Whitman Hospital to offer new medical services

COLFAX — The Whitman Hospital and Medical Clinics Board of Commissioners discussed new services to be offered, including wound care and nuclear medicine, during the Wednesday, Aug. 21, regular hospital board meeting.

Chief Nursing Officer Bill Bryant told hospital commissioners that the wound care is close to a start, and will be offering services Monday, Sept. 9.

“We’re very close to our start, we did have to push back a couple of weeks,” said Bryant, noting the delay was the result of implementing, Epic, a software which inputs data for the hospital.

“We did get our contracted consultant on site this past month.” Bryant said, “She will be back in the month of September.”

The consultant will meet with the team to work on the Epic system for the program.

Bryant told commissioners that all the equipment has arrived and rooms are set up.

Wound care services are located in the back of the Multi-Service Unit (MSU) before the Progressive Care Unit (PCU).

“Two of those pods are going to be dedicated to wound care.” Bryant told commissioners, noting room 107 in the MSU hallway is set for wound care as well.

“Those three areas will encompass wound care and also infusion,” he said.

Wound care is a medical specialty focused on treating wounds that are not healing. Patients receive a team of healthcare providers, including doctors, nurses and physical therapists to work with them.

Board Secretary Bob Vuletich said during the quality committee meeting they discussed a nuclear medicine truck will be present in the parking lot for licensing Sept. 23.

Nuclear medicine uses radioactive tracers to assess bodily functions and diagnose and treat disease with specially designed cameras allowing doctors to track radioactive tracers.

Present on Zoom, Whitman Hospital and Medical Clinics Vice President of Outpatient Services Debbie Hoadley confirmed the hospital got their license for nuclear medicine Wednesday, Aug. 21.

“We still are waiting for the Epic build, and then the staff training,” said Hoadley, noting it will still be Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Whitman Hospital and Medical Clinics CEO Hank Hanigan said a common theme with new services is waiting for the Epic build.

“This is the disadvantage of using the system that is someone else’s,” Hanigan said. “We are really at their mercy.”

Bryant added the issue with the build is they can request it, but must wait on Providence, which handles the technology to complete the build.

“Providence has a multitude of projects that they are still in the process of building and it just depends on when we submit and what the backload is for the number of projects they have,” said Bryant.