Beatrice Community Hospital reflects on 2021 | Local News | beatricedailysun.com - Beatrice Daily Sun
Beatrice Community Hospital faced a number of new and old challenges in 2021.
Hospital staff remained at the front lines of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which surged in cases all across the country in 2021. BCH handled admitted 106 patients with COVID-19 in 2021, slightly more than the 98 in 2020, though its hospitalization peak was less severe.
Senior Executive for Clinic Services Eric Trusty said the hospital has learned how to best combat the pandemic over its two-year run.
"We learned so much," Trusty said. "We've done a lot better of job of going down the decision tree as it relates to COVID, especially when it comes to staffing surgical cases. We've been able to flex and be nimble when needed to take care of patients."
Hospital CEO Rick Haraldson said COVID-19 also created need for new ways of accessing health.
"COVID accelerated how we had to change and meet some care needs," Haraldson said. "A little bit more remote type access. Trying to figure out how to do telemedicine. How do you balance the sick person with COVID but have the need to have visitation."
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Trusty said the increased load on surrounding hospitals made telemedicine all the more important.
"It accelerated more telemedicine that we've done in the past," Trusty said. "It's harder to transfer patients … That's even accelerated telemedicine into the ICU. We even have pulmonologists essentially on standby that are at the bed side via video to help us take care of those patients."
Haraldson said some patients loved the new options presented by telemedicine, which can be as simple as FaceTime or Zoom, but the transition wasn't easy for everyone.
Additional technology, like a visiting surgeon using robotic equipment, expanded the quality of care to community members, Haraldson said.
"For certain surgeries, the robot is less invasive, it creates less complications, it creates less recovery time, less use of opioid or pain medication," he said. "So it's becoming the standard. We want to make sure we're matching that quality of care."
About a dozen robotic surgeries since getting the technology. Haraldson said he expects the trend of technological advancement to continue.
"I think technology will always be the big trend," Haraldson said. "And then there's the recruitment. We want to be able to keep getting the best providers out here."
Trusty and Haraldson said they prioritized recruitment, welcoming three new doctors this year: Hannah Painter, in family and internal medicine; Lindsey Kostal, a pediatrician, and Jamie Zillig Kielian, in family medicine at the Gage County Medical Clinic.
Haraldson and Trusty said the hospital's rural rotation residency program with UNMC allows for those medical residents to see what rural practice is like while also giving the hospital a chance to recruit.
"It can be hard to come to a rural setting," Haraldson said. "But there are a lot of amenities around Beatrice. You can feel like you're in a rural area, but you're not isolated."
The hospital will welcome a new surgeon in August, replacing Blake Butler who worked in the hospital for 32 years.
The hospital calculates its annual data between Oct 1. and Sept. 30, the organization's fiscal year. Between those months, from 2020-21, BCH saw 997 acute admissions, compared to 974 in 2019-20. There were 202 babies delivered in that time frame, compared with 205 in the previous year.
Emergency department visits grew to 7,525 versus 6,985 in the year before.
Looking ahead, Haraldson said he's excited about the expansion coming to the BCH campus. The new Beatrice Family and Internal Medicine office building will consolidate the primary care providers in the Gage County Medical Clinic, Beatrice Medical Center and the Beatrice Family and Internal Medicine Clinic into one location.
The 22,450 square foot project will cost $13.3 million and will start breaking ground in March. Trusty said he expects the project to take around 15 months, so construction will likely finish by the summer of 2023.
Trusty and Haraldson said the expansion will help expand access and make the hospital more efficient.
Haraldson said he appreciates the community support the hospital has received in the past two years.
"The community just recognized the strain the staff was under," Haraldson said. "They just stepped up and wanted to help in anyway. We were getting donations for masks and anything we needed. If we put out something we needed, the response was immediate."
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