Cold Weather Invades Hospital

By Peyton Pierce

Latexo High School Student Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – Editor’s note: As part of encouraging local students to learn professions like journalism and get involved in local events, The Messenger asked Latexo Sophomore Peyton Pierce to attend the Hospital District meeting. She found the meeting to be interesting and noted how important the hospital is to the community and overall how many people they take care of. “As someone who has lived in Houston County for my entire life, the hospital has seen my worst days, with emergency room visits and visiting those I have loved. I couldn’t be more grateful for the hospital and the community it has brought together.”

Houston County Hospital District (HCHD) met Thursday, Jan. 23 after the meeting set for Tuesday had been postponed due to weather. The meeting started at around 5:30 p.m. with an opening prayer and the financial report for November and December was presented. Next on the agenda was “public comments,” which was skipped because there were none. 

The ambulance report for November stated they had 263 calls and transported 191 and carried 77% of patients to Crockett and 15% to Trinity and the others went to either Palestine or Lufkin. The December report had 304 calls and 192 transports, again 77% went to Crockett, while 11% went to Trinity and Lufkin and Palestine got the remainder. For the ambulance service the nearby MidCoast location in Trinity is helpful, because when calls from Lovelady come in, it’s easier and closer to transport patients to Trinity rather than Crockett.   

Starting off the hospital report, November had 685 in the emergency department, nine of those were converted into patient observation. With a bit of an uptake, December saw 794 patients in the emergency room and 17 of those were admitted to patient observation. In total for 2024, there were 8892 patients seen in the emergency room. Another highlight of the hospital report is “Swing Bed”, which had 1,486 Swing Bed days which is an important revenue source for the hospital. The clinic had a total of 8,451 visits, and 374 surgery cases in 2024.

Another part of the hospital report was an update on the roof, as insurance is working to get the roof replaced. It was reported when constructors were on the roof, they saw 146 leaks and heavy hail damage. Administrators said when the roof does get replaced, it will most likely be a three-month project. With that being said, the total cost of the roof after insurance will probably end up costing $3.5 million and the deductible is 2%, which ends up being $523,000. 

It was reported there have been issues with the heat and hot water in the emergency department and in radiology, which has been pushed to get fixed and was started on before the crucial winter weather came in. The emergency room freeze was taken care of but radiology is still being worked on.

Turning to the upcoming election, there five positions open for the May 3 election. The meeting then turned to the Election Services Contract which is briefly explained as the contract for Houston County and the election administrators.