WOODSTOCK, VA (April 27, 2015) – Valley Health broke ground on a new emergency room and medical office building, slated to be completed in May 2016. Tuesday’s ceremony kicked off the third of the hospital’s notable additions in recent years, said Valley Health CEO Mark Merrill.
U.S. Congressman Bob Goodlatte, left, stands beside Mary Beth Price, chair of the Shenandoah Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees, following groundbreaking.
In 2002, Valley Health partnered with the hospital and in 2005 began the building of a surgical facility. Praising surgical staff for their exceptional work in the space available, Merrill said it’s time to build a larger facility to accommodate the community’s needs.
The hospital has already come a long way since its earlier years in 1960s and ’70s, when Dr. W. John Zehner recalled it was little more than a single room.
When Shrum joined the hospital in the late 1980s, emergency room staff would telephone attending doctors to drive over from their nearby family practices.
Long in coming, the new $17.5 million state-of-the-art facility will provide patients greater access to community care in one location and increase the hospital’s 12 semi-private curtained exam rooms to 17 private ones with walls and televisions, Zehner said.
Rooms will offer uniform equipment and supplies, he said, and staff won’t have to whisper anymore to protect a patient’s privacy.
The additional space of the 45,851 square feet facility will provide room to grow in a space designed for the staff, said Dr. Jack Potter, medical director of Emergency Services for Valley Health System.
“It really will be as good as you will find in America,” he said. “And you won’t find a better ER anywhere.”
The general contractor is Howard Shockey & Sons. Physician practices planning to occupy the new building are Woodstock Internal Medicine, Eye Care Physicians and Surgeons, Mt. View Orthopedics/Woodstock, Woodstock Surgical Clinic, Shenandoah Medicine, Shenandoah Family Practice, Shenandoah Valley OB/GYN, Shenandoah Multi-Specialty Clinic and Shenandoah Urology.
A medical imaging suite will be accessible to the emergency department as well as to patients who need tests before and after physician appointments.
Anticipating the improved space for hospital care, Potter said he hasn’t been told yet what might become of the old emergency room.
Though turning to Zehner, he said, “I’d like to see a nice new cafeteria.”
Source: Josette Keelor, NV Daily