The Rotary Club of Warren met for its weekly meeting Tuesday, Feb. 14 at First United Methodist Church in Warren. The group of Rotarians heard from Warren High School Junior Rotarian Oscar Perez to start the program.
Top photo: (from L to R) of Rotarian Denisa Pennington and BCMC CEO/CFO Leslie Huitt
Rotarian Denisa Pennington presented her program of Leslie Huitt, the CEO/CFO of Bradley County Medical Center. Huitt began by touching on the recent announcement of BCMC being chosen to participate in the Delta Region Community Health Systems Development (DRCHSD) Program. This is a three-year opportunity to provide technical assistance. The TA consists of various assessments, onsite consultations, workshops and educational trainings, which will be provided through a multi-year phased-in approach. The Program is designed to increase the efficiency of the local health care delivery system practices by focusing on care coordination, social services integration, emergency medical services access, and workforce recruitment and retention. The majority of the rest of the program saw Huitt talk about the Master Plan the hospital has been working on over the past few months. The architects and engineers presented their findings and the current building BCMC resides in is outdated in a number of areas. However, Huitt made a point to assure the community the hospital is safe to enter. The roof is in need of repair along with some plumbing and HVAC work. Overall, to get the current building up-to-date, it would cost between 5 and 15 million dollars. Another option presented is to build a new hospital at a new location, and that would cost anywhere from 25-30 million dollars. The hospital does have funds available and is pursuing grant opportunities to help with some of the more immediate needs while longer-term solutions are discussed. Huitt then answered a few questions to close the program.
