It’s all about high-quality, unique and ground-breaking patient care.

Saturday, March 25, 2000

It’s all about high-quality, unique and ground-breaking patient care.

With the Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital’s Diagnostic Imaging Center’s grand opening ceremony this weekend, Ironton will see a new phase of quality health care beginning, office manager Caroline Lucas said.

"We’ve got a top-notch, friendly staff," Ms. Lucas said. "But this is all about the patients."

When designing the concept for the center, Bellefonte’s goal was to make a patient-friendly environment.

"Our main goal here is to be able to provide quality services while being able to get our patients in and out of the office as quickly as possible," she said. "A lot of times, when you are sent to the hospital for the services we will now offer here in Ironton, they have to work inpatients in around you. And that means a much longer wait."

At the new center, however, the patients will capture the advantages of OLBH’s quality radiological staff and state-of-the-art equipment without the wait.

"We will provide open MRIs, ultrasounds, x-rays, EKGs and mammogram services," she said, adding that a special touch will be added for the center’s mammogram patients. "When a lady comes in for a mammogram, she will leave with a rose. It’s one of the ways we are working to focus on providing extra-special care to the patients."

Uniquely, even a patient’s transportation provider will discover the difference at the OLBH imaging center, Ms. Lucas added.

"We want to give them a beeper and we will use that to page them when the patient is ready," she said. "That way, they don’t have to wait in the office –  instead, they can run to the store, run errands or take care of other necessities until the patient is ready to go home."

Patients who formerly entered OLBH’s main hospital facility in Bellefonte, Ky., will notice the familiar faces of the doctors they have come to know and trust, she added.

"The radiologists are going to be the same ones from over at Bellefonte and they will have certain days of the week that they are here," she said. "Those doctors include Dr. Zambos, Dr. Wooley, Dr. DeGiorgio, and, in either June or July, Dr. Haikal will join us."

The doctors will have new equipment with which to provide special care to patients, too, Ms. Lucas said.

"The open MRI is beautiful," she said. "The advantage of it is mainly for claustrophobic patients or patients who might have a larger build. They will be able to take advantage of the MRI testing without being put inside the standard machine. This is open and it’s amazing."

Following the two-day celebration of the grand opening Saturday and today, the center will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for now, she said.

"We will expand our hours as we need to and eventually, we plan to be open evenings and on Saturdays, too," Ms. Lucas said. "I think we can provide services that are needed in this area and make a wonderful experience for the patients as well."