The Phase 6 expansion project for Central Peninsula Hospital, which provides upgrades to the obstetrics and gynecology department and state of the art medical treatment for cardiac and respiratory care, celebrated with a wing-opening, ribbon cutting on Wednesday.
Rick Davis, Chief Executive Officer for Central Peninsula Hospital explains the new wing includes a Cardiac Catheterization Lab: “This is Phase 6 of our expansion plans. This is the OB Cath Lab project which is a new obstetrical unit up on the second floor and a cardiac catheterization lab; as well as, several other departments on the first floor.”
According to Davis, the new construction includes complete relocation and modernization of OB Unit, which was located in oldest part of the hospital and had not been updated in decades. The new area is connected to existing Med/Surg bed floor for efficiency for staff and security and resolves infant security issues in existing location. With the addition of the new OB Unit, patients will have access to modern labor and delivery rooms and ultramodern equipment.
Davis: “So our obstetrical unit, our old one was actually the Dr. Issac and Dr. Gaede unit and that’s how old our ob area is right now. It’s going to be really nice for new expectant mothers to be able to be in a brand new state-of-the-art facility .”
Bruce Richards, Director of External Affairs & Public Relations explained that the new space includes outpatient labs and a new pharmacy and a new respiratory therapy location which is larger, more patient friendly, and centrally located in the hospital. Richards also explained that CPH patients will benefit from local availability of procedures including: Interventional Radiology and diagnostic and therapeutic treatments for some cardiac issues including stents, pacemakers, etc.
According to Richards, the entire project will be fully open in January; the pharmacy and outpatient departments are open now. Construction continues with contractors renovating the vacated pharmacy into three, new intensive care beds. Richards stated that the hospital has been completely full all of this week and has reached capacity many times over the last several months. These new beds will provide some relief on those days as will rooms in the new OB section if not occupied with patients for pre and post-partum stays. Additionally, next spring we will see: a revamping of the handicapped parking area directly in front of the cafeteria, the completed expansion of rear loading dock for delivery of materials and discarding of hospital waste/trash, expanded receiving and storage for hospital supplies (in-house warehouse).
Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce emphasized the importance of providing services locally: ” What we’ve done is we’ve added services as we’ve added these additions. One of the things that we’ve tried to do is to protect that market share. We are in competition with some of the larger facilities and really what we are trying to do is provide local services where families can come to a local service provider and heal here at home; where families at, what you’re accustomed to and they find that people heal better if they can have their services right at home.”
Photo courtesy of Merrill Sikorski
