MaYBe YoU’Ve
heard this before:
When one door closes, another opens.
There’s a new take on this upbeat adage
at CHRISTUS Jasper Memorial Hospital:
When one door opens, others can too.
In September, after years of planning
and nine months of construction, the hos-
pital’s new emergency department (ED)
opened its doors for patients. It is called
the C. Bryce Thomas, M.D., Memorial
Emergency Center, honoring a Texas na-
tive and caring doctor who practiced in
Jasper for decades.
Now the next phase of the $6.2 million
project is under way. It will reclaim old
space, add new equipment and improve
services.
a new era
Treating life-and-death traumas and ill-
nesses is one focus of today’s emergency
departments. Yet EDs also handle a grow-
ing number of less-serious problems too,
from stitching up minor cuts to helping
people with bad cases of the flu, says Mark
Durand, assistant administrator of opera-
tions at Jasper Memorial Hospital.
The hospital’s new ED keeps such
trends in mind. It offers:
More space and patient rooms. Square
footage grows from 3,000 to nearly 12,000.
Design that stresses privacy and comfort.
A new waiting area.
A triage area, to quickly decide what
care patients need.
New space, new possibilities
A new, state-of-the-art
emergency department in
Jasper is four times larger
than the old one.
Fast-track rooms, to treat non-emergent
illnesses.
Specialty rooms, including ones
equipped for chemical decontaminations.
Last year, Jasper Memorial Hospital
saw over 20,000 patients in its ED. The ED
is designated as a Level IV trauma center
and is staffed with a physician 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. Farm accidents,
gunshots, heart attacks, strokes and car
crashes are just a few of the emergencies
it handles.
What’s next?
The next phase of the project should be
done in January 2013.
It involves:
Expanding radiology services into the
old ED space.
Relocating two labs into a newly re-
modeled, bigger space.
Adding a new, in-hospital MRI. It re-
places the mobile MRI unit.
Adding a 32-slice CT scanner to replace
the old 16-slice version. The new CT ma-
chine will deliver better-quality digital
pictures, Durand says.
The main entrance also will get a fresh,
modern look.
Convenience, comfort and care
The new ED is designed to reduce wait
times, improve staffing patterns and treat
patients quicker and more efficiently.
But, “a building doesn’t provide care.
Our associates provide that,” he adds.
“
We will continue to offer the same per-
sonal, patient-focused, quality care that
we’ve offered here for the past 44 years.
But now we have a state-of-the-art ED to
practice in.”
CHRISTUS JASPER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
The new ED
is designed
to reduce
wait times,
improve
staffing
patterns
and treat
patients
quicker
and more
efficiently.
Father Ron Foshage, of
St. Michael’s Catholic
Church, sprinkles
holy water to bless the
new CHRISTUS Jasper
Memorial Emergency
Department.
10
HouseCall • Find a physician: 866-683-DOCS