Physician Recruitment
Medical Staff: Record Growth

In fiscal year 2003-2004, Decatur General recruited 13 physicians to our area, a record number. In addition to our two new heart specialists, the hospital welcomed staff members who helped expand our medical coverage in the areas of psychiatry, anesthesiology, oncology, opthamology, family medicine and gastroenterology, to name a few.

Medical Office Building
Medical Plaza II: Room to Grow

To accommodate the growing medical staff, Decatur General decided to build a second Medical Plaza, scheduled to open early 2005. Connected to the first Medical Plaza, the new building will be approximately 45,000 square feet. Fifty percent pre-occupied before its opening, the building will house physician offices and some hospital services, including the Decatur General Sleep Disorders Center and Decatur Bariatrics.

Surgery Center
Much-Anticipated Ambulatory Surgery Center Opens

During a year of major growth for Decatur General came the opening
of the Surgery Center of Decatur.
The Surgery Center, jointly owned
by Decatur General and 31 staff physicians, is located on the corner
of 8th Street and 14th Avenue. The 17,600-square-foot building includes 15 holding rooms, eight recovery bays, four operating rooms and three endoscopy suites. Before the Surgery Center opened, Decatur General was performing approximately 9,000 surgeries each year. The Surgery Center has helped reduce the total number of surgical procedures performed, allowing additional time in the hospital for more complex operations. Since opening in 2004, the Surgery Center has performed 1,700 procedures.

Record Number of Mammograms
Mammography Center Sees Record Number of Patients

Mammography continues to be the best tool for the early detection of breast cancer. In 2004, the Decatur General Mammography Center performed a record number of procedures including 11,000 mammograms; 1,000 breast ultrasounds and 281 stereotactic biopsies (mammotone and En-Bloc procedures). The Mammography Center was the first in North Alabama to offer En-Bloc, a less-invasive and quicker biopsy procedure that allows the physician to capture a larger piece of tissue and determine a clearer diagnosis.

Quality Initiatives
Hospital-Wide Effort...Five Quality Initiatives Improve Patient Care

For fiscal year 2004, Decatur General focused on five quality initiatives, advancing healthcare at the Hospital to a higher level. The initiatives included Surgery Site Infection Prevention, Acute Myocardial Infarction, Community-Acquired Pneumonia, Stroke, and Heart Failure. For each
of these conditions, interdisciplinary committees determined goals and developed physician protocols and clinical pathways to ensure that these
goals were met. The teams working on these quality initiatives continue
their research to ensure protocols match the most recent guidelines set by professional healthcare associations. Decatur General is leading the way
to improve quality of care in Alabama.

Behavioral Medicine Center Children’s Program
Behavioral Medicine Center Increases Focus on Children

Further specializing treatment for behavioral patients, the Decatur General West Behavioral Medicine Center began offering a new program especially for children. The Child Inpatient Program is designed to treat children ranging
from five to 11 years old who are experiencing emotional and behavioral problems. The programs, staffed by a specialized, multi-disciplinary team that utilizes interactive/interpersonal therapies to work with children in the way they think, feel and behave, provides a caring environment where children can learn to address their issues and learn more appropriate skills for handling them. One focus of the program is helping family members work together to solve issues. The program also offers River City Academy, a school program allowing children to continue their education while completing treatment.

CT Scanner
Imaging Receives a Faster CT Scanner

In September 2004, the Imaging Department acquired a new CT scanner, the Siemens Sensation 16. This new scanner provides faster scanning, a benefit to trauma patients, and faster processing of images, making diagnosis quicker. The new scanner also allows for thinner slices with better detail.

Bariatrics
Decatur Bariatrics Opens Door to New Future for Obese Patients

In Spring 2004, more than 300 calls flooded the phone lines in the first month when Decatur General announced it would be offering gastric bypass surgery in conjunction with LivLite. Decatur Bariatrics opened its doors in April 2004, and since May, Ken Chandler, MD, and Greg Adams, MD, have performed more than 90 gastric bypass surgeries. Since the inception of the program, Decatur Bariatrics has received more than 2,400 calls about this life-changing surgery. Decatur Bariatric Support Group also was formed
and meets monthly. Attendance began with 15 members and has grown to more than 50.

Also during 2004, Decatur General made several in-hospital accommodations for obese patients, including special beds that easily move from a lying position to an upright position, wider seating, recliners that hold more weight, wider wheelchairs, a scale with a higher weight capacity and
exam tables that support up to 800 pounds.

Stroke Center
Time Is of the Essence

A stroke won’t wait. Recognize the symptoms. Call 911. The Stroke Education campaign was launched to educate our community in 2004. Encouraging patients who think they may have had a stroke to come to the Emergency Department within three hours of the stroke’s onset is key, and Decatur General’s new Stroke Center has worked hard to encourage and educate patients to follow this action.

After a two-year-long preparation by an interdisciplinary group, the Stroke Team’s efforts were rewarded in January when the Stroke Center began treating patients. The Stroke Center, which includes cooperative connections between the Emergency Department, Imaging, and the Medical Nursing
Unit, is seeking disease-specific certification from the Joint Commission
for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in the next year.