Hospital’s July hottest on record

Cedar County Memorial Hospital spent over week in the month of July fighting the heat.
On July 1, the hospital’s chiller (a/c) was hit by lightning on Saturday night and didn’t get a temporary chiller until Friday of the following week. The hospital continued to operate for 8 1/2 days without a/c. The hospital did purchase four small window units. The board and CEO praised the staff for their professionalism in the face of unfortunate and trying circumstances.
On July 25, the hospital was without power for almost 13 hours when a truck driver accidently made a wrong turn and hit a utility pole leaving most of the businesses south of Hwy. 54 without power. Operating on a generator, everything was taken care of.
Hospital CEO Terry Nichols said, “July was a very challenging month for the Hospital.”
The hospital board of trustees met for their July meeting with all members present: David Bozarth, Michelle Leroux, Judi Renn, Katie McGee and Marvin Manring presiding.
The board approved a new freezer for the kitchen.
Nichols continued with information about the Specialty Clinic. He said that a pulmonologist would begin at the hospital on Aud. 10. He said that the hospital was going to add another neurologist, a urologist, an endocrinologist and he was working with a dermatology group.
Harold Fugate was present and expressed his concern with the length of time it took to get the results of an EKG. He said he was going to physical therapy when he began to feel ill. He requested an EKG which was done. When he asked about when he could get the results, he was told in two weeks.
He was concerned about the turn-around time and was told that the EKG needs to be seen by a cardiologist and the usual turn-around time is two weeks. He was also told that if there had been something that appeared to be notably wrong the cardiologist would see it first.
Nichols said that the ladies that were most interested in the pool had agreed that spending $500,000 to repair the pool wasn’t feasible and they understood the reason for closing it down.
The board set a tentative date for the next board meeting for 5:30 p.m. on Wed. Sept. 13. It was later changed to 11 a.m. on Aug. 16.