JACKSON MEDICAL CENTER HAS DOCTOR'S TOUCH

Instead of "physician, heal thyself," Dr. Charles Pewitt seems to have received a slightly different revelation. "Physician, build, thyself," might be more appropriate.

Pewitt held the ribbon-cutting for Jackson Medical Center Friday, a huge complex on US 72, which he designed himself. The facility opened in February, but the finishing touches are still being applied to the building -- just inside the Jackson city limits. Pewitt is also recruiting two other family physicians for the building.

The state-of-the-art facility has 12 exam rooms -- divided into sections for each to the three doctors, each with a private changing area for the patient. The changing area even has a full-length mirror.

One item Pewitt takes the most pride in is his surgical room. A fully mechanical table, with overhead surgical lights in eh room allow him to do a number off procedures, such as EKG's and various worker's compensation exams.

"No doctor's office around has overhead surgical lights," Pewitt said. "We got the most modern equipment we could get."

That includes a complete X-ray set-up, with a power table that goes all the way to the floor.

The convenience of elderly, injured or handicapped patients was paramount in Pewitt's design. Aside form the mechanical examination and X-ray tables, the facility has a covered drop-off area in front and ADA restrooms just inside the front entrance. ADA restrooms are also near the examination rooms, for needed tests.

Even the scales are designed for those who might have trouble stepping up, onto a contemporary scale. Pewitt's scale is flush with the floor.

A sophisticated call-light system allows the staff to locate each doctor immediately and for doctors and staff to know which patients need attention. A separate set of lights is outside each room, allowing doctors and staff to know which patients are ready to see a doctor.

"It helps with patient flow considerably," Pewitt said.

Other innovations include two separate waiting rooms. One is a "sick waiting room" and the other a "well waiting room."

"When you're at a doctor's office, but you're not really sick -- say, just in for a physical, you don't want to be sitting by someone with the flu," Pewitt said. "This way we can keep the sick and the healthy separated."

Both sick and well waiting rooms have a children's lounge, with 24-hour-a-day Disney Channel broadcasts piped in.

"The kids really enjoy having a place to go, that's their own space," he said.

Currently Pewitt is waiting for his own furniture to arrive, as well as a decorative fountain which will go in between the two waiting rooms.

Not everyone entering the building needs or deserves the same level of TLC. The facility is already doing a good business in treating and examining county prisoners. Pewitt has the back door set up for security purposes. Prisoners and delivery people go to the back door. There they speak to a staff member in the front of the building, through an audio/video device. If appropriate, the staff opens the electromagnetically-locked back door.

"It's a secure system," Pewitt said. "No one's getting in or out that door without us opening it."

The facility also has a staff break room which doubles as a meeting area and a spot for pharmicudical representatives and other business callers to show their wares, keeping that type of activity "out of the front of the building," where the patients are waiting.

Jackson Medical Center is certainly not landlocked. An 8,000 square foot basement is waiting to be finished for future use. Pewitt also owns another 10 acres and has thoughts of a doctor's park some day.

"We could have our won little doctor's park very easily," he said. "The sewer pump stations are already in. We've got the area to do so."

For now Pewitt is concentrating on getting the finishing touches done on the building and on recruiting two fellow physicians.

"I designed this for growth," he said.