Reprinted with permission from
The Courier=Times Online

No one from the public spoke, either for or against, the hospital’s plans to renovate a currently unused cystoscopy room into a fourth OR.

PMH Chief Operating Officer Craig James said the 110-bed facility has approximately 200 physicians, both as active and courtesy staff members. The three present operating rooms and one dedicated C-section room are used by hospital surgeons 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

"The proposed project," James said, "will not produce any changes in services now provided at Person Memorial Hospital, however, the additional operating room will provide additional surgical capacity that will allow surgeons more flexibility and choice in scheduling procedures."

He said PMH surgeons are performing new procedures daily, including implantation of pacemakers and more complex orthopedic surgeries.

"These new surgical procedures require more time than general surgery or endoscopy cases," James explained.

He added that, with continuing technological advances in surgical procedures, "Person Memorial Hospital needs additional surgical capacity in order to provide these services locally rather than having to send patients to other hospitals outside of Person County for these procedures."

Additional surgical capacity, James added, will allow for both the increased surgical time needed for more complex procedures and free doctors’ schedules up so that they can spend more time on office visits and pre- and post-operative consultations.

With the addition of the fourth OR, said James, the hospital will increase its recruitment of physicians to include specialists in gastroenterology, gynecology and urology.

Dr. Ken Flowe, PMH chief of staff, said the hospital had seen tremendous growth in patients and staff over the past few years. The fourth OR, he said, will increase efficiency and better patient care. He also said the additional operating room would help in retaining physicians. Having another room, he said, would allow hospital staff to turn over the rooms faster and without as much downtime as is currently seen between surgeries.

There are currently 12 surgeons on staff, Flowe said, all of whom "like to schedule as many operations as possible each day," on the days they perform surgery. "Then they can see more patients in the office," he said.

The hospital is currently in the middle of a renovation and expansion program that will cost about $14 million. That project is moving ahead of schedule, Flowe said, and he expects the clinic section to be open with the next month.

The cost of renovating the former cystoscopy room in order to develop a fourth OR is estimated at about $383,000.

The last time the hospital underwent a major addition or renovation was 1989.

The public hearing held this week was a final step in the process of PMH gaining permission to move forward with the OR project.