Greater Regional prepares for new purchases

New equipment and a resurfacing to fight against infections were approved by Greater Regional. The board of trustees met during a regular meeting on Monday to discuss additions to their equipment suite.

Before making any decisions on requisitions during Monday’s meeting, Chief Financial Officer Matt McCutchan presented the capital budget for fiscal year 2026 through 2028. The $30 million capital budget doesn’t approve any projects, but the board’s approval allows for capital to be spent on any projects which could be approved by the board in the future.

“Approving the capital budget does not approve any line in the budget,” McCutchan said. “All the lines will have to come back to the board to be individually approved. This is just for capital planning purposes.”

Projects outlined in the capital budget within the next year include renovations made to the old Crossroads building on the Greater Regional campus, refreshing finishes in multiple clinics, an ambulance transfer van, upgrades to the radiology department and various updates to surgery equipment. Looking further, new additions to the OR and ER areas could be scheduled for the hospital’s future.

Chief Clinic Officer Carol Eckels spoke on a requisition for a new ultrasound machine, representing the OBGYN clinic during the meeting. The new ultrasound machine would replace an existing machine which is nearing the end of its service life. GE HealthCare has offered Greater Regional a demo model, shifting the amount budgeted for a new machine from $103,000 to $61,475. The item was approved during Monday’s meeting.

EMS Manager Ryan Burwell introduced a requisition for an ambulance for Greater Regional. A previous ambulance, which was sent to a vendor for a remount, was brought back with multiple issues, some more comedic than others. Burwell called the incidents “the great ambulance debacle of ‘22, ‘23, ‘24, ‘25.”

“The ambulance we ordered showed up; we were all happy,” Burwell said. “Then we started going through everything. The power lift didn’t work. The AC was running, and water was pouring through the wiring... lights would turn off and on automatically. There was hoses on the engine that weren’t hooked on correctly. It was an absolute nightmare.”

Burwell had issues with the vendor trying to have repairs fixed, including his need to repeatedly badger the vendor on status updates. McCutchan was amazed how many issues the ambulance had, eventually saying, “you can’t fix this.”

The new ambulance offered by the vendor as replacement is another demo model, a Ford ‘24 model which McCutchan described as “basically a new model.” The replacement ambulance is already in service locally and approval for the funds was the only thing needed from the board. A $79,424 price tag was requested to the board and approved during Monday’s meeting.

Facilities Director Matt Buck attended the meeting and requested funds for a surgery floor resurfacing. An overlay will be placed over areas of the OR, alongside resurfacing for one wall in each of the five operating rooms. Resurfacing is needed in these areas to combat natural deterioration which can open the walls for the transfer of infections.

The resurfacing will be done by DESCO Coatings who operate out of Kansas City, Missouri. DESCO will overlay the surfaces, reseal and install what Buck referred to as an “elastomembrane,” which is used in place of wallpaper to create seamless walls to combat infections. These plans were noted by Buck to coincide with the original floor plans for the operating room in 2010.

With a 10% contingency to the original price, Buck asked the board for $121,819.50 for the resurfacing. The board approved the project.