KNOW YOUR HOSPITAL

KNOW YOUR H= OSPITAL

TYLER COUNT= Y HOSPITAL

What Servic= es Does It Offer?

Tyler County Hospital, operated by Tyler County Hospit= al District, is a licensed 49-bed acute care facility with 25 staffed beds and over 110 full-time equivalent employees.

The Emergency Department provides one of the most impo= rtant services available to Tyler County citizens. Now in new, first-rate facilities,= the department is staffed with qualified emergency room personnel and a 24-hour in-house physician provided by EmCare Physicians Services. The ER Department focuses on stabi= lizing trauma or accident patients and critically ill individuals, including those= who have strokes and heart attacks that require thrombolyt= ics or “clot-busters.” Immediate care can mean the difference between life and death for th= ese patients who come to the hospital.

Following stabilization, patients are either admitted = to the local hospital or transferred to higher levels of care at other facilities. The hospital uses several helicopters that pick up patients on site. The local ambulance service brings patients to the hospital and, when needed, transfers them to larger hospita= ls.

The hospital operates several ancillary systems. It has a complete credentialed laboratory (CLIA) that provides in-patient and out-patient services in hematology, coagulation, chemistry, microbiology, serology, and immunology. A recently purcha= sed Bactec machine lessens the time needed for culture and sensitivity studies. All equi= pment and instrumentation is current, and all services are available 24 hours a day.

The Imaging or X-ray Department offers the same servic= es that larger hospitals, such as Beaumont and Lufkin, provide. The local department has two diagn= ostic x-ray rooms with fluoroscopy. It can also provide conventional diagnostic studies and all vascular/cardiac ultrasound studies. The new h= elical CAT Scan operates seven days a week. The hospita= l has added a new ultrasound machine that is now available for venous and arteria= l Dopplers and echocardiograms. Tyler County Hospital Foundation, established in 2002, has funded the $355,000 Fluoroscopic Radiology room, already in use at the hospital. The Imaging Department is on call 24 hours a day.

The hospital Cardiopulmonary Department performs such services as stress testing, ventilation, nebulization<= /span>, holter monitor testing, arterial blood gas determinations, event monitoring, and pulmonary function testing.

Tyler County Hospital provides some surgery. Many diagnostic and treatment serv= ices performed weekly by visiting physicians include urology consultation, treatment, and cystoscopy; cardiology consultat= ion, diagnosis, and treatment; carotid and cardiac Dopplers= and echo studies; colonoscopy and upper and lower GI series; and esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD).

A new construction project in 1969 increased the hospi= tal bed capacity to 49, 25 of which are presently staffed. It also added a physical therapy department (not active now), two nurses’ stations, an admitting offic= e, a medical records office, an examination room, a storage and laundry building, and an enlarged dining area. = In 1977 the hospital added a new administrative wing and expanded the kitchen facilities. In 1991 it expand= ed the waiting room area and enlarged the emergency room by adding a double trauma room, all of which has been replaced by the new ER.

Chief Financial Officer for the hospital, Richard Wall= ace sums up the value package Tyler County Hospital offers citizens of Tyler County: “From a financial standpoint Tyler County Hospital is one of = the best bargains to be found in East Texas.” Most patients who have been there = will attest to the excellent, personal care they received when they were treated= in the local hospital.