Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

Thumbs up to Washakie County and Banner Health for investing in the future of the county and in health care for our residents.

I was impressed with the new patient wing when taken on one of the many tours Thursday at WMC. The number of current patient rooms is dropping from the 25 beds the critical care access hospital is certified for, to 18. CEO Jay Stallings said they hadn’t been full in using all 25 beds for a long time. He said the new hospital, when completed next year, will have room for expansion, in the event the area grows and there becomes a need for more patient rooms.

Of the 18 there are two labor and delivery rooms so a mother can be in labor and stay in that same room after giving birth. There are four semi-private patient rooms and eight private rooms. Of the eight private rooms, three are featured with the eICU technology that allows a nurse or physician to consult directly and immediately with on-call staff in Arizona.

Stallings said the need for a new hospital came about for several reasons, the first being the current hospital was built in 1962. In 1962 there wasn’t the technology or the medical equipment in the rooms that there are now. The patient rooms are larger to accommodate more equipment and ease of getting wheelchairs and/or walkers in and out and maneuvering around the room.

Upgrading the equipment is a big part of the construction of the new hospital as well. Each patient room has a monitoring system where buttons can be pushed to signal whether the patient can or cannot have a meal, whether the patient is at risk for falling and the beds are equipped for alarms if a patient gets out of bed. There are additional features as well. In the labor and delivery rooms ceiling lights are remote controlled to give the physician easier ability to move the lights to where the provider needs them during delivery.

Just a quick tour of the patient wing, is enough to get anyone excited about what’s to come — the new surgical wing that will be completed in December or early January, the emergency department, new lab and new offices.

The gift shop, which was shut down in order for construction to begin, will be added in and there will be a new entrance. New offices and storage spaces are larger for better work environment and providing needed storage space.

Thermopolis residents, which is run differently than Washakie Medical Center here, are faced with a decision of having to help pay for upgrades to their hospital, with some fearing without the updates, the hospital may eventually close.

Those thoughts make what our commissioners, our hospital board and Banner Health here have done more impressive. With the way the hospital is owned and operated and structured, the new facility will not cost Washakie County taxpayers.

Thumbs up to them for investing in our county, our health care and our future.