Hospital breaks ground

By Kim Cox
kcox@campcountynow.com

Perry Henderson said after the new GI/Pain Management surgery wing of the hospital is built, he will have to get another goal.
Mr. Henderson, the senior administrator at East Texas Medical Center Pittsburg, spoke Feb. 7 at the groundbreaking for the new wing, which is scheduled to finish in the fall.
“We’re excited about the new wing,” he said. “We’re expanding from two ORs (operating rooms) to four.”
The original hospital had one OR, the new hospital doubled it. The new wing will double it again. Mr. Henderson said his goal was to have the entire population of Pittsburg come to ETMC, and last month they had 4,654 people come to the hospital.
“I guess I will have to move on to the county,” he said. “Two out of three of them were from out of town. I always tell them about Pittsburg Hot Links, because it’s good for the cardiac unit.”
He said the hospital used to see 40 surgeries cases a month.
“Now we do 200,” Mr. Henderson said. “It’s amazing how they have responded.”
Because of the rain threatening to fall, Mr. Henderson said he would keep his speech short.
“My speeches are like the baloney you used to get at Franklin’s, you can cut it off anywhere,” he said.
After the speech, representatives from ETMC Pittsburg, the Pittsburg-Camp County Chamber of Commerce and members of the construction team lined up their shovels to break ground for the 5,000-square-foot expansion.
The new hospital wing will also be adding more staff, to cover some of the new procedures that will be available.
“Some of it is just what we already are providing, and some of these services are completely new,” Mr. Henderson said.
Once complete, the expanded area will house two rooms dedicated to gastroenterology and pain management procedures.
“We are always looking for ways to provide more convenient access to healthcare services for our patients,” said Mr. Henderson. “GI and pain management procedures are among the most commonly performed. We are excited to be expanding our facility to better accommodate these procedures and make them more easily accessible to the people of Camp County and the surrounding area.”
Besides the new wing, since the hospital has gone digital, they will be able to add more doctors as well.
“We have 16 physicians available,” he said, “and we’re maxed to capacity.”
Digitizing the patients’ records allows the hospital to move paper records to their office building next to the Abernathy House on Quitman Street, Mr. Henderson said.  
Hammel, Green & Abrahamson of Minneapolis is the project’s architect. Vaughn Construction is the general contractor and Adams Engineering is the civil engineer.