Carroll hospital to celebrate 100 years, new addition

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
January 13, 2005

CARROLL - St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll is taking a day to celebrate on Jan. 16. Not only is the hospital commemorating its 100th anniversary, but the grand opening of the new addition to the hospital will be celebrated the same day.

The celebration will begin at 1 p.m. on Jan. 16 and go until 4 p.m.

"It is a combination of recognizing the new facility, the new perspective on health care but also all the people that have been such an important part of who we are today," said Gary Riedmann, president of St. Anthony Regional Hospital.

The formal program beginning at 2 p.m. will recognize the people that have been so much a part of St. Anthony over the 100 years.

The special guests for the event include Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, president of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration; Dr. Randolph M. Ferlic, Kirk Norris, president of the Iowa Hospital Association and several Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

Dr. Ferlic, a Carroll native, is a respected cardiac surgeon, a member of the Nebraska Board of Regents and a Nebraska Medical Center board member. According to Riedmann, Dr. Ferlic has been involved in health care change and will offer some comments during the program.

"We feel he will be able to balance the sense of staying current and state-of-the-art and having a commitment to our community," said Riedmann.

Norris will also comment on the development of the facility and its service to the community.

"This is a chance for a number of the sisters that have worked at St. Anthony over the years to be present," said Riedmann. Currently there is one FSPA that is a full-time employee at St. Anthony and five are on the St. Anthony board.

The program, entertainment and refreshments will be held in the top floor of the new hospital addition. There will be tours in the afternoon for people throughout the region to come in and visit. Music will be played by the Al Welsh Orchestra with a voiceover.

Apple pie and ice cream will be served in honor of the tradition of caring shown during the past 100 years by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. The sisters had an apple orchard and used to make apple pies for the patients.

"We felt that this was a way to bring part of our history to reality for our community," said Riedmann.

The sisters have been a central part of the hospital since the beginning. They were the hands on providers in nursing, cooking and cleaning. Riedmann added that they were the heart and soul of the hospital at the start and continued the relationship over the 100 years.

Through the years, there have been four separate buildings and the hospital has continued to expand and grow. The hospital now has over 30 full-time physicians, a radiation therapy cancer center, a dialysis center, a variety of full-time specialists and full-time inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care.

The new addition was built to continue to meet the needs of St. Anthony patients and to address the acute care and intensive care inpatient areas.

"The addition is the first phase in going to all private rooms for our acute care business and completely modernizing the intensive care area," said Ed Smith, vice president of St. Anthony Regional Hospital. "After opening the addition, the existing acute care area will be completely remodeled."

The project is about a year away from total completion of renovations. The overall cost of the project is $13 million. The three story addition is 42,000 square feet.

"So often we were getting requests from patients that didn't want to have roommates for a variety of particular reasons - fear of catching something from someone else or privacy issues," said Smith. "We also wanted to de-institutionalize the setting or the surroundings that the individuals were in. I think it has been proven that people will recuperate much quicker in an environment that will be more soothing to them."

The addition was built separate from the existing facility, but to tie them together, there is a three-story atrium joining the two buildings. There is a glass wall on either side of the atrium.

"This adds a really nice feature to the entry way as you walk into the facility," said Smith.

The new addition includes minimal new equipment due to the fact that they are mainly addressing the physical environment for inpatients. The hospital is going to all private rooms employing ascetics that will help people recuperate from their illnesses and surgeries more quickly. The hospital will be using decentralized nurses stations so that the nurses are taking care of fewer patients and having to run less distance to take care of those patients.

"The new addition is really a special way to provide care for our patients," said Riedmann. "It is designed to provide a place of privacy and dignity and more of an at home atmosphere for the patient. It is focused on allowing the patients to be much more aware that their nurses and other staff are very close by."

Some of the equipment that they are adding is behind the scenes such as a pneumatic tube system to help relay information and supplies. A completely wireless nurse call system has been installed. Also nurses and doctors will be able to do bedside charting with wireless computers.

Smith commented that in each of the rooms, there will be a family area so families will be able to spend the night. They are equipped with a couch that folds out into a single bed.

The rooms will also have a patient care area, where the patient is, and a clinical area, where the nurses and doctors can do their charting. Smith explained that each room is better equipped and designed for the practice of modern medicine.

Another significant part of the project is changing out the air handling system for the entire hospital. According to Smith, what that is doing is upgrading the mechanical systems to better control climate and humidity.

"When the hospital was developed in the community 100 years ago, the Franciscan sisters made a commitment to serve the physical, mental and spiritual needs of all of our patients throughout the region. We believe that over the years we have maintained that same vision and commitment to caring and service," said Riedmann. "In doing that, we see that the new building is very much a message of how we have continued that mission while maintaining a state of the art presence throughout those years. It is really to strengthen our sense of service and commitment to the community even after 100 years."