By Luz Lazo, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Jul. 24–PETERSBURG — After two years of construction, the new Southside Regional Medical Center hospital building — a $125 million project on the southeast edge of the city — is ready to open Sunday.
That’s when an entire operation in the planning for about a year will take place: About 200 patients will be transported every 90 seconds from the hospital on South Adams Street to the new facility on Medical Park Boulevard off South Crater Road.
If all goes well — no inclement weather or issues with roads, for instance — all patients will be at the new building by 10 a.m. Sunday, hospital Chief Executive Officer David J. Fikse said.
Hospital staff have been working long hours in the past two weeks to get the new building ready for the move. Contractors have moved equipment and medical records, and employees have been testing new equipment while getting acquainted with the five-story, 420,000-square-foot building.
“The biggest thing that we have done is spending time in planning,” Fikse said.
The facility is expected to be an asset to the entire region, he said. “This is part of the new beginning in the Tri-Cities. It’s kind of a fresh start.”
Surrounding localities depend heavily on Southside Regional’s services, and the old building, which opened in 1953, was showing some deterioration and was too small for a community that is growing, Prince George County Supervisor Jerry J. Skalsky said.
The South Crater Road corridor already is experiencing a surge of development as a result of the hospital. Several projects are under way including construction of a medical building, City Manager B. David Canada said.
“The facility will be an economic drive,” Canada said, noting that the city has several proposals for retail shops, apartment buildings, and other commercial development in the same general area.
While area leaders praise the hospital’s economic potential, hospital officials also point out the new technologies that will mean better services to the community.
A new beeper system will alert relatives when their loved one comes out of surgery, when the doctor needs to talk to them, and when it is time to be discharged, said Terry Tysinger, director of marketing and public relations.
Waiting for a patient will be less stressful, Tysinger said. “This system gives the patients and their families a little bit of peace of mind.”
But the beeper is just one of several technologies in the new building. Rooms will have flat-screen television sets; doctors will have access to a computer program that will allow them to access images and reports immediately; and hospital staff will be able to use an automatic tube system to deliver lab samples and prescription drugs quickly.
The new hospital has 300 beds; an expanded emergency department with 32 beds, three nursing stations, two trauma rooms and two cardiac-care rooms; and an expanded neonatal intensive-care unit, hospital officials said.
These technologies will make patients’ stays more comfortable and will help hospital staff provide more efficient and immediate service, Tysinger said.
Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or [email protected].
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