Hospital update project kicks off
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 12, 2017 10:03 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Wayne UNC Health and T.A. Loving construction officials at Wayne Memorial Hospital break ground Tuesday afternoon on a $55 million expansion project that will add 13 new hybrid operating rooms and 52 recovery rooms to Wayne Memorial Hospital and is set for completion by June of 2019.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday afternoon at Wayne Memorial Hospital for a $48 million project to update and replace the operating rooms that were originally built in the 1970s.
Another $7 million will go to replace air handler units that are more than 40 years old.
Joe Gurley, Wayne County Commission vice chairman and former hospital board member, called the groundbreaking a "monumental event" for what will be a tremendous asset for the community.
Lives will be changed because of the new facility and its impact on the community, he said.
"With the transition that we have gone through in the past few months with the Wayne-UNC Health Care partnership and with the planned improvements that we see behind us today, I can say that the future rests solidly on a well-prepared organization," Gurley said. "I am very proud to have been a part of it and to continue to be a part of it."
T.A. Loving Co. will do the work in two phases.
"This is a large and technical project involving building 13 new operating rooms and 52 new prep/recovery rooms," said Sam Hunter, chairman and CEO of T.A. Loving Co. "We are working to keep a strong hospital here and this will certainly do that."
The new addition, which will cover about an acre, is scheduled for completion within 11 months.
The operating rooms will be large, averaging between 700 and 800 square feet, he said.
The renovation work and second phase may be even more difficult since it will be ongoing while surrounded by a fully operational hospital, Hunter said.
That area covers about 1.3 acres, he said.
"On a personal note, many of you know that I am a strong supporter of the hospital and an advocate for the hospital," he said. "Our company builds facilities for health care providers all over this state. So we can judge the quality of the facility. The facility that we are getting ready to build is a perfect example of our hospital answering to the demands of the changing health care market, and we are just fortunate that we have the facilities that we have here.
"I can also tell you another thing from our employees who have been patients here, and also from myself as recent as two weeks ago, there is really nothing like getting good, quality health care close to home and being in an environment where you recognize one of the providers working with you."
Wayne UNC Health President and CEO Janie Jaberg, who has 20 years of experience as an operating room nurse, called the project "awesome."
"I think it is great," she said. "You know why it is great? It is because it brings incredibly advanced care to our community -- a community that deserves it, that should have it. As you all know, those who know me, it's patients first. This behind me is what that is about."
The hospital already is providing great care, this project will add to that, she said.
"Today is about the future, and we are all excited," hospital board Chairman Jim Parker said. "Several years ago, maybe too many years ago, I heard that we were going to spend $20 million on an OR renovation. I will clean it up, basically, I turned to (board member) Jack (Best) and said, 'That's not happening.'
"I was absolutely a non-believer. (Hospital vice president) Shirley (Harkey) and some of the management team got the brilliant idea that board members needed to go visit the OR."
Board members divided into groups for the tour. Parker said his tour guide was a head operating room nurse from Florida who had seen many operating rooms.
Parker said he told her it seemed ridiculous to spent $20 million.
"She said, 'Jim if you imagine an OR built in 1970, it wasn't that different from 1930 or 1925,'" Parker said. "In the 1980s Microsoft came along and computers and technology and the world changed."
Any operating room built after 1990 is just world class, 21st century, and anything before that is 100 years old and dated, he said.
"It became very clear to me, why would anyone come to an outdated OR, and why would I want to be operated on in one?" Parker said. "So I am doing it for myself. I am doing it for 100,000 people, my friends in Wayne County, and I look forward this.
"I have just come to you say it's not a choice. It wasn't should we do it or not? If you don't do it, you will eventually give up on your hospital. This is our way of turning to the future."
The planning process started three years ago with active planning over the past two years, Parker said.
Planning was long, but worth it to iron out the kinks ahead of time, he said.
"It will be a world-class OR," Parker said. "It is bricks and mortar. It will be as good as any OR in any university teaching center and hopefully if you have that kind of facility to work in, you will have people of all vocations who will want to work there."