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March 5, 2014Creating sustainable growth for La.
March 5, 2014
Thibodaux Regional Medical Center broke ground on a new wellness center, which the hospital envisions as a place to improve overall health by prevention, fitness, education and rehabilitation.
Greg Stock, TRMC chief executive officer, said the hospital’s vision is to be a leader in overall health, citing the need for improvement as Louisiana is ranked 49th in overall health status.
“Most people put more into their two-week vacation planning than planning their health and wellness,” Stock said.
He said the new facility would serve as a way to adjust or establish new workout habits for anyone looking to improve their health.
“The center will bring much needed services and can lead to a better quality of life for people now and for generations to come,” Stock said.
Jake Giardina, TRMC board chairman, said the wellness center is a forward thinking aspect of what the hospital wants to offer the community and region.
“Everything we’ve done here at the hospital since about 1990 was to take care of the people who are sick,” Giardina said at the groundbreaking ceremony last week. “Now this is a step forward to teach people how to take care of themselves so they don’t have to go through certain sicknesses.”
The new 230,000-square-foot building is slated for completion in Dec. 2015 and will be open to both patients and the general public on a membership basis.
The center was awarded the 2014 Environmental Leadership Award by Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality for its sustainable design, green building materials and energy efficient solar panels to heat the pools.
The $63 million building will boast different specialties in one location to make patient care more accessible and effortless.
“As we go forward I think this building is going to allow us to integrate a lot of things that were before in separate locations,” Stock said. “It’s medically integrated wellness services.”
Physicians in the building will include orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, endocrinologists – all of whom will practice on state-of-the-art equipment.
The wellness center will focus on sports medicine, weight management, wellness education, women’s breast health, and will also include a pain center and spine center. There will also be an imaging center and urgent care on site.
An aquatics center will feature a lap pool, warm-water therapy pool and a pool where the floor can move up and down for wheelchair patients.
“For people who can’t stand on their own weight, they can get in a pool and have a workout and really make some progress,” Stock said. “Pools add a nice element to it as they are really hard to find here.”
The building will also house a 10,000-square-foot education center, which will focus on diabetes, nutrition and weight management training.
There will be an indoor walking track and areas designated outside for volleyball and football sports fields.
Over the years, Thibodaux Regional has grown and become a leader in certain respects of the medical field with more than 100,000 outpatient visitors, almost 50,000 emergency department visits and 10,000 surgical procedures per year.
In the early 1990s, there were only 42 doctors listed as active medical staff, and now the hospital has more than 135 doctors with 1,100 employees and a $74 million payroll.
Stock said to propel the hospital forward with such success comes with the passion from everyone involved.
Tammy Boudreaux, a patient registrar in outpatient rehab, said she witnesses passion every day in her patients and co-workers.
Her arrival in outpatient rehab was the first time she realized how many people needed therapy.
“Not only people with disabilities, but athletes, accident victims, stroke patients and others,” Boudreaux said. “It amazes me constantly the magic and the passion that comes from the desire to accomplish even the smallest task. Things that we all take for granted and don’t realize it.”
Stock said the hospital has a culture around “Patient-Centered Excellence,” and the new wellness center will do just that by advising patients in a clinical manner.
“Thibodaux is recognized for having excellent clinical quality and great patient satisfaction not just regionally, but nationally,” he said, noting the hospital’s cancer center, sports medicine program and their ranking in the top 5 percent for employee satisfaction in the country.
Thibodaux Regional Medical Center CEO Greg Stock introduces outpatient registrar Tammy Boudreaux to share her passion story about the hospital at last week’s groundbreaking ceremony.
