Memorial is in the process of building a new front entrance, named the Hans E. Einstein, M.D. Pavilion.

“The new entrance will meet several needs,” Frazier said. “It will be a more efficient area for patients and family to navigate, in addition to being a state-of-the-art structure that complements the construction we’ve done in year’s past. It’s a multi-phase project, scheduled to be completed in early 2012.” The hospital will stay open during all phases of construction.

Physical changes aren’t the only new things for Memorial.

“We are two years into our Patient & Family Centered Care initiative. We founded this because everyone knows it’s not just one person involved in healthcare—the family is involved in a patient’s care. We’ve created family-centered care councils comprised of former patients, family members, staff, and physicians and they discuss ways to improve the experience here for families and patients.”

Frazier explained these initiatives come from Memorial’s desire to provide all-encompassing care.

Other big news for Memorial includes construction on a biplane suite that will expand their catheterization lab (cath lab) so it will incorporate advanced imaging technology for MRIs and CT scans.

“This will allow doctors to see multiple angles with just one exposure,” Frazier said of the 3D technology. “It’s safer for the patients—there’s less radiation time. It’s necessary for the pediatric patients and for emergency surgeries. We’ll be able to do even more for patients this way.” Frazier expects the remodel, which began in November, will be completed in a year.

San Joaquin Community Hospital

San Joaquin Community Hospital (SJCH) has had a year of exciting announcements and big plans.

“There have been some very interesting happenings with our Grossman Burn Care Center,” said Vice President of Marketing and Development Jarrod McNaughton. “When we looked at the initial projections and saw a need for a burn care center, we didn’t expect that the need was actually three times greater than what was reported.”

This year saw the first use of tissue expanders in burn care patients for this community. The success of this new treatment is encouraging as SJCH looks to continue expanding the Burn Care Center services.

Along with new awards for SJCH’s accredited Stroke Program and accredited Chest Pain Center, the hospital’s brand new cath lab suites are also working with a Penumbra device that can remove clots in the brain with a catheter that’s threaded through the heart. There will also be a new Interventional Radiology Suite and a new MRI with a larger bore, which results in less claustrophobia for patients.

“Because of how successful these new suites have been and how well people have responded, we’re looking to grow outpatient imagery elsewhere on the campus,” McNaughton added.

Perhaps the most apparent update this year is the addition of free valet parking for patients and visitors.

“We wanted to alleviate headaches for people. The parking area is always so busy we wanted to facilitate the way people enter the hospital,” he continued.

The hospital will soon begin construction on a second floor waiting room and it is waiting on state approval to remodel the cafeteria. These additions are just a small part of the big changes SJCH will be seeing in years to come, including the possibility of a new patient tower.

Kern Medical Center

The past year was eventful for Kern Medical Center (KMC). In August, the hospital was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of their Best Regional Hospitals. They ranked in two specialities: Ear, Nose, and Throat, as well as Gynecology.

On the operational level, the hospital also began effectively using an electronic records system.

“We went live in May of 2011,” said Paul Hensler, the hospital’s CEO.

Patients have seen changes in the amount of time it takes to either receive test results or a prescription and physicians and staff have an easier time accessing records.

“In the near future,” Hensler continued, “we’ll be installing a product by Nuance called Dragon Speech Recognition Software that will allow our clinical staff to interact with the new records system with voice recognition. It’s a very sophisticated system that, among other things, allows for instantaneous approval on dictation and patient notes.”

“This new system will be much more efficient for re-admissions or turnaround clinic visits,” Hensler added.

This year has also been one of academic advancement. KMC helped bring together a community medical conference that encouraged youth to work hard and enter the medical profession. Also, in its joint objective with UCLA, KMC works to educate bright kids in the Central Valley, and get them into speciality programs at UCLA for training so that they can then come back and work in Kern County.

Additionally, KMC is pairing with UCLA on a Geriatric Medicine program, training physicians in geriatric specialities and bringing that information back to Kern to disseminate.

Hensler is hopeful this will lead to a joint center for geriatric medicine that will provide training and education for residents on specialties associated with that demographic.

Bakersfield Heart Hospital

It’s been another year of progress for Bakersfield Heart Hospital (BHH).

“We continue to focus on patients and the needs of the community,” said Randy Rolfe, the hospital’s president. “It’s always been our goal to provide excellent service.”

