Making The Rounds July/August 2012

Rehab Services Building Groundbreaking Ceremony                     

 

Colquitt Regional Medical Center held a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the new Rehabilitation Center on June 25.   Jim Matney, Chief Executive Officer and President, of Colquitt Regional Medical Center, welcomed guests and introduced members of the rehabilitation staff including Scott Romanowski, director of rehab services, and Renee Crosby, director of speech‐language pa‐thology. Mr. Matney stated, “We are excited to break ground on the new 13,000 square foot state of the art rehabilitation facility that will offer the same exceptional physical, occupational, speech and language therapies and wound care in one convenient loca‐tion.”  The new location will be more easily accessible and will also house a pool for aquatic therapy. “This type of therapy is appropriate for orthopedic conditions such as total knee replacement and back pain, as well as neurological conditions like stroke and head injuries,” Mr. Matney stated. This cutting edge rehab tool will offer digital video movement analysis, computer controlled current and buoyance and a personalized program for one‐on‐one treatment.  

Mr. Matney introduced several individuals who have been a vital source of making the construction possible, including the Hospital Authority of Colquitt County; Greg Johnson, vice president of outpatient services; and Greg Dorminey, director of facility opera‐tions. He continued by introducing the program manager, Mike Noli with NoliWhite Group; architect, Rusty McCall with McCall & Associates, Inc.; and contractors with Barber Constructing Company.  

The new facility is being financed by Southwest Georgia Bank and the Waldo DeLoache Charitable Trust. “A pledge in the amount of $250,000 by the Waldo DeLoache Charitable Trust was granted and will be given over the next five years to go toward the con‐struction of this new facility and the future expansion of the hospital,” Mr. Matney stated. “We are very grateful to the individuals who were essential in granting this generous contribution, including DeWitt Drew, Steve Johnson, Geraldine Luff and Jeff Hanson.”  

Brooks Sheldon, Hospital Authority chairman, spoke on behalf of the board and thanked everyone who made this groundbreaking possible. “We are proud to have a community stand‐alone hospital with the financial strength and internal strength of our staff to complete this major project,” Mr. Brooks stated. He continued, “Southwest Georgia Bank provides a strong service and we are proud to have a local bank willing and able to provide financing for this project.”  

Mr. Sheldon continued by acknowledging and thanking Rusty McCall, Cecil Barber, Steve Barber and Mike Noli. “We are proud to have local contractors to see us well into our future. We want to do our very best in supporting local businesses and we are thrilled to join forces with these companies,” Mr. Sheldon said.  

Reverend Hugh Ward, Hospital Authority board member and Chaplin, provided the invocation. Angela Castellow spoke on behalf of Mayor Bill McIntosh, who was not able to attend. 

Benefits 411

Nick Pappas, Retirement Consultant will here on August 8, 2012 to conduct individ-ual meetings. Please contact Human Re-sources to schedule an appointment.

There is a revised Paid Time Off policy under review. There have not been any final decisions made as of yet. If you have not had a chance to review this policy, please see your director or the Human Re-sources Office for a copy.

Packer Produce is offering a 10% discount

on your total purchase of fresh fruit and vegetables. Please make sure to show your badge!

Please mark your calendars for the Bene-

fits Fair. It will be held on Thursday, Oc-tober 18th and Friday, October 19th. Watch your mail for more information closer to time!

Recently you received a copy of Plan

Amendment 12-07 in the mail. If you have not yet received your copy or have ques-tions regarding the change, please contact HR at ext 3533. Below is a copy of the amendment that is effective August 1, 2012.

Laboratory testing services performed in the physician’s office must be sent to the Colquitt Regional Medical Center Lab for processing. Any test submitted to an out-side lab will be denied and will be the mem-ber’s responsibility. If a test is performed in the physician's office is one with an imme-diate response, i.e. strep test, urine preg-nancy test, that service will be covered at the appropriate allowable level. All other terms and conditions of this plan not af-fected by this Amendment remain un-changed. Copies of the plan document and all supporting instruments are maintained on file by the Plan Administrator and by the Claim Benefits Service Manager.

