Hospital takes new name; reflects regional services

In a short ceremony, after more than a year of planning, officials unveiled the new name for the hospital in Demopolis.

Whitfield Regional Hospital more aptly reflects the services and scope of the hospital today, said CEO/Administrator Doug Brewer. The former name of Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital “doesn’t fit what we are now. We’re a regional hospital,” he continued. “It’s not the same hospital it was a year ago.”

The official announcement of the new name came Wednesday morning as hospital administration, staff, board members and community leaders gathered in the hospital lobby.

Along with a new name, Whitfield Regional has an updated logo that will be used with all the divisions of the Tombigbee Healthcare Authority family, including each area of service and the family clinics the hospital will sponsor.

The new logo, said Brewer, is more contemporary, fresher and brighter, which helps create “a whole new identity.”

The idea for the name change began “really from Day 1 with the affiliation with UAB,” said Brewer.

“Over the last 12 to 16 months or so, we’ve been working hard to bring the same services you can get in Birmingham…to Demopolis,” he continued.  “We feel like we’ve achieved a pretty good critical mass of being able to do that.”

Since becoming a part of the UAB family and its telehealth link, Whitfield Regional has added several services to better provide for complete health care in the Demopolis area not available before. Heading that list is being designated a Regional Stroke Center, cutting treatment response time from more than six hours to just under two.

“Time is brain” when it comes to stroke, said Brewer.

The hospital now is a Level III trauma center, provides critical pulmonary care and nephrology coverage, recently began an in-patient dialysis program and, as of August 29, will be a Regional Wound Care Center. On Sept. 3 the Whitfield Family Health Center will open in Linden.

“Lots and lots of new programs and services are in place,” Brewer said.

In addition, the facility has been able to upgrade equipment and monitors as all employees sign on to the “100/0” pledge of 100 percent accountability with zero excuses.

The changes are a tangible proof to the commitment the hospital has to the community, Brewer said. Since becoming director he has stressed quality care, patient safety and patient experience.

Even without a formal push to improve patient satisfaction, Brewer said the hospital has seen an increase in those who are pleased with their treatment. At one point recently, the hospital was ranked in the top three percent across the nation in the willingness of patients to recommend it.

Brewer gives a lot of credit to the addition of the hospitalist program that began in December. The facility now has a doctor in house 12 hours a day, with a physician’s assistant on duty at night.

Other physicians will be joining the hospital family within the next few months, covering cardiology and internal medicine, and more Emergency Department doctors are on the way, he said.

All this has been done while the hospital maintained and bettered its clinical quality while improving patient experience.

The improvements reflect the success of the clinical pathways and protocols put into place that over time produce better quality care.

“I’m not saying we’re where we need to be yet,” said Brewer, but Whitfield Memorial is headed in the right direction.

Next on his agenda is working on long term plans for the hospital, including ways to build a $2.5 million improvement to the Emergency Department.