Hospital delays takeover

The transition from coming out from under the umbrella of Hospital Corporation of America has been pushed back from June 1 to July 1, Ron Baker, hospital chief executive officer said Tuesday evening.
“We’ve had some challenges getting benefit plans, especially in regards to health insurance, all lined up,” Baker told hospital trustees Tuesday evening. A vendor to handle payroll services “to the support we need,” also is yet to be secured, Baker said. 
Baker said the new timetable would be the last time a change would be needed. “We can’t go beyond this date,” of transition, he said. Originally the switch from HCA to county management was to have occurred the first of the year, but the same problems with employee benefits prevented the transition then as well.

TERRY’S FLOWERS of Humboldt will supply all the artwork for the new hospital, Baker said. Terry Butts, owner of the home décor store, will work to coordinate pictures and the like with the hospital’s color theme and furniture, which has yet to be purchased.
Room 101 in the new hospital will be named after Mary Ellen Stadler, whose estate left $60,000 to the current Allen County Hospital in the late 1990s. Naming the room after Stadler keeps “her spirit alive,” said Jim Gilpin of the Uniting for Excellence capital campaign.
Tim Moore, project engineer for Murray Company, said the drier weather helps keep the work on schedule. Sidewalks are being poured and dirt work is happening. Bases for lighting fixtures in the parking lot are being drilled, Moore said. Landscaping is to begin soon as is the laying of irrigation lines.
The hospital is divided into three sections for construction. The most advanced is the surgery area and that of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing plant. Flooring will be laid beginning next week in surgery. In the patient wing and in the emergency room, ceiling grids are being installed. In the last area, that of the lobby entrance, lab areas and physical therapy, drywall is being installed.

THE HOSPITAL is in negotiations to temporarily lease the Via Christi clinic on South Washington Street, Baker said. Dr. Wes Stone, currently with the practice, would continue at the clinic under the hospital’s management. Dr. Earl Walter, his partner, has announced his retirement. “We’re still in the due diligence phase,” Baker said. The long-term hope is that Dr. Stone would be an anchor tenant of the new medical office building to be built adjacent to the new hospital on north Kentucky Street sometime down the road.
Trustees agreed to pay $689,200 to Murray Construction, project management company of the construction of the new hospital.