Mon General Hospital Plans $5.9 Million Expansion (Martinsburg: house, live, cost of)

[CTMountaineer]

http://ee.dominionpost.com/Olive/ODE...&view=ZW50aXR5

[Katie1]

Nice to see they are putting Profit Back into Patient Care! City Hospital here in Martinsburg just got an expansion!

[MCoupe]

Um. . . OK. Nice to hear. But. . . $5.9 million is basically just new paint and carpet. I work as Assistant Chief Engineer at. . . A WV hospital. And we have several projects EACH costing this much in progress. Yes, yes, we can re-do your heating/AC in your house in two days for $5,000. A bit more for new ducts, but just a bit. But in a major building it's six million. JUST for the heating and AC.

They're building a NEW hospital in [elevator music] and the project cost is about TEN BILLION dollars. Perspective, folks.

[CTMountaineer]

You're right, it's not a major project. It is narrowly focused on the birth process, but apparently it will provide for significant improvements there. They expect it to facilitate the a continuation of the robust growth the hospital has experienced in recent years.

"the project will expand the Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum (LDRP) concept to all 16 of its licensed obstetric beds, relocate the nursing station to improve the unit’s security and add a C-section delivery room within the Birth Center. Under the LDRP concept, a woman having a routine labor and delivery remains in the same room throughout her stay, along with her newborn.

“The mothers and our nursing staff prefer the LDRP concept,” said Amy Bridge, registered nurse and director of the Birth Center.
Darryl Duncan, Mon General’s president and chief executive officer, said the proposed renovation and expansion project will address the increase in newborn deliveries the hospital has experienced in recent years.

“Over the last six years, we have experienced 78 percent growth in newborn deliveries at Mon General, and we are expecting that to increase an additional 45 percent in the next three years,” he said. Mon General had 1,006 deliveries in 2011.

Mon General uses Press Ganey, an independent company that works with 10,000 health care providers and more than 50 percent of all hospitals in the United States, to measure patient satisfaction. According to the most recent results, Mon General is at the 97th percentile nationally for patient satisfaction.

“The Birth Center is a comfortable place, the staff is well trained and it provides for a memorable family experience,” said Dr. William Hamilton, Mon General’s section chief for OB/GYN services. “This new project will position us to accommodate our continued growth and meet the expectations of our patients well into the future.”
“The cost of the project is $5,950,000. It will be funded internally and will not result in any increased charges to the patient,” Duncan said."