MT. VERNON - Work on the new Good Samaritan Regional Health Center is 70 percent complete.
More than $123 million has been expended on the $237 million project, said Victoria Woodrow, Good Samaritan director of marketing and public relations.
"They're doing a lot of finishing work on the interior and some exterior work as well," Woodrow said. "We’ve had some pretty good weather," she said, adding that the project is on schedule.
The new hospital campus on Veterans Memorial Drive near the Interstate 57/64 overpass is expected to be completed in October and be open Jan. 20, 2013.
Between October and January, Woodrow said, staff will be trained at the new facility, procedures will be tested and the new facility will be inspected.
"We're planning community tours that will take place the first week of January, and we'll invite the community to come and tour the new facility," she said. "It's going to be drastically different. There are all private patient rooms. It's a lot better facility, and our ability to provide health care will be much better."
Woodrow said staff are very excited about the move to the new hospital.
"We've had the opportunity to take bus tours and in the last month, tours where we can go and look at the new" she said. "The staff have welcomed the change with open arms, with all of the technological advancements, the private rooms and the new procedure center, which is an industry-leader concept."
She said the new hospital will have three entrances, one for emergency, one for visitors and one for patient entrances.
"There won't be a lot of having to way-find a certain department," she said. "People will walk them to the different areas. It's going to be a patient experience that's going to be just wonderful."
There will be an attached medical plaza, a 141,000 square foot center where surgery, administration, breast imaging, cardiac and pulmonary rehab centers, among other departments, will be housed, Woodrow said.
She said not only is the new hospital going to be offering new therapies, including animal therapy, the hospital has worked closely with a commissioned artist and Cedarhurst Center for the arts.
"The aesthetics will really promote healing," Woodrow said. - http://goo.gl/Pak7d
