Baptist Health Hardin President Rob Ramey was the featured speaker during the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce’s February luncheon Wednesday.
Ramey said as the hospital celebrates its 70th anniversary and Baptist Health celebrates its centennial, the hospital knows it has to look outside the hospital’s campus to continue impacting area healthcare.
“We’re constantly looking at how we evaluate the disparities in healthcare, where those underserved areas of our community are, how we’re going to more effectively collaborate with other healthcare organizations and other community partners to be able to reach those people, that population, and make sure that they’re getting access to healthcare as well,” Ramey said.
Later this year, the hospital will open its new Baptist Health Hardin Medical Pavilion. Ramey said the 282,000 square-foot expansion represents a $225 million investment, and with the expansion comes improvements to technology that Ramey said will make Baptist Health Hardin a leader regionally and beyond.
“We’re actually looking at trying to be not just nationally but internationally on the forefront of looking at 4-D types of technologies,” Ramey said. “Think about that. We want Hardin County to have access to those things before all those others around the country, so we’re continually looking at how we can provide the best care that we can and the best resources that we can for you all.”
Ramey says with a completion date in sight, the hospital now has its sights set on its next project.
“We’re building the pavilion, we open that later this year, but what that means is next year we get to start renovating the hospital and improving the things in the aging facility in the hospital,” Ramey said. “One of those things we’re going to be announcing is how we can enhance the services to our expectant and newly-delivered moms as well as to our youngest and most fragile patients as well, so we’re excited.”
Ramey said the expansion and renovations will help to reduce the strain on the hospital’s emergency department, which ranks as the third-largest in the state, and improve a neonatal intensive care unit that serves one of the top ten birthing hospitals in Kentucky.
