Chase Eikenbary representing the Governor of Ohio presenting the award to Gary Adkins
Thursday, November 7 was an exciting day for Paulding County. The Hospital, located on the west edge of Paulding along SR 111 held a press conference and a grand opening for the completion of the new Emergency Room that was started one year ago.
Ohio Governor John Kasich and Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor sent their representative, Chase Eikenbary, who presented the award to Paulding County Hospital CEO Gary Adkins. The award was an acknowledgement by Columbus of the hard work and excellent planning taking place in the Paulding County area. This is a big step for healthcare in northwest Ohio and is a commended model for future hospitals of smaller size in other communities of similar circumstances.
Even though expenses for hospitals are quite high now, the hospital was able to add on and build this new addition for less than the budgeted amount, saving $60,000. One other newsworthy note: It didn’t cost the taxpayers anything nor did the healthcare facility take on any debt.
Emergency Room Addition & Renovation
In November 2012, renovations for the updated and enlarged Paulding County Hospital Emergency Department began. The first phase of the renovation involved enlarging the ER and doing some renovations before moving the ER to the east wing of the hospital. Once the move took place the construction and renovation continued on the existing ER. This took about 3 months. Then the ER moved back and the east wing was renovated to house the testing laboratory permanently. Once the lab moved to their new home, the ER construction expanded to the old lab space. The total construction took about a year to complete. Important to note is that the lab draw station will remain in the main outpatient area for patient convenience but pneumatic tubes will connect the draw station and the ER to the testing lab for faster result time.
The last ER renovation that was done was in the early 1980’s featured 5 patient rooms. The current renovation features a Ushaped nurse’s station with 7 rooms surrounding it. Line of sight to all patients for nursing and physicians is an additional bonus. Two large trauma rooms have fold back glass walls between them making one large trauma room if needed. This can be used if an emergency requires the medical staff to be close to multiple patients. Also added in the last phase is storage rooms and an area where local EMS personnel can chart and make notes concerning their patients. Another addition was a patient lift that was installed that will help with patients that are difficult to move.
Brenda Wieland demonstrates one of the new features in the ER
The total Emergency Department space now encompasses 3400 square feet. The renovation added an additional 1000 square feet to the Emergency Department. The project was budgeted at $1,221,701 and will be coming in at approximately $60,000 under budget. No funds were solicited from the community, the project was funded with operational dollars only. No loans were taken to complete the project and in fact, during the course of the project, the hospital went debt free to demonstrate to the community that the dollars generated here will be invested wisely back into the community.
