A growing community

BY MELISSA RUBALCABA RISKE FOR SAUK VALLEY MEDIA

Providing top-rated health care for the community has been a priority since the first Morrison health care facility opened its doors in 1931, and that remains true today at Morrison Community Hospital with the recent completion of its multi-faceted expansion and renovations, all to better serve patients.

In October 2021 the hospital officially cut the ribbon on a multistep construction project. Pam Pfister, CEO at Morrison Hospital said, “This project has afforded us with increased capacity for patients and advanced our service lines. The scope of the project includes a new state-of-theart operating room, emergency department, eight private patient care rooms to the medical surgical floor, a new laboratory department, rehab department and new office space for the billing and coding departments.” and develop care plans. The hospital medical staff includes physicians who specialize in family practice, dermatology, otolaryngology, sports medicine and orthopaedic care, podiatry, cardiology, pulmonology, rheumatology, general surgery, neurology and urology.

“We continue to meet the growing needs of the community,” said Mick Welding, Marketing Director for Morrison Community Hospital.

Some of the new specialists include Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Foad, Pulmonologist, Dr. Suraj Bopanna and Dr. Thane D. Cody, specializing in ear, nose and throat care.

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The exterior additions include a new ambulance garage and helipad to allow for emergency patient transports. Two new employee parking lots were added to the west and south side of the hospital, which has helped provide space for the hospital’s growing team, which has increased by 10 percent since the groundbreaking event in September 2019, and the patient volume has increased substantially, too. The increased staffing has also made an impact on the local economy.

Morrison Hospital is proud to offer a variety of specialists who can work with patients and their physicians to review health concerns

Last year, the hospital was the recipient of a quality award and ranked in the top 10 percent of all critical access hospitals in the country for exceptional quality of care, as well as being a high-achieving HCAHPS hospital — the second consecutive years they’ve won that award. HCAHPS surveys patients on their hospital experiences. The four core domains included in the scoring were Patient Safety/Inpatient, Patient Engagement, Care Transitions, and Outpatient Measures

And the hospital isn’t done growing yet.

Another ribbon cutting announcement is planned to come in the next few months as MCH prepares to add another new operating room, new sterilizing rooms and a new Computed Tomography (CT) machine.

“We are very proud of our team for achieving this level of excellence in health quality,” Pfister said. “As we continue to grow as an organization our focus is to provide our communities with high quality care close to home.