BY JIM MIMIAGA

The Southwest Health System board of directors was informed last week of new nationwide health-care regulations that will require major computer-programming changes for the way the industry, including Southwest Memorial, handles patient data.

Beginning in May of 2002, every person across the nation will have a master patient number as part of new rules established under the Health Care Financing Administration. The idea is to simplify the system so that physicians can pull up medical records more easily and quickly when patients are visiting non-primary-care physicians out of state, or during an emergency.

"Preparing for this could potentially be worse than Y2K, and the deadline is 29 months from now," advised John Short, a consultant with Quorum, the health-care management group for Southwest.

What hospitals are bracing for is the cost of upgrading programming and the associated training and data input needed for the new system to be in place by that time. Specifics of the new requirements have not been ironed out yet, but Short said they will be substantial and require a lot of advance preparations.

"Theoretically this will help in the long run, but getting there will be a challenge for every health-related business that deals with patients, including hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies, private practices and so on," he said.

In other action involving Southwest Memorial:

Project manager John Hutchison explained that when EnviroTech — the Farmington, N.M., that was company awarded the bid — removed a small section of the potentially hazardous substance, they discovered that the roll flooring covering the ER also contained asbestos that also needed to be removed. The MCHD board voted 5-0 to pay for the change order, which was originally $5,000, but is now not to exceed $9,000.

"The bid is still by far the lowest of them all," said MCHD director Lois Rutledge, noting that the other bids ranged from $15,000 to $20,000.

The district board also agreed to pick up the tab for a $1,500 lab bill that confirmed the suspected material contained asbestos. Ceiling tiles were found to contain 2 percent asbestos. The ER linoleum and glue registered at 46 percent asbestos, well over the 1 percent limit established by state regulators.

Asbestos is not harmful unless it is disturbed and breathed into the lungs, where it is known to cause various cancers.

Hutchison said that the new clean-up area will be completely contained within plastic and that special High Efficiency Positive Airflow (HEPA) filters will be installed to protect workers. The unexpected problem will delay Phase II of the project three to five days, he said, adding that inspectors scoured the rest of the ER and its records and found no other material known to have asbestos.

Once the asbestos is removed later this month, the ER operation will begin Phase II when they move into the newly completed expansion area, while construction begins on the remodel of the old space. The $1.4-million ER and physical plant upgrade at Southwest Memorial is expected to be completed by May 9.

"In the last three months, 9,000 bills have gone out of the hospital," Brisson said.

"The reserves improved the ratios quite a bit; we’ve come a long way, although at times it’s been a difficult year," he said.

"We need to determine what would best go over there to help alleviate the space problems we have over here," said Southwest’s CEO Bob Peterson. "This hospital has been overly planned, but I do think that we need one more plan that is pertinent to today’s environment and takes into consideration the utilization of the nursing home. We need to know what we can and cannot do over there."