Dave Quick stands outside of the new Mount Carmel expansion.

Mount Carmel Hospital takes Colville Chamber
of Commerce on tour of new construction

BY SOPHIA ALDOUS
S-E Staff Reporter

    Members of the Colville Chamber of Commerce, equipped with hard hats, toured Mount Carmel Hospital’s Renewal and Expansion project last Tues¬day. The hospital’s Safety and Engineering Manager, Dave Quick, led the group around wiring and pink packages of insulation while describing what the 70,000 square foot, two level structure would look like.
    “The new construction will provide for a 25-bed inpatient facility that will include 21 private Acute Care rooms, four private Critical Care rooms, and three Labor and Delivery rooms,” explained Quick. “All around, it will just be a much more convenient facility.”
    Ground was broken for the project in spring of 2007. As of last Tuesday, 70-percent of the brick work was finished, with the dry walling close be¬hind.
    According to Quick and Mount Carmel Hospital Chief Executive Bob Campbell, the deadline for completion is early summer 2009.
     “We‘re ahead of schedule, actually,” said Quick. “Things have been going along quite smoothly.”
    According to Campbell, Mount Carmel annually re¬ceives about 1,300 inpatient admissions, 500 additional patients who stay for a day or less, about 200 to 250 births a year, and 35,000 that come for outpatient procedures.
    “That’s almost 40,000 peo¬ple that come through our doors annually,” said Camp¬bell. “That’s a lot of people who depend on the services of their local hospital. This new construction will allow for adequate space to take care of needs such as outpatient treatment and emergency services.”

More convenience, quicker health care
    
    The project remedies some significant problems in the current 55-year-old building such as electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning. In addition, the project will provide an increase in patient safety, comfort and privacy. Other issues the project will tackle are patient transport, efficiency of patient care, mandated regulatory issues and various changes to im¬prove physician and staff roles for patient care.
    During the tour, Quick ex¬plained that the new addition would enable outpatient serv¬ices to expand to include 13 post operative recovery rooms, two special procedure rooms and diagnostic imaging up¬grades with two ultrasound rooms and space that would be used for a future MRI ma¬chine. Space will also be re¬served for a chapel on the second floor, plus an area for lab expansion close to the ER. Two new conference rooms, a donor recognition area, roof¬top heli-pad and a gift shop will also be part of the build¬ing.
    “The ER will double in size to accommodate 10 bays and a decontamination room,” said Quick. “We will also have an onsite cafeteria, which will be a more convenient benefit be¬cause before we had to have patient meals transferred from the kitchens at Pinewood Ter¬race. With our new kitchen we’ll be able to provide pa¬tient, visitor and staff meals.”
    Campbell pointed out that the kitchen will be a 12-hour facility that will most likely provide cold sandwiches and drinks at night.
    “Incrementally, we’ll start moving our services into the new setting when it is fin¬ished,” said Campbell. “It’s not like we can just unplug everything and move it in one day. It will be a gradual tran¬sition.”
    The total cost of the project is $34,000,000.
    According to Campbell, the project is being paid for through debt funding and in¬ternal reserves. The Mount Carmel Hospital Foundation Board has elected to commit $1 million towards a share of the construction, which equals 3.4 percent of the total project cost.

Foundation nearing $1 million mark

    “Right now, we’re roughly at $863,000,” said MCHFB member David Fogle. “We ex¬pect to be at or over the $1 million mark by the end of August.”
    For both current and future needs of the hospital, Fogle said the Foundation Board will aim for a campaign goal of $2 million.
    “It is a large amount, but I don’t think it is unrealistic,” said Fogle. “We’ve had busi¬nesses and individuals donate from all over the Tri-County area. A lot of people want to see this project go the dis¬tance. It’s really very inspir¬ing.”
    According to Campbell, it is not anticipated that the cost of construction will increase the cost of patient care and it’s expected that there will be increased revenue generated by new and expanded services to help offset the expenses as¬sociated with the project.
    “I’ve had some people ask me why the hospital can’t cover the cost with the money it generates,” Campbell said. “In reality, technological re¬quirements and increasing costs of construction often overtake the ability to cover the costs through general op¬erations. I think the hospital and our regional board has done well in pooling together the savings to kick-start this project while not having to in¬crease patient costs for serv¬ices.”
    Campbell assured that resi¬dents of the Tri-County region do not pay taxes in support of the hospital.
    “That’s why the Foundation is going to the community for contributions,” explained Campbell. “A community with quality healthcare is one of the top three reasons people move to an area. I’ve been a member of many hospital ad¬ministrative boards over the years, and I am amazed by the participation this community gives to this hospital. People have just jumped right in and asked, “what can I do?” It’s something that makes you proud to live where we live.”





    Colville Chamber of Commerce members were given a guided tour of the site.