County hospital system equipped to handle an Ebola case

BLYTHEVILLE, Ark. -- Local hospital personnel are trained and equipped to deal with an Ebola patient, should the need arise.

Chief operations officer for the hospital system, Chris Raymer, told the system's board of governor's Monday that while the threat is relatively low, that if the disease spreads this far, medical personnel have been prepared.

"This is just everywhere right now and people are scared," he said. "We've done some training with the Centers for Disease Control and put together carts that have everything available to take care of an Ebola patient, and have gotten steps on how to diagnose it. We have special equipment through a disaster grant already on site. We met and had a special session with our directors and nurses on how to deal with it. Our nurses are as prepared as the ones anywhere. It's a big hype right now and there's a lot of scared folks. Right now, only four people in the U.S. have actually contracted the disease, but it's on a lot of people's minds and we're prepared."

The hospitals have also shared training and equipment for Ebola treatment with area emergency medical personnel.

Board President John Logan, meanwhile, congratulated the hospital system's special steering committee on its successful bid to have the county-wide half-cent sales tax passed. The special election was held on Oct. 14, and the tax will begin being collected and issued to the hospitals in January of 2015. Logan said the group had gotten "good results through teamwork." No specific plans for the tax revenues were discussed in the meeting.

The newly opened pain management clinic at Great River Medical Center in Blytheville has been an immediate success, according to Raymer's report. Since the clinic opened in mid-October, it has already received 100 patient referrals, as well as some new walk in patients.

Two new physicians are being interviewed and are considering coming to work in the system -- one to replace Dr. Daniels' recently closed OB/GYN practice, and one to replace urologist Dr. Brian Niles, who is leaving in December. Neither have confirmed that they will contract with the system yet.

Raymer also reported that the system has recently negotiated with Mississippi County to supply medical care at the county jail, in a deal which he said will be saving the county some money.

A new website for the system has been rolled out, and features individual pages for each individual physician practice, where patients will be able to directly contact physicians by leaving messages which will then be transmitted to the offices by fax. Patients can also use the website to request their medical records or contact hospital administration. Visit the site at www.mchsys.org.

Financially, the system had an accounts payable balance of $1,767,676, which is a reduction and a "pretty good workable position," according to CFO Randy Nichols. In his report, Nichols added that both admissions and visits to physician offices are up, likely because of newly insured patients through the Affordable Care Act.

The board will meet again on Dec. 15.