The emergency room at BHH remains busy and the hospitalist program that was instituted a little over a year ago has been very successful.

“Big news this year is the addition of an endocrinology specialist at the hospital,” Rolfe explained. Jasleen Duggal, MD, FACP is a fellowship-trained physician specializing in the endocrine system, including diabetes and diabetes-related diseases. She just completed a fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLA and is here in Bakersfield addressing a large need.

“With Dr. Duggal’s skills, Bakersfield Heart Hospital is able to provide key services to patients here in Kern County,” Rolfe added. “And we are developing more programs and services for diabetes.”

This year also saw the installation of another new cath lab, more specifically the GE 3100. Radiologists, vascular surgeons, and cardiologists will be able to study small, peripheral veins and diagnose any abnormalities.

“It was our third new cath lab in twenty-four months,” Rolfe explained. The reason? There is a great need in Bakersfield for diagnostic equipment when it pertains to interventional radiology. The hospital is growing to accommodate the needs here.

The hospital’s efforts this past year have been recognized. The 2010-2011 year saw even more awards and accolades including another five-star rating for the treatment of heart attacks from Healthgrades, being ranked in the top 20 in California for Interventional Coronary Care, and being ranked as one of the top 100 hospitals in the entire nation for Cardiac Care. The hospital was once again recognized in the top 10 precent in the nation for patient safety.

Good Samaritan Hospital

Noel Cabezzas, COO, said that this past year has been good for Good Samaritan Hospital’s two campuses.

“The good news for 2011 is that we started the only Central California Gero-Psychiatric unit. This is the only specialized unit for the treatment of psychiatric disorders in the elderly in our area. In previous years, people would have to travel south of Los Angeles or to Stockton,” Cabezzas explained. The Gero-Psychiatric unit opened a little over seven months ago on the Olive Drive campus.

“The reason for that program is clear—there was a need in Central California as previously, no hospital had a dedicated unit providing services for this population. And the elderly population is the fastest growing population in the United States.”

Also exciting is the fact that Good Samaritan also has the largest Children’s Psychiatric Unit in the Central Valley with 30 assigned beds for children as young as five. “The unit continues to treat children from Bakersfield as well as surrounding counties.”

Good Samaritan also refurbished the surgical suites at the Olive Drive campus last year and Cabezzas explained that this year they’ve seen positive results. “The great thing is that we are able to accommodate any surgeries without a waiting list.” That addition was facilitated by the arrival of a new surgical/medical director who started October 30 and is helping with the expansion of the suites as well as making sure that the doors are open to other surgeons in the community.

The big news is that Good Samaritan is currently in negotiation to expand its in-house imaging services.

“These expanded areas of the hospital and new programs have allowed, and will allow, us to serve a need in this community. We are seeing positive results because the hospital can meet the demands of our growing city.”

HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital

“This year was a banner year for education and expansion,” explained Sandra Hegland, RN, MBA, and CEO of HealthSouth. Along with Tara deMontmorency, the director of marketing operations, Hegland described ways HealthSouth is looking to continue growing in 2012.

“We’re in the process of receiving state approval to convert some internal space into six more patient beds,” Hegland began. The goal in the coming year is to look to build on to the facility to create an additional 20-35 beds.

“HealthSouth is at the point where we’re having to turn patients away because we’re at maximum occupancy,” deMontmorency explained.

“The goal is to keep a community focus in all the things we spend our time, money, and energy on,” Hegland said. The big success story was the growth of the pulmonary program over the course of this year. While HealthSouth is an accredited stroke rehabilitation hospital, they’ve also sought ways to provide the community with additional clinical needs. The pulmonary program falls into this category by educating patients and families about respiratory therapies and rehab techniques that will enable a patient to live a better life. The program has taken off and its anticipating accreditation by the Joint Commission in early spring of next year.

“We want to make sure our patients with lung disease are able to manage their condition and learn about their triggers so they’re functioning at the highest level outside of the hospital,” added Hegland.

HealthSouth recruited two physicians to act as program directors to head the spinal cord injury program and the brain injury program.

In the coming year, HealthSouth hopes to be partnering with California Children’s Services to help care for the older teenagers that don’t have the resources to pay for rehabilitation care after accidents or brain injuries.

Memorial photo: courtesy Bakersfield Memorial Hospital

Article appeared in our 28-5 Issue - December 2011