Sweeny Hospital

The Sweeny Hospital District is pleased to announce 45 Years of Caring for the West Brazos Community. Sweeny Community Hospital opened its doors on March 29, 1965 with a ribbon cutting ceremony, and continues to grow to meet the needs of the West Brazos area.  As part of the celebration of caring for the community, we would like to invite the public to an open house reception on March 30, 2010 from 3:30-6:30pm.  On display will be hospital memorabilia, floor plans from then and now, pictures, and personal memories from community members about the hospital’s 45 year history.   If you have a personal story you would like to share, please submit it in writing (in any format) to Jami McGowan at Sweeny Community Hospital, 305 N. McKinney St. , Sweeny, Texas  77480 or via email at jmcgowan@sweenyhosiptal.org.  Refreshments will be served at this event. Please be sure to join us as we celebrate our past, present, and future of caring for the people West of the Brazos.

Sweeny Community Hospital is pleased to announce the purchase and hospital-wide adoption of the Alaris Smart IV Pump System.   This cutting edge technology will replace our current IV pumps, as well as give staff more access to infusion devices.  These smart IV pumps act as an “assistant” to nurses and clinicians that administer IV medications at the point of care. As a health-care provider enters medication information into an Alaris^® System, the Guardrails^® software accesses the hospital’s drug library and compares the order against a preset standard for minimum and maximum doses.  Anything above or below the pre-established limits will result in a alert to the nursing and medical staff, which must be resolved in order to give the medication to the patient.

“With all the tasks our caregivers have on a daily basis, having another ‘set of eyes’ in the form of these new IV Pumps at the patient’s bedside is a tremendous help to nursing and EMS staff.” said Sherri Pierce, Chief Nursing Officer of Sweeny Community Hospital.

The health-care industry has put new emphasis on revising patient safety programs to prevent medication errors and reduce length of hospital stay. This can be attributed in part to recently published research findings examining the issue of medication safety. Last year, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report that estimated that 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) occur in the U.S. each year. These errors cause unnecessary harm and cost an estimated $3.5 billion annually to treat. Of the most serious potential ADEs, 61 percent are IV-related. CareFusion’s Alaris^® medication safety products are designed to prevent infusion administration errors at the point of care to protect the health and safety of the patient receiving the medication. Sweeny Community Hospital’s new smart pump technology will help prevent infusion administration errors at the point of care to protect the health and safety of the patient receiving IV medications and better serve the West Brazos Community.

Trina St. John, Emergency Department Manager at Sweeny Community Hospital, has been appointed to the Policy Committee on Trauma and Emergency Services for the Texas Hospital Association. The Texas Hospital Association is the leadership organization and principal advocate for the state’s hospitals and health care systems. One of the largest hospital associations in the country, THA represents more than 85 percent of the state’s hospitals and health care systems. Policy committees at the THA are composed of hospital technical experts, who provide input and guidance to the Council on Policy Development on public policy issues and make recommendations to the THA Board for policy development to improve accessibility, quality and cost-effectiveness of health care for all Texans. Ms. St. John was chosen from a pool of candidates for this honor based on her extensive knowledge of trauma and emergency medicine. An emergency nurse for over 25 years, Ms. St. John is a certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, a member of the Emergency Nurses Association, the International Association of Forensic Nurses, Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, and the East Texas Gulf Coast Trauma Service Area (RAC-R). At Sweeny Community Hospital, she serves as the Trauma Coordinator and has been instrumental in enhancing critical care services available to the West of the Brazos community through adoption of new monitoring and infusion technologies. William Barnes, Administrator of Sweeny Community Hospital states, “Ms. St. John’s appointment to this state committee reflects her ongoing dedication to improving emergency and trauma response for the citizens of Brazoria County. Her experience in rural emergency medicine is a strong asset to our local community, and she will serve as an advocate for continued improvements in critical care access to citizens in rural areas of Texas.” The appointment to this prestigious committee is for one calendar year.

On Tuesday, October 20th Stuart Butler, IT Director at Sweeny Community Hospital received the 2009 Rural Health IT Leadership Award from the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals. This award was based on his IT accomplishments, commitment to providing IT assistance to hospital staff and overall dedication to furthering the IT advancement of the hospital. Stuart has been instrumental in the implementation of the radiology department’s Picture Archiving And Communications System (PACS). The PACS allows all images to be viewed digitally and allows physicians to see X-rays in their offices within minutes of the X-ray being taken. Stuart is also instrumental in the implementation of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) at the hospital. The EHR is critical to the  compliance with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provisions, which detail guidelines for payment based on meaningful use of information technology in healthcare institutions. Thanks to Stuart’s contributions, Sweeny Community Hospital will be ready to meet the demands of healthcare IT advances head-on.