By Angela Marshall
For the last five years, administrators have been developing and implementing a $75 million plan to update the hospital complex and its grounds. An additional $25 million to $30 million will be spent on the creation of a new skilled nursing facility and hospital remodeling.
We expect non-stop building here for the next five years, said Mercy President and CEO Vincent DiRubbio. By the time we are done, we'll have a hospital ready for the 21st century.
Already completed are a new Women's Imaging Center, a new expanded operating room department and an expansion of the triage and waiting room areas of the Emergency Department.
Now the hard work begins. DiRubbio said renovations of the Emergency Room itself will be phased in over the next nine months while treatment of patients continues.
DiRubbio called it a ticklish process but is confident the hospital staff will be able to provide comprehensive care despite the construction.
Beth Hammerman, director of community relations and planning, said the hospital has filed phase-in plans with the state, which are required to make sure patient care is not affected.
During the same nine months, the old operating rooms will be renovated to provide a new recovery room, a new sterile instruments processing area and five new endoscopy suites.
The existing endoscopy suites will be incorporated into the delivery area. When construction is complete, DiRubbio said the hospital will have eight state of the art delivery rooms and two C-Section operating suites.
The mother/baby unit renovations are designed to make the facility look more like a hotel room than a hospital.
A high-risk pregnancy treatment area is also planned.
Commitment to cancer treatment
Early this year construction will begin on the new Miracle Foundation Building. This two-story, 22,000 square feet building will house Mercy's Memorial Sloan-Kettering program as well as additional medical oncology programs.
A Gamma Knife, which provides large doses of radiation to one specific section of the body, will be installed in the main hospital this year and will eventually be moved to the Miracle Foundation Building. The Gamma Knife is also used for experimental treatments of disorders like Parkinson's disease.
The Miracle Foundation Building will also be home to a PET Scanner, used to locate tumors and their sources.
In the next three months, the installation of a second Linear Acellerator at the hospital will be completed. This machine allows for the treatment of cancer with lower doses of radiation.
That will allow us to treat three times as many patients as we had in 2001, DiRubbio said.
Administrators say the new building was designed to get away from the hospital look and feel.
Nursing facility coming
In early summer, construction will also begin on a skilled nursing facility. It is expected to take 21 months to complete and will not be used as a nursing facility right away.
When the building is completed, it will be used as a temporary hospital so that renovations of main building can be completed.
A new heating and air conditioning plant will be built to serve both the hospital and the nursing facility.
New parking, roadway
Renovations will also be performed to the Medical Center's campus. Additional parking lots will be created and the roadway will also be changed to get rid of lumps and bumps. It will also have a separate entrance and exit.
The president said the administration's commitment to completing the renovations in small pieces is key to the success of the project. And while it may mean several years of constructing, DiRubbio said it is worth it to make the hospital ready for the growing technology.