Colquitt Regional Medical Center’s

Employee of the Month

Mary Baker was recently named as the Employee of the Month for June. Mary works in the Health Information Management Department t as a Department Secretary. She has been employed with Col-quitt Regional Medical Center since October 2003 In her free time she enjoys reading and spending time with her husband, Al and children Gavin and Chloe.

Javonna Murphy is the SOP Pay Day Winner. She is the winner of $25.00.  Her name was submitted by Brianne Tomlinson for “Thank you for always being such a great help with appeal letters.  Your knowledge is great to learn from.  You are appreciated.”  Javonna displayed the Standard of TEAM RESPECT. 

Congratulations!

At your service…

The Human Resources Department opens at 7:30 each morning Monday-Friday. If you need assistance outside of our regular office hours, let us know and we will be happy to assist!

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

CEO’s Corner… Greetings to all! I hope everyone is having a great summer! I appreciate each and every one of you and your hard work is evident from compliments received by the community, our patients and visitors. I am well aware that the increase in patient volume has been challenging and that you have responded accordingly. I have witnessed a great team effort. Keep up the good work!

Excellent customer service is only achieved when it becomes our culture. It’s who we are and what we do. I like the fact that we are all a team at Colquitt Regional Medical Center. A team member picks up a piece of trash or cleans a spill that they didn’t make. A team member offers to escort a patient/visitor to their destination rather than giving directions. A team member always asks, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”.

As you go about your jobs today, I encourage you to always be the excellent team member that you are!

                  Jim Matney

08/01 Eddie Jefferson 08/01 Blake Williams 08/02 Susan Dickerson 08/02 Ariel Whitaker 08/02 Henry Zeigler 08/03 Raymond Buckner 08/03 Betty Ann Slunt 08/04 Patricia Holland 08/04 Michelle Manning 08/04 Madis Spires 08/04 Candace Underwood 08/05 Gary Boley 08/05 Rita Gay 08/05 Suzanne Roberts 08/06 Glenn Akridge 08/06 Tamala Swanson 08/07 Melgena Budzinsky 08/07 Jasmine Farrell 08/07 Stephanie Lee 08/08 Melissa Pullen 08/09 Hannah Cooper 08/09 Brandon Montgomery 08/09 Jeffrey Roberts 08/10 Jennifer Barwick 08/10 Sheila Hillie 08/10 Tammy Horne 08/10 Kay Keller 08/10 Thomas Laseter 08/10 Ivy Reynolds 08/10 James Carroll Sheffield 08/11 Carmen Diane Johnston 08/12 Stephanie Ellis 08/12 Vickie Deneen Gibbs 08/12 Gabriel Knight 08/12 Brittany Langdale 08/12 Jonathan Pace 08/13 Pamela Chapman 08/13 Lorna Quinn 08/13 Vernita Smiley 08/13 Amy Stewart 08/14 Matthew Clifton 08/14 Krysta Dorminey

08/14 Brian Elliott 08/14 Kayla Stone 08/15 Camilla Harris 08/16 Renee Ellenberg 08/16 Tanya Thompson 08/17 Donna Hall 08/17 Monica Jones 08/17 Debra Lamon 08/18 Karen Dean 08/18 Carolyn Lawton 08/18 Deanna McBride 08/19 Jan Bridges 08/19 Marianne Bridges 08/19 Robbie Sharp 08/19 Tonya Tye 08/20 Sandra Blackwell 08/20 Jessie McMullen 08/20 Jay Pope 08/21 Lynn Sikes 08/21 Jennifer Spivey 08/22 Constance Mercer 08/22 Scott Price 08/23 Melissa Dell 08/24 Lowindy Barber 08/24 Rebecca Hurst 08/25 Roy Davis 08/26 Mary Kinsey 08/27 Henry Giffith 08/27 Louise Moore 08/28 Michelle Morrell 08/28 Shanna Saunders 08/28 Ricky Smith 08/29 Joyce Annette Bell 08/29 Sherry Rowe 08/30 Kimberly Forsyth 08/30 Maryann Griffith 08/30 Olivia Williams 08/31 Gary Lodge 08/31 Isha Taylor 08/31 Cate Tillman 08/31 Valarie Toombs

