GALESBURG — Liza DeKezel, president of OSF St. Mary Clinical Middle, said she has spent the earlier many yrs looking at symptoms of Cottage Hospital’s looming closure.
Now dealing with an influx of sufferers, DeKezel explained OSF St. Mary is geared up to become the city’s sole well being care provider.
“Yes totally, we’ve absolutely noticed an influx of sufferers which would be anticipated with a neighborhood hospital closure,” DeKezel claimed. “And actually that’s on all fronts. That’s the clinic side, our clinics, outpatient testing, prompt care — in all areas.”
DeKezel said the enhance in sufferers has not occurred right away, but steadily as provider lines started to decrease in Cottage Medical center. Attaining 70 new staff final yr by yourself, OSF St. Mary has hired new doctors, specialists and nurses, as effectively as much more lab team, meals company, amenities and clinic employees.
The hospital’s president claimed that the the latest improve constitutes a 15 to 20% maximize of employees at OSF St. Mary and that there has not been “an space which is absent untouched.”
“When Cottage closed their OB (obstetrics) office, we have been previously in the midst of an OB renovation undertaking,” DeKezel mentioned. “We promptly pivoted and did an growth on that renovation just to make guaranteed that we had been capable of meeting the quantity and desires of the neighborhood. And so we’ve been equipped to do that quite correctly.
DeKezel reported that OSF St. Mary will keep on its recruiting and choosing initiatives, just as it will keep on with facility upgrades and expansions to its actual physical footprint to enable for enough “elbow room” to accommodate all of the area’s well being treatment requires.
In addition to the OB project, OSF St. Mary has by now renovated its second ground surgery section. The clinic will also obtain three new intensive treatment device beds by this summer, bumping the overall quantity of ICU beds in the 84 hospital mattress certified facility to 9.
DeKezel said that OSF St. Mary’s present ability remains all around 75 to 80% full on any supplied working day. For the duration of COVID surges, she claimed the healthcare facility did have days exactly where it achieved 100% capacity.
But she would like locals to know that while the hospital’s crisis home and prompt-treatment facilities are “very, very busy” right now, OSF St. Mary is opening an urgent-care clinic in the drop. The urgent clinic will be located in the Galesburg region and will assistance provide walk-in solutions with no flooding the other departments.
“We want the group to fully grasp we are expanding individuals accessibility points for the urgent care, similar-day form wander in visits so that we can aid individuals accessibility care at the correct place of care compared to accessing the ER for all those varieties of providers that can be served in the prompt treatment or urgent care,” DeKezel mentioned.
DeKezel claimed the final decision to maximize the quantity of OSF St. Mary’s ICU beds to 9 was designed cautiously with info to guidance that the medical center would be capable to deal with regional and regional requirements.
If OSF St. Mary finds the calls for exceed the facility’s skills, DeKezel reported the medical center will continue on to grow appropriately.
“OSF is pretty vested listed here in Galesburg and has been for lots of, numerous years and designs to be right here long phrase,” DeKezel said. “So we will keep on to develop and increase and continue to spend in this neighborhood.”