The Cook County North Shore Hospital board has hired DSGW Architects of Duluth to help them strategize a renovation of the hospital and care center. As health care evolves, the way hospitals are configured changes as well. Decisions about what to do with the care center will be part of the process, because the care center continues to operate at a loss. Many hospitals with attached care centers have chosen to close their care centers. An initial architectural drawing proposed by DSGW includes the care center but has it share a nurse’s station with the hospital.
Rebecca Lewis of DSGW Architects of Duluth talked to the Cook County North Shore Hospital board on October 18 about renovating the hospital complex, which is now older than the average age of Minnesota hospital facilities.
Lewis said the size of the building doesn’t need to change as much as how it is configured. The “cornerstone” of the plan her firm is proposing would be a combined nurses’ station, what she called “the organizational heart” of the building, for both hospital and care center nursing staff.
Because the building would need to remain operational throughout construction, the work would be done in eight phases. “I won’t kid you, though,” Lewis said. “This is complicated.”
Lewis projected the total cost at $12-16 million. Just under $10 million would cover the actual cost of construction while the rest would be “project costs” such as professional fees, permits, and financing.
The entire project could take close to five years, but the construction phase could be done in as little as a year and a half, Lewis said. The timeline includes “making sure what you’re proposing is what the patient wants,” she said.
Lewis said construction documents would be prepared in a way that would allow local contractors to participate.
One decision that will be required as the hospital board considers updating the facility is whether to continue operating the care center. Care centers attached to hospitals operate at a loss. Hospital Administrator Wraalstad said Medicare will not fund nursing home care beyond 90 days of rehab, and a lot of hospitals are eliminating the care centers attached to them.
Hospital administration has tried to “stem the losses from the care center,” Wraalstad said.
Tom Spence asked, “Is it a sustainable loss or is it one that will eventually bring down the hospital?” He suggested that they consider making the care center a separate business entity.
“I think there’s an absolute need for it because of the isolation,” Howard Abrahamson said of the care center. He said planning a new facility is difficulty without knowing what government funding and priorities will be down the road.
“We have to be able to be flexible,” said Wraalstad. “My crystal ball is foggy.”
Meningitis from Massachusetts pharmacy
After fungal meningitis was traced to a New England Compounding Center facility in Massachusetts that produces medicines, the company recalled all of its products. Administrator Wraalstad said North Shore Hospital has not bought products from this company.
Commissioner’s report
After reporting county board news, Commissioner Jim Johnson, the county board’s liaison to the hospital board, announced that it was his birthday, saying that on his birthday last year, he didn’t think he would be around for another birthday. He has been battling cancer. “I want to thank the hospital and clinic for all the help you’ve given me with all my health issues,” he said, and the room erupted in applause.
New EKG machine
Carolyn Hanford of the Radiology Department demonstrated the new EKG machine that will allow results to be sent electronically and read by cardiologists in Duluth.
Hanford demonstrated on Maintenance Director Rory Smith, explaining that they rough up the skin a little and put adhesive patches on parts of the body that don’t have as much muscle (such as the wrist instead of the shoulder) in order to create less “noise” and get a better reading. “We don’t do a lot of EKGs here anymore, but when we do them, we need to do the best job we can,” she said.
“When I did my husband’s [EKG] he wouldn’t let me pull the patches off,” she said. “He said I’d enjoy it too much.”
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