07/01 Faye Clark 07/01 Anthony White 07/02 Lori Baldy 07/02 Travis Hardigree 07/02 Rachel Haynes 07/02 Donna Parker 07/02 Jade Tomlinson 07/04 Holly Elkins 07/05 Linda Bivins 07/05 Doris Kelly 07/05 Diane Lanier 07/05 Katrina Sasine 07/06 Justin Carroll 07/06 Greg Johnson 07/06 Lisa Pitts 07/06 Charlene Saxton 07/06 Sheila Waldon 07/07 Priscilla Fillyaw 07/07 Kristine McLendon 07/08 Nadiya Deen 07/08 Nicole Gilbert 07/08 Vickie Smith 07/08 Judy Elizabeth Strickland 07/10 Martha Brazeale 07/11 Misty Richter 07/12 Phoebe Brock 07/12 Rebecca Horne 07/12 Heather Jackson 07/13 Nekeysha Dozier 07/13 Tara Samuel 07/13 Brooke Storey 07/14 Tammy Jarvis 07/14 Michael Lewis 07/15 Emily Akin 07/15 Enrique Soto 07/15 Shanna Wilson 07/16 Summer Snipes

07/16 Julie Thomas 07/17 Shirley Hunt 07/17 Willie Paramore 07/17 Debbie Redding 07/18 Martha Gibbs 07/18 Kellie Hampton 07/18 Drucilla Hightower 07/18 Vick Murphy 07/18 Brenda Chantel Smith 07/19 Tabetha Calloway 07/19 Sandra Hancock 07/19 Buffie Slocumb 07/19 David Wynn 07/21 Samantha Allen 07/21 Whitney Causey 07/22 Charlene Cummings 07/22 Paul Knajdek 07/22 Daniel Osborne 07/22 Greg Souders 07/22 Marqueal Thomas 07/23 Charleen Harden 07/23 LeAnn Littleton 07/24 Ida Townsend 07/25 Anthony McCoy 07/26 Angie Kramer 07/26 Jennifer Lester 07/26 Amanda Strickland 07/27 Filnara Derrington 07/27 Johnny James 07/27 Gloria Mathis 07/28 William Houston 07/28 Rod Tomlinson 07/30 Anthony Walker 07/31 Amy Gray 07/31 Torry Merritt 07/31 Laura Taylor

Mark Brown honored as Colquitt County EMT of the Year

Mark Brown, EMT-I, was presented the Colquitt County EMT of the Year Award at an appreciation banquet held at Mt. Olive Baptist Church in honor of Colquitt County EMS workers. “Mark is a knowledgeable EMT that provides excellent patient care,” said EMS Director Amy Williams, who presented the award. “He is a team player and is highly thought of by his co-workers.” Brown has worked in the emergency field for five years and has been at Col-quitt Regional for the past three. He graduated from Southwest Georgia Tech-nical College with his Emergency Medical Technician - Intermediate. He is currently part of the C shift, where he works with various partners. “I work with a great group of people and for them to choose me for this award is an honor,” said Brown. He and his wife, Christy, who is also an EMT-I, have one son, Grant.

Nutritional Services News Nutritional Services celebrated Christmas in July.  In 

honor of this, they collected non perishable food items 

to be donated to the Colquitt County Food Bank.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, Nutritional Service will be holding a Back to 

School Supply Drive on August 16, 2012.  The theme 

will be a Hawaiian Day. If you bring in a school supply 

item such as paper, pens, pencils, crayons, Kleenex, 

hand sanitizer your name will be entered into a draw‐

ing for a door prize.  

