Prowers Medical Center Celebrates Quorum Award

Base of New Hospital Signage at Front Entrance

Prowers Medical Center was recently recognized by Quorum Health Resources as “2018 Best Overall Performance for a Critical Access Hospital”, according to Chief Executive Officer, Craig Loveless. Loveless informed the Prowers County Commissioners of the award during his regular updates pertaining to hospital developments.  “The award doesn’t belong to any one individual or department, but it reflects the teamwork we’ve developed to offer medical services to our community,” he said.  The CEO said an open house celebration and brief awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, August 30^th from 6pm to 8pm at Brew Unto Others, downtown Lamar.

Construction at the Northern Portion of Kendall Drive

Additional work is underway, improving hospital facilities, inside and outside the physical buildings. Loveless said the yearlong wait for a better roadway and parking lot will near completion by the early part of September.  Kendall Drive is being repaved and widened in some place and the final piece of the work, by City of Lamar crews, should be accomplished on Sunday, September 9^th.  He said this will prove to be a, hopefully, minor inconvenience for residents at The Legacy, south of the main hospital building, while the portion of the road directly in front of them is resurfaced.

The main parking lot should be drier from rains and especially snow and ice this winter with an improved drainage system that is moving standing water off the lot and into a retention pond off the main campus. A main sewer line is being replaced in a hospital corridor and walls and ceiling tiles will be the final element of that project, once materials are available to the construction crew, in a couple of weeks’ time.  The fire alarm system is being integrated throughout the hospital and hvac work on some of the ventilations system leading into the emergency departments is being widened so larger ducts will improve airflow and cut down on the noise created by the air flow through smaller vents.  A permanent structure for signage for the hospital is also under construction and new direction signs will also be posted.

Loveless said the hospital spends around $2M a year on capital investments and this year will be no different with equipment replacements and upgrades planned including the radiology department and an upgrade on PMC’s MRI unit. “We are looking at new mammography equipment, but that may have to be carried over to the start of the New Year at this point,” he explained.  He added that one philosophy behind the purchases is the more the hospital improves; the better the departments can perform for the community, increasing the number of patients who use the facilities which provides the revenue for the upgrades.  He said, “Medicaid made more payments to us this year than last, so that helped with our revenue flow which means there’s more funding we can invest in our operation.”

By Russ Baldwin