By Kellen Henry
The new five-floor Robert C. Byrd Ambulatory Building at CAMC Memorial Hospital will be ready for its first occupants this week.
The Charleston division of West Virginia University’s Health Sciences Center will move some operations into the building’s fifth- floor offices and clinics, and doctors will begin seeing patients Monday, said David Ramsey, CAMC’s chief executive officer.
The building, which also will house two cardiac catheterization labs, will be fully open by January. Different departments will move in as lower floors are ready.
“Everybody’s pretty excited about it, as a modern medical education facility,” Ramsey said after the CAMC Board of Trustees met Wednesday.
The board also authorized an application for 34 more acute care beds at Memorial. The beds have already been placed at the hospital for use in preparation and post-procedure observation, but need to be licensed by the Health Care Authority. The process could take several weeks, but the cost will be only for the application fees.
Though CAMC hospitals admitted about 5 percent fewer patients this June than a year ago, that doesn’t reflect the actual number of beds occupied, said Larry Hudson, CAMC’s chief financial officer. When patients stay longer than expected or need observation without meeting the criteria for admissions, the hospital can still need more beds.
“Memorial is so full that we think we will clearly be able to show the Health Care Authority there’s a need,” Ramsey said. The state authority must sign off on major projects for West Virginia hospitals.
The CAMC board is also waiting to hear the results from its Trauma Survey evaluation last week by the American College of Surgeons.
Hospitals are evaluated every three years by the ACS and receive a ranking of their ability to provide emergency medical services. The survey team must discuss its evaluations with a committee, but Ramsey said the response from the survey team indicates a Level I ranking is likely, meaning CAMC would be equipped to manage the highest level of emergency care.
Ramsey said the hospital is already designated as a Level 1 center by the state, but was given a Level II ranking by the ACS during the last evaluation. However, the hospital has increased its research activity in the last three years, a deficiency for the Level 1 criteria in the last ranking.
“It will be a significant performance standard that will measure us with hospitals around the country,” Ramsey said.
Reach Kellen Henry at [email protected] or 348-5179.
Originally published by Staff writer.
(c) 2008 Charleston Gazette, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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