The new St. Ignace hospital is almost ready, and patients can expect to see improved access to physician appointments when it opens. In fact, the hospital reports, some improvements in availability of local doctor appointments and in expanded medical services already have been made.

The new site for Mackinac Straits Hospital and Tribal Health Center is nearing completion and health care administrators from the hospital and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians' Lambert Health Center are beginning to plan for a move into the new building on North State Street in St. Ignace when the building is completed in March.

Both health care providers are expanding staff, services, and equipment in preparation for a larger facility and an eventual anticipated increase in patients.

Some changes have already been made to improve patient access to physician appointments at the St. Ignace hospital, a situation experienced by some patients last summer. The changes came after a difficult summer for the hospital, Dr. Donza Worden said. A chaotic time of change for the hospital, he said, coincided with the typically busier summer season last year which created a situation where it was difficult to get an appointment with a doctor at the hospital.

"We could not accommodate to meet patient demand this summer," Dr. Worden said. "Part of the reason for these expansions is so we can accommodate patients, especially in the summer, our busiest time."

Since the summer, availability of appointments at the hospital has greatly improved, he said, as well as the communication and cooperation among hospital administration, staff, and medical care providers.

"In the last few months, you could have called up and get an appointment the same or next day almost all the time," Dr. Worden said. "The collaboration between providers and staff is the best that it has ever been. Since it is a small community hospital, that allows all the providers to have input, which has been really good."

The expansion of staff, equipment, and services will not stop when the move is made to the new hospital in the spring, he said. The hospital plans to continue growing to meet what administrators believe will be an increasing demand for healthcare in the area.

"The hospital's ongoing goal is to continue expanding pediatric services," Dr. Worden said. "We are also looking for another provider to concentrate on men's health. Mackinac Straits Hospital will continue reaching out to the communities in the area."

Currently, Mackinac Straits Health System, the corporation running the St. Ignace hospital and affiliated health services, has satellite clinics on Mackinac Island, Bois Blanc Island, and in Naubinway.

Another service the hospital has considered adding is a portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine to help assist medical examinations without exposing patients to the X-rays found in Computerized Tomography (CT) scans.

Dr. Worden said the relationship between the clinic and the hospital's urgent care department will also change at the new hospital. Billing and administration for the walk-in clinic is currently handled in the hospital's emergency room. At the new hospital, he said, the hospital's clinic services will take over billing and administering the walk-in clinic.

Over the last year, Mackinac Straits Hospital has expanded its oncology department, expanded pediatric care, introduced a hospitalist program in its urgent care division, hired a new internal medicine doctor, expanded women's health services, opened a satellite clinic in Mackinaw City, added to dialysis services, and brought in a physician executive, Dr. Worden, to help coordinate changes in services and plan for the future. Dr. Worden assists in coordinating the upcoming move to the new facility.

The oncology program was expanded in July from two to three days each week, owing to a contract with Dr. Edward Smith for the additional day in St. Ignace. Dr. Smith also works one day each week in Newberry and one day each week in Petoskey.

The pediatric program was expanded in June with the addition of part-time physician's assistant Caryn Kovar to the team of Drs. Claudio Duarte and Cynthia Statler. The addition of Mrs. Kovar allowed for the pediatric clinic to remain open and serving patients five days a week.

In September, Becky Becker, a nurse practitioner who also has a specialty in cardiac rehabilitation, also joined the staff to provide care to both adults and children. (See related story.)

This summer also saw the transition to a hospitalist program at the acute care division, which started with Drs. William Hampton and Janean Dabney and added full-time internist Dr. Susan Hepker in September.

Adding Mrs. Kovar, Mrs. Becker, and Dr. Hepker to the staff has made room for Dr. Alice Lindsey, a family medical physician with a specialty in women's health, to focus more on providing women's health services, hospital administrators said.

In St. Ignace, the hospital has eight outpatient doctors, three fulltime emergency room doctors, five mid-level health care providers such as nurse practitioners and physician's assistants, and visiting specialist doctors.

The hospital's services expanded south of the Mackinac Bridge in 2009 owing to the new clinic opened December 1 in Mackinaw City .

The Moses Dialysis Center also recently expanded from three chairs to six, allowing more patients to be treated with dialysis at the same time.

Tribal Health Center Adds

Physician's Assistant

The Lambert Center, which provides health care for St. Ignace area members of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is also expanding its services in preparation for the move to a bigger space at the Mackinac Straits Hospital and Tribal Health Center.

The health center is adding a fulltime physician's assistant to the current staff of two medical providers, hoping to better fill medical needs.

"We anticipate increasing our services," said Health Division Director Bonnie Culfa. "We kind expected that with the move and since we will have more space."

The new health care provider started training at the Sault Ste. Marie Health Center January 18 and began seeing patients in St. Ignace by the end of January.

Ms. Culfa said the tribe may add staff in the future to expand tribal health services in St. Ignace, no other additions have yet been worked into the tribe's budget.

"We need to see what the volume is, what the increase may be, and see what staffing increase we may need," she said. "We will look other services, too; dental and pharmacy services. We may need additional nursing, too."

The Lambert Center has always had two medical providers, Ms. Culfa said, and adding a third before the move to the new facility should allow the health center to handle an increase in patients without making it difficult for people to schedule an appointment.

"I think adding the mid-level provider to that clinic is a good move before we actually move, so we are anticipating and covering the needs of patients' medical visits," she said.

St. Ignace's Tribal Health Center accepts a limited number of walk-in patients in the morning, who are triaged by a registered nurse and fit in any available appointment slots later in the day. Patients with a scheduled appointment receive first treatment, although some patients with pressing needs may be fit into blank spots on the daily schedule.

"If someone thinks they might have pneumonia or something we will try to get them in to get seen and get them on antibiotics, and get their chest X-rayed," Ms. Culfa said. "We do have some open slots every day for each provider so we can add on for those sorts of situations."

Aside from Mackinac Straits Hospital and the tribal clinic, patients in the area have the option of receiving health care 51 miles away from St. Ignace at War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, 36 miles away at Northern Michigan Regional Hospital in Petoskey, and 20 miles away at Cheboygan Memorial Hospital in Cheboygan. Cheboygan Memorial recently announced it will close urgent care services February 7 and obstetrics services in March in a move to save the hospital $4 million a year.