Carolyn Drumm is the assistant administrator and director of patient care services of the soon-to-open DeKalb Medical Center at Hillandale.

When Carolyn Drumm, RN, BSN, MA, FACHE, teaches nursing administrators, she offers this advice: “When a new career opportunity comes along, put your hand up. You will learn something both professionally and personally.”

Eight months ago, she followed her own advice by accepting the job of assistant administrator/director of patient care services for the new DeKalb Medical Center at Hillandale, opening soon in Lithonia. True to her word, she has learned plenty.

“You couldn’t go out and buy this kind of opportunity,” Drumm said. “How many people get to be part of the opening of a new hospital? We’re going to be giving this community a phenomenal facility and, at the same time, create a really healthy work environment. I’m having a great time.”

About 35 years in the making, DeKalb Medical Center at Hillandale is Georgia’s newest hospital. Hospital administrator Julia Jones has been actively involved with community leaders for about 20 years to get the facility approved and built.

Thanks to dedicated research by DeKalb Medical Center physicians and nurses, Georgia’s first planned, all digital hospital will open — under budget and ahead of schedule — on July 18.

“The planners looked at hospitals all over the country to determine what were the best practices and facility designs that would enhance the care given to patients,” Drumm said.

The hospital is equipped with state-of the- art technology, but what is going to impress patients is its warm, family friendly
environment.

Stone columns, a saltwater fish tank, four gas log fireplaces, a library and two gardens are some of the natural and home-like touches that will help create a healing, relaxed atmosphere.

“The patient rooms are private and larger, so that there is room for families to be involved in the healing,” Drumm said. “Seven of the ICU rooms will have a half-wall between the patient and a family room, which family members will enter through an atrium with waterfall.”

There will be no restrictions to visiting, as long as families are willing to abide by partnership in healing guidelines.

Behind the scenes, staff will take an interdisciplinary approach to documentation, planning and outcome of care. “Many of the issues between nurses, doctors and staff — things like lab reports not making it into a chart on time — will be eliminated by online documentation,” Drumm said.

Nurses will enter vital signs and other data directly into computers housed on carts. Doctors can access the records from their offices and send orders directly to the lab or floor.

“The communication between all departments will be faster and better,” Drumm said.

While technology will improve care, it has also increased challenges to staff. Drumm and other administrators have anticipated how adjusting to an allcomputerized medical records system will affect hospital processes, workloads and patient care. She and other managers have undergone training to become “super users” who can help anyone use the system.

Most of the challenges have come in creating a new hospital environment from the ground up.

“Normally, older staff can help new workers learn how the hospital system works,” Drumm said. “Here, we’re still setting everything up and then having to test it to see how it stands up to our policies and standards.”

Staff stretch out on gurneys to practice mock scenarios of how a patient will be transported from the ER to surgery to ICU or from labor/delivery to a mother/child room — and work out the kinks in the system. “We have flowcharted and diagrammed every process, so that we’ll be ready in July,” she said.

Hiring staff with a high commitment to providing excellent service, not just to their patients but to each other, was crucial to creating the healthy work environment desired by the new hospital.

“The lines wrapped around the high school across the street when we held our job fair,” Drumm said. “We interviewed for nurses, managers and staff who were not only clinically competent, but had a personal willingness to serve others. You can’t make people do that; it has to be their personal objective.”

At Hillandale, anyone who has the capacity will be asked to help others, even if it means working on a different floor, or taking on different responsibilities as needed. “We were looking for people who would embrace that kind of culture,” she added.

Not all areas will be fully staffed at opening.

“But the community has been waiting a long time for this hospital, so we’ve secured extra PRN staff to be able to ramp up quickly if needed,” she said. “I don’t expect things will slow down anytime soon and we’re excited.”