Hospital opening delayed again
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 12, 2016 1:46 PM
State officials continue to push back the timetable for the opening of the new $93 million Cherry Hospital.
The 316-bed facility is nearly four years past its original projected completion date.
Last 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 this past January.
But that timetable was contingent on no unexpected issues being identified during the final inspections of the facility, the officials said.
In March, Department of Health and Human Services officials said they anticipated that the state would take beneficial occupancy before the end of the month with final occupancy in April.
That has yet to happen, and this past week Department of Health and Human Services officials said final acceptance is expected sometime over the next "few months." They did not provide a reason for the latest delay or how long a few months is.
Once the state accepts possession, opening is anticipated about 90 days later.
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.
The main problem that contributed to the delay was an issue with the original electrical subcontractor.
That was further complicated by a series of bomb threats that halted construction on several occasions.
State officials have said the delay has not added to the project cost.
The new hospital will house residential patient care units, therapy and medical facilities and administrative offices.
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 the old building that was designed in the 1950s to a new, modern psychiatric hospital.
During that time, hospital staff will be training in the new facility. Patients will not be moved until after the 90-day transition period.
The existing hospital will remain in operation during the transition.
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.