Selected Podcast
Pullman Regional Hospital Patient Care Expansion
More access. More services. More patient care space. Less wait for great healthcare. Hear from Matt Forge, Pullman Regional Hospital CEO, about what Pullman Regional Hospital's patient care expansion plan consists of and the timeline.
Featuring:
Matt Forge, MHA
Matt has previously served as President & CEO of Osceola Medical Center in Osceola, WI and as Chief Administrative Officer for Essentia Health overseeing St. Mary’s & Clearwater Valley Hospital and Clinics in Orofino Idaho and St. Mary’s Hospital and Clinics in Cottonwood, ID. He earned a Master of Healthcare Administration degree from the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Sciences degree from the University of Idaho, College of Business. Transcription:
With a relentless focus on excellence in healthcare, Pullman Regional Hospital presents the Health Podcast
Deborah Howell: Well, you know, these are exciting days at Pullman. As we can announce more access, more services, more patient care space, less wait for great healthcare, and so much more. To tell us all about Pullman Regional Hospital's patient care expansion plan. And the timeline for it is Matt Forge, Pullman Regional Hospital' CEO . c e o. Welcome to you.
Matt Forge: Hey, thank you so much. I'm really happy to be with you today.
Deborah Howell: Very lovely on our part to have you. Now you are officially made Pullman Regional Hospital's Chief Executive Officer recently, so tell me, how's it been going so far?
Matt Forge: Well, yeah, I've been in in the CEO position for about a month now. I've actually been at Pullman Regional Hospital, you know, since the beginning of August. So it's been about four months and it's going fantastic. They had a great transition plan for me, taking over for a wonderful leader in Scott Adams.
And so, you know, he's been here a really long time and that transition period was really important. So, Gotta learn and meet a ton of people, but really excited to be in the position, full-time position now. And we got a great future ahead of us, you know, past that bond. And so there's a lot of upward positive momentum going on right now.
So great way to start.
Deborah Howell: Excellent. Now, you mentioned a bond. So Pullman voters passed a 27.5 million bond to fund the expansion of Pullman Regional Hospital. What does this mean for the hospital?
Matt Forge: Well, it means it means a whole. To talk about the future first, you gotta talk about the past. So I think, anytime you go to the community for a bond of this size and this magnitude, it's for a reason. That as a public hospital district, you know, we certainly owe that to our community.
Our success and vice versa is tied directly to our community. So we know how important it is to go when it's necessary. But let's talk about for a second what's led to that. Well, we've had such success in terms of our community growing, you know, Washington State University has really grown.
Some great industry in town have really improved, showed their commitment and their trust in Pullman Regional Hospital, you know, by utilizing the hospital for their services. So what that's done, the success, the whole community and the hospital have had together is put us in a a position where we're outta space, right?
And so, the space issue has really impacted patient access, you know, wait times and getting in. It's impacted, you know, not to the extent that you could think, but in the future it will impact our staff's ability to continue safe excellent care here. Right? We're running outta that space there too.
So we wanna maintain a great place to work. So it's time. And so, again, it's really exciting that it went through. It's an exciting time for growth. There's the funds will tie into an 80,000 square foot expansion here, which will give new space for really all of our services. Which is fantastic.
So, again, Pullman, we anticipate Pullman continuing to grow because this is a wonderful place to live and people are recognizing that it's a wonderful place to work. So industry's recognizing that. So we totally anticipate Pullman in the Palouse region to continue to grow, and we want to be prepared for that for the next 20 to 30 years.
We're a 25 bed critical access hospital was built 18 years ago, and it's time to reinvest and to continue to grow there. We've seen a 35% growth in our surgery since that time. We've almost tripled. You know, our emergency room visits. So again, it's our responsibility now to continue our commitment to the community just as they're showing their commitment back to us and do a great job with these funds and, and continue to move forward.
Deborah Howell: No, it sounds like this has been kind of a long time coming, which departments will see space increase?
Matt Forge: You know, like I was just kind of saying, Deborah, I think most most of our departments, if not all of our departments will feel the impact of the space investments. So right now, you know, as a hospital is and as medical communities are here in 2022, we're all interconnected. So whether you're in the clinics going into the hospital whether you're, you know, have labs and radiology, it's all really interconnected and we want to continue to focus on. Building on that interconnectedness.
