Lexington, KY - Joe Koch spread his arm in a wide arc and gestured toward the wall. "The hospital is just bricks and mortar - or in our case, stucco. But what truly makes up the hospital are the people of our concern," he said.
Down the hallway from Koch's office, a monitor beeps. Laughter filters out of a patient's room. A nurse answers a phone call at her station.
Welcome to Bourbon Community Hospital.
"Our greatest function is trying to make the community healthier, taking care of our friends and family and neighbors," said Koch, who has served as the hospital's CEO for three years.
Prior to stepping into his role as CEO, Koch served six years as human resources director, during the early 1990s. He said his current position as CEO enables him to give back to a hospital and community that helped him begin his health care career.
Bourbon Community Hospital is located at the corner of the 460 Bypass and US 68 on the north side of Paris, Ky. The facility celebrated its 30th anniversary in its current location last month. The hospital is licensed for 58 beds and offers a medical and surgical unit, emergency room care, operating rooms, and a psychiatric unit for adolescents and adults.
Koch said that on an annual basis, the hospital averages 11,000 emergency room visits, 1,800 inpatient admissions, 17,000 outpatient visits and 1,600 surgeries.
Not bad for a county that has nearly 20,000 people, although Koch said that patients also come from Nicholas, Harrison and Clark counties, not to mention some patients who transfer from surrounding counties, especially for the Stoner Creek Centre, the hospital's psychiatric unit.
Over the past 30 years, the hospital has expanded from a single building to an entire campus that now houses the hospital, four different medical office buildings and a helipad.
Thirty years ago, the hospital was located in what is now the City Municipal Building on High Street in Paris. Because of building code changes, the hospital was faced with the challenge of renovating the old building at a steep cost or building something new. The High Street building offered much of the same services as the new location, and it had the capacity to house nearly 20 more patients than the current facility.
However, the building was landlocked, which meant that on top of the cost to make necessary repairs, there would be no extra growth.
Phyllis Barnes, a 43-year hospital employee who currently works in nursing administration, said the benefit to the patients is much greater in their current location.
"We used to have to move large oxygen canisters to a patient's room and set up a tent over their beds," Barnes said. "Here, it is piped through the walls."
Barnes said that convenience was modern in 1981 and meant better patient care. Over 43 years, Barnes has experience with plenty of patient care. She began her career as a candy striper in 1961 and has filled the roles of nurse technician, OR technician, ER technician and ward clerk.
And patient care, the hospital staff agrees, is their number one priority.
"We are family here. We always have been. We treat our patients, the employees and visitors as family, and we've always done that," said Ann Terrell, a 38-year employee.
Terrell has worked in the medical records department for the majority of her tenure at the hospital. She has overseen discharge planning, the hospital's utilization review, and in 1983, implemented
Diagnosis Related Grouping (DRG) for the hospital. The DRG is a federal system that determines how the hospital gets paid.
Koch and other hospital staff believe that their payment comes in more than just monetary form.
The hospital seeks to preserve and promote a healthy community by offering their annual Community Health Fair, a women's luncheon and physician seminars. The have supported the United Way and participated in Toys for Tots, as well as undertaking other activities geared toward specific monthly health initiatives, such as Heart Month in February and Breast Cancer Awareness every October.
According to Diane Wagoner, a 19-year hospital employee and current director of business development and medical staff services, the hospital also believes in portable community health education.
"We travel to different local businesses or to community groups to present health fairs," Wagoner said. "We offer information and answer any questions people might have."
This commitment to the staff, patients and community has earned the hospital recognition as the 2010 High Five Continental Division winner from LifePoint, the hospital's parent corporation based in Brentwood, Tenn. LifePoint owns 55 hospitals across 17 different states. The Continental Division that includes Bourbon Community Hospital is made up of hospitals that LifePoint owns across Kentucky, Virginia and Kansas.
The High Five Guiding Principles, developed by LifePoint and implemented across the board in all their hospitals, include delivering high-quality patient care, supporting physicians, creating excellent workplaces for employees, strengthening the hospital's role in the community and ensuring fiscal responsibility. The principles are tracked through satisfaction surveys of employees, physicians and patients, and through a record of finances and community involvement.
"We do fairly well and we're proud of that. And what we try to hang our hat on is our customer service, taking care of our family and friends and neighbors," Koch said. "We feel that we do a better job of taking care of our patients with that level of customer service."