The project will be spread over five-phases and the funding is a part of president Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Scotland County Hospital has received $9 million in loans from the USDA and $1 million in grants.
Phases I through IV of the project will add 18,926 square feet of new building and 13,468 square feet of renovated space at the hospital. Phase V will add 7,300 new square feet.
The conclusion of Phase I would see the addition of two new modern and energy efficient boilers, which will replace the existing old and failing hospital boiler system. A new emergency suite with triage exam and support space is also slated to be added. The project will include new front entrance for the facility, a new drive under canopy, new central reception, admitting and registration areas, new main lobby and waiting room as well as vending and public restrooms. New parking and circle drives with a closed, painted helipad and site utilities are also included in Phase I.
The second phase would provide a new out-patient and in-patient surgery center, along with a separate entrance and discharge exit. It would also include new operating room, endoscopy minor room, stage I and stage II recovery, dressing areas, new central sterile supply, support and storage. This area will be attached to the existing Women’s Center for operating room access to the existing C-section surgery suite. The new OR suite will be located in one unit.
Phase III would see the addition of new critical bed nursing unit of 20 beds to the new or renovated patient rooms. These rooms would feature handicapped toilets and showers. Two new patient rooms are set up for special care, two more for isolation and two rooms for meeting the needs of the obese patients.
The patients’ room size would be doubled but the hospital would continue to maintain its 25-bed status. The facility would include a new nursing station which would feature a medicine room, dictation area, nursing report room, lockers, administration areas and support, as well as a family waiting area with toilets, a consultation room and chapel.
The old nursing unit renovation, which is part of Phase IV will house I.V. and oncology therapy, pharmacy expansion, waiting and consultation rooms, physicians lounge, physician’s on-call area and conference and education space. The old surgery space would be renovated into a consolidated radiology imaging suite. The remaining old surgery holding area and imaging space would be utilized for a new outpatient service center with a waiting area and toilets, consultation rooms, non-invasive cardiology testing and two sleep labs. The old emergency department will be renovated into an addition to the purchasing department and support services.
Plans for the fifth phase include provision for a library within the hospital and that would expand into the Scotland County Public Library.
Construction is slated to begin this summer with a completion date of December 2011. The project will involve construction of the four separate phases simultaneously, involving relocating some of the existing services and adjustments to public traffic patterns and access to the hospital.
