The Liberty Regional Medical Center is pushing to have its maternal health initiative adopted across the state as a best practice.

Tammy Mims, CEO of LRMC, addressed Liberty County commissioners on efforts underway at the hospital, including its program called Moms Heart Matters. That program, launched last year, hopes to cut into the maternal mortality rate.

“We are saving moms’ lives,” Mims said.

The state is 49th in maternal mortality rate, meaning more of its new mothers are dying, mostly from cardiac-related issues, than almost any other state.

The hospital, just one of two critical access hospitals in the state still delivering babies, had 220 deliveries last year. Right now, 57 mothers are signed up in the Moms Heart Matters program. Those mothers’ blood pressures and other vitals are followed for a year.

Mims said too many moms have attributed their high blood pressure and other conditions as part of giving birth.

“They don’t know what they need to do,” Mims said. “People have missed that. And they have ignored it. And then they have a stroke. Of the four items they are dying from, they are preventable, but you’ve got to catch them. That’s what we’re telling the governor and the state. We have to follow them longer and catch it before they have these conditions.”

Another of LRMC’s advancements is expected to open soon — its new wound care center. Comprised of three modular units, the wound care center was brought about because of the high rate of diabetes — and its effect on patients’ wounds — in the area.

The wound care center will have a full-time physician on staff and a complete array of treatment, including two hyperbaric chambers. The wound care center is expected to open in late November or early December.

“It will be tremendous,” Mims said. “We’re very excited to have that as a new addition.”

Nearby will be the new on call house, where visiting physicians can stay while they make their rounds at LRMC. Currently, the hospital pays for those doctors’ hotel rooms. With the call house, the hospital can forego those hotel costs and the doctors will be right next to the hospital.

The LRMC also is expanding its services for orthopedic treatment, and Mims said they hope to start that in January. Mims added the hospital will start performing glaucoma surgeries within the next four-to-six weeks.

Rural stabilization grants have been put to use in the hospital’s medical- surgical unit, Mims said, upgrading its equipment. The entire has been renovated and there are now beds that if a patient moves, an alarm goes off. Rural stabilization grants from the state also went to new equipment and facilities in the hospital’s perinatal services.

The LRMC recently renovated Coastal Manor, its nursing home just north of Ludowici, giving the facility that opened in 1998 a fresh look.

“It’s very homey,” Mims said. “We’re super, super proud of the renovations, not only for the residents, but for their families and staff.”

Mims said the hospital also is expanding its oncology services, going from three to five days a week and bringing on board Dr. Ajaz Bulbul and a nurse practitioner to help him. The hospital’s oncology department also boasts an infusion center.

In assessing community medical needs, treatment of diabetes was number one, and providing oncology services was second, Mims said.

“We’re proud to have that specialty practice,” she said.

The hospital’s cardiology practice, under Dr. Gary Elkin, is also open five days a week, Mims pointed out.

“Those programs make us different from other rural hospitals,” she said.

Mims also noted the success of the hospital’s walk-in clinic, which was built to alleviate the strain on its emergency room.

“It’s done very well,” she said.

The LRMC’s emergency room is the busiest, by far, of all the state’s critical access hospitals. Last year alone, it treated 32,000 patients. The walk-in clinic, Mims said, is for those non-emergency cases that otherwise would take up space and time in the ER.

“You don’t have to have an appointment,” she said of the walk-in clinic.

The ER is getting visitors from the state soon as it may get a trauma designation. The team is set to come in November, and Mims said that would lead to more education and more resources for the hospital.

“Because of our volume, the state is saying we’ve got to get a trauma designation,” she said. “It will be better for the community.”

One problem that persists, though, is the number of psychiatric holds the hospital is treating. Just a few weeks, eight of its 18 beds were devoted to psych patients. The hospital has to care for and monitor the patients but can’t provide the level of treatment they need and has to wait until a state facility has space available.

“All we do is hold and wait until someone can accept them,” Mims said. “We had one person who was there 14 days.”

Commission Chairman Donald Lovette added psych calls also are a burden for local law enforcement, who get called out on a person in crisis. Mims said those patients also are not getting the kind of treatment they need in jail.

“So we’re not solving the problem,” she said.

Mims said changes to the certificate of need law could affect more than a dozen smaller hospitals adversely, and the construction of a free-standing ER clinic in south Bryan County could take away business from LRMC’s Midway clinic.

Liberty Regional now is eligible to receive up to $4 million in the tax credits for rural hospitals. The hospital received $1 million last year, with Ameris Bank donating $500,000. The program, which allows state income taxpayers to direct their payments to a rural hospital, has been extending to 2029. Those wanting more information on how to sign up or how the program works can visit georgiaheart. org. “We put it to good use,” Mims said.