TRMC pushing on: With Wellness Center growing, hospital seeks continued care

Very few things in life ever actually live up to the hype.

But don’t tell that to officials at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center.

Their new Wellness Center is awesome – every bit as good as advertised throughout the time it was being built.

The hospital started a whole new chapter in its history this past year with the opening of its state-of-the-art facility, which offers a little bit of something for everyone – including walking tracks, basketball gyms, pools, weight equipment and much, much more.

TRMC CEO Greg Stock said he knew the facility would be terrific for the community, but even he didn’t realize that its impacts would reach as far and as wide as it has.

The 242,000-square-foot Wellness Center is the first of its kind in Louisiana. It opened its doors in late-fall of 2016 to huge fanfare at a ceremony attended by Gov. John Bel Edwards and several other dignitaries around the state.

“The Wellness Center has exceeded just about everyone’s expectations so far,” Stock said. “It’s been everything we hoped it’d be for the community and much more. 5,400 members are realizing the benefits of it daily and we have all kinds of testimonials from people who are losing weight or have pain relief because of things they offer. These people have learned about their situation and made improvements. They feel better. It’s incredible. We’re thrilled as can be.”

The Wellness Center’s opening is a testament to just how far TRMC has come.

TRMC started in 1930 as St. Joseph’s Hospital – a church-run office that was run by the nuns of the church.

Stock said the early days of TRMC were not much more complex than what we’d consider a family doctor’s practice today.

“It was not much more than just a doctor’s office,” Stock said. “From there, it became sponsored by Catholic organizations and the sisters. They ran it for a number of years.”

The local economy blossomed as the Great Depression ended, which poured both money and people into St. Joseph’s Hospital.

The hospital got a 40-bed facility in 1953. It was added onto several times until there was no more property to add on anymore.

St. Joseph’s Hospital closed on April 14, 1975.

Replacing it was Thibodaux General Hospital – a 101-bed facility, which sits where the hospital is today, on 602 North Acadia Road.

Since moving to North Acadia, TRMC has continued to evolve and grow, becoming among the leaders in local medicine, while also adding services over time.

The Wellness Center is a really good example of that.

Stock said the motivation for the Wellness Center’s completion was to try and improve the quality of life in the area, while also trying to change the mindsets of people in the area.

Stock said the first thing people think of when they hear the word ‘hospital’ is sickness or emergency situations – two stigmas that the Wellness Center seeks to erase.

He said TRMC wants to continue to evolve into a place of happiness and great memories where people spend lots of positive time throughout their lives – all while reducing the amount of time they’re getting sick.

Stock said he likes to mingle with folks in the Wellness Center to see how they’re enjoying their stay.

The CEO told a story of one man who’s seen his life change for the better – directly because of the services the Wellness Center provides.

“I walked in there the other day and a man is in a pool with a therapist,” Stock said. “He’s a former plant manager out in the River Parishes. He’s standing up in the pool and he asks me who I am. So I introduce myself and he had tears in his eyes. He was describing to me some spine problems he developed once he retired. He said he’d done a number of different treatments, but nothing worked – except our pools here.

“He stood in that pool and he wept. It’s a story that epitomizes the experience that many people are having. There are so many people getting great results. People are getting off their blood pressure medications. People are feeling better in battling diabetes – seeing their levels drop. It’s absolutely incredible.”

And now, the hospital aims to make a good thing even better.

Stock said the success the Wellness Center has had so far is just a “baseline” of what’s to come in the future.

He said TRMC is working closely with physicians to determine the best pathways to promote wellness in the community, while also being accessible to the patient who may have zero knowledge on how to lead a healthy life.

Inside the building itself, things are growing, as well.

Stock said hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of workout equipment has been added to the facility with more additions set for the future.

He said Phase II of the Wellness Center will also feature tennis courts and sand volleyball courts, which he hopes can lead to use by the high schools and/or for competitive tournaments.

“There’s an absence of good tennis courts in our area right now,” Stock said. “We’re going to be able to address that. We want to be able to host tournaments or 1-on-1 training sessions or even just a little leisure time for someone who just wants to play for fun.”

But even if someone is in pristine condition, it’s inevitable that something make happen to make someone sick and in need of immediate care.

Stock knows that well.

So in addition to the wellness and prevention, TRMC also prides itself on patient care and making sure that those inside the hospital’s walls have as comfortable an experience as possible.

Stock said TRMC has won countless awards for patient care – including some which rank them among the best medical facilities in the country.

The CEO also touted TRMC’s heart program and cancer programs, while touting that TRMC does five times more breast cancer surgeries than anyone else in the region.

In the coming months, Stock said TRMC will also add highly qualified doctors to its staff, which, he believes, will position TRMC favorable into the future – even during a tough time in the country for healthcare because of the current political climate.

“We want to be here for a long, long time,” Stock said. “Health care is a very unclear picture for the future, but we can’t control that. We’re just staying focused on the things that matter most to us and also which matter most to the patient. We want to serve the people in this area, not the people somewhere else. We’re so grateful to our community for their support and we strive to continue to improve and get better. We strive for excellence for them. They deserve it.”

TRMCFILE | THE TIMES

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