When Doug Maund first opened Athens Pharmacy in 1959, the location was on the edge of town.

“When I came, I was the first business off the square — there was nothing in any direction but me, the hospital and a cotton field,” he said.

As Maund has watched Athens grow, he has seen an increasing need for services from Athens-Limestone Hospital.

So far, hospital officials have met those needs by recruiting new doctors and adding high-tech equipment such as a second CT scan, a digital mammography machine and more.

But one area was still in need of a makeover — the emergency room.

“This emergency room has been a thorn in everybody’s side for years,” he said. To support the efforts of the Hospital Foundation to renovate and modernize the hospital’s ER, Maund and his wife Lib donated $100,000 to the campaign, which has a goal of $1 million.

“We already have the latest equipment, the most modern in every department,” he said. “If we can get an ER that’s state of the art, we can get enough (patient) flow to keep doctors.”

A common complaint about the hospital’s ER, as with most emergency rooms, is long wait times.

The emergency room serves patients across 559 square miles in northern Alabama and serves a population that has grown by 75 percent since the hospital was built in 1951. The ER is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“According to current projections, the rising incidence of emergency care and the need for additional Emergency Department beds will increase 25 percent over the next 10 years,” said Hospital Foundation president Norma McCollum. The ER expansion will help meet these needs and increase the quality and scope of the area’s healthcare, she said.

Efforts have already begun to decrease waiting time in the emergency room, said Cary Payne, the hospital’s chief operating officer.

Those include:

• A nurse practitioner is being recruited to augment the two physicians who currently work in the ER on different shifts, allowing the primary-care services to be open twice as long each day;

• A second CT scan was added so patients already in the hospital and those in the ER do not have to wait until a machine is available;

• New technology is being used for some testing so lab results are available in 15 minutes rather than the previous 45 minutes.

“Now it will be open most of the day until late at night,” Payne said.

Because Athens-Limestone Hospital is a community, not-for-profit facility, patients cannot be turned away because of inability to pay.

“Our volume has increased between 30 and 35 percent in the last 10 years,” Payne said. “We’ve taken steps to keep up with those volumes. We have improved the turn-around time (for patients in the ER). We’re the only medical service for many parts of the day because doctor’s offices are closed.”

Last year, 26,000 people were treated in the hospital’s emergency room.

Maund said the hospital expansion would help meet the demands created by increased traffic.

“We’ve got to care for the needy and the poor, but you’ve got to keep some paying ones,” Maund said. “You’ve got to prepare for what people want.”

Maund said he feels hospital improvements are an important cause to support.

“There’s no other place that helps more people than the hospital,” he said. “There’s nothing that touches as many lives. I’ve always believed in giving something back to the community. I haven’t got so much longer to go.”

The Maunds’ donation brought the total raised for the ER project to $455,000, McCollum said.

The amount needed to renovate and expand the ER is $1 million.

No date has been set to begin construction, which will be completed in phases so the emergency room is never closed to patients, Payne said.

Once underway, the project will take from 12 to 18 months to complete.

The expansion will include:

• An increase of total area from 6,282 square feet to 8,632 square feet;

• An increase in the public waiting area from 568 square feet to 1,722 square feet;

• An increase in the number of treatment rooms from six to 10;

• An addition of five to seven patient beds in the first phase and eight more later;

• An airborne infection isolation room.

Payne said hospital officials are looking for better ways to evaluate and treat patients in the ER in conjunction with adding the much-needed space.



Raising the funds

Members of the Hospital Foundation, whose mission is to secure money for development of more healthcare options for the community, have been planning fund-raising strategies for about a year and fund-raising began in the spring.

“In the first phase, we went to hospital employees and board members,” McCollum said. Now, at nearly the halfway point, Foundation members will begin soliciting donations and pledges from the community.

“We want the whole community to take part,” said Foundation Board of Trustees member Frank McCollum. “It’s their hospital.

Board member Garth Lovvorn said if everyone family in Limestone County donated just $16, they would have enough for the project.

People do not have to send cash, said board member Dick Chittam.

“People can donate stocks, automobiles, or real estate,” he said.

Frank McCollum added that people could make a pledge over a five-year period.

Donations can be sent to the Hospital Foundation at: 800 W. Washington St., P.O. Box 999, Athens, Ala., 35612, or call the Foundation office at 233-9236 for information on making a pledge.



‘Best hospital anywhere’

Mark and Argent Thomas know firsthand how valuable a community hospital can be.

Mark, a retired engineer at Redstone Arsenal, and Argent, a retired schoolteacher, have been treated at Athens-Limestone Hospital in the past: cancer treatment and brain surgery for Thomas, and Argent for treatment of injuries suffered in a bad wreck three years ago.

“Without that hospital, I wouldn’t be here,” said Mark Thomas.

“Me either,” added Argent.

But even before they both experienced extensive hospitalizations, the couple donated generously to the hospital, Norma McCollum said.

On Thursday, the Thomases wrote a check to name a patient room in honor of Norma in appreciation for her work with the Hospital Foundation.

Norma, emotional as she accepted the gift, said the Thomases have donated money for three other rooms recently, for Dr. Sam Frankel, Dr. James Walker and his wife Sharon, and for Dr. Gates Murphy.

“They’ve been giving for years,” Norma said.

The Thomases now go to the hospital’s Wellness Center to work out regularly.

“It is our hospital; it is our community,” Argent said. “It’s the best hospital anywhere.”