Floyd County Medical Center shows off remodeled emergency, radiology departments

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The newly remodeled Radiology Department and Emergency Department were on display for an afternoon open house at the Floyd County Medical Center last week.

Other departments were also featured, offering information, an opportunity for visitors to ask questions and visit with personnel, along with snacks and goodie bags.

FCMC staff took visitors on tours of the remodeled facilities. Todd Fails, the director of facilities and materials management, led some of the groups.

Fails also talked about some of the changes to the hospital that will continue to follow through with a new clinic addition set to begin construction in the spring, including high quality hospital grade wood-like vinyl flooring, color schemes, cabinetry and more.

In the Radiology Department, he pointed out the changes that opened up the admissions area.

“People are able to see what’s going on. It doesn’t feel so claustrophobic,” he said. “We were able to create this nice big hallway to bring people back. If they are in a wheelchair, or whatever, we can get them in there without any issue.”

Joanie Behnke, radiology director, talked about the different forms of scans available: bone density, mammograms, traditional diagnostic X-ray, CT and MRI.

Rooms were rearranged and sometimes expanded during the Radiology Department remodeling so each function has its own space now.

One of the biggest changes is the upgrade to the department’s magnetic resonance imaging capabilities, Behnke said.

Whereas previously people received MRIs by going outside to a truck permanently located behind the hospital, the hospital’s new wide-bore MRI machine is located in its own room inside.

The increased size of the opening in the machine makes it more comfortable for larger patients or for those bothered by small spaces.

Behnke said an MRI typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

The hospital also purchased a new CT (computed tomography) machine, adding to the department’s state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities.

Fails said the remodeling project price tag was about $2.3 million, but $1.2 million of that was for the new MRI and $600,000 was for the new CT machine, so only about $500,000 of that was for construction and furnishing costs.

In addition to the new space for the separate services and radiology admissions, they also created a break room for radiology employees and a “reading room” filled with computer displays to read the results of scans.

Dr. Ryan Smith, a diagnostic radiologist with Radiologists of North Iowa, who comes to the medical center twice a month for advanced diagnostic testing such as follow-up scans, swallowing scans and breast biopsies, invited people to peek into the reading room to get an idea of how complex the technology has become.

The Emergency Department was next on the tour, and Fails said anyone familiar with the former ED arrangement would immediately see how they had opened up the space and created a new ED entrance.

Rachel Conrad, emergency services director, said one of the new features is a dedicated triage room, where patients can be examined in private before being moved back to the emergency room beds.

If needed, the triage room can also be used for an ED patient, increasing the total beds available to seven.

Conrad said the Emergency Department is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an emergency room physician always available.

Fails talked a little about the new clinic addition, telling the people on the tour that the hallway they were walking in from the Radiology Department and Emergency Department to the rotunda entrance would be open space at some point next year as that part of the wing is demolished to create a new common entrance for both the hospital and clinic.