New Pinckneyville hospital has first IDPH inspection

Bill Benton, an architect with the Illinois Department of Public Health, toured the new Pinckneyville Community Hospital site on Monday afternoon.

Hospital Administrator Tom Hudgins told the Board of Directors Monday evening that the visit went well and is the first of several IDPH inspections before the certificate of occupancy for the new hospital is issued.

Bender began by looking over the drawings then toured the building and finished up looking over the drawings again and answering questions.

Hudgins said Bender offered advice on codes and shared his experiences with other job sites.

"It was educational," Hudgins said.

Other IDPH inspectors will be electricians and mechanical specialists. There will be at least two more inspections before the final one to determine whether or not to issue a certificate of occupancy.

Hudgins said no hospital services can be moved to the new site before the certificate of occupancy is issued. Non-hospital services may be moved early.

The board approved capital equipment purchases for the new building. They were a CPSI Enterprise Wide Scheduling system for $29,400, a CPSI HIS Network Server for $63,210, all of the phone, computer, security and telemetry cabling for the new facility from CPSI at a cost of $464,867 and the Telemetry antenna and wiring at the new facility for $23,480. The Telemetry company will do the placement and installation of all telemetry equipment. CPSI will handle all cabling, including for the telemetry system.

The final capital equipment purchase was a SmartVest Airway Clearance System for $5,045. Chief Nurse Executive Eva Hopp said the vest is used on pneumonia and COPD patients who need help clearing mucus from their lungs.

The next owner/architect/contractor meeting will be Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 11 a.m. at the job site.