By Rick Dandes
LEWISBURG — In the midst of a feverish national debate about the spiraling cost of hospital services, patient care and tight budgets, Evangelical Community Hospital broke ground Friday on the largest project in its history, a $32 million surgical and cardiovascular facility.
"This," Union County Commissioner John Showers said, "is a great day for Union County. Particularly during this period of economic downturn, it's wonderful to be gathering as a community to celebrate the launching of this economic enterprise for the county, a project that will improve our citizens' health care."
And create jobs.
"We're hoping that the new facility will attract new doctors," said Dr. Russell Stankiewicz, president of the hospital's medical staff. "As we have interviewed potential candidates for surgical positions here, they have mentioned that our operating rooms are slightly antiquated. They want to know what our plans are for the new unit."
It is essential to have a progressive and advanced facility to meet the community's health care needs, said Michael O'Keefe, Evangelical's president and CEO.
"The new facility is a bold step for Evangelical Community Hospital," he said. "It will provide the space equipment and technology to ensure that we will be able to deliver the most advanced surgical and cardiovascular care well into the future."
The building project will add eight larger operating rooms "” about 550 square feet compared with the current 350-square-foot operating rooms "” a cardiovascular suite with two catheterization labs, a seven-room patient area and a family waiting area.
O'Keefe denied that Evangelical's new facility was part of a strategy to better compete with Geisinger Medical Center, in Danville, for patients.
"We want to better serve this community," he said. "We collaborate with Geisinger. A number of their physicians work and now perform here. We want to be the best we can at what we do, but we can't afford to do all things, to be everything for everybody. Our new unit will certainly help us deal with some emergencies, but Geisinger is a trauma center. It's their niche. We have to keep our priorities straight."
Fundraising for the project began in 2008. The hospital is now in a comprehensive campaign "” the Evangelical Care Fund "” with a goal of raising $7.5 million through philanthropic support for the expansion.
Campaign chairman Roger Haddon on Friday said $5.3 million, or about 70 percent of the campaign's goal, has been raised.
The main, or new portion of the construction, is due to completed by December 2011. O'Keefe said he hoped to occupy the new space by January 2012. Six to eight months after that, he said, "We'll go back and renovate the areas that we have vacated. For example, the current ORs will be renovated."
After the ceremony, state Rep. Russ Fairchild, R-85, of Lewisburg, said this is a great, symbolic moment in the history of Evangelical Community Hospital and Union County.
"Over 1,200 jobs are here, and they'll be expanding," he said. "It's a cornerstone of our community, of our region. Evangelical is a wonderful success story and it's going to get better."
Union County Commissioner John H. Mathias, who served on the hospital's board for 25 years, said "These added services are wonderful, not only from the standpoint of the county, but also as an institution. I've seen the hospital progress to the point where it's expanding again. And that's very gratifying."
