EXPANSION PROJECT

The environment in which hospitals operate today is considerably more competitive than in the past.  This is particularly true of smaller community based hospitals that must compete with nearby urban medical centers.  The critical factors in maintaining a viable and competitive community hospital are first, the reliance on quality healthcare services provided by professionals who are for the most part local residents, and second, maintaining, expanding and upgrading services available to the community.

The name Virginia Gay Hospital, Clinics, Home Health, Nursing Rehab says a great deal about the broad variety of services currently available for the residents of Vinton and the Benton County area.  The diverse assortment of hospital-based services, primarily provided by individuals from within the community, creates a caring and personalized approach for each individual patient.

Continued upgrading of existing equipment and new equipment purchases allow the Hospital to compete on an even playing field.  Residents do not have to drive long distances for quality testing or treatment that is available at the same quality level locally.  As with any service provider, Hospital must from time to time upgrade and renovate facilities and provide for the purchase of new and replacement equipment.  The current program of improvement focuses on the four areas deemed as most vital for the future of the Hospital.

Replacement Of Outdated Patient Rooms –   Currently the hospital has 25 patient care beds.  These patient rooms were a part of the 1975 construction and still reflect the standards of that time.  Although ‘state of the art’ then, these rooms no longer meet current inpatient care expectations.

• Lack of appropriate space, under certain circumstances, for needed hospital personnel and portable medical equipment to be fully utilized 

• Lack of shower facilities in patient rooms

• Not able to compete with other area hospitals in providing for patient comfort and privacy in modern private rooms

 Each of these areas will be address with the construction of a new patient wing housing 4 new semi-private, 12 new private (single patient) rooms and a 4 bed ‘holding area’ to be used primarily by outpatient surgery patients.  These rooms will either be new construction or a complete reconstruction of existing space.  

• Outdated Emergency Department – The current Emergency Department is comprised of less than 400 square feet of operational space.  With more than 2,400 visits in fiscal year 2007 it has become obvious that additional space is critically needed.  The new design will dedicate 4,650 square feet of space with additional ‘over-flow’ space in the nearby clinic area.  

• Rehabilitation Services Department - A significant shortage of space and needed upgrading of equipment is present in the Rehabilitation Services Department.  This department deals with a wide variety of therapies including Sports Medicine, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy. 

The demand for these services has grown, and continues to grow, as new technology and treatment methods become available.  The development of new facilities to house sophisticated treatments such as hydrotherapy is vital to the continued development of a superior level of service.  The need for increased space is a major hindrance to utilizing new technology and continues to hamper the highly trained staff; forcing them to ‘make due’ with a less than adequate physical environment.

One of the more interesting therapy developments is the inclusion of individuals who could not have benefited from these services in the past.  Now, due to new technology and techniques, these individuals may also improve their quality of life.  A new hydrotherapy pool will allow patients who have conditions affecting their use of their hips, legs, knees and feet to take part in therapy programs while in the water.  Hydrotherapy takes advantage of the body’s buoyancy to take pressure off damaged lower portions of the body during the therapy sessions.   

Current rehabilitation modalities are allowing for a high rate of success in rehabilitating many more patients than in the past.  The Hospital has the highly trained staff to provide exceptional rehabilitation services and now the need is to create new space and to equip that space with the technology needed to match the expertise of the staff.

• Radiology Department - As medicine continues to turn more and more to technology, the need exists to fully utilize this technology in both the diagnosis and treatment of illness and injury.  Although the Hospital has the equipment and trained personnel, the space in which they perform these functions has been outgrown. 

On average last year the Hospital preformed more than 680 radiology procedures each month or, approximately 8,200 procedures during the year.  Virginia Gay Hospital provides a wide range of diagnostic radiological services including X-Ray, MRI Scan, CT Scan, Nuclear Medicine, Ultra Sound Echocardiography and the recent addition of a C-Arm unit required for specialized diagnosis and providing greater flexibility and mobility of the unit when required.

New pieces of equipment, additional uses for existing equipment, new techniques utilized by staff, planned additions of equipment and new services all require more space that is currently available.  The proposed project will increase the amount of available space from 1,408 square feet to 4,650 square feet including space that will be available for anticipated acquisitions of new major radiology equipment.

For the first time a separate waiting area will be set aside for patients awaiting procedures in the Radiology Department.  A major improvement is a dedicated elevator that will bring patients directly from the Emergency Department to the Radiology Department thus avoiding the necessity of moving patients through public spaces in the Hospital.

Each of these improvements will assure that our community will have the best possible hospital-based healthcare available.  The anticipated increase in the use of these services, when the project come on-line, will continue the Hospitals record of maintaining a financially viable and quality-competitive service that few similar communities have.