Collingsworth Family Medicine is housed in a new 6,891 sq. ft. facility that opened in January 2010 as part of a multi-million dollar hospital expansion project. It has been equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and designed with the patient in mind. The clinic is staffed with two physicians and two physician assistants who are devoted to keeping the whole family healthy.

The hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. We continue to see patients through the lunch hour to better serve our community.

Each provider has a different schedule so for your convenience we suggest you call ahead for an appointment

Collingsworth Family Medicine
(806) 447-5311
1011 15th Street
Wellington, TX  79095

The emergency room is open 24/7/365 and staffed with highly-qualified providers and allied staff trained to deliver medical care at all levels. The hospital is designated as a Level IV Trauma Center by the state of ­­Texas.

The emergency room features state-of-the-art medical equipment designed to accommodate additional patients in the event of a disaster. This new facility was part of a multi-million dollar hospital expansion project that opening in January 2011.

At Collingsworth General Hospital, our nursing staff comprises the heart of our patient care programs. Our compassionate nurses are highly-trained and certified in Advanced Life Support, Pediatric Life Support, Neonatal Resuscitation and trauma.

Collingsworth General offers a full service, modern laboratory that supports the physicians by providing analytical data to assist in the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of diseases and illnesses for our community as well as the surrounding communities.

The Collingsworth General Hospital Radiology department uses many imaging technologies. 

CAT Scan (CT)
CAT scans use radiation going in a circle around a person. After the information is gathered from the x-rays a computer then puts the image together for viewing. The physics of this technology allows the physician to see the body in slices. This kind of exam takes more radiation but the images allow a better look at things that can not be seen on regular diagnostic x-rays. CAT scans usually cost more because of the expensive technology, expertise of the operator, and work involved in doing a procedure. The computer allows the operator to manipulate the data in multiple ways so that different body parts can be looked at better by the physician. Many times a patient will already have finished and left before the procedure is done.

Diagnostic (X-rays)
Routine diagnostic exams use radiation aimed at a person with a film, or digital plate, behind them. The image is made by any x-rays making it all the way through the body without hitting anything. The resulting image is stored on film or computer so it can be reviewed by the physician.

Ultrasound (Sonogram)
Ultrasound uses sonic waves on a person like a submarine uses sonar in the ocean. The sonic waves go through the body and bounce back to the hand probe which can then create an image with that information. This technology is the safest to use since there is no radiation. Soft tissues are primarily looked at since the sonic signal travels well in tissues with the most water molecules. Contrast agents and exam preparation are techniques that help enhance the images so that a more sure diagnosis can be obtained.

Contrast
Barium is used to better look at the digestive tract on X-rays and CAT Scans by coating the walls of the stomach and intestine. Iodine based solutions (dye) are mostly used through an IV line or directly into a vein to help blood vessels show up on X-rays and CAT Scans. It is also good for looking at the urinary tract since the contrast leaves the blood through the kidneys.

Exam Preparation (When instructed by the Technologist)
NPO (Nothing By Mouth) means not to eat or drink for however long the technologist says. An Enema and Ducolax tablets are used to clean out the large intestine. Drinking water (6-8 tall glasses), without urinating, 1 hour before the exam will fill the bladder. Lab Test (BUN or Creatinine) are done to make sure the kidneys are working well so that the IV contrast can exit the body. Glucophage (Metformin) is a medication that you need to tell the technologist if taking. It will need to be stopped before the exam and monitored before resuming. The people working in the Radiology department are the Technologists and Radiologists.

Technologists
Technologists are workers who are commonly called X-ray Technicians. They are the ones that are seen in every exam making sure quality images are taken and achieved. The Technologists also provides radiation protection when needed and is a primary source of information for Radiology.

Radiologists
Radiologists are doctors who specialize in Radiology. They will perform the more complicated exams with the technologists helping. The Radiologist is the doctor who reads all Radiology exams and makes a report to the doctor who ordered it. They will bill for this service separate from the hospital.

Collingsworth General Hospital Physical Therapy department serves inpatients, swing bed and outpatients referred for muscular, neurological, orthopedic, cardiopulmonary or wound care conditions.

Nutrition counseling services are often used to help a patient manage a new or existing illness through proper nutrition and portion education. This services is available at an inpatient and outpatient level.

Collingsworth General Hospital's swing bed program provides post-hospitalization care for patients who require skilled care, restorative nursing care and/or rehabilitative services, such as: education and training to care for a new condition/problem, IV therapy, physical therapy and/or palliative care (as an alternative to Hospice). In order to qualify for the program, the patient must not be physically ready to go home, but no longer meets acute criteria for hospitalization, as set forth by Medicare. To determine eligibility for the Swing Bed Program, the patient and his or her records will be evaluated by the Swing Bed Coordinator as well as his or her medical practitioner.

