Lake Living at the Ozarks
Making Health a Habit
Visitors and residents need not put plans for health care on hold while at the Lake of the Ozarks — top-quality facilities are there to meet everyone’s needs.

Wondering what kind of health care you can expect when you visit or move to the Lake of the Ozarks? Not to worry. The local health scene is state-of-the-art and patient-centered, creating a health care environment you can trust. “We want to help people maintain their quality of life and feel comfortable in their decision to move to the area,” says Laura Gadja, director of public relations for Lake Regional Health System and Lake Regional Medical Center Foundation. “We make it possible to retire [to the Lake] and have excellent care right in your backyard.”

Comprehensive Quality Care

When Lake Regional Health System first opened in 1978 in Osage Beach, however, controversy rose over whether the medical facility would survive at the Lake of the Ozarks. Could a summer hot spot support a hospital? Unsure, the developers constructed the building in the shape of a rectangle, ready to turn the facility into a nursing home if the hospital didn’t succeed. Their back-up plan clearly became unnecessary as more and more weekenders, second homeowners and full-time residents became loyal to the area. This year, Lake Regional celebrates its 30-year anniversary.

LRHS is a comprehensive health care provider, providing 116 patient beds and employing a staff of 1,110. Emphasizing quality outcomes and service satisfaction, the health system offers comprehensive cardiac, orthopedic, oncology, obstetrics, gynecology, surgical, emergency care, critical care, rehabilitation and ophthalmology programs supported by nursing care units and technologically current diagnostics.

According to Laura, the LRHS emergency room receives 35,000 visits a year. “It’s as busy as an emergency room in St. Louis, Kansas City or Columbia,” she says, citing boating accidents and “catches of the day” (fish hook incidents) as common occurrences. LRHS achieved designation as a level III trauma center by the state of Missouri in 1989. To keep such a designation, LRHS maintains an operating room crew on call 24/7 and available within 30 minutes, staffs a trauma medical director, has a trauma surgeon available within 20 minutes and provides continuing trauma care education for physicians, surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists.

LRHS also provides complete cardiac care with a cardiac specialist on call 24 hours a day. “Time is of the essence,” Laura says, commenting on the hospital’s expedient ability to conduct open-heart surgery and put a cardiac stent in quickly.

In 2005, LRHS completed a new patient tower. The building houses an ER department on the first floor, and patients enjoy private rooms on the second floor. A third floor remains open for room to grow.

Cutting-Edge Imaging Center

Looking to improve services to outpatients and streamline emergency room care as well as inpatient care, LRHS partnered with four board-certified radiologists to form the Lake Regional Imaging Center, a $10-million, state-of-the-art outpatient imaging facility, in January 2006. It’s designed to handle the majority of outpatient imaging, freeing up the hospital’s diagnostic imaging department for emergency and inpatient care.

Without an outside imaging center, emergencies and inpatients often bump outpatient appointments and result in delays, according to Dr. Michael Vierra, Lake Regional Imaging Center medical director and LRHS medical director of the radiology department, The imaging center, located on the hospital campus, avoids this problem and benefits patients by offering same-day appointments, convenient parking and a streamlined registration process. It features 64-slice computed tomography (CT), cardiac CT, open and hybrid high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), mobile positron emission topography and computed tomography (PET/CT), ultrasound and digital X-ray. According to Michael, the facility’s open MRI was the first of its kind in Missouri in 2007. “Our equipment is as good as or better than what you find in Kansas City or St. Louis,” Michael says.

One of the facility’s prized possessions is its cardiac CT, a piece of technology Michael says most health centers don’t have yet, but he predicts will explode in popularity during the next few years. The noninvasive equipment provides the same look at a patient’s heart that a cardiac cath test does, but it does so without the insertion of a catheter.

For more information on Lake Regional Health Center and Lake Regional Imaging Center, visit www.lakeregional.com.

 

Out of Network, Still in Luck

In December 2007, Dr. Randall Barnes opened the Barnes Medical Clinic in Lake Ozark. The clinic is a walk-in, cash-only center, an easy fix for visitors who are out of their network and cannot wait to see their primary care provider at home. The clinic does file Medicare paperwork, as required by law, but does not file with any insurance providers, streamlining the workload within the clinic to focus strictly on patient care.

Randall, a board-certified family practice physician with more than 25 years of experience, was employed as a physician with St. Mary’s immediately before opening his own clinic. He says his new practice keeps it simple by charging only a $50 office visit fee. According to him, more and more clinics are eliminating insurance filing from their repertoire, part of a growing health care trend.

Barnes Medical Clinic takes appointments and sees local clientele, in addition to treating walk-in traffic. Services run the gamut of family practice care, including diabetes management, general pediatric care, camp and sports physicals, blood pressure control, vaccinations and treatment for acute ailments, such as ear infections, strep throat, sunburn rashes and, of course, fish hook removal. For a complete list of services, visit www.barnesmedicalclinic.com.

 

Specialty Services

Lake enthusiasts also enjoy the availability of several specialty services to complement the more traditional health care offerings. For example, the Lime in the Coconut Specialty Compounding Pharmacy serves a niche of patients who want safe alternatives to synthetic medicines. Registered pharmacist Sharon Hagan opened the pharmacy in March 2007, following her passion for compounding. The specialty facility receives referrals from area doctors and specializes in natural hormone replacements for women, but it also provides safe, alternative and natural compounds for a variety of uses, including weight loss, veterinary compounding for stress-free administration of pet meds and even the creation of lollipops, gummi bears and popsicles that effectively hide medication for children who refuse to take their medicine.

Using on-site saliva testing, the pharmacy creates individualized, natural compounds. Sharon says the saliva testing is key to creating compounds that work, particularly for women with hormonal challenges because of menopause. “Natural compounds create bio-identical hormones,” she says. “They fit the receptors in the body exactly.” Such an exact fit eliminates adverse side effects that are often found when using synthetic hormones.

For more information, visit www.limeinthecoconutrx.com.