Healthcare in 2020
By Doug Walker
Healthcare without question is one of the leading
industries in Rome and Floyd County and that doesn’t
appear to be changing anytime soon.
With two large full-service hospitals and one of the
state’s largest multi-specialty medical clinics anchoring
the industry, Rome and Floyd County residents don’t
generally have to stray far to have their medical needs
met.
Both Floyd Medical Center and Redmond Regional
Medical Center are looking to expand their clinical services
while Harbin Clinic
continues to add
practitioners and
has consolidated
some of its
services from
various locations
to the core of the
city’s medical
community.
On the down
side, Rome is
losing Kindred
Hospital, a longterm
acute care
facility which is
licensed for 45
beds, but that is
freeing up space on
the campus of Floyd Medical Center which will provide
some unique opportunities for continuing growth at FMC.
In fact, the relocation of both the Harbin orthopedic
and pediatrics practices this year will also free up
considerable space in the Physicians Medical Building at
330 Turner McCall Boulevard, also on the FMC campus.
Competition between the two hospitals is as keen
as ever. Floyd Medical Center is continuing its effort to
block Redmond from opening a new perinatal unit while
Redmond is seeking to prevent FMC from initiating openheart
services.
Dr. Paul Wesley, an internal medicine physician at Redmond Regional Medical Center, speaks
with U.S. Rep. Tom Graves in a simulation lab at the hospital.
The Redmond perinatal program has been proposed
to include nine labor-delivery-postpartum rooms as well as
cesarean section rooms and a seven bassinet nursery was
originally programmed to cost $21.8 million. It’s not clear
what the cost will be when construction starts if Redmond
is successful in defending against the Floyd appeal.
Redmond’s plans for the immediate future include a
series of modernizations and expansions. The hospital
acquired a couple of medical office buildings and has
been shifting administrative people out of the main
hospital to be able to expand the clinical footprint inside
the hospital. That’s an ongoing $10 million project.
One of the first big moves will be an expansion of the
emergency room.
Redmond’s
accounting department
moved out of the hospital
to permit the addition
of eight rooms to the
emergency department, a
$2.5 million project.
Redmond officials
indicate there are
additional plans to
expand cardiac service
for which the hospital
is already well-known.
Services that have been
added recently include
TAVER and MicroClip,
and is in the process
of adding Watchman
implant procedure an
electro-physiology procedure that is an alternative to
lifelong use of the drug Warfarin -- all cutting edge, stateof
the-art programs.
The hospital anticipates being named a Level One
Cardiac Center by the end of April. The state plans to
designate five hospitals as Level One Cardiac Hospitals,
similar to the designation of trauma hospitals.
Redmond Regional CEO John Quinlivan would not rule
out the possibility of another helicopter air transport
service returning to Rome.
Redmond is also seeking to expand its graduate medical
education programs. The hospital will add a geriatrics
fellowship to its medical education program as well as its
internal medicine residency program.
30 OUTLOOK | APRIL 2020