 

 

South Georgia Consortium Cuts Ribbon on Office

With the snip of a pair of scissors, a consortium of hospitals moved forward Friday on a plan that may dramatically improve health care options in Southwest Georgia. The ribbon cutting ceremony for the South Georgia Medical Education and Research Consortium marked the opening of an office for the group, which has been working since the spring of 2010 to establish a physician residency program in this part of the state. Five hospitals — Colquitt Regional Medical Center, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Archbold Memorial Hospital in Thomasville, Tift Regional Medical Center in Tifton and South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta — have contributed resources to make that dream a reality, but they still have a long way to go. Jim Lowry, chairman of the consortium’s board of directors and former president of Colquitt Regional, said the hospitals hope to start their first class of residents July 1, 2014, and graduate them three years later. About a hundred people from all five communities gathered at the new office on Sweet Bay Court, about a block from Colquitt Regional Medical Center, for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Each hospital was represented by its president or someone acting in his name, and Moultrie Mayor Bill McIntosh gave each a key to the city. Moultrie was chosen for the consortium’s headquarters because it’s centrally located among all the partners. The consortium is a response to several problems that add up to a shortage of doctors in Southwest Georgia: • Georgia overall is 47th in the nation in physician access, based on the number of physicians per 100,000 people. • As of 2010, 85 percent of the graduates of the Medical College of Georgia did their residency out of state. • A study by the Georgia Physicians Workforce Board, on which Lowry has served for six years, found that after physicians finish their residen-cies, 65 percent of them open practices within 65 miles of where they did their residency. Add to those an expansion of health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often called Obamacare) and the number of physicians who are approaching retirement age. Lowry said Georgia produces enough medical students; the problem is with residencies — which are officially called Graduate Medical Education, or GMEs. “Once you graduate medical school, you are qualified to be a Walmart greeter,” Lowry said. The GME trains medical graduates to actually prac-tice medicine on people. Representatives of the five hospitals formed a committee in 2010 to discuss starting a GME program in South Georgia, Lowry said. Each put in $100,000 — a total of $500,000, which was matched by the Medical College of Georgia. The committee hired consultants and made a plan. Eventually it applied for grants to help it move forward. Jessica Rivenbark was hired as executive director in March, and the consortium’s office officially opened Friday. The next step, Lowry said, is to hire a chief medical officer. A search firm has identified four physicians who want the job, and Lowry said inter-views should take place in the latter part of August and negotiations in October with the doctor the consortium chooses. If all proceeds on sched-ule, the CMO would start in January. The chief medical officer will be in charge of all five residency programs, each of which will also have a director. The first class will all be internists, and a new program will be added each year: General surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology and emergency room medicine are the other planned specialties. Medical schools may or may not be at hospitals, Lowry said, but GMEs always are, and residents in the consortium’s GME will be scattered among the member hospitals. Each class is expected to have about three residents in each program at each of the five hospitals. Those numbers could have the program graduating 75 doctors each year once all the programs are in full swing. “This program allows each hospital to have a residency program none could fund alone,” Rivenbark said. Phoebe Putney in Albany already has a family medicine residency, and Lowry said it will remain independent for at least five years. “After five years we’re confident Phoebe will want us to manage their GME and we’ll roll it right in,” he said. Dr. Doug Patten, senior vice president at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, mentioned Phoebe’s program during an interview after Friday’s cere-mony. “We just see the consortium as an opportunity to grow that,” Patten said. Although getting the GME started and growing it to five specialties over five years is all the consortium can handle at the moment, members are already looking beyond those challenges to Phase II. In Phase II — whenever the consortium can implement it — the hospitals will be able to actively recruit South Georgia students to go to medical school, come back here for their residency and have a job waiting for them in the area, Lowry said. The hospitals have been watching over students in their own communities for years, helping them where they could, but they couldn’t offer a con-tract until the student finished his or her residency because that’s when the doctor gets trained in a specialty. “We can’t offer them a contract because we don’t know what they’re going to do,” Lowry said. When everything’s up and running, though, the consortium will be able to tell a student, “If you go to medical school and do a residency in one of our programs, we know there will be an opening in that specialty in one of our five hospitals when you graduate.” “I think Phase II will be the life blood of our system,” Lowry said.