Name | Tuomey HOSPITAL [2] | |
Gender | Male | |
HIST | Merger advances Partnership between Tuomey, Palmetto Health now official Posted Saturday, September 12, 2015 6:00 am LOGAN-OWENS BY JIM HILLEY JIM@THEITEM.COM Thursday, Oct. 1, will be a historic day for Tuomey Healthcare System. Tuomey announced Aug. 14 that Federal Judge Margaret Seymour granted a motion to extend Tuomey's $40 million appeal bond until Oct. 1. At that time, Tuomey was working privately toward a final settlement agreement with the Department of Justice after the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a decision awarding damages and civil penalties totaling $237.4 million against Tuomey. Palmetto Health Chief Executive Officer Charles D. Beaman Jr. said in February the judgment would affect the two hospitals' partnership agreement, and in August, Tuomey Acting President and CEO Michelle Logan-Owens indicated the final settlement with the Justice Department and a binding agreement with Palmetto Health would go hand in hand. Then on Friday - though no agreement with the Department of Justice has yet been announced - the Palmetto Health Board of Directors and Palmetto Health's two sponsoring boards, Richland Memorial Hospital Board and Baptist Healthcare System Board, announced a unanimous vote to make Tuomey Healthcare System a member of Palmetto Health. That vote was taken Tuesday, the announcement said. The announcement said the boards of both systems are in negotiations to finalize an agreement by Oct. 1, with the goal of the partnership becoming operational by the end of the year. The decision to make Tuomey a member of Palmetto Health will expand the Palmetto Health board from 16 to 19 members, including three representatives from Tuomey - the chair of the Tuomey board, a physician member of the Tuomey medical staff and one other Tuomey board representative, the announcement said. The two health care systems have been exploring a formal partnership since February, when the Tuomey board elected to enter into exclusive negotiations with Palmetto Health. "We are very pleased about moving forward with our partnership with Tuomey Healthcare System," Beaman said. "We fully expect to reach our definitive agreement by Oct. 1 and begin 2016 together as one." Beaman said the combination will bring together two long-standing institutions that share complementary cultures and a focus on delivering outstanding patient care. "We see our partnership with Tuomey delivering benefits to our respective communities in new ways," he said, "while reinforcing our commitment to providing high-quality health care to those we serve." Logan-Owens said Tuomey would remain committed to the health care needs of the Sumter community. "We are excited about all that the future holds for our partnership with Palmetto Health," she said. "We have a great deal of work ahead of us to meet our target, and I have every confidence that our teams will make this happen together." Palmetto Communications Associate Ashley Cunningham said Friday that Logan-Owens' future role in the organization is among details which will be worked out between now and the end of the year, as will decisions on branding for Tuomey Healthcare System. Though he declined to comment further, Tuomey Board Chairman John Brabham said Friday the merger was "pretty far down the road, and we expect it to be successful by the end of the year." Sumter's Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital ER will be expanded, renovated 15-month project will feature 15,000-square-foot addition, new retail pharmacy open for 24 hours a day to meet area demand Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital is undergoing a 15,000-square-foot expansion with a two-story, emergency department addition. The expansion is taking place in the ER parking lot near Main Street, and the ER entrance is still available. The hospital is also adding a 24-hour-a-day pharmacy. CAL CARY / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Friday, October 7, 2022 6:00 am BY BRUCE MILLS bruce@theitem.com These days, when people drive along the downtown Main Street side of Sumter's Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital, they will see a busy construction site. Given the growing trend of patient emergency room visits and to better serve the community, Tuomey is in the midst of a $15.7 million expansion and renovation project that touches numerous areas of care, and two hospital leaders spoke recently on the additions. The project, started in August, has a 15-month timeline and will add a new 15,000-square-foot, two-story building to Tuomey's emergency department along with a renovation to the existing space, according to Tuomey CEO Joe DiPaolo and Administrator Chris Powell. The project is to be completed in November of next year and also includes new high-tech equipment and a new retail pharmacy in an adjacent building on the lot where a BB&T was formerly located. The emergency department will add 13 new beds to 39 total and ER parking spots outside the facility will more than double from 54 to 118, Powell said. As a "community hospital" in a smaller region as opposed to major metropolitan areas that generally have hospitals about five miles apart, Tuomey's ER pulls people from all of Sumter County and also has transfers from McLeod Health Clarendon in Manning, DiPaolo said. Additionally, some Lee County residents drive to Sumter for Tuomey's emergency department as opposed to the hospitals in Florence, which may be further. Combine that with exponentially increasing ER visits through time in the area, and the expansion will meet current demand for the facility, according to the leaders. "The expansion will give us the capacity for all of Sumter County's residents," Powell said. New, state-of-the-art imaging equipment for the emergency department has already been purchased and is in place, he added, and the overall project will reduce wait times and help get patients in and out of the ER faster. The advanced technology includes a new CT scanner and new MRI system. The project consists of two phases. First, the two-story addition will be complete by May 2023, and then the renovation of current ER department - which is 30,000 square feet - will begin and should finish six months later. The ER project was originally on tap for 2015 but has been delayed because of various factors, including Tuomey's two mergers since then and the COVID-19 pandemic, the men said. Sumter-based Thompson-Turner Construction is the general contractor on the project, and both DiPaolo and Powell have the utmost confidence in what the firm brings to the table with a "local feel." The new retail pharmacy outside in the former BB&T building will be 5,000 square feet and is a separate piece in the overall project. Its purpose is to provide "meds to beds" at the hospital, Powell said, and allow patients to get medications before they are discharged. Increased accessibility is a key concept with the pharmacy, and it will include drive-through service and will be open to everyone in the community. It will also be the only 24-hour pharmacy in all of Sumter County when it opens, he added, post-COVID-19. The new imaging technology coincides with Tuomey's robotic technology, which allows for less-invasive surgeries. The hospital is actually a leader in the Southeast for robotic procedures, according to present data, Powell added. The level of technology investment at Tuomey is unique for a community hospital, the men said, but Prisma has provided it. The expansion and renovation is the largest project at Tuomey since the last ER addition that was made in 1999. "It's a very inclusive project and touches a lot of different things - imaging, retail pharmacy, the patient flow," Powell said. DiPaolo added he thinks it will contribute to increased recruitment. "In a hospital, the doctors want the latest technologies, and they want a safe environment," he said. "That's what we are doing here. We are building the toys, if you will, to say to the doctors: 'You want a robot, we got a robot. You want tomography, we got tomography.' We got all these technologies, so there is no excuse for doctors not to join this hospital." [1, 2] | |
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Person ID | I304050 | Singleton and other families |
Last Modified | 21 Oct 2022 |
Family | Regional Medical Center TUOMEY | |
_UID | 471954AA460C4E70B9ECCE7A46FB29D09586 | |
Last Modified | 2 Mar 2024 | |
Family ID | F203787 | Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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