MercyOne hosts training for Adair County Health

GREENFIELD — Six months after an EF-4 tornado ravaged the city of Greenfield, Adair County Health has reopened its doors despite ongoing construction.

The state of the building required a drastic rebuild, but they found ways to keep service the community. Through the summer, the clinic operated out of the Nodaway Valley Elementary School.

Not everything is as it was yet, with EMS still storing the ambulance in the old fire station off Greenfield square. The EMS garage was completely destroyed by the tornado.

As a MercyOne affiliate, the emergency health staff were provided a training day by MercyOne Friday at the Adair County Fairgrounds. Emergency room staff and EMTs spent the day refreshing their skills in a variety of areas.

Top of the line Simulation in Motion trucks were brought down to help replicate emergency patient situations.

In the truck, staff can manipulate the patients’ vitals based on how the staff handles the treatment and communicate as “the patient.”

One scenario practiced was a 40-year-old woman who was 30 weeks pregnant. The staff quickly worked to diagnose and treat preeclampsia.

In addition to emergency obstetrics training, they refreshed on strokes, coding, respiratory distress and more. The MercyOne helicopter landed at the fairgrounds to give staff a chance to check out the aircraft and ask questions.

Excitement

Dr. Dean Moews is a new addition to the emergency staff as he takes on the role of ER medical director. He’s been a physician for about 30 years after graduating from the University of Iowa.

He’s been an ER and urgent care physician since 2008. Most recently, he was with MercyOne Des Moines as training faculty.

He assisted MercyOne in demonstrations and training for staff prior to them using the simulation trucks.

In addition to his role as ER medical director, he will be involved with quality assurance and improvement as well as helping with clinical direction.

“I personally am very excited to get that started again,” Moews said in an ACHS Facebook video. “This has been a long and tedious process to get this up and running. But what I will tell you is we are all excited and ready to provide the kind of care that Adair County and Greenfield have come to expect.”

The hospital’s grand re-opening celebration will be held open-house style from 4:30-6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 4.

“The closest ER other than ours is 25 miles away,” Moews said. “As an emergency medical physician, time matters. The ability for a patient who is sitting in Greenfield knowing they can be in a highly-functioning rural medical service within minutes versus longer is huge.”