After first three months, hospital isn't full but parking lot sometimes is

Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center has been open for patient care nearly three months. The goal of providing the region an excellent comprehensive, quality health care facility is a reality.

I make an effort to visit daily with many of our patients and their families. It is a heartwarming experience as I hear countless stories of the compassionate care our patients are receiving. Their comments and feedback are valuable tools in our mission to put patient care first.

As I continue to receive questions about our financing, allow me to remind you that in converting the hospital from county owned to private nonprofit we removed from taxpayers the risk of debt that existed at that time. Simultaneously, we took on the burden of providing health care to the indigent.

The vision of providing comprehensive services close to home has come to fruition in a powerful way. Since our license was received on Jan, 20, our open heart surgery program has helped 17 men and women regain their lives. After his return home, our first open heart surgery patient sent flowers along with a Thank You note to his care team that sums it up very well. He writes, "Thank you Dr. Chapman, Diane, Annette, Lindsay and all the rest of the wonderful staff! I can't thank you enough from the bottom of my happy new heart!"

Another service in our regional medical center that has positively impacted patient satisfaction is our Fast Track unit in the Emergency Room. Similar to an urgent care center, the Fast Track assists patients who come in to the Emergency Room with minor care issues. Those patients are treated and discharged in an expedited manner alleviating long waits and helping ER staff care for the more emergent patients in a more focused way. The system is working well.

While the majority of things have gone extremely well, we have had some challenges. If you've ever had the opportunity to occupy a brand new building, particularly one of this magnitude, you can appreciate the fact that unanticipated building issues will occur. We have identified problems and are working diligently to resolve them, without interruption to patient care. Let me give you a couple of examples:

• Parking - Much to our surprise parking became an issue almost immediately. 688 parking spaces were lined out which far surpassed the parking at our old facility. In our first few days of operation, most of our parking was filled from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Appropriately, our staff began to speak up loud and clear. We are now adding 80 parking spots to the north side of the facility to alleviate the problem. I apologize if you or any of your family were inconvenienced by the parking issue.

• "The regional medical center is already full ..." Ð Contrary to what you may have heard, we have never been at full patient capacity in the regional medical center. In our first few weeks of operation we experienced a 30 percent increase in visits to our Emergency Room. This resulted in a few days of scrambling to keep up with patients being admitted and discharged in a timely manner.

The increase in volume was anticipated but our processes simply weren't keeping up with patient demand. Our admission and discharge processes were quickly refined to keep pace with the number of patients as well as the acuity of patients. We are proud that you no longer need to go outside Carson City for care and I can assure you that we have ample capacity in our new facility. Carson Tahoe looks forward to meeting the health-care needs of the region for generations to come.

We are settling into our new regional medical center. With quality patient care as our strongest motivator, we will continue to address any issues that may arise. Bringing this beautiful, state-of-the-art health-care facility to the region has truly been a gratifying experience. I would never be so bold to say that everything along the way has been perfect but I can say all of our efforts have resulted in a quality-driven, patient-care centered regional medical center.

n Ed Epperson is president and chief executive officer of Carson Tahoe Regional Healthcare.