National Hospital Week is celebrated during the second week of May each year. This year, National Hospital Week runs from May 12 – 18.
“Hospital Week’s a big deal. There’s over 6,000 hospitals in the United States and about 1,300 of them are critical access hospitals. In Iowa, we have 123 hospitals and 83 of them, like CCMH, are critical access hospitals.”
That’s Erin Muck, President and CEO of Crawford County Memorial Hospital.
“CCMH has over 260 employees. We’re blessed with amazing staff and amazing patients that continue to allow us to treat them and serve them. Everything our staff does to provide quality of care makes CCMH successful. We’re in the 90th percentile for patient satisfaction scores when ranked against other hospitals. That shows the care our employees are giving, and the service they’re providing, is recognized by our community. Our employees give us the ability to serve our patients well and give the best care possible. We are proud to recognize their efforts.”
Muck noted that CCMH is also celebrating 73 years of service to Denison and Crawford County.
“Seventy-three years is a long time. Obviously, as a hospital system, we are very different in 2024 than we were in 1951. We are very happy to acknowledge all of the work that has been done in the past by Board members and staff to get CCMH to where it is today.”
Physician recruitment is a topic that comes up in conversations often according to Muck.
“There’s always an interest in what’s new. I’m excited to be able to share we will have a new orthopedic surgeon starting at CCMH on July 1. We’re happy to be able to offer that service locally again. Meanwhile, we continue to recruit another general surgeon to go along with Dr. David Wright. I’ll add a shout out to our community. They’ve been very helpful in recruitment efforts. The many people who have stepped up to help us shows how much residents care about what happens at CCMH.”
Another project underway is the installation of a new Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.
“We’ve been working on getting a new EHR for about four years. The new EHR will lead to a better patient portal and improve the patient experience here. The ‘go live’ date for the new system is June 24. The reason we’re installing a new EHR is CCMH actually has two medical records right now: one in the clinic and different one in the hospital. Neither system can speak to the other which is not a good thing for continuity of care. We knew that we needed to look for one solution. We also know our existing patient portal is not what we want to offer our community. The patient portal is an important tool to manage your healthcare. The new portal will allow patients to look at their medical information in real time. This will increase patient safety and the quality of care that we’re giving patients. We anticipate the roll out for the new system will be a little bumpy. We’re asking everyone to be patient. Undoubtedly, we’ll be a little slower as we navigate the implementation and the billing for services. Additional information will be forthcoming shortly.”
Muck says the best part of the new patient portal is being able to download an app to your phone.
“Not only will patients be able to direct message their medical provider, they’ll also be able to see the notes from their visits, lab results and much more. People will also be able to make their own appointments through the app into our system.”
Building expansion and remodeling is also on the list of things Muck is managing.
“The Board of Trustees and administration have been planning for this project for the past two to three years. We didn’t get to our 73rd anniversary as a hospital without looking into the future and trying to prepare for that reality. Primarily, we’ve been working on master facility planning and what we need to do to grow our services. Our top priority is expanding our rural health clinic. We’ve outgrown our space and, as we add more providers and services, we’ll need more room. At the same time, our Rehab Services department has outgrown their space as well. We have some very talented and popular providers. The remodel will expand the existing gym space and add a new pediatric gym.”
Other aspects of the project include registration and specialty services.
“We’re going to centralize all of our registration. Right now, this function is spread throughout the building. The new registration area will offer more privacy which is very important to our patients and to us.”
Muck says the building project could go forward as soon as August.
“There’s a busy summer ahead of us with the new EHR going live in June, a new orthopedist starting in July, and then a possible building project breaking ground in August. We’ll know more about the timing of the building project once the Board of Trustees has made the final determination to move forward with the project. We’re excited for the future and all that it holds for us and for our community.”
The timeframe for the building expansion and remodeling project is approximately 30 months.
“One thing people need to keep in mind is that any major building project takes time. It’s not going to happen overnight. We’ll have departments relocating to other areas of the building to make sure patients can been seen in a timely fashion. Please be patient with us. Most everything will be affected from parking and traffic flow, to check in procedures and the location of services to be received. We’ve done a nice job with planning, and in the end, I think that our patients will really love and appreciate the work that we’re going to be doing.”
