October 6, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital is upgrading and expanding services thanks to investments by Ascension, the parent organization of Saint Thomas Health.
According to Brad Mullinax, Chief Administrative Officer of Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital the improvements include a new CT scanner, pharmacy renovations, and cardiac rehab sevices among others.
“Ascension has really invested back into our hospital. We have some new renovations going on. We have a new CT scanner, a GE optima 540 that will bring some advanced technology as far as CT imaging back to the hospital. Our old machine was about 15 years old and was getting less reliable and efficient. That new CT scanner is now on line,” said Mullinax.
“Our pharmacy is also under renovation here to make us more compliant with new standards coming out from the Joint Commission next year. We’re projecting that renovation to be finished up by the first of November,” he continued.
“After the first of the year we have a new service line coming to DeKalb in which we will be offering phase II and phase III cardiac rehab services. Any patients who have been at Saint Thomas West, Mid Town or Rutherford for cardiac procedures like stints or bypass surgery will no longer have to travel to another county to get their cardiac rehab done. That is a pretty big investment of about $100,000 that Ascension has made to make that service available and we are happy to be adding it at Saint Thomas DeKalb,” added Mullinax.
“We have more new equipment coming our way soon for pulmonary function testing and new IV pumps that will be more focused on safety and quality for the patients to help prevent any kind of medication errors”.
“Middle Tennessee Emergency Physicians has also taken over our emergency room services. They have been in the Rutherford and Mid Town West area for about 25 years and they are here now providing 24/7 care”.
“We’re excited about these investments Ascension has made into our hospital to better serve the people in our community,” said Mullinax.