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Chase Smith

Staff Writer

Pineville Community Hospital (PCH) is in the process of a substantial renovation in the skilled nursing facility.

“The intent of this renovation is to make the environment more comfortable and safe for patients,” said Greg Nunnelley, Human Resource Director at PCH.

According to Nunnelley, there are 30 beds in the skilled nursing facility and 19 of those beds are used for long-term care. The other 11 beds are used for short-term rehabilitation.

As PCH’s highest priority, several safety upgrades such as a fire sprinkler system and a state of the art nursing call system will be installed. The call system enables abilities for patients to send calls directly to the nursing staff. This system increases response time dramatically, states Nunnelley.

“This hospitalwide call system allows our medical personnel to reach the inpatients in an increased amount of time,” states Nunnelley.

The call by the patient will be routed directly to the nurse for medicine requests, or to the nursing assistant if it is a personal care need. Nunnelley adds, “this is accomplished by the use of pocket pagers that will allow the tracking and trending of data to improve.”

In addition, Nunnelley said many other safety devices are included in this renovation including the notification to medical personnel when a patient falls or goes into cardiac or respiratory distress. The notification and tracking of IV fluids and pumps will also be monitored.

Patients who were currently in rooms in the construction area were moved to the second floor until the renovations are complete. The construction started around July 1 and will be finished by September 2012.

Chase Smith is a staff writer for the Middlesboro Daily News. She can be contacted at ksmith@heartlandpublications.com. She can also be reached at 606.248.1010 ext. 204.