[SALYBOW]

Monday and Tuesday I spent the whole day in orientation for my job as Chaplain at TVRH. I found out during that time what the cause of the wait time is there.

1. Some people use the ED as their own personal doctor, coming in with things that should be taken to an urgent care. This clogs things up.

2. And most importantly, for the past 4 months or so, the hospital has been over capacity. When the ICU beds fill up, potential ICU patients have to wait in the ED because they need such a high level of care. This takes up an ED room bed.

It is hard to have a hospital that can accomodate the low and the high seasons in a cost effective manner.
This hospital is a "not for profit" institution. I can assure you that it is not mismanagement. The current CEO and Board of Directors work very hard to trim any little bit of waste or unproductivity out of our system.

As you have read both here and in The Sun, CFHA petitioned for a new hospital down in the Brownswood area. Due to the number of days at overcapacity, the request was approved right away and not one has challenged it. That leaves us scrambling to get all our ducks in a row about one year before one would have expected the approval.

When the new hospital opens it will add 90 more beds and will have the space to expand 4 or 5 times that big.

As are many of the churches in the area, TVRH is suffering growing pangs as The Villages grows out so quickly.

By the way, I took hubby there for dehydration a week after we arrived. We were seen within 1/2 hour. The length of time we were there was due to the number of bags of fluid he needed. Our care was very good.

This is a situation that is vexing to all concerned.