craigdailypress.com

Despite snow, hospital construction was still a go Thursday.

Although snow blanketed Craig, crews working on the new Memorial Hospital site still were on the job, working under Robins & Morton Group LLC, the hospital's general contractor.

"It's going to have to get worse than this before it affects us," said Barry Rodgers, Robins & Morton assistant superintendent, even as snow continued to fall.

On Thursday, crewmembers were digging ditches for sub-surface plumbing and electrical lines that will serve the new hospital, located west of Craig.

Eventually, electricians will lay lines serving the building's plug-ins and lighting, while plumbers will install drainpipes for sinks and toilets.

Although snowfall didn't stop construction, it did slow it down.

Structural steel work, which began Nov. 25, became more difficult in wet weather.

"(Steel workers) had to get up there and clean off the beams so they could : crawl across them," Rodgers said, adding that workers had to warm the steel before they could weld it.

The first of three phases in steel construction is scheduled for completion by the middle of next week.

Robins & Morton has built about 70 days into its construction schedule to accommodate for bad weather and other contingencies. Hospital construction is scheduled to continue until late November 2009.

As of Thursday, the project was on schedule, Rodgers said, but if bad weather persists, those extra days could come in handy.

Hospital board reviews strategic plan

TMH board of trustees members, medical staff and executives know the direction in which the hospital is headed in coming years.

Just how they're going to get there, however, could change in future discussions of the hospital's strategic plan.

"A strategic plan is a roadmap for how to get from where we are to where we want to go," said Samantha Johnston, TMH service excellence officer.

The plan outlines broad-range goals, including increasing patient volume, recruiting physicians and taking steps to ensure the hospital can fund construction of a new hospital, which currently is underway.

The strategic plan, which applies from 2008 to 2010, also describes how hospital administrators might go about meeting those goals.

At a Tuesday workshop, for which public notice was not given, the board met to review how the hospital had carried out goals outlined in the three-year roadmap.

At least, that was the plan.

Normally in a strategic planning meeting, board members would have evaluated the hospital's goals in light of its core values and determine if the hospital is on track.

Ultimately, no changes were made at the hospital's strategic planning meeting Tuesday night because the board lingered in more abstract discussions about its goals.

As a result, ironing out steps to meet those objectives will await future meetings.

That's not to say Tuesday's gathering was unproductive.

Hospital board members pointed out areas in which TMH may have to reprioritize.

Primarily, board members discussed growth, Johnston said, although the question wasn't whether the hospital is growing.

"We are definitely growing," she added. "Our services are growing, our staff is growing, our organization is growing, for sure."

Instead, some board members questioned whether the hospital is changing in the right direction.

For instance, TMH is focused on recruiting family physicians. However, community members have expressed interest in getting an oncologist, or a doctor specializing in cancer, on staff at the hospital, Johnston said.

The next task for physicians, executives and board members is to determine in these and other areas whether to stay the same course.