All the permits are in order for the building of the new Allen County Hospital, trustees learned at their meeting Tuesday night.
The City of Iola has granted a full building permit, said Corey Schinstock, assistant city administrator.
As for the laying of the sanitary sewer line, approval by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is expected “any day now, at the latest, next week,” said Schinstock.
With go-ahead in hand, Murray Construction can begin installing the building pad this week, said Cris Rivera, chief executive officer of the hospital.
Trustees agreed to place a sign announcing construction of the new hospital on the grounds of the existing 60-year-old hospital. Another sign is at the construction site on North Kentucky Street.
After a more in-depth review of bids, Health Facilities Group, architects for the hospital, recommended Center State Painting of Mound City to paint the interior of the hospital. Its first recommendation was to hire Capital Painting of Roeland Park for $125,575. Because the bids were so close, trustees preferred the more local firm to do the job for an additional $6,000.
TRUSTEES SPENT the bulk of their meeting discussing electronic medical records and when to implement the paperless system to record patient data. It is the hope to be able to begin at the new location with the system in tow.
Larry Peterson, ACH chief financial officer, and a small crew have narrowed the selection of vendors from five to two. In the past several weeks the team has visited two hospitals, one in Abilene and the other in Missouri, to evaluate their systems.
To keep to a timeline of beginning the system by next spring, the decision on a vendor should be made at the trustees’ next meeting, June 12.
Critical access hospitals such as ACH have until 2015 to install electronic medical records before they face penalties from the federal government.
A healing garden and walking path also were discussed, as well as a mission statement for the hospital.
The June 12 meeting will begin at 6 p.m. because of the many things trustees plan to address. All meetings are open to the public.
