News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville Regional will upgrade 43 patient beds and nine stretchers under a plan approved by the CRMC Finance Committee.
The $895,000 project is part of an on-going effort to refurbish the most basic of hospital tools, according to CEO Paul Korth.
“We try to every couple of years put a large dollar amount in there for bed replacements,” Korth said. “We have kind of a master plan and we take a look at those. Every couple of years we make a large purchase and replace out those instead of having to do all 250-300 of them at once.”
Korth said the beds set to be replaced went into service in 2006. Since then, technology in hospital beds have changed.
“They were all crank beds where you had to crank the foot manually to today’s bed that will weigh a patient, will help turn a patient, and will do many advanced technical capabilities than what was in the past,” Korth said.
The finance committee also approved the replacement of the HVAC unit at the CRMC Rehabilitation Facility. Cookeville Regional CFO Steve Ramey said the 17-year-old system has had many issues with breakdowns. It was also built as a custom system making part replacement more difficult. The project’s price tag stands at $235,800.
