Local business people and politicians gathered Friday at All Steak for the Cullman Chamber of Commerce’s monthly Fourth Friday Luncheon, with special guest speaker Jim Weidner, the CEO of Cullman Regional Medical Center.

After being introduced by the Chamber of Commerce Chair Steve Murphy, Weidner spoke for around half an hour about the current state of the hospital, and specifically touched on five critical topics that CRMC is working to improve upon.

“Physician recruiting, ER patient experience, sustainable financial performance, out-migration and maintaining positive relations between the medical staff, board of trustees and administration are five critical issues that the hospital faces,” Weidner said. “So once the community demonstrates there is a need for something, we try and offer it.”

When it came to physician recruiting, Weidner touched on an issue CRMC is currently facing.

“Three out of six of our OBGYNs have recently retired or stepped down,” Weidner said. “We are currently working to fill those positions with the right, qualified people.”

Weidner also said they are hard at work at improving the patient experience in the emergency room.

“It’s going to be a dramatic change,” he said. “We are hiring all new physicians. ... We want to be first in the state as far as residency trained in emergency room care.”

The hospital has also spent $10,000 recently by adding more privacy to the emergency room area, opting for more walls and less curtains to separate patients.

Weidner said the hospital is doing well financially, saying they are working hard to maintain a sustainable return on the $70 million in bonds that keep the hospital self-sufficient.

He also mentioned that they are still raising money for the $5 million Golden Window campaign.

“The bulk of the money, around $4 million, will go toward expanding the ER,” Weidner said. “We want to put in a chest pain and stroke center, as well as a trauma room.”

“About $1 million will go toward upgrading our cath labs, and around $250,000 is going toward new ambulance equipment,” he said.

The fourth major topic Weidner touched on was out-migration, which means people from Cullman are looking outside of the county for medical treatment.

“The problem there is we are either not providing what they need, or they don’t like our service. ... We’re working to remedy both of those issues,” he said.

“For example, we hope to greatly improve the way we handle cancer treatment,” Weidner said. “We wanted to find a way to keep people from being punted around between radiation, surgery, and psychiatric specialists.”

To remedy this, CRMC will now take a new approach to cancer patient care.

“Our new method will give someone who has been diagnosed with cancer a nurse navigator, who will help them with every step of the process,” Weidner said. “The nurse navigator will gather the patient, and all of the specialists together at once to make the process of choosing a treatment faster and more efficient. ... We hope to reduce the time between diagnosis and treatment from 50-70 days, which it is now, to a span as short as a week.”

The final critical issue the hospital faces is maintaining positive relations between the medical staff, board of trustees, and administration, Weidner said.

“These groups insure that we meet the community’s needs, and we plan on continuing to work together closely in the future,” he said.

In closing, Weidner said he was proud to be a part of the Cullman community.

“I just want to say that I am incredibly excited about what we are doing with community healthcare here. ... I’m just having a ball doing my job.”