Glenwood Herald

Board member updates Quorum Court on status of Pike County Memorial April 23, 2008 - No reporter cited

By Heather Grabin
Murfreesboro Diamond

MURFREESBORO – Buddy Maxey gave the Pike County Quorum Court an update on the status of Pike County Memorial Hospital Monday night.

Maxey told the court that the hospital board had hired Dr. Richard Plant of Clarendon. Maxey explained how hiring Dr. Plant will help alleviate some of the financial burden that the hospital has been experiencing.

According to Maxey, the hospital has been having to staff the emergency room through a staffing agency, that can become very expensive.

“We need one more doctor. It is virtually essential that we hire one more doctor,” said Maxey.

Maxey told the court that the hospital had lost $400,000 last year due to the lack of patient census and the additional cost of the contract staffing service following the loss of the doctors from St. Joseph’s Mercy Medical Clinic in Murfreesboro.

Maxey told the court that the hospital is making payroll and the staff has been cut to the bare minimum, but the facility continues to struggle.

JP Johnny Plyler asked Maxey why the patients from the Murfreesboro Nursing Center are transported to Nashville for hospitalization and if it was not the administrator’s job to recruit patients.

Maxey replied that Pike County Memorial Hospital performs X-rays and lab work for the patients at the Murfreesboro Nursing Center and St. Joseph’s Mercy Medical Clinic. He stated that a doctor is the only one who can admit patients into the hospital, and the nursing center does not use a doctor from Pike
County Memorial.

He also said that patients from the nursing center and St. Joseph’s clinic are not always aware that they can choose the hospital that they will be treated at. If the patient does not request Pike County Memorial, doctors that are not on staff with the hospital will send them to Nashville or Hot Springs.

Plyler asked Maxey why the Home Health Care Agency at the hospital was closed.

Maxey said that the license the hospital has to practice home health only covered a 20-mile radius and that medicare cutbacks had severely effected the service of the home health care. The hospital also was rearranging staff members to fill vacancies and the board thought that the home health staff would be more essential in the hospital.

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