Summarized below are key initiatives/plans occurring during the week of July 18 regarding progress at Hutcheson Medical Center in Fort Oglethorpe, under the management agreement with Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, which became effective May 26.

· The ability for Hutcheson to provide 24/7 on-call orthopedic and general surgery coverage has been approved by Hutcheson’s finance committee. Continual efforts are being made by Erlanger to implement additional physician specialty needs.

· As emergency care remains a targeted focus, Hutcheson’s Emergency Department physicians have added an additional 40 hours of coverage during the busiest days, Friday through Tuesday.

· The Hutcheson lab, in attention to Erlanger, now offers a new test that will more broadly detect germs that cause very serious digestive infections from certain food sources. With the recent outbreak in Germany, this new test will detect the new form of germs associated with those types of food borne illness.

· Mitchell Mutter, MD, chief of the UT Erlanger Cardiology Group, will be conducting a complete assessment of cardiology care at Hutcheson in the coming weeks.

Article submitted by Hutcheson Medical Center.