News

Washington Regional Medical Center Board mulls $43 million expansion

Washington Regional Medical Center board members soon will decide whether to approve a $43 million renovation and construction project to improve services for heart, stroke and trauma patients.  If approve, the project will also reduce wait times and increase training at the hospital.

Outgoing president and CEO, Bill Bradley, said the hospital needs the renovation and expansion to meet a growing demand and to stay on the cutting edge.  The project will add 23,850 SF of construction which constitutes 52% of the overall project. 

The project, done in phases, would:

add space in the cathererization laboratory and operating rooms
add a special room, partly, for a robot for heart surgeries
add about 20 beds to critical care units and
improve the hospital's ability to become a certified comprehensive-care stroke facility

The project will probably be funded by:

Excess hospital revenues
$30 million in 30-year bonds
Other bonds to cover costs for equipment and furnishings

This expansion is on top of multimillion dollar improvements for other projects already completed or underway.

1) Build a billing an deducational facility for $5.5 million funded by a tax-exempt bond through Washington County

2) Finish a section of the Women and Infants Center that would add 19 beds for roughly $1.3 million.  This 5-story center opened last year and has 34 neonatal  intensive care beds, many of them in private rooms.

3) Recently finished 66,300 SF building across Appleby Road for urgent care, family practice and other specialty clinics.  The Center and the medical building were an investment of roughly $86 million.