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By Dian Ver Valen
The Times 

CCHS Set to Hire Architect Soon

Construction may start in fall; board is also looking at alternatives for new IT system

 


DAYTON – Executives with the Columbia County Health System are in the final stages of hiring an architect for the Dayton General Hospital upgrade approved by voters with a $5.5 million bond levy last year.

Chief Operations Officer Shane McGuire reported to the hospital district board last week that two architects had replied so far to the ad that ran in both The Times and Dayton Chronicle for the last two weeks.

The timeline for the project is to have an architect selected before the next board meeting in July, McGuire said. Interim CEO Jon Smiley will select a team to rate and choose the best candidate.

From there, the architect will submit plans for the board of directors to approve. The architect will use the report created by Stroudwater Associates as a basis for his or her design.

At their meeting last month, the board said they hoped to start the upgrade to the facility in mid to late fall, depending on how fast the state health department responds to their go-ahead request for the construction, which will primarily take place inside the current hospital footprint.

In a separate move, the directors agreed to allow McGuire and Smiley to research a new Information Technology system for the health system, including DGH, Booker Rest Home, and the clinics in Dayton and Waitsburg.

The state health department is encouraging medical providers to become more proactive and focus on population health rather than just individual health, board chair Ted Paterson said. This will require that hospitals and clinics be able to produce reports and other documentation of their quality of service.

The current IT system at CCHS is outdated and won’t fit the bill, board members said. The matter was discussed at length in previous board meetings as well.

“Our doctors may provide quality care, but if we can’t report quality of care, it didn’t happen,” Paterson said.

A new system is likely to cost $1.5 million over the next five years, with installation and regular service fees, McGuire said. Board members unanimously agreed that it was a move that had to be made. Lee Holter, the new CCHS chief financial officer, said he supported the decision.

The hospital district purchase a new and costly IT system five years ago, CPSI, but that system has not kept up with the state requirements for reporting, McGuire said.

“We have given CPSI every opportunity to come to the table with something we like, and they just keep missing the mark.”

CCHS executives are looking at a system called Meditech. They told the board that, in addition to being a top-tier system that has come down to affordable prices recently, it is a system used by many surrounding health systems – this means patient information can be more easily shared between providers.

And service support is in-state, which makes it more likely that the company will keep up with Washington state reporting regulations, McGuire and Holter both stated.

 

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