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Hospital May Have to Expand or Relocate Hemodialysis Unit

As the demand for treatment grows, Schneider Regional Medical Center officials may have to expand or relocate the hospital’s hemodialysis unit, according to local officials.
The needs of the hemodialysis unit were the focus of a recent survey conducted by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and among the topics up for discussion at a Wednesday meeting of the hospital’s district governing board.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services certifies health facilities that receive federal reimbursements for services provided to individuals enrolled in the programs — which, in the case of SRMC, amounts to about half of the hospital’s insured patients. The survey was conducted to make sure Schneider Regional’s hemodialysis services are up to federal standards, SRMC interim Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Harris said Wednesday.
Hospital staff has already begun to calculate the cost of improving the existing hemodialysis unit, adding new machines and bringing in at least four more specialized employees, according to a medical center press release.
The results of the survey are expected to come out in three weeks, and SRMC will have 10 days to respond to the findings, the release said.
Meanwhile, the search is still on for a permanent CEO for the hospital. The field has been narrowed to four candidates, who will fly in for one-on-one interviews over the next three weeks, hospital board chairman Cornel Williams said Wednesday.
The interviews begin Thursday, according to the release.
In other news, board members and hospital staff are looking to reduce the costs incurred when patients who have nowhere to go after they’re discharged continue to live at the hospital once their treatment is over. There were nine such individuals counted at SRMC last month — four of whom had undergone treatment in the Behavioral Health Unit, the release said.
Williams suggested the hospital determine whether agencies such as Human Services and the Health Department, which play a role in caring for the homeless, could be billed for the services.
Wrapping up the meeting, Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center Administrator Harold Wallace said it looks as if the federal Veterans Affairs Department will use the St. John center to provide medical services to veterans.
The department will look at other proposals, but seems "impressed" with Myrah Keating, which would be leasing space to the federal agency, Wallace said.
Wallace also announced that Telemedicine — an initiative done in conjunction with the Cleveland Clinic — will be introduced on St. John on Sept. 10 during a formal ceremony.
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