Cherry Hospital to be occupied this month
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 6, 2016 1:45 AM
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services officials say they are anticipating that the state will take beneficial occupancy of the new $93 million Cherry Hospital this month.
The final occupancy should follow in April -- more than three years past its original projected date. Once the state accepts possession, an opening is anticipated about 90 days later.
According to the state Construction Office, beneficial occupancy can be requested "by the owner and is occupancy or partial occupancy of the building after all life safety items have been completed as determined by the State Construction Office. Life safety items include, but are not limited to fire alarms, sprinkler, egress and exit lighting, fire-rated walls, egress paths and security."
The request has to be approved by the state Construction Office and the contractor.
Construction on the three-story, 410,000-square-foot psychiatric facility, located next to the State Employees Credit Union on West Ash Street, began in 2010 and was to have been completed in 2012.
Bomb threats halted construction on several occasions, but the main problem that contributed to the more-than-three-year delay was an issue with the original electrical subcontractor.
The delay did not add to the project cost, state officials said.
The new hospital includes a 316-bed facility housing residential patient care units, therapy and medical facilities and administrative offices.
In November, state officials said they expected the state to take over the hospital by the end of the 2015, but in December they pushed it out to January.
But at the same time, they said the dates were contingent on no unexpected issues being identified during the final inspections of the facility.
Once accepted by the state the hospital staff will implement a detailed 12-week plan to train and educate 1,000 employees to move from a building that was designed in the 1950s to a new, modern psychiatric hospital.
Another challenge will be to open the new hospital while continuing to operate the existing one until the transfer can be completed.
Patients will not be moved until after the 90-day transition period.
During those 90 days, hospital staff will be training in the new facility and ensuring everything is in order for a smooth transfer of patients by summer.
The current hospital has 380,000 square feet spread across four different buildings. That means patients routinely have to be taken from building to building, regardless of the weather, to receive certain services such as dental care, physical therapy or an X-ray.
Cherry Hospital currently has slightly less than 1,000 employees. That number will increase to approximately 1,400 when the new facility opens.
The addition of 373 employees will have a "significant" economic impact on Goldsboro and Wayne County, state officials said.