And so more space in the emergency department, for example, will have significant impact downstream and upstream to our clinics to our patient's experience you know, in post-care et cetera. So there's really not a department that won't feel the impact of the increased space. So, that's fantastic. Now to prioritize there, we have some kind of areas of more immediate need, right? Surgery is, a big one. We have an incredible medical staff of surgeons and physicians that are caring for all of our surgical patients before and after.
And so surgery is something that people really come to Pullman Regional for. So we need an additional OR to meet that demand. And again, that's gonna have a lot of downstream impact and make it better for our staff as well. The emergency I know, the main story that you heard throughout the campaign is that, you know, right now, if we're in a busy moment, you might find yourself in a hallway in a room, in a hallway, so to speak, with a number above the bed, which is serious, right?
You know that's not a great care environment. Although our team does an incredible job with that now. So we need some space there and again as we're building all this out, it, it's gonna be important to incorporate our staff so that every department can feel the impact of these great investments.
Deborah Howell: you talked a little bit about the patient experience. How will this expansion positively impact our patient?
Matt Forge: Well, you know, First in talking about patient experience, again, another reason why we need to expand is our inpatient unit right now is in the 99th percentile. Again, I'm not taking credit for that. That's just the incredible care that this team is taking care of historically. You know, but even that's coming up to issues, right?
We're having to admit and discharge and we're running into space considerations all the time. And ultimately our patients are feeling that whether you're gonna get rushed out of a, a room or whether you're having to wait a little extra time in the emergency room to get to a room or some of these kind of flow issues. The space is really, you know, gonna make a big time impact on that.
The other thing is we're, you know, Building more medical office space right now if you're, you know, connecting with one of the physicians tied to Pullman Regional Hospital, you might be all over town, right? And so some of this investment is gonna really emphasize building on this centralized campus where if you're coming for the emergency room or just a office visit, you're coming to the same place.
And we're able to kind of coordinate that care all the way through the medical campus. So that's gonna be a. Should be a huge impact on our experience. And for the community accessing care, it should make it a lot easier, in 2022 ease of access you know, is people are used to, to having things come easy to 'them.
And in healthcare, it shouldn't be any different, and we wanna make sure that we're making it as easy as possible, as coordinated as possible to navigate. What is a complic, as you know, a complicated system.
Deborah Howell: Sure. And then all this new space. It's such great news. Do you have a timeline for construction?
Matt Forge: Yeah. You know, in a public hospital district, when you go out to the bond, you know how that how those funds come in. It's a very streamlined. It's a very consistent process. And so, we'll look at this year, in this coming year, in 2023, we'll be doing a lot of planning. connections with contractors, architects we have some great, a great foundation of planning that's already taken place.
And so we're gonna continue to build on that, incorporate our community, our staff in that planning. And then we're really looking to be able to kind of breaking ground and start making some moves, hopefully towards the end of 2023 and into 2024. And I'm sure that that work will continue to take place over the course of the next two to three years.
So it's gonna be a long process. But it's gonna be a thoughtful and thorough process.
Deborah Howell: Sounds good.
Well, I mean, your excitement is palpable. What are you most excited about with this expansion project?
Matt Forge: Good question, Deborah. I think the thing I'm most excited about is that, man, I think especially as a new leader coming in, We're talking about a community that really cares about its hospital and a hospital that really cares about its community and in the world today that that's just an incredible feeling.
So I'm just really looking forward to continuing to grow with this community to continue to put the health of our Community, our patients our region at the forefront of everything that we do. So I'm just really looking forward to the work. I'm really looking forward to getting in there, partnering, having a great time continuing to invest in this community and this region because I think we all know that it's the best and we love it.
Deborah Howell: That is for sure. Anything else you'd like to add?
Matt Forge: You know, I just want to, again, kind of recognize that, you know, you don't get to a point like this without a ton of work and commitment coming into this. So I'd be remiss if I didn't really thank Scott Adams, his leadership the rest of the team and all the work that they've done to create the wonderful atmosphere that is Pullman Regional Hospital. Again, I keep referring to it, but that connection back to the community is really special. And it doesn't come by accident. And so just really appreciative to all the time and effort that people have put into making this such a great place.
And I can't wait to, to continue the the great work in ensuring that it's a great place for years and years to come.
