Reflecting on 45 years at Redmond

From the time the first patient was admitted on July 4, 1972, Redmond has been a leader in hospital care for Rome and Northwest Georgia.

Redmond has a history of growing services for the communities served and of offering many “firsts” in the region, state, and nation. Throughout these 45 years, Redmond has demonstrated a special emphasis on advancing cardiovascular care.

Redmond is owned and operated by Hospital Corporation of America and was actually built from the ground up by HCA.

Even though Redmond was founded by a national corporation, the hospital has strong ties to the community. In fact, the community named the hospital. Before opening, the hospital invited the public to suggest names for the new facility. The hospital took the most popular suggestions and let the community decide. The citizens chose “Redmond Park Hospital.”

One of the “firsts” for Redmond happened on Aug. 20, 1974. On this date, Dr. Sidney A. Bell, Harbin Clinic orthopedic surgeon, performed the first total knee replacement in Northwest Georgia at Redmond.

Bell, along with a team at Redmond, built the total joint replacement program at Redmond, modeling it after very successful programs of the time. Some 37 years after that first total joint surgery, Redmond opened the region’s first dedicated, boutique-style total joint center within the hospital. To honor Dr. Bell’s legacy at Redmond, the center was dedicated and named after him: The Sidney A. Bell Total Joint Center.

In April 1975, Redmond opened the first diagnostic heart catheterization lab in Northwest Georgia and has been leading the way ever since. Redmond performs approximately 4,500 heart caths each year. On Valentine’s Day, 2014, Redmond’s heart cath team performed the hospital’s 100,000th heart cath.

Redmond went through two major expansions in 1978. One was a 9,000-square-foot expansion to house the growing cardiopulmonary department. The other was a 30,000 square foot expansion that added the fifth floor and expanded numerous areas including the critical care unit, emergency department, recovery room, radiology, and more.

By the mid 1980’s, the cath lab shifted focus from being a solely diagnostic program, to adding an interventional program as well — another first in Northwest Georgia. At that time, surgical backup was required for interventional heart caths due to the delicate nature of the procedure. So along with developing an interventional heart cath program, Redmond was at the same time developing an open heart surgery program.

On Oct. 22, 1986, the first open heart surgery in Northwest Georgia was performed at Redmond by Harbin Clinic’s Dr. Daniel Goldfaden, a cardiothoracic surgeon. To this day, Redmond remains as the only hospital in Northwest Georgia able to perform open heart surgery, performing approximately 500 open heart surgeries each year.

With a new year (1987) came the next new procedure at Redmond: the first balloon angioplasty in Northwest Georgia. Balloon angioplasty uses a balloon-tipped catheter to alleviate coronary artery blockages. This was the launch of Redmond’s interventional heart cath program.

The decade of the 1980s wrapped up with a name change for the hospital. Redmond Park Hospital became Redmond Regional Medical Center. With the numerous advances in medical care offered at the hospital since its opening, Redmond had quickly become a regional referral source for Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama. Residents of those communities no longer had to drive to Atlanta or Chattanooga for many advancements in healthcare diagnostics and interventions.

In August 1990, Redmond was the first hospital in the country to place the Vista DDD pacemaker. The pacemaker placement was performed in the operating room by Dr. Mike Ware, Harbin Clinic cardiologist. Today, pacemaker placements as well as diagnostic procedures and other interventions for heart rhythm problems are performed in Redmond’s state of the art electrophysiology lab. Harbin Clinic Electrophysiologist Dr. Robert Styperek is the current medical director of the electrophysiology program at Redmond. Dr. Daniel Robitshek leads a tour of Redmond Regional Medical Center’s high-tech simulation lab.

In 1990, Redmond was chosen as the pilot hospital in Georgia for administration of tPA (clot busting drug) in the pre-hospital setting. tPA continues to be widely used today, primarily as part of rapid stroke intervention protocols to potentially improve patient recovery following a stroke. Redmond has received state and national recognition for timely administration of tPA in patients diagnosed with stroke in the emergency setting. This recognition includes Joint Commission accreditation as a Primary Stroke Center of Excellence.

Redmond made another national milestone in 1992 by becoming the second hospital in the nation to use a glucomander, a new computer-assisted insulin drip of the time. A form of the glucomander is still used today to treat individuals whose diabetes is very difficult to control.

In 1995, Redmond began perhaps its largest expansion with a $31 million construction project to add a new 17-bed intensive care unit, 12-bed coronary care unit, and relocated emergency department and outpatient registration. This expansion also included improvements to virtually every area of the hospital.

Redmond launched its Occupational Health program in 1996 to help local employers provide innovative solutions for employee health and wellness. Redmond Occupational Health’s first on-site nurse was located at Bekaert. Now in its twenty-first year, Redmond’s Occupational Health program has greatly expanded their services based upon the needs of the employers they serve.

Redmond added a third floor to the east side of the building in 2002. This addition became home to a new 20-bed Inpatient Physical Rehabilitation Unit. Another expansion followed in 2006 with the addition of a fourth floor above the Inpatient Rehab Unit and the opening of a new medical/surgical unit.

In 2016, Redmond completed its $1.2 million hybrid operating room suite. This new suite was designed for variety of Contributed photo uses. Primarily, the suite is equipped for state of the art vascular procedures as well as Redmond’s newest addition to comprehensive heart care: TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement).

The year 2016 also saw the addition of Graduate Medical Education and Redmond’s new Internal Medicine Residency Program with 10 new residents beginning that summer. In addition to the new staff hired to run the program, Redmond also re-invested in the facility by renovating multiple areas for the program. Among those improvements was the addition of a high-tech simulation lab to enhance the training experience for Residents in the program. The residency program renovations along with other hospital projects such as complete remodeling of the cafeteria and the emergency room totaled a $3.7 million reinvestment in the facility.

In addition to high-quality medical care, Redmond is also known for its history of employee culture and family-like atmosphere.

Although Redmond as a facility supports many local organizations through sponsorships, the most significant impact in community giving and support is made by the employees themselves. Employees lead numerous projects throughout the year that range from individual event support to the hospital-wide Christmas Adopt-a-Family Campaign that supports 40 to 60 families each holiday.

The largest organized campaign occurs every October. Redmond’s “Giving Hearts Campaign” is an annual, month-long campaign of employee charitable giving that is led by front line staff. Employees are able to pledge charitable donations to local nonprofit organizations such as United Way, Faith and Deeds Clinic, The Sweet Cocoon, Summit Quest, and many more. Recent annual campaigns have raised over $100,000 per year in combined giving for nonprofit organizations.