Elevating Critical Care at Cedar City Hospital

Garrett Stewart, the operating room manager at the hospital, said, “Being a rural hospital could lead some to think we can’t offer what other hospitals can. The truth is Cedar City Hospital surgical services can perform nearly all elective procedures, and because we are smaller, can offer a more of a personal touch, along with the added advantage of being close to home.”  

Stewart said this last year Cedar City Hospital’s six OR rooms were renovated, and they took a good deal of the equipment that used to be on rolling carts on the floor, and attached them to strong rolling mounts (sometimes called “booms”) on the ceiling. That way they could be easily moved to precisely where they need to be, while still being up and out of the way.  

“That vastly improved the ergonomics of the operating room,” said Stewart, “particularly so for an emergency surgery, when a patient is severely injured, our staff can get that room set up much more quickly. The new monitors, along with special state-of-the-art surgical room LED lights, provide higher resolution and visualization, so precision is even more improved.” 

Another way Cedar City Hospital continues to improve critical care access was adding more ER providers, including two certified physician assistants, Kim Haycock and Patrick Thompson, and a certified nurse practitioner, David Cowley. That means now there are two primary care medical providers in the ER during peak times, in addition to the full nursing staff. Peak times are usually from 10 a.m. to noon, daily. 

Cyndi Wallace, nurse administrator at the hospital, said, “Doing this optimizes treatment and reduces waiting as much as possible, especially during peak hours. It improves our patient flow and the quality of the patient experience in our emergency department.” 

ER nurse Kimberly Wilde added, “Our ER providers bring extensive experience in different fields, like family practice, dermatology, or even oncology. They have each other to bounce ideas off and work together with a patient on, which is a great help to all our patients.” 

Another important addition which improves critical care access at Cedar City Hospital is a hospitalist, a doctor who oversees the care of hospital inpatients. Having a hospitalist allows the patient’s care to move forward more quickly and consistently.