Deborah Howell: Well, Matt, we so appreciate your time and we thank you for all the great news about the patient care expansion plan at Pullman. We really appreciate you being with us today and sharing your excitement.
Matt Forge: Hey, Deborah, thank you so much
Deborah Howell: and you can stay in the know about Pullman Regional Hospital's expansion plan at www.pullmanregional.org/expansion. This has been The Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I'm your host, Deborah Howell. Thanks for listening and have yourself a terrific day.
With a relentless focus on excellence in healthcare, Pullman Regional Hospital presents the Health Podcast
Deborah Howell: Well, you know, these are exciting days at Pullman. As we can announce more access, more services, more patient care space, less wait for great healthcare, and so much more. To tell us all about Pullman Regional Hospital's patient care expansion plan. And the timeline for it is Matt Forge, Pullman Regional Hospital' CEO . c e o. Welcome to you.
Matt Forge: Hey, thank you so much. I'm really happy to be with you today.
Deborah Howell: Very lovely on our part to have you. Now you are officially made Pullman Regional Hospital's Chief Executive Officer recently, so tell me, how's it been going so far?
Matt Forge: Well, yeah, I've been in in the CEO position for about a month now. I've actually been at Pullman Regional Hospital, you know, since the beginning of August. So it's been about four months and it's going fantastic. They had a great transition plan for me, taking over for a wonderful leader in Scott Adams.
And so, you know, he's been here a really long time and that transition period was really important. So, Gotta learn and meet a ton of people, but really excited to be in the position, full-time position now. And we got a great future ahead of us, you know, past that bond. And so there's a lot of upward positive momentum going on right now.
So great way to start.
Deborah Howell: Excellent. Now, you mentioned a bond. So Pullman voters passed a 27.5 million bond to fund the expansion of Pullman Regional Hospital. What does this mean for the hospital?
Matt Forge: Well, it means it means a whole. To talk about the future first, you gotta talk about the past. So I think, anytime you go to the community for a bond of this size and this magnitude, it's for a reason. That as a public hospital district, you know, we certainly owe that to our community.
Our success and vice versa is tied directly to our community. So we know how important it is to go when it's necessary. But let's talk about for a second what's led to that. Well, we've had such success in terms of our community growing, you know, Washington State University has really grown.
Some great industry in town have really improved, showed their commitment and their trust in Pullman Regional Hospital, you know, by utilizing the hospital for their services. So what that's done, the success, the whole community and the hospital have had together is put us in a a position where we're outta space, right?
And so, the space issue has really impacted patient access, you know, wait times and getting in. It's impacted, you know, not to the extent that you could think, but in the future it will impact our staff's ability to continue safe excellent care here. Right? We're running outta that space there too.
So we wanna maintain a great place to work. So it's time. And so, again, it's really exciting that it went through. It's an exciting time for growth. There's the funds will tie into an 80,000 square foot expansion here, which will give new space for really all of our services. Which is fantastic.
So, again, Pullman, we anticipate Pullman continuing to grow because this is a wonderful place to live and people are recognizing that it's a wonderful place to work. So industry's recognizing that. So we totally anticipate Pullman in the Palouse region to continue to grow, and we want to be prepared for that for the next 20 to 30 years.
We're a 25 bed critical access hospital was built 18 years ago, and it's time to reinvest and to continue to grow there. We've seen a 35% growth in our surgery since that time. We've almost tripled. You know, our emergency room visits. So again, it's our responsibility now to continue our commitment to the community just as they're showing their commitment back to us and do a great job with these funds and, and continue to move forward.
Deborah Howell: No, it sounds like this has been kind of a long time coming, which departments will see space increase?
Matt Forge: You know, like I was just kind of saying, Deborah, I think most most of our departments, if not all of our departments will feel the impact of the space investments. So right now, you know, as a hospital is and as medical communities are here in 2022, we're all interconnected. So whether you're in the clinics going into the hospital whether you're, you know, have labs and radiology, it's all really interconnected and we want to continue to focus on. Building on that interconnectedness.
And so more space in the emergency department, for example, will have significant impact downstream and upstream to our clinics to our patient's experience you know, in post-care et cetera. So there's really not a department that won't feel the impact of the increased space. So, that's fantastic. Now to prioritize there, we have some kind of areas of more immediate need, right? Surgery is, a big one. We have an incredible medical staff of surgeons and physicians that are caring for all of our surgical patients before and after.
