2008: Health care more accessible

Health care became a bit more accessible to Sedalia and the surrounding region in 2008.

The Katy Trail Community Health Center made a 9,300-square foot addition, started a dental clinic, added additional bilingual employees and helped women with free cervical and breast cancer screenings.

The Katy Trail center added the dental clinic on Nov. 17. Chris Stewart, executive director of Katy Trail Community Health, said since opening, the dental clinic staff had seen more than 200 patients.

The health center is also offering initial and follow-up exams for children involved in Head Start in Sedalia and California.

“We know that that’s a need, and we’re working hard to fulfill it. We’ve made that a priority,” Stewart said.

The health center has arrangements with schools for children who need to be seen with true dental emergencies. Stewart said the health center sees about two to three of those cases a day.

The dental clinic will continue to expand through 2009 with the addition of two more rooms, and the health center plans to hire a new dentist in July.

In July 2008, the health center started a program called Show-Me Healthy Women. The program gives eligible women cervical and breast cancer screenings at no cost.

In response to the 30-percent increase in the number of people staff members have since past year, the health center hired more bilingual staff members.

“We’ve seen significant growth,” Stewart said.

The health center has four English/Spanish speaking employees and two English/Russian or Ukrainian-speaking staff members to accommodate more people.

“It’s a priority, and it will continue to be a priority,” Stewart said.

For the new year, the health center will be working on a behavioral health program with Pathways Community Behavioral Healthcare Inc.

“We are working on an effort to integrate our services,” Stewart said.

There will be opportunities for people to get help with managing chronic illness and more spaces available for group meetings and health exams.

In March 2009, the health center will update its equipment by using an electronic medical recorder to keep health records and files on a computer.

“It’s a big leap for us,” Stewart said.

Katy Trail Community Health will host an open house from 4 to 6 Jan. 22  p.m., to show people the new additions and expansions.

Bothwell Regional Health Center
Bothwell Regional Health Center has expanded and opened new services for patients in 2008.

The joint replacement center opened in March, offering patients a program and area to recover from surgeries. The center provides patients with private and group rooms for therapy, lunch and activities.

Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Church said the patients are pleased with the new service.

“It is running exceptionally well,” Church said.

In the summer, the hospital began construction on the sleep center, which will accommodate patients with sleep studies.

The 3,790-square-foot expansion will allow the hospital to do five studies per night. Currently, the hospital can only study two patients per night.

“There’s been a huge increase in the number of patients wanting sleep studies,” Church said.

The expanded building on the southeast corner of 12th Street and Ingram Avenue will offer one pediatric room and is scheduled to open in late January.

Bothwell also operates the Truman Lake Clinic in Warsaw. The clinic will expand with the construction of a 23,000-square-foot building to provide health care services in Benton County.

The health center will offer services not currently available at the clinic, such as radiology, ultrasound, mammography, laboratory, physical therapy, cardiac rehab phase III, bone densitometry and obstetric and gynecological care.

The new health center is scheduled to open in the spring.

The hospital upgraded its catheterization laboratory by adding all new equipment to perform more advanced cardiac care treatments.

Dr. Jeff Wadley attended a three-month preceptorship in New York City and earned certification to perform diagnostic angiograms, balloon angioplasties, stent placements and aneurysm repair.

The Bothwell Regional Health Center Foundation was formed this year to help support the hospital. The foundation held two fundraisers in 2008.

I-70 Medical Center
It has been more than four months since the I-70 Medical Center hospital board voted to approve the sale of the Sweet Springs hospital to Hospital Management Consulting/Critical Access Hospitals, but the deal is still pending.

James Noble, spokesman for the I-70 Medical Center, said the bank that was financing the sale failed, leaving it in limbo.

“It is still in the process. We don’t have a definite date,” Noble said.

The hospital opened in November 2005 as a 15-bed general acute care nonprofit hospital.

The sale will make the hospital a for-profit entity.

The hospital did open an I-70 Medical Clinic in Concordia in early December.

“We’re all just very excited about all of this,” said CEO Ron Baker.

Dr. Jon Mattson, who has a practice in Moberly, began taking patients full time as of today.

Noble said the hospital is still planning to build a clinic in Alma about 18 months after the sale of the hospital.