Gambrell Talks About 2008 at Stephens County Hospital

Stephens County Hospital wraps up a big year in 2008, looking ahead to what the future holds. Hospital Administrator Ed Gambrell said they accomplished a lot in 2008, but two things in particular stood out. “In early January, we were surveyed by the Joint Commission, who is the accrediting agency for Stephens County Hospital,” said Gambrell. “We underwent a three-day survey by three surveyors and came out of that survey in good shape and got that survey done and behind us. Then, while that was going on, we were under construction with our renovation project that actually began in January 2007 and was completed in July of this year.

Other work at the hospital this year included paving work and other landscaping improvements. Gambrell called 2008 a “challenging” year, especially from a financial standpoint considering the economy. He went on to say the outlook for 2009 seems bright. According to Gambrell, the hospital will not undertake any large-scale building projects. Instead, the focus may turn towards purchasing new equipment. “I strongly suspect that in the next six to twelve months, we will be looking at acquiring a new MRI machine to replace the one that we have had here for several years now,” he added. “That is probably going to be our biggest acquisition in 2009. Beyond that, we are probably going to start looking at replacing some of our patient beds in the hospital.”

This past Monday, the Hospital Authority held its final regularly scheduled meeting for the year. They received reports on patient satisfaction and staffing. Neither report contained anything out of the ordinary. In addition, the satisfaction report indicated generally positive feedback with parents.