While the actual excavation work began a month ago, the official celebration to kick off Laughlin Memorial Hospital’s latest multi-million dollar expansion was held Wednesday morning.
Grading work has begun on the hospital campus for a new, five-story, “tower-style” wing at the rear of the hospital where the employee parking area was formerly located.
The new addition, which is expected to cost $19.8 million, will house, among other services, Greeneville’s first cardiac catheterization laboratory and an outpatient diagnostic imaging center.
During a “groundbreaking” ceremony on Wednesday, Chuck Whitfield, president and CEO of Laughlin Hospital, welcomed several hospital officials and employees as well as local officials.
“I appreciate each of you taking the time to be with us today as we celebrate this special occasion,” Whitfield said.
“Typically, a groundbreaking is held a little earlier in a project, but I purposely waited a little while so that you would be able to better visualize exactly where this project fits into the overall hospital campus,” he said.
Whitfield spoke in front of the construction site on the hill outside the entrance to the Laughlin Center for Women’s Health.
A large portion of the parking area at the rear of the hospital will be filled by the 90,000 square foot addition, which is expected to take about 16 months to complete.
Diagnostic Imaging Center
The first floor of the new wing will house the hospital outpatient diagnostic imaging center.
“A registration area for same-day surgery and other outpatient services will also be located on this floor,” Whitfield said.
“This will enable same-day surgery patients to register and have all the necessary testing done prior to their day of surgery in one convenient location,” he explained.
The second floor of the new wing will house the cardiac catheterization lab and two new surgical suites, Whitfield said.
“This will bring our total number of operating rooms to six,” he said.
The third, fourth and fifth floors of the new wing will be reserved as “shelf space for future growth,” Whitfield said.
“We know we will need the additional space in the future, and as you can imagine, it will be less costly and disruptive to build it now rather than to come back in three to five years and build an addition on top of a functioning surgery department,” he explained.
In addition to the new wing, the construction project will also include the renovation of about 11,000 square feet of existing space inside the hospital.
This is the second major expansion project at Laughlin Hospital since the current facility was built nearly 10 years ago.
“Due to the utilization of our services by our local community and surrounding areas, the hospital has experienced annual gains in the number of patients treated and procedures rendered,” Whitfield said.
“This newest building project is a direct result of this increase in utilization and the continued identification of new services that will be of benefit to the residents of our service area,” he said.
Laughlin Memorial Hospital was given approval in April by the state of Tennessee to begin providing cardiac catheterization, a procedure done to assess the blood flow through the coronary arteries and to check the function of the heart.
Cardiac Catheterization
Since cardiac catheterization services are not now provided here, patients who require the procedure must travel to other communities, such as the Tri-Cities or Knoxville, for the service.
According to hospital figures, Laughlin Hospital had 1,453 patients who required cardiac catheterizations in 2002.
“We are excited about the opportunity to provide this much-needed service to the community, so that patients and their families will no longer be forced to leave town to receive cardiac catheterizations,” Whitfield said.
The hospital is already equipped with a cardiac rehabilitation center, which has an average of about 50 patients per month, officials have said. Earlier this week, the cardiac rehab center celebrated its third anniversary with a special breakfast reception for current and former patients of the program.
“The addition of the ‘cath lab’ will allow us to further enhance the cardiology services available locally,” Whitfield said.
