For the second time in a year, Allen County Regional Hospital had to turn away patients because of internet connection problems.
ACRH was unable to send digital images for about five days because of a firewall problem somewhere in the national technology systems of Hospital Corporation of America, which currently manages the hospital and provides such services.
The problems began the morning of Dec. 4, and continued through Dec. 9. Four patients had to be diverted from the emergency room to other hospitals because ACRH was unable to send digital images to its radiology service, United Imaging.
The problem was isolated to emergency room patients, because scans could not be sent in an emergency situation but sometimes would go through later. Staff also were able to use a wireless connection to conduct most of their regular activities.
A similar problem occurred last December, interim-CEO Larry Peterson said. That outage lasted about three days. This one took five days to resolve.
Hospital trustee John Brocker asked if the problem was limited to HCAs systems. The hospital is working on a plan to lease the facility and operations to Saint Lukes Health System in the next few months. Saint Lukes will provide its own technology systems.
The current system is HCAs responsibility, Peterson said. The problem affected HCA systems nationwide, but not all hospitals in the network.
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. They had to trace things through the system, all across the U.S., he said.
HOSPITAL administrators consulted Saint Lukes officials before pursuing two building projects.
One, for the repair of a longtime issue with leaking showers in patient rooms that have plagued the facility since its construction, was put on hold.
The other, a remodel of the hospitals pharmacy to meet new state laws, was approved.
Peterson asked for a second quote to repair the showers, hoping for a lower bid. But the second bid was significantly higher than the previous bid of about $12,000 per shower.
The hospital received a $135,000 settlement with contractors who initially installed the showers in 2013, and have 12 showers that need repairs.
Saint Lukes has discussed converting some patient rooms to outpatient clinic rooms, as the national trend for hospitals is to see fewer inpatients and more outpatient visits. ACRH lacks space for outpatient clinics.
Saint Lukes officials recommended ACRH wait to repair the showers until they can decide how best to use the space.