And so surgery is something that people really come to Pullman Regional for. So we need an additional OR to meet that demand. And again, that's gonna have a lot of downstream impact and make it better for our staff as well. The emergency I know, the main story that you heard throughout the campaign is that, you know, right now, if we're in a busy moment, you might find yourself in a hallway in a room, in a hallway, so to speak, with a number above the bed, which is serious, right?
You know that's not a great care environment. Although our team does an incredible job with that now. So we need some space there and again as we're building all this out, it, it's gonna be important to incorporate our staff so that every department can feel the impact of these great investments.
Deborah Howell: you talked a little bit about the patient experience. How will this expansion positively impact our patient?
Matt Forge: Well, you know, First in talking about patient experience, again, another reason why we need to expand is our inpatient unit right now is in the 99th percentile. Again, I'm not taking credit for that. That's just the incredible care that this team is taking care of historically. You know, but even that's coming up to issues, right?
We're having to admit and discharge and we're running into space considerations all the time. And ultimately our patients are feeling that whether you're gonna get rushed out of a, a room or whether you're having to wait a little extra time in the emergency room to get to a room or some of these kind of flow issues. The space is really, you know, gonna make a big time impact on that.
The other thing is we're, you know, Building more medical office space right now if you're, you know, connecting with one of the physicians tied to Pullman Regional Hospital, you might be all over town, right? And so some of this investment is gonna really emphasize building on this centralized campus where if you're coming for the emergency room or just a office visit, you're coming to the same place.
And we're able to kind of coordinate that care all the way through the medical campus. So that's gonna be a. Should be a huge impact on our experience. And for the community accessing care, it should make it a lot easier, in 2022 ease of access you know, is people are used to, to having things come easy to 'them.
And in healthcare, it shouldn't be any different, and we wanna make sure that we're making it as easy as possible, as coordinated as possible to navigate. What is a complic, as you know, a complicated system.
Deborah Howell: Sure. And then all this new space. It's such great news. Do you have a timeline for construction?
Matt Forge: Yeah. You know, in a public hospital district, when you go out to the bond, you know how that how those funds come in. It's a very streamlined. It's a very consistent process. And so, we'll look at this year, in this coming year, in 2023, we'll be doing a lot of planning. connections with contractors, architects we have some great, a great foundation of planning that's already taken place.
And so we're gonna continue to build on that, incorporate our community, our staff in that planning. And then we're really looking to be able to kind of breaking ground and start making some moves, hopefully towards the end of 2023 and into 2024. And I'm sure that that work will continue to take place over the course of the next two to three years.
So it's gonna be a long process. But it's gonna be a thoughtful and thorough process.
Deborah Howell: Sounds good.
Well, I mean, your excitement is palpable. What are you most excited about with this expansion project?
Matt Forge: Good question, Deborah. I think the thing I'm most excited about is that, man, I think especially as a new leader coming in, We're talking about a community that really cares about its hospital and a hospital that really cares about its community and in the world today that that's just an incredible feeling.
So I'm just really looking forward to continuing to grow with this community to continue to put the health of our Community, our patients our region at the forefront of everything that we do. So I'm just really looking forward to the work. I'm really looking forward to getting in there, partnering, having a great time continuing to invest in this community and this region because I think we all know that it's the best and we love it.
Deborah Howell: That is for sure. Anything else you'd like to add?
Matt Forge: You know, I just want to, again, kind of recognize that, you know, you don't get to a point like this without a ton of work and commitment coming into this. So I'd be remiss if I didn't really thank Scott Adams, his leadership the rest of the team and all the work that they've done to create the wonderful atmosphere that is Pullman Regional Hospital. Again, I keep referring to it, but that connection back to the community is really special. And it doesn't come by accident. And so just really appreciative to all the time and effort that people have put into making this such a great place.
And I can't wait to, to continue the the great work in ensuring that it's a great place for years and years to come.
Deborah Howell: Well, Matt, we so appreciate your time and we thank you for all the great news about the patient care expansion plan at Pullman. We really appreciate you being with us today and sharing your excitement.
Matt Forge: Hey, Deborah, thank you so much
Deborah Howell: and you can stay in the know about Pullman Regional Hospital's expansion plan at www.pullmanregional.org/expansion. This has been The Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I'm your host, Deborah Howell. Thanks for listening and have yourself a terrific day.