ALPENA — It has been more than seven months since MidMichigan Health took over ownership and operational control of Alpena Regional Medical Center and according to administrators the transition is going smoothly, but there also is room for more improvement.

MidMichigan Health President and CEO Diane Postler-Slattery said when MidMichigan took over control one of the first things it did was to set up an integration team that would oversee the transition. A leadership team also was established to check on progress to be sure business was being handled as expected.

“We wanted to updated constantly on how things were developing, so we met often,” Postler-Slattery said. “We didn’t only want to know about the progress, but also learn about any areas we were falling short, so we could address those.”

In addition there are now daily safety briefings being held in which a representative from each department at the hospital to go over and plan for safety issues.

“We have them seven days a week,” Postler-Slattery said.

MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena already has won an award thanks to positive feedback from clients. Postler-Slattery said surveys that were done showed 79.2 percent of the people who used the hospital for care described it as excellent and MidMichigan Health as a whole was named in the top 15 health care systems nationally.

Postler-Slattery said when the sale of the hospital was being considered, there understandably were concerns in the public. Once people learned more about MidMichigan and word spread about what was going on behind the scenes in terms of care, many of those concerns have eased.

“To be honest all I have received have been positive remarks from the community and the employees,” she said.

Moving forward there are other things MidMichigan plans to include at the facility in Alpena.

Postler-Slattery said local desk support for IT concerns or issues will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employees will be able to access MidMichigan Health on the Internet.

On the health care side there will be new services offered for OB patients. Postler-Slattery said there will be tele-medical and ultasound consultation for high risk pregnancy women with doctors at University of Michigan Hospital.

“We expect that to begin in January and is something completely new,” Postler-Slattery said.

The physicians who work at Alpena Medical Arts reached out to MidMichigan Health and asked to partner with it. There was a change in walk-in hours due to the retirement of some doctors, but Postler-Slattery said new ones have been recruited and hours will return to normal on or about Jan. 2.

One of the most common complaints about ARMC was the long wait times in the emergency room. Postler-Slattery said there has been a review of how patients are moved from the emergency room to departments, such as surgery, x-ray and other department. She said being able to move people smoothly from place to place after being observed in ER will help to reduce the wait.

“We just need to focus on ways to be more efficient and move people more quickly throughout the hospital because there are a lot of moving parts in it,” Postler-Slattery said. “The wait times have improved, but they are not where we want them to be yet.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached via email at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5689. Follow Steve on Twitter ss_alpenanews. Read his blog, Upon Further Review … at www.thealpenanews.com.