Coumadin is an oral anticoagulant, or blood thinner that is currently used in cardiology and other fields of medicine to prevent or treat blood clots and related conditions.  Some of these conditions include stroke, atrial fibrillation, blood clots in arteries or veins, pulmonary embolism, severe heart failure, extensive heart attacks, heart valve replacement and sometimes following stent placement in a blood vessel.

The use of Coumadin must be monitored closely to ensure correct dosage and to minimize the risk of bleeding due to excessive blood thinning.  To help patients minimize complications from Coumadin use, Collingsworth General Hospital has created a Coumadin Clinic. Patients participating in our Coumadin Clinic benefit from the frequent attention of nurses, who review flow chars and provide timely follow-up of lab testing, as well as monthly visit with one of our physicians.

Chronic pain can have many initial causes, but one constant is that it greatly affects a person's quality of life. This affects a patient's ability to earn a living, be happy, and adequately take care of themselves, and those they love. We strive to ensure that our patients are properly diagnosed, and treated for their chronic pain. We are not pain specialists, but we offer pain management in a Holistic approach, ensuring that several modalities of pain management are addressed. We provide referrals to subspecialists when appropriate, and work closely with physical therapy, dietary, and other ancillary services to improve quality of life. We also provide treatments such as trigger point, and joint injections when appropriate. We see our patients every one to three months to ensure they are able to maintain a good quality of life.

Collingsworth General is committed to providing quality healthcare and services to all patients. However, in order for us to do this, we must keep our hospital financially sound. We accept a wide variety of payment methods, including private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and self-payment. As a courtesy to patients and their families, our business office will submit hospital claims to their insurance company, Medicare or Medicaid on behalf of the patient. To speed up the claims process, it is important that complete and accurate information be given when the patient is admitted to or registered at our hospital.

Collingsworth General Hospital HIPAA Policy

THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.

We are committed to protecting the confidentiality of your medical information within the hospital and how we may disclose it to others outside the hospital. You will also be given a copy of your rights concerning your own health information. Please review it and carefully let us know if you have any questions.

How will we use and disclose your medical information?

Treatment:  We may use your medical information to provide you with medical services and supplies. We may also disclose your medical information to others that need that information to treat you, such as doctors, physician assistants, nurses, medical and nursing students, technicians, therapists, emergency service and medical transportation providers, medical equipment providers and others involved in your care.

We also may use and disclose your medical information to contact you to remind you of an upcoming appointment, to obtain registration information, to inform you about possible treatment options or alternatives or to tell you about health related services available to you.

Patient Directory:  In order to assist family members and other visitors in locating you while you are in the hospital, the hospital maintains a patient directory. This directory includes your name, age, gender, room number, type of service, name of physician and your religious affiliation (if any). We will disclose this information to someone who asks for you by name, although we will disclose your religious affiliation only to clergy members.  If you do not want to be included in the hospital's patient directory, please inform hospital personnel.

Family Members and Others Involved in Your Care:  We may disclose your medical information to a family member or friend who is involved in your medical care, or to someone who helps pay for your care. We also may disclose your medical information to disaster relief organizations to help locate a family member or friend in a disaster. If you do not want the hospital to disclose your medical information to family members or others who will visit you, please inform hospital personnel.

Payment:  We may use and disclose your medical information to get paid for the medical services and supplies we provide to you.

Hospital Operations:  We may use and disclose your medical information if it is necessary to improve the quality of care we provide to patients or to run the hospital. We may use your medical information to conduct quality improvement activities, to obtain audit, accounting or legal services or to conduct business management and planning. Many of our patients like to make contributions to the hospital. The hospital or its foundation may contact you in the future to raise money for the hospital. If you do not want the hospital or its foundation to contact you for fund raising, please inform hospital personnel.

Research:  We may use or disclose your medical information for research projects, such as studying the effectiveness of a treatment you received. These research projects must go through a special process that protects the confidentiality of your medical information.

Public Health:  We also may report certain medical information for public health purposes such as reporting births, deaths and communicable diseases to the State of Texas. We may also need to report patient problems to the FDA or may notify patients of recalls of products they are using.

Law Requirements/Public Safety:  The federal, state or local law enforcement agencies sometimes require us to disclose patients' medical information for public safety purposes in limited circumstances, providing medical information to law enforcement officials in response to a search warrant or a grand jury subpoena, to assist law enforcement officials in identifying or locating a person, to prosecute a crime of violence, to report deaths that may have resulted from criminal conduct, and to report criminal conduct at the hospital. We are required to report child abuse or neglect and must provide certain information to law enforcement officials in domestic violence cases. We are required to give information to the Texas Workers' Compensation Program for work-related injuries. We also may disclose your medical information to law enforcement officials and others to prevent a serious threat to health or safety.

Health Oversight Activities:  We may disclose medical information to a government agency that oversees the hospital or its personnel, such as the Texas Department of Health Services, the federal agencies that oversee Medicare, the Board of Medical Examiners and the Board of Nursing.

Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Director:  We may disclose medical information concerning deceased patients to coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors to assist them in carrying out their duties.

Organ and Tissue Donation:  We may disclose medical information to organizations that handle organ, eye or tissue donation or transplantation.

Military, Veterans, National Security and Other Government Purposes:  If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release your medical information as required by military command authorities or to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The hospital may also disclose medical information to federal officials for intelligence and national security purposes, for Presidential Protective Services, or to the Department of State for its security clearances.

Judicial Proceedings:  The hospital may disclose medical information in a lawsuit if the hospital is ordered to do so by a court if the hospital receives a subpoena or a search warrant. You will receive advance notice about this disclosure in most situations so that you will have a chance to object to sharing your medical information.

Information with Additional Protection:  Certain types of medical information have additional protection under state or federal law. For instance, medical information about communicable and HIV/AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse treatment and court ordered mental evaluation is treated differently than other types of information, the hospital is required to get your permission before disclosing that information to others in most circumstances.

Other Uses and Disclosures:  If the hospital wishes to make use or disclosure of your medical information for a purpose that is not discussed in this Notice, the hospital will seek your permission. If you give your permission to the hospital, you may take back that permission any time, unless we have already relied on your permission to use or disclose the information.

Right to Request Your Medical Information:  You have the right to look at your own medical information and to get a copy of that information. (The law requires us to keep the original record.) This includes your medical record, your billing records, and other records we use to make decisions about your care. To request your medical information, submit a written request to: Collingsworth General Hospital, Health Information Management, P.O. Box 1112 Wellington, Texas 79095. 

If you request a copy of your information, we will charge you for costs to copy the information. We will tell you in advance what this copying will cost. You can look at your record at no cost.

Right to Request Amendment of Medical Information You Believe Is Erroneous or Incomplete:  If you examine your medical information and believe that some of the information is wrong or incomplete, you may ask us to amend your record. To make a request to amend your medical information, submit a written request to: Collingsworth General Hospital, Health Information Management, P.O. Box 1112 Wellington, Texas 79095.

Right to Get a List of Certain Disclosures of Your Medical Information:  You have the right to request a list of many of the disclosures we make of your medical information. If you would like to receive such a list, submit a written request to: Collingsworth General Hospital, Health Information Management, P.O. Box 1112 Wellington, Texas 79095.

Right to Request Restrictions on How the Hospital Will use or Disclose Your Medical Information for Treatment, Payment or Health Care Operations:  You have the right to request us NOT to make uses or disclosures of your medical information to treat you, to seek payment for care, or to operate the hospital. We are not required to agree to your request, but if we do not agree, we will comply with that agreement. If you want to request a restriction, submit your detailed request in writing to Collingsworth General Hospital, Health Information Management, P.O. Box 1112 Wellington, Texas 79095.

Right to request confidential Communications:  You have the right to request us to communicate with you in a way that you feel is more confidential. For example, you can ask us not to call your home, but to communicate only by mail. To do this, submit your request in writing to: Collingsworth General Hospital, Health Information Management, P.O. Box 1112 Wellington, Texas 79095.

Right to a Paper Copy:  You may download a paper copy of the notice from our website, athttp://www.collingsworthgeneral.net/docs/HIPPA.pdf or you may obtain a paper copy of the notice at: Collingsworth General Hospital, Health Information Management, P.O. Box 1112 Wellington, Texas 79095.

Changes To This Notice:  From time to time, we may change our practices concerning how we use or disclose patient medical information or how we will implement patient rights concerning their information. We reserve the right to change this notice and to make the provisions in our new notice effective for all medical information we maintain. If we change these practices, we will publish a revised Notice of Privacy Practices. You can get a copy of our current notice of Privacy Practices at any time from hospital personnel.

Which Health Care Providers Are Covered By This Notice?  This Notice of Privacy Practices applies to the hospital and its personnel, volunteers, students and trainees. The notice also applies to other health care providers that come to the hospital to care for patients, such as physicians, physicians assistants, therapists and other health care providers that are not employed by the hospital, emergency service providers, medical transportation companies and medical equipment and supplies that come to the hospital. These health care providers will follow this notice for information they receive about you from the hospital. These other health care providers may follow different practices at their own office or facilities.

Do You Have Concerns or Complaints?  Please tell us about any problems or concerns you have with your privacy rights or how the hospital uses or discloses your medical information. If you have a concern please contact: Quality Coordinator at (806) 447-2521. 

If for some reason the hospital cannot resolve your concern, you may also file a complaint with the federal government. To file a complaint against the hospital please contact: Regional Manager, CMS Region IX, 50 United Nations Plaza, Rm. 322, San Fransisco, CA 94102. We will not penalize you or retaliate against you in any way for filing a complaint with the federal government.

Do you have questions?  The hospital is required by law to give you this notice and to follow terms of the notice that is currently in effect. If you have questions about, or have further questions about how the hospital may use and disclose your medical information, please contact: Quality Coordinator at (806) 447-2521.