|
 The front cover of this issue of Here’s To Your
Health is an artist’s rendering of our plans to significantly improve
Winter Haven Hospital’s exterior, main lobby and the first and second
floors of our main campus buildings over the next few years.
The construction of two new operating rooms to
accommodate our anticipated open-heart surgery program prompted discussions
about the hospital’s entire operating room area that was built in
1967. New state-of-the-art equipment and techniques have required
more space and we believe the timing is right to make all the necessary
changes to have all of our operating rooms become state-of-the-art during
this process. These significant changes are planned for the second floor of
the Swann building. A new main lobby is also planned in the first floor
area. We intend to bring more outpatient services to the first floor
to make it easier for patients to access these services as well.
In addition, more diagnostic equipment and services
will be made available in the Emergency Department. This will expedite
patient flow and improve efficiency as patients will not need to be
transported to different parts of the hospital for these important
services.
Since our Auxiliary Volunteers have always been our
friendly, responsible main lobby greeters, we are involving them in the
process of redesigning this very important hospital “front
door” area. In addition to the thousands of hours of time they
donate to our organization every year, the Auxiliary has pledged $500,000
to get this enormous project started. We are extremely grateful for
their continuing, caring work and for this wonderful financial support.
We will begin to provide angioplasty services in our
heart catheterization labs beginning in October. Angioplasty will be
utilized by our physicians to open up clogged arteries by using a balloon
type device. This is a much needed new service for our patients and
it is a forerunner to our beginning to provide open-heart surgery services.
A letter of intent has been signed by Mid-Florida
Medical Services to transfer ownership of Good Shepherd Hospice to LifePath
Hospice. LifePath is a not-for-profit Hospice already serving our
area. They have agreed to retain the name Good Shepherd Hospice and
the numerous services Good Shepherd Hospice has offered over the years.
The Good Shepherd Hospice Board enthusiastically supported this
not-for-profit organization’s acquisition of Good Shepherd.
New equipment for the Winter Haven Hospital Cancer
Center has arrived. We are now the only hospital in East Polk to have
IMRT – Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy capability. IMRT
enables physicians to deliver cancer killing radiation doses to a specific
target (tumor) without affecting surrounding healthy tissue.
Therefore, side effects are considerably decreased. Our
physicians can now literally bend the radiation dose around critical body
structures without compromising the tumor dose. A new CT simulation
system to define the tumor volumes and critical organs has been added as
well. The images from the CT scanner are transferred into a computer
to optimize treatment. Our Cancer Center has been enhanced
considerably with these state-of-the-art additions and we are excited about
the benefits our patients will receive from them.
Finally, we have recently begun an Arts in Medicine
Program and certainly welcome the community to become involved. The
intent is to use art and music to help facilitate a healing environment
within our facilities. If patients choose, they will be able to enjoy
various forms of art (painting, coloring, or music) listening to musicians,
or participating with musicians while here. If you, or someone you
know, has an interest in volunteering time as an artist or musician, please
call 863-297-1896.
|
