St. John Medical Center Patient Tower Renovation Nears Completion
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It was back in 1968 when St. John Medical Center made headline news after opening a sparkling new, eight-story patient tower on its Longview campus. In 2010, get ready for some more big news.
The long-standing hospital currently is in the final stages of a four-year, $46 million patient tower renovation, and the project is scheduled for completion in February.
“St. John actually first opened in 1924 and has undergone a few expansions and renovations over the years, but it was high time to get more technology and comfort into the patient tower,” says Gary Hall, regional vice president of facility services for St. John Medical Center. “As a result, we concentrated on increasing the size of the patient rooms, plus have added several more upgrades.”
Those upgrades include doubling the size of the emergency department, refurbishing an 18-bed critical care unit, and revamping a behavioral health floor.
“We have also completed a brand new obstetrics and labor delivery unit with private patient rooms,” Hall says. “Each room is a 21st-century LDRP model, which means that a woman experiences labor, delivery, recovery and post-partum care all in the same room.”
The tower also will be equipped with three individual floors of medical surgical units, with the seventh floor surgical unit currently being overhauled. Construction work on the seventh floor is the final phase of the four-year project.
Hall says that once the entire renovation is completed, the hospital will start thinking about adding another tower to the St. John campus.
“Our overall goal is to have enough square footage to offer every patient their own private room, but adding another tower is something that will occur quite a ways down the line,” Hall says. “We are just excited right now about the February 2010 completion date for this current project.”
Part of the renovation includes installing a high-efficiency heating and cooling unit, as well as an all-new electrical system. Those specific upgrades have allowed St. John to qualify for a national Energy Star certification in environmental excellence – the only building that has achieved that status to date in Cowlitz County.
St. John Medical Center primarily serves the communities of Longview and Kelso, but also as far north as Chehalis, and south to Woodland and into Oregon to cities such as Rainier and Clatskanie.
“We serve hundreds of square miles throughout our surrounding region, with much of that area being rural,” Hall says. “The hospital is classified as a Level III trauma center and is adding more specialties all the time. St. John is advanced in technology, equipment and facilities, and we can compete with any other hospital in the Pacific Northwest in providing top-notch patient care.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
