In just a few months, the Liberty Regional Medical Center will be offering another service it has deemed important for the community.
Hospital officials, hospital authority members, county officials and builders turned the first shovels of dirt on what will be the LRMC’s hyperbaric and wound care center — and it is expected to be up and running this fall.
“This is an exciting day, not only for Liberty Regional, but for Liberty County,” said Tammy Mims, chief executive officer of the Liberty Regional Medical Center.”
The LRMC’s community health needs assessment revealed that diabetes and wound care were the number one needs.
“It is huge,” Mims said. “We started looking then at what programs we could do to assist that.”
Building a wound care center was part of the solution, and patients could be getting treated as soon as November. For many diabetics who incur wounds, those wounds often take longer to heal or don’t heal at all.
“They’ll immediately start working on the site work,” Mims said.
The building will be completed off-site and then brought to the location adjacent to the LRMC main campus. It will be in three pieces and tied in.
Oxygen tanks are expected to be brought in during late fall. The wound care center will have a doctor’s office in order for physicians to see patients and there will be two hyperbaric chambers for treatment.
Hyperbaric chambers use 100% oxygen under pressure for a noninvasive treatment option. The center, according to the LRMC, will have two of the largest single-occupancy chambers, and patients can watch a movie or a TV show during their therapy.
Patients at the wound care center, while receiving treatment from specialists, will remain under the supervision of their own doctor, who will get detailed progress reports. Medicare/Medicaid, private insurance and most HMOs cover nearly all of the treatments, according to the LRMC.
A behavioral health unit is among the remaining chief needs for the community, Mims pointed out.
“We know behavioral health is such a big need,” Mims said. “We hold several people in our emergency room every day. They can’t be transported and we can’t deliver that care for them.”
The hospital also has finished its call house for visiting doctors. The LRMC already has a joint cardiology venture with Dr. Gary Elkin and the health needs assessment also showed offering oncology services was essential, leading to the hospital’s oncology infusion center.
Mims said the LRMC will continue to review its data and the needs and responding as it can.
“It’s a great day to keep growing as a critical access hospital in rural Georgia,” she said.
