By Brian Smith
Patients at Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center will have some new surroundings starting today.
The hospital opened 22 rooms on its third and fourth floors Sunday as the end of the first phase of a $4.2 million renovation project.
The project, funded through a combination of donations and hospital funds, will renovate 27,000 square feet of space in the hospital and create 47 single-patient rooms, including a five-room “transitional care unit” for patients going from intensive care to a standard room.
The renovated rooms feature new pressure-distributing air mattress beds that, according to fourth-floor clinical manager Faye Flaherty, will prevent bedsores by relieving pressure.
“They should be more comfortable,” Flaherty said.
By creating single-patient rooms, Flaherty said patients should experience less noise and have more privacy, and the hospital will have better infection control to prevent the spread of disease.
Other features include new handheld computers for nurses to streamline recordkeeping and reduce errors, and a new paging system for nurses. The third floor also has an isolation room for patients with respiratory illnesses.
Patients were moved into the new rooms today to allow construction workers to begin Tuesday on the second phase of the project, which will renovate rooms in the hospital’s west wing.
Hospital employees provided tours of the new facilities Sunday following a reception in the hospital’s cafeteria.
“I’ve always told my children, ‘you get out of life what you put in,’” said Robert Hudson, hospital president and CEO at the reception. “Today, you’ll see the result of the support Pattie A. Clay has gotten.”
The second phase of the renovation is scheduled to be completed in September.
Brian Smith may be reached at bsmith@richmondregister.com or at 